Fox Talks Prometheus Sequel

[Space Sweeper]

Differing opinions are boggling indeed.

It's more a matter of...



...coping with denial.

[Biggles]

The ADI comments are interesting. My own first reaction to the Deacon was that it looked like a prototype OF the ADI design, disregarding the Giger and other interpretations of the basic anatomy if favour of a fleshier, more streamlined look (though of course the idea that it's a prototype of any 'xeno' is problematic).

[OmegaZilla]

It's more a matter of...

http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lwhtwlQF091r6aoq4o1_250.gif

...coping with denial.

As much as it's a matter of rigid thinking.

Spoiler

In other words, none of all of this.

[close]

[Blacklabel]

And the point is that it can't be replicated because that level of fear that came from the creature was a one time thing, and worked seeing the creature in a different light in Aliens. No matter how you capture the alien now, we'd have already seen it. All the jump scares and all the dark lighting in the world wouldn't do it again. It's time to move on, and that's the point. For the same creature, it's undoubtedly impossible.

eh. disagree.

None of the films after Aliens have been scary because... surprise, surprise.. they were badly written and badly directed.. and for the most part they assumed that audiences would be instantly scared of the alien just because they were seeing it (seriously lazy thinking) on the screen..  and not, you know.. due to the scary shit that he should actually be doing.

The fact that most of it's victims after Aliens were poorly characterised redshirts, killed in poorly written attacks also didnt help.

i think SIL said it best.. paraphrased:

it's a huge, acid bleeding, freudian monstruosity.. if you cant make it scary, you are a shit filmmaker.

[Cvalda]

None of the films after Aliens have been scary because... surprise, surprise.. they were badly written and badly directed

[Blacklabel]

Of course, your mileage may vary on wether ali3n was scary or not.

happy, Cvalda? 

[Cvalda]

Whether it's scary or not isn't so much the issue as it is being 'badly written and badly directed", the latter of which is especially untrue.

[Blacklabel]

true, true. Ali3n had it's good moments due to fincher's directing and some of the actors..... it's just that only 1 of them involved scares with the xeno.

mea culpa and all that.

[Darth Vile]

eh. disagree.

None of the films after Aliens have been scary because... surprise, surprise.. they were badly written and badly directed.. and for the most part they assumed that audiences would be instantly scared of the alien just because they were seeing it (seriously lazy thinking) on the screen..  and not, you know.. due to the scary shit that he should actually be doing.

The fact that most of it's victims after Aliens were poorly characterised redshirts, killed in poorly written attacks also didnt help.

Yes - in the same way that it's still possible to make a scary movie with a ghost or a killer with a knife... but I don't think that's the point. One of the things that made Alien so interesting was the mystery of the xeno... never really knowing what it looked like, never knowing what it was going to do. That was a big facet of the original movies suspense. There is absolutely no mystery left in that design/or portrayed lifecycle of the xeno now... the design is spent, the concept is passe... just like it is  for the look of Karloff's Frankenstein's monster or Lugosi's slicked back hair and tuxedo wearing Dracula. It's not enough to simply put the creature in a new situation, you have to do something different with the creature itself. And if the creature has been used in virtually every scenario, it's time to do something new.

true, true. Ali3n had it's good moments due to fincher's directing and some of the actors..... it's just that only 1 of them involved scares with the xeno.

mea culpa and all that.

All the best bits of Alien 3 (and there are many good bits) don't involve the xeno at all - IMHO. I think that's reflective of how the xeno was wearing thin even by the 3rd outing.

[Blacklabel]

All the best bits of Alien 3 (and there are many good bits) don't involve the xeno at all - IMHO. I think that's reflective of how the xeno was wearing thin even by the 3rd outing.

i think that's more reflective of how poor the script actually was... the Runner was only scary for me when he killed Clemens... because we had already spent time with him... but even then.. his death was so fast that the fear it generated had barely any time to really linger in the audience.

[Xenomorphine]

eh The Deacon > all the fleshy ADI designs.

When ADI are given the right direction, they can do amazing work. Some of their very best stuff never even made it to the screen: The Superfacehugger ('Alien 3') and unused Green Goblin ('Spiderman') are cases in point.

if Jeunet, Anderson or the Strause brothers wanted more biomechanical elements in the movie... they would surely have asked specifically for that..

alas.. they didnt seem to care.

The brothers had some odd ideas about biomechanical aesthetics, if what they espoused in interviews and posted in this forum are anything to go by. While Jeunet deliberately wanted a fleshy look.

Anderson, though, was unfortunately stuck with existing props to hand. From what I remember, they didn't have the money to make up lots of new Alien suits and that meant they had to work with the ones from 'Alien Resurrection'.

What's being referred to is that the creature just isn't scary anymore. It's been so over-played and put out in the open that nobody finds it frightening or its presence to feel 'alien' anymore.

That's more to do with it being handled badly on screen, ever since after 1986. There are some parts of 'Alien 3' and 'Alien Versus Predator' where you can see glimmers of inspiration, but... The things never come close to the menace they conveyed in the first two films (not helped terribly much by the relatively unconvincing special effects) - as proven by how people can watch those, to this very day and still be chilled for the first time. Something I tested with a friend of mine, just recently, who had never seen any of them and experienced that very result.

Ironically, the most Alien-like portrayal in 'Alien Resurrection' didn't even come from anyone wearing the costumes. It was Sigourney Weaver's primal, instinctive turn as the part-Alien Ripley clone.

i think SIL said it best.. paraphrased:

it's a huge, acid bleeding, freudian monstruosity.. if you cant make it scary, you are a shit filmmaker.

Hah, yes!

Essentially, what made the original two films so effective in their portrayal of the creatures are timeless themes which will never be exhausted. They just need to be executed right.

Same goes for other iconic examples, like Terminators and Daleks. Both of which exist in properties which have become rife with parody, but can easily return to their original status of dread and foreboding if the right people are involved. These things remain classics for a reason and that reason is usually that they have yet to be bettered.

And if the creature has been used in virtually every scenario, it's time to do something new.

By the same token, simply putting a new creature design on screen will encounter precisely the same problems. That's not how you remedy a situation like that. You find ways to make the old stuff more effective and, in the case of this series, more disturbing. Think up new situational ideas. You don't solve it by taking away your star and deciding a giant starfish would somehow make it refreshing.

[Highland]

I think Alien 3 was scarier than Aliens. The score especially seems to pump up the heat and creeps me out a little.

Each to their own.

[180924609]

I agree!

The score is haunting and beautiful. To this day I still dont know how Goldenthal managed to create such a rich canvas of original sound. Christ only knows why it wasnt nominated for an oscar.

[Cvalda]

Christ only knows why it wasnt nominated for an oscar.

Same reason his jaw dropping work on Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within didn't get nominated--the film was released in the Summer and not well received. Also, the Academy has terrible taste in scores in general. When Goldenthal eventually won the Oscar for Frida--his safest, most musically unadventurous work--it was pretty telling.

[BANE]

By the same token, simply putting a new creature design on screen will encounter precisely the same problems.

So anything new is automatically screwed.
Right.