The good folk over at HN Entertainment recently had the opportunity to talk to Amalgamated Dynamics Inc‘s Alec Gillis and the topic of Neill Blomkamp’s Alien 5 inevitably came up. Though unable to talk in much detail about ADI’s work on the film, Alec did reveal that Neill had been intending to go practical with the Alien effects and re-affirmed that the asthetic would have referred closer to H.R Giger’s original design.
“That’s why I was looking forward to Neill Blomkamp’s Alien 5 because that would have given us the opportunity to do more in the spirit of Giger’s alien. We were looking at the 1979 alien all the way but Neill did want changes to make on it. As great as Neill’s CGI looks, I don’t know if you’ve seen the latest thing he did Anthem? His CGI just looks so there and present, Chris Harvey his VFX supervisor they just have a great team.
And I said to Neill like ‘Why aren’t you doing this all digitally?’ cause if it’s biomechanical and harder-edged it lends itself to digital and I’m just surprised that a digital. He said ‘I want real a real man in a suit on set because it forces you into a certain way of shooting that would be more like what Ridley Scott did in the first film. If it’s all digital I won’t have those parameters work within and it’s gonna end up looking like something different and I don’t want that, I want it to look like Ridley Scott did it’. That’s how he thinks and I can guarantee you there’s no studio executive in the world that would say that because they don’t see things in that specific and nuanced of a way.”
Last October Blomkamp released an image of a marquette that ADI had done for the film, showing an Alien that looked very much like Giger’s original Alien – except this one had an extra set of arms.
Though Neill Blomkamp has previously said that his Alien 5 is dead in the water, James Cameron recently commented that he was working on making Blomkamp’s vision of an Alien film a relatively. How serious that comment was still remains to be seen.
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I still think those thighs are gorgeous.
I prefer the xenomorphs running and moving on two legs and dislike how they after AVP movies and games been made like always running on four legs and is smaller and more dinosaur like.
Balance both traversal stances.
Isolation's "hunter" stance (Fast)
and the 1979 original's homosapien,
straight stance. (Slow)
Spoiler
I agree! I'm not the biggest fan of Covenant but seeing it come walking in like that literally gave me chills
Balance both IMO.
As far as the hunched over posture goes, nowadays this is what you get from dinosaur movies. IOW the hunched over alien looks very similar in silhouette to all those velociraptors and t-rexes we see all the time, and the alien deserves better than that.
Also, (and I know this is counter-intuitive when you're greatest fear is that it will look like a man in a rubber suit), but when it's standing upright the fact that it is more human-like adds to the grotesque, perverted-nature effect.
Just my opinion.
TC
Watching the recent digital series thing definitely reminded me about that weird jaw, I have to agree. A lot of the time, it doesn't matter, because the game uses shadowing to good effect, but it stands out when we see it.
From what I recall, weren't the digitigrade legs used because they couldn't get it look convincing when animating it on ordinary legs? Personally, I've always preferred the tri-jointed look in some of the comics, but it goes against canon for the human-hosted creatures and there are times it looks oddly bendy in the game.
...
The Terminator, of all things, is a good example of this. When he's tracking something down he scans the area upright, to get a complete view.
Hunched is beastly, which is lazy and unimaginative.
I really disagree here. Long, slender, human legs with an elegant walking motion could've worked wonders. The problem in Alien is that the full body shots were exclusively stunt people, not Bolaji. If they'd blown him out the airlock that ending wouldn't have looked quite as dodgy.
The reason the human posture's excellent throughout the cargo bay- ( and the original 1979 Alien and others) is the depiction's the Xenomorph's midsection, and above not below.
The Alien design full view; the elongated limbs, arms and digitigrade legs is superior IMO.
No translucent labia oris.
That broad, stupid chin ...
The appendage alterations <3
Especially the back appendages (& positions), shoulder areas, the wrists and hands.
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/32/40/a1/3240a197292102c9cb557dff497a7814.png
I've never agreed with you more about anything.
Regardless Stompy is on the top of the aliens's portayal on videogames. But the AVP2 alien with a Giger skin mod looks pretty good as well:
https://i.pinimg.com/564x/92/b9/de/92b9dedb6f869a9c916a8b1c35ab65ca.jpg
https://i.pinimg.com/564x/f6/62/54/f66254cbf54598187d152df09cffdc54.jpg
https://i.pinimg.com/564x/5b/43/c3/5b43c3f9472035e83c8f05a32969b334.jpg
Spoiler
The AR version's chin's pointed, the AI version's chin's squared.
The AR version's legs are thin, the AI version's legs are thick.
Not unlike the AR version, on both counts.
I believe the "gangly" aspect's good though and the proportions, it's the perfect uncanny-valley
between the obvious man-in-a-suit and the unbelievable digital Alien.
https://www.gamercast.net/media/blogs/gamercast/a/alien_isolation/alienisolation_1.jpg?mtime=1408452481
https://www.alphr.com/sites/alphr/files/2015/10/fear_games_alien_isolation.jpg
https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/q08HkZfXgErDoUpPFbK6sV-xJTQ=/0x0:2000x1125/1600x900/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/40398354/alienisolation1.0.0.jpg
Evocative of
Spoiler
I suspect it's meant to be the 'ultimate Alien' arisen by genetic modification: Agile and fast enough to be a predatory menace without being a big target, but with the additional arms implying it can potentially lay eggs. The best of both worlds. That's just my guess, though. Can imagine it can could a lot more horrifying scenes death scenes with those additional arms, too: Imagine it holding a victim in the air, before it, crucifixion-style, while doing something slow and terrible with the secondary arms, below the victim's neck. Wouldn't even need to see anything aside from the agonised facial expressions and ominous noises. That's total Lambert territory...
The tail's useful, but those hands give it something more than a massive prehensile spear to do things to victims.
Doesn't come across as top-heavy to me. Those arms look relatively light.
Absolutely no reason why they can't give us an adaptation of it eventually, though I suspect they'd wait until Ridley finishes his trilogy. If there is a script, of course. Iirc, Cameron said there was one and Ridley said there wasn't?
The new design is no great revelation, but neither is it the disaster some people make it out to be.
It makes it more insectile, but i find it way to topheavy. There is already so much going on in the upper half of the creature, more arms makes it too much imo.
You always have to analyze the overall effect. In this case it works well. It is balanced by the dorsal tubes. It looks mare insectile.
If the arms are do to experimentation I still don't hate it. It's not as cool as if we were to see the evolution process on screen, but it's not bad either. Way better than the super fleshy AR experiments/aliens.
Looks pretty damn good. A well balanced design that is respectful of the original and doesn't disturb it too much.
That's the first thought that springs to mind but Carlos Huante shared some art from the project and it was all mutated Aliens, many of which had multiple limbs. I think it might have been experimentation.
Ash lost his head.