Quote from: Huggs on Jul 02, 2018, 05:06:28 AM
David being the creator is just the latest nail in the coffin. Even if the prequels stop right now, I'm concerned that all they will have accomplished is to say the Jockeys are just big bald guys, and the xenomorphs were created by an android with daddy issues. After two movies, I'm still wondering what the overall plan was here? How have they improved the franchise? What positive ideas have they contributed?
We still know squat diddly about the engineers, who should be the most interesting part of these movies, yet look at covenant. Zilch, Nada, Nunca, Zip. Just hollow hills and empty rooms. It's so unsatisfying. We're learning very little. And if that's the plan, then frankly, the space jockeys and xenomorphs were more impressive and frightening as large and ancient alien creatures that we knew nothing about.
Financial and political stuff aside, I always saw this overall storyline as a fight between Intelligence/technology and unbridled/furious nature. No amount of technology, advanced weaponry, or careful planning is really enough to save everyone from it. That and these are monster movies. It's supposed to be a scary experience about things that want to eat you. All of these philosophical and theological concepts Ridley has been injecting into this franchise is like trying to get motorcycle mileage out of a full-size truck. You're asking too much of the wrong machine. The design was perfect for its task already.
If they make another prequel, yes I'll watch it. But I'll find myself quoting Holiday/Holloway. "This is just another tomb". Amen brother.
Quote from: Xenomrph on Jul 02, 2018, 04:46:16 AM
The best part is SM is laughing at something I didn't say, but couldn't know that because he's got me on ignore.
I've got issues with the prequels, and I feel that on the whole they've been a detriment to the overall franchise, but I'll step up to bat for them in one regard: thematic and philosophical stuff is cool and good, and has been present in all the Alien movies (yes, all of them), but that kind of thematic stuff is more effective when it's more subtle and not quite as on-the-nose as it has been with the Alien prequels.
The themes that are tossed around in the prequels (man's search for god, the dangers of too much knowledge, the relationship between creators and their creations, the nature of beliefs, man's place in the universe, etc) are legitimately interesting and worth exploring, but the manner in which they've been handled has undermined some of the preexisting themes and ideas that were present in the older movies.
Given the back-and-forth during Prometheus' production on whether it would be an Alien movie at all, I think it's clear that Ridley Scott is more interested in telling his horror-space-opera story, and using the Alien name is an effective way to guarantee an audience. I've said it before, I think disconnecting it from the Alien series would have allowed Scott to take bigger and more interesting risks without being hamstrung by Alien franchise baggage, but new sci-fi stories are a shaky gamble in Hollywood, whereas using the Alien name as a crutch is a pretty safe bet.
One could also argue that given the quotes in the past where Ridley has flat out said that the Alien is dead, played out, and not scary, that the prequels are his attempts to euthanize the franchise by "ruining" it. Given Covenant's underperformance at the box office, it seems to be working.
But like I said before, Ridley says a lot of things.
I don't personally think he's actively trying to ruin Alien, but he's using it as a means to tell the space-story he really wants to tell, and if Alien is a casualty in the process, then so be it.
