AvPGalaxy Podcast #26 - Alien Resurrection

Started by Corporal Hicks, May 13, 2015, 07:20:38 PM

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AvPGalaxy Podcast #26 - Alien Resurrection (Read 12,088 times)

Corporal Hicks

Quote from: JoseChung on May 17, 2015, 10:30:59 PM
Had no idea you guys had a podcast, I really need to come here more often!

Downloading now..

There's 26 of the suckers! Started like 3 years ago. Where have you been man?!

Quote from: EvilMark on May 16, 2015, 09:34:12 PM
Alien 3 sucks hard, assembly cut is the only version that's even watchable.

That's a whole other kettle of fish and one I'd completely disagree with.

TheBATMAN

TheBATMAN

#16
Another great episode gentlemen. I hope future film-dedicated episodes will be of a similar length as I personally don't believe a good debate can be had over 30-40 minutes.

I agree with most points made. It's a fairly watchable movie until they reach the chapel, then I usually turn it off.

With regard to the Auriga not looking very high-tech, it always came across to me that this little experiment was 'off the books' so to speak and was Perez' and Wren's ticket to the big time. Perez comes across as very inept and I can't imagine him having much sway in the upper hierarchy of the USM, despite his rank. I believe he was a largely ignored man in charge of this crappy old research vessel and saw the cloning of Ripley as his chance to shine.
If this was an officially-endorsed USM experiment, then yes why such a primitive-looking ship with primitive facilities? Why the need to use pirates to smuggle in people to be used as breeding incubators?

I hate the aliens in this film. Someone said they sounded like dinosaurs which was a good point. I dislike ADI's work in this series wholeheartedly and I think they have completely bastardised the alien. The chin and jaws are horrible and the neck is just a mess. People use the excuse of 'well it's the director's vision', but underneath the minor, superficial changes the director's insist on such as the brown paint schemes - the xenomorphs look terrible. Had ADI's creature been in the original Alien, it wouldn't have been anywhere near as memorable. I won't even comment on the newborn. But Xenos were horrible looking and far, far too much slime. I pray that ADI do not return for Blomkamp's film. Please lord give someone else a go.

Characters were serviceable. I thought Michael Wincott's Elgyn was very interesting and severely under-developed. Christie was also good and I'm glad you guys pointed out his 'death' by falling in water from 10 feet! Di Stephano was forgettable and annoying as hell.

Direction was fine but a little out of place as you guys pointed out. The CGI-practical mix was also very inconsistent. I thought there were some needless CGI aliens strolling about such as the one stalking the characters down the corridor after Elgyn died and the alien dodging the gunfire on the ladder.

The action scenes were also a bit weak. It always gets me when they all huddle underwater waiting for the grenades to destroy the eggs that not a single person decides to fire at the lone alien swimming towards them.

What the hell was Ripley doing under the floor right beneath Elgyn's body? Why didn't anyone shoot at the alien in the corridor after Johner pulled Call back? If there were only 13 aliens running loose across the entire ship why were all the military personnel evacuated? Need I go on?

The musical score was also the weakest in the series by a long stretch.

The underwater water sequence and clone destroying scenes aside, this is a pretty poor movie.

For me the biggest mistake Fox ever made with the Alien saga was deciding it could not be carried without Signourney Weaver. Alien Resurrection should have been a complete reboot with fresh characters and a fresh story, with perhaps Weyland-Yutani being the common bond.

Murfy426

Loved the podcast guys, very informative and equal sided, nice to see the pros and cons pointed out so well, have to agree definitely with you guys on the missed opportunity of further developing ripley 8's connection to the aliens, the worse missed opportunity though has to be the newborn from a design aspect.

Corporal Hicks

Corporal Hicks

#18
Quote from: Murfy426 on May 18, 2015, 05:29:26 PM
Loved the podcast guys, very informative and equal sided, nice to see the pros and cons pointed out so well, have to agree definitely with you guys on the missed opportunity of further developing ripley 8's connection to the aliens, the worse missed opportunity though has to be the newborn from a design aspect.

I'm still never sure about the Newborn. I get the intent behind its design and the animatronic work on it was simply fantastic but the design just wasn't suitable in my eyes. I would have loved to have seen something more like this:





And use that empty human face to get that crossover of DNA across.


