Ridley Scott Says The Alien FX Series Will Be 8-10 Hours Long

[SiL]

Trying to emulate Aliens without learning why any of the movie actually works as well as it does. *

[BlueMarsalis79]

Anything that's emulated it visually within the franchise itself and been any good period?

[Immortan Jonesy]

Trying to emulate Aliens without learning why any of the movie actually works as well as it does. *

You just described, more or less, what Ridley did with the Alien in Covenant. 

[SiL]

No, he did what he wanted to do with the original but never could due to technical limitations.

[Immortan Jonesy]

Yeah but sometimes part of what makes it great is the result of those technical limitatioms, as in the case of Star Wars retrofuurism. I believed that the motivations behind the designs were more technical than creative. But sometimes the creators seem to forget why their creations are so great (although in Ridley's case it was a very cooperative work), and then in the future they focus on what they "wanted it to be and it couldn't be due to technical limitations". 

[SiL]

No disagreement there. Limitations are great for creative works

[BlueMarsalis79]

I take it that's a no then after all. 

[SiL]

A no to what?

I don't know what you were trying to ask in your previous post.

[TC]

Trying to emulate Aliens without learning why any of the movie actually works as well as it does. *

SM knows why.

But since he's not here to speak up, this guy also follows the same monomyth interpretation:

https://medium.com/@simonlundlarsen/after-the-events-in-alien-james-cameron-made-it-clear-that-ellen-ripley-refused-to-be-part-of-10f6bb0bd8e

So many Aliens imitators have clogged up our screens without realising that you need the characters and arcs (IOW, in this interpretation, the monomyth) for the story to earn its success as not just sci-fi space soldiering, but first and foremost, as basic human drama. These basics feature in good stories from Homer to Hemingway to Heinlein.

But the monomyth isn't the only way to successfully structure a story: case in point - Alien '79. Rather than shoe-horn Alien into the monomyth paradigm, I think of it simply as the "Ten Little Indians" structure. Far less character-based, but very powerful in the way it pulls you through the narrative.

I like to summarise it like this:

Aliens is what you study in film school; Alien is what you study as a fan. Trying to learn why Alien shouldn't work (and yet does) will get you nowhere as a filmmaker. Learning about why Aliens DOES work, is like taking a masterclass in filmmaking.

TC

[SiL]

I'm not sure what you mean by saying Alien shouldn't work. Having been to film school, we absolutely studied it - it's not some avant garde art film, it's a pretty paint by numbers haunted house/monster on a spaceship thriller plot with a proper Hollywood treatment. It hits all the beats of the monomyth (which is a very broad framework) and features all sorts of tropes that were common even on release.

EDIT

In terms of monomyth storytelling, the biggest difference between the first two films is the characters. There's no mentor in Alien; Aliens gives Ripley Hicks (although Dallas could be argued to fit a similar role). The call is resisted by multiple characters, not just Ripley. Story wise, they both hit the major beats, but Cameron adds the archetypical characters as well.

[BlueMarsalis79]

I suppose I'm asking if anything's emulated Aliens properly within the franchise, not just borrowed the visual and audio things we associate with it, because I can't think of anything.

[Immortan Jonesy]

No disagreement there. Limitations are great for creative works

I'm just saying that Ridley should have gone back to basics with the Alien in Covenant (because there it is what it makes it memorable), instead of doing what he wanted to do and couldn't, back in the day.

[SiL]

Yes and I'm agreeing with you

I suppose I'm asking if anything's emulated Aliens properly within the franchise, not just borrowed the visual and audio things we associate with it, because I can't think of anything.

It's all been pretty superficial.

[Immortan Jonesy]

Yes and I'm agreeing with you

Oh! nevermind then 

[BlueMarsalis79]

I agree, a lot of the stuff that "gets it" always tends to be more Alien than Aliens.