Critic Review Thread (79% fresh - 7.1 average rating)

[SpeedyMaxx]

You can't generate what looks like half a ton of biomass in a few hours locked in a room with nothing to consume.

You can if you're an imaginary alien squid in a fictional sci-fi movie.

I honestly never gave much thought to the alien supposedly 'consuming the humans for food' in Alien, ever.  I always assumed, as one of the taglines said, that it lived to kill.  Sustenance was secondary to simply growing and propagating.  And of course, the alien grew rapidly in a very swift span after emerging from Kane, but before killing anyone or anything else.  So I don't really buy the 'THE SPACE ALIEN MUST HAVE FOOD TO GROW' thing.

We can all play Google anthropologist but the fact is these things are movie space monsters.  There have never been, to my knowledge, any rules as to how they must consume to grow or anything else.

[ThisBethesdaSea]

The point is, if this is a creature of unknown biology the sky is the limit.....again....ALIEN setup this precedent for the creature going from one foot to 9 feet in less than 24 hours. If you have a problem with with the squid, then you should have a problem with the alien.

[Cvalda]

If none of this bullshit science garbage does not offend you Bethesda, then I don't ever want to hear you bitch about the plot of Alien Resurrection again. Because they are on the same exact level.

[Winkie Bear]

The point is, if this is a creature of unknown biology the sky is the limit.....again....ALIEN setup this precedent for the creature going from one foot to 9 feet in less than 24 hours. If you have a problem with with the squid, then you should have a problem with the alien.

I don't have a problem with the Alien because it grows to less than half the size of squiddly and has the run of a ship stocked with food stores. Squiddly is locked in a room with med-pod and nothing else.

[Blacklabel]

Hold on a second. the squidhugger is locked inside the medbay... they would surely have a lot of serum and stuff ready for intravenous feeding. Right?

(of course, it would never be enough to grow that big, that fast.. but still... at least it's a half assed attempt at explaining it.  )

[SpeedyMaxx]

Since when it is supposed fact that the alien raided the Nostromo fridge?  That's news to me.  I always assumed it just grew, because that's what the organism did.  Not that it had to have food and anything else is cheating guise.

Like the squid, natch.

[Winkie Bear]

Since when it is supposed fact that the alien raided the Nostromo fridge?  That's news to me.  I always assumed it just grew, because that's what the organism did.  Not that it had to have food and anything else is cheating guise.

Like the squid, natch.

I'm not saying that it DID (although the novelization does explicitly) I'm saying it had the OPPORTUNITY, which is more than squiddly had.

[Blacklabel]

I allways assumed it just "grew" as well... and Ridley apparently is of the same opinion, judging by the fact that a new creature does precisely this in his new film in the same universe...  Raiding on the nostromo "fridge" comes from the novelization...wich ridley probably never gave a f**k about.

[SpeedyMaxx]

Since when it is supposed fact that the alien raided the Nostromo fridge?  That's news to me.  I always assumed it just grew, because that's what the organism did.  Not that it had to have food and anything else is cheating guise.

Like the squid, natch.

I'm not saying that it DID (although the novelization does explicitly)

I loved the Foster novelizations as a kid, I really did, but he took a lot of liberties.  Including in Alien 3, trying to leave a backdoor save for Bishop that had nothing to do with the screenplay when he was unable to save Newt and Hicks.

I'm saying it had the OPPORTUNITY, which is more than squiddly had.

And I'm saying that I can't recall anyone in any position of authority on the films ever weighing in on the alien needing to consume biomass or humans or whatever else in order to grow as it does.  So I don't know why it's an issue here anymore than it would be on the first film, where, according to the film itself, the alien did not get a chance to snack before Brett.  I had no problem with that in the original film, so I really couldn't be bothered to care about it here.  These are fan-made rules.

[Blacklabel]

I'm not saying that it DID (although the novelization does explicitly) I'm saying it had the OPPORTUNITY, which is more than squiddly had.

It also had the opportunity to eat the ship's cat  ..and didnt... so i think that says something about Ridley's line of thinking about this.

[Cvalda]

And I'm saying that I can't recall anyone in any position of authority on the films ever weighing in on the alien needing to consume biomass or humans or whatever else in order to grow as it does.  So I don't know why it's an issue here anymore than it would be on the first film, where, according to the film itself, the alien did not get a chance to snack before Brett.

The difference is that by not ever confining the creature to a single space, how it grew remained a mystery, and sidestepped being a plothole.

The thing in PROMETHEUS is a plothole. We know how it grows: from f**king nothing.

It's just bad scripting, end of.

[Valaquen]

Since when it is supposed fact that the alien raided the Nostromo fridge?  That's news to me.  I always assumed it just grew, because that's what the organism did.  Not that it had to have food and anything else is cheating guise.

Like the squid, natch.

I'm not saying that it DID (although the novelization does explicitly) I'm saying it had the OPPORTUNITY, which is more than squiddly had.

It raids the fridge in some early scripts too.

Kinda daft though. Can't imagine the Alien raking through cheese and ham.

[Cvalda]

Kinda daft though. Can't imagine the Alien raking through cheese and ham.

Which is why it was better left a mystery in the film.

[Winkie Bear]

Okay, I give up. If you all like your sci-fi with a dollop of unphysical fantasy, that's fine. Unlike squiddly, I DO need to eat, so I'm gonna fill my fat face while someone else argues the toss over this crap.

[SpeedyMaxx]

Okay, I give up. If you all like your sci-fi with a dollop of unphysical fantasy, that's fine.

It worked for Alien.

And no - I don't think there was supposed to be a 'mystery' as to how the alien grew in the first film.  It was simply that this unknown alien organism was so different from us and so terrifying that within a matter of hours it had grown from the small chestburster into a massive abomination which killed Brett.  'It must have eaten something' was never put forth by anyone that I can recall - til now.  It's an alien.  It's freaky.  It does crazy shit and grows rapidly.  There you go.  I think it's a reach at best to claim it's a magical mystery in Alien but an unfair plothole in Prometheus.  Other critiques I can understand, but "alien physiological mechanics vs. hard science" in an Alien movie is not among them.