Alien: Specimen - 40th Anniversary Short

[TC]

Will go against the grain here. Poorly made short. I'd take Containment over this easily.

I like Specimen more because as a short it successfully hits so many more buttons than Containment.

But a short is a very different animal than a drawn-out feature length movie. So if I was to choose a writer/director team to work on a full length film I would be inclined to go for Reading. I think there are indications that he naturally has a bigger vision more suited to the scope of a feature length movie.

First thing on his list of improvements is to partner up with a more imaginative writer.

TC

[Ed209]

Does anyone know where on the timeline these shorts go?

[SiL]

But it's a hard argument to make that this was poorly made.

I second that. I get not liking, but curious to hear why it's poorly made.

But a short is a very different animal than a drawn-out feature length movie. So if I was to choose a writer/director team to work on a full length film I would be inclined to go for Reading. I think there are indications that he naturally has a bigger vision more suited to the scope of a feature length movie.

On the flipside, I'm wary of a team that can't muster much tension or drama in 9 minutes of screen time.

[D88M]

Is even worse than the previous one.

[Corporal Hicks]

I feel like I've seen that artwork before and I can't place it...

Yeah, that's an existing poster from a while back. An alternative one for Alien if memory serves.

[Nightmare Asylum]

Does anyone know where on the timeline these shorts go?

Neither has included a year so we don't know for sure, but Containment is definitely set closer to Alien than Aliens since it uses the original Alien/Alien: Covenant Weyland-Yutani logo. Specimen uses the Aliens/Alien 3 version, so it must be set closer to that point.

[Voodoo Magic]

Will go against the grain here. Poorly made short. I'd take Containment over this easily.

I think they're both just right for their individual purposes, and I like them both.

But it's a hard argument to make that this was poorly made.

In terms of not a single ounce of tension or horror was established, yes it was. I like the synthetic dog like the next person, but this director was not right for Alien in my opinion. The editing, camera angles, were always counterproductive to establishing tensity. Ever see a mediocre horror film where the characters are going through the creepy what's-that-noise motions in the dark, but you're feeling nothing as a viewer? I've watched too many of them.

I'd be interested in seeing the talent behind this short making a drama or comedy, but with horror, for me, it's a hard pass.

[The Old One]

"DOOM" the Negative Nancy.

[SiL]

In terms of not a single ounce of tension or horror was established, yes it was.

There are plenty of people who disagree with that assessment, though -- they found it suspenseful and tense.

[Voodoo Magic]

"DOOM" the Negative Nancy.

In terms of not a single ounce of tension or horror was established, yes it was.

There are plenty of people who disagree with that assessment, though -- they found it suspenseful and tense.

There are plenty of people saying how great of a film Captain Marvel is too.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯

As always, it's just one fan's opinion over here.

[SiL]

You didn't say you didn't like it, but, you said it was poorly made. "Poorly made" can be qualified, "I didn't like it/find it scary" is an opinion.

It sucks you didn't feel anything -- but that doesn't necessarily mean it's poorly made. I can find plenty of people who think Alien isn't the least bit scary.

(For the record I'm not trying to say you're wrong for not liking it, and I'm not saying you're wrong for thinking it's poorly made, but it feels like you're saying you don't think it's well made because you don't like it, not because of any actual critique of the filmmaking. I was just genuinely curious to hear what you felt fell flat with the actual filmmaking.)

[Voodoo Magic]

I'm not quantifying "poorly made" in the terms of production values i.e. set design, camera and editing equipment used, money spent or actors hired, etc. but simply in achieving its goal in creating tension, as being an effective horror short.

[SiL]

I'm not quantifying "poorly made" in the terms of production values i.e. set design, camera and editing equipment used, money spent or actors hired, etc. but simply in achieving its goal in creating tension, as being an effective horror short.

OK, but those are all the things most people mean when they say "poorly made". So you don't think it was actually poorly made, you just think it was ineffective?

[Voodoo Magic]

Does "well made poop" suffice?

Not producing the desired effect i.e. ineffective would equate to poorly made in my book, but I don't really want to get stuck in semantics. Agree or disagree, at this point I believe everyone knows clearly what the teddy bear meant / where the teddy bear stands.

Cheers!

[XenoHunter99]

I agree with Voodoo Magic. this was by the numbers. Even Ridley Scott can't put the lightning back in the bottle. But the robot dog was a very nice touch. It shows an evolution of the narrative, from a situation where hostile organisms were largely unknown to a situation where hostile organisms are a fact of life. And somebody at WY sent those folks a xeno egg. How thoughtful.