Quote from: TheBATMAN on May 18, 2015, 05:23:56 PM
For me the biggest mistake Fox ever made with the Alien saga was deciding it could not be carried without Signourney Weaver. Alien Resurrection should have been a complete reboot with fresh characters and a fresh story, with perhaps Weyland-Yutani being the common bond.

Completely agree on the Ripley thing. Fox's reliance on her character is such a problem. It leads to things like her forced inclusion in Out of the Shadows or the family connection in Sea of Sorrows. I really think they need to step away from Ripley. All it would take it a decent writer to make it work without her. There are plenty of other directions they could go with the franchise and the best one would be a clean slate (not a remake!!!) with a new set of characters.

Thanks for the kind words fellas.

Murfy426

Quote from: Corporal Hicks on May 22, 2015, 07:20:30 AM
Quote from: Murfy426 on May 18, 2015, 05:29:26 PM
Loved the podcast guys, very informative and equal sided, nice to see the pros and cons pointed out so well, have to agree definitely with you guys on the missed opportunity of further developing ripley 8's connection to the aliens, the worse missed opportunity though has to be the newborn from a design aspect.

I'm still never sure about the Newborn. I get the intent behind its design and the animatronic work on it was simply fantastic but the design just wasn't suitable in my eyes. I would have loved to have seen something more like this:


http://i1-news.softpedia-static.com/images/news2/Alien-Creator-H-R-Giger-Has-Died-Reuters-441925-3.jpg


And use that empty human face to get that crossover of DNA across.


Quote from: TheBATMAN on May 18, 2015, 05:23:56 PM
For me the biggest mistake Fox ever made with the Alien saga was deciding it could not be carried without Signourney Weaver. Alien Resurrection should have been a complete reboot with fresh characters and a fresh story, with perhaps Weyland-Yutani being the common bond.

Completely agree on the Ripley thing. Fox's reliance on her character is such a problem. It leads to things like her forced inclusion in Out of the Shadows or the family connection in Sea of Sorrows. I really think they need to step away from Ripley. All it would take it a decent writer to make it work without her. There are plenty of other directions they could go with the franchise and the best one would be a clean slate (not a remake!!!) with a new set of characters.

Thanks for the kind words fellas.

Yeah could you imagine that version of the alien nailing you in the vents on isolation that would be an epic scare. Gotta agree as well on ripleys constant presence in the series. Think that's the only doubt I have for the new movie but could be an advantage if Sigourney plays the character in a fresh way.

Engineer

Engineer

#20
Hey guys! I finally got around to listening to this podcast. I know I'm super late, but it was hard for me to get motivated to listen to it because:

1) it was pertaining to my least favorite of the 4 movies
2) it was longer that the movie's duration! Lol

Good podcast though! After listening, I'd have to say I actually appreciate the movie just a tad bit more. It's been a while since I've watched it, and the featurettes; perhaps I should watch them again.

I particularly enjoyed the mention of the old PS2 game and the book "original sin." I briefly played the game and loved the mechanics; I've always wanted to go back and play it more thoroughly. And the "sequel" book I thought was terrible! One of the worst alien books I've read so far ("DNA war" is the worst in my opinion and I've read all of the dark horse books up to "steel egg" so far). But I forgot original sin even existed, and the reminder made me smile.

One thing I was surprised about though, was that no one mentioned the alien's breath! In terms of the alien design and how they were portrayed on screen, I was bothered more by the fact that they breathed so heavily than anything else, and in a lot of scenes you can see their breath as they exhaled! That bugged me more than the excessive slime even. I liked the fact that in the previous movies you couldn't really tell if they were breathing or not. I can get on board with the idea that since they were tained with human DNA, it might explain that, but it was still a design choice I wasn't fond of. And as for actually seeing their breath, maybe the room was cold (although I think you see it in a later scene after the aliens escape too), but to me it looked too much like mist or smoke being fired out of a nozzle stuffed in the back of the aliens' mouth; it didn't look natural to me.

Otherwise, great podcast! I enjoyed it, and look forward to the next one!


PS. I also wasn't fond of the hands using a 4-finger design compared to the original 6-finger design...

Corporal Hicks

You know what? I can't say the breath ever bothered me but really good points. Thanks for the kind words.

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