First Alien: 40th Anniversary Short Released Online - Alien: Containment!

[P-Rock]

Predators had both a male and female lead?

[SM]

Spoiler

No.

[close]

[Samhain13]

Predators had both a male and female lead?

More or less. The story focused more on Isabele than the other secondary characters but Royce was still the "hero". She was like a secondary lead.

I feel Tennessee on Covenant was a little undersused and should have taken a similar role.

[Huggs]

Predators had both a male and female lead?

More or less. The story focused more on Isabele than the other secondary characters but Royce was still the "hero". She was like a secondary lead.

I feel Tennessee on Covenant was a little undersused and should have taken a similar role.

Had he been a real Tennessean, David would be expired, Daniels' breasts would grow bigger, and Origae 6 would be renamed New Tennessee by unanimous vote.

[Meatharvester]

The Alien franchise is dead due lack of innovation. The final pathway towards something original would have been giant pachyderm like engineers, but that's been squandered due to budget.  All the elements in the movie have become tropes. ie blood splash on the face, scientists calling the beast beautiful, strong female etc etc. Ridley was right in the beginning. "Its baked with an orange in its mouth".

[The Old One]

Again, like Vampires, Werewolves or Zombies it's all about the execution.

[GreybackElder]

I enjoyed this short! However I wished that everyone was infected and they had jettisoned to save the crew from themselves. I loved the ship with all the blinking lights and dials. Very tactile. I agree with Meathavester however that it was tropey! I look forward to the next installments.

[gabgrave]

I thought that the way the alien was off screen most of the time due to the camera just being that much out of the way was a bit much, but I liked how they had the comatose guy wake up at the end and go back to sleep. He's infected too, if I made out what the black lady was saying correctly. Couldn't hear what most of them were saying clearly.

[TC]

Don't make the mistake of thinking that the use of tropes and stereotypes are necessarily bad in works of fiction (which is what your high school english teacher probably taught you). When they are used properly they are a valid storytelling tool.

Often background characters need to be immediately familiar to the audience and not stand out as unique. Why would you not want unique background characters? Because they'll soak up extra running time and attract attention away from where you really want the audience's attention - namely, with your main characters. This is especially so in a short story or short film.

https://myliteraryquest.wordpress.com/2011/01/10/using-stereotypes-to-your-advantage/

https://veronicasicoe.com/2013/02/07/how-to-use-stereotypes-in-writing-fiction/

https://www.helpingwritersbecomeauthors.com/why-character-stereotypes-are-good/

http://jamesosiris.com/why-you-should-use-stereotypes-in-your-writing/

Containment had only 9 minutes to present us with its cast of characters. Ward (played by Weiss) was clearly the main protagonist; she had the most lines, had the key decision-making role, was highly wilful, etc., She was clearly the focus of the story. Therefore, it's appropriate that, in the limited running time of 9 minutes, the other characters utilised the genre's stereotypes in order to convey those secondary characters' roles in the story.

Many of the other tropes in the film have a similar utility.

I'm not saying, however, that I was greatly impressed by the story. I'm merely pointing out some of the exigencies of the short-storytelling form and storytelling in general.

TC

[Prez]

Again, like Vampires, Werewolves or Zombies it's all about the execution.

Hammer. Nail. Head.

[Voodoo Magic]

Again, like Vampires, Werewolves or Zombies it's all about the execution.

You want to execute vampires, werewolves and zombies?

[ScaryMinds]

Too similar to the backburster scene in Covenant. They even copied the blood spraying on face, knife and stuck in the door part. I liked the opening and ending shot, but I'm not impressed by this.

Blood spraying on the chick's face would go a lot further back in the Alien franchise, think Lambert.

The short was okay for mine, loved the female lead, the CGI at the end was a bit naft but budget limitations I would imagine.

Surprisingly the don't open message reminded me of a scene way early in The Walking Dead.

[P-Rock]

Too similar to the backburster scene in Covenant. They even copied the blood spraying on face, knife and stuck in the door part. I liked the opening and ending shot, but I'm not impressed by this.

Blood spraying on the chick's face would go a lot further back in the Alien franchise, think Lambert.

The short was okay for mine, loved the female lead, the CGI at the end was a bit naft but budget limitations I would imagine.

Surprisingly the don't open message reminded me of a scene way early in The Walking Dead.

Yeah, but the way it sprayed on her face was very similar to Covenant.

[Stolen]

It's just a rip-off of the med-bay sequence! Pretty bad..
Get away from this mess, already seen thirty times in the franchise. Stop the fan-fic, stop doing the same thing.

Ridley save us. Give me a bloody David odyssey!

[XenoHunter99]

Everything will remind you of something. It's a conundrum of living in a world where seemingly everything has been done before.