Blomkamp's Alien 5 is "Innovative, Amazing, Performs Fan Service"

[BishopShouldGo]

Many A3 fans condescendingly say that people who didn't like Alien 3 just wanted bigger, louder, and more guns(typical "Aliens is a dumb movie cuz one liners n' guns n' bugs" yada). Not at all, we just wanted a story that was consistent with the trajectory carved out by the first two movies.

What's unfortunate is that Fox spent an epic amount of money on Alien 3 anyway, and it still ended up making 3x its production budget. Imagine if that amount of money, which would have been more than enough for a proper and epic movie(which could still have plenty of intimate, suspenseful, "corridor-like" moments), was put towards a great story? Could've made $260mm instead of $160mm.

[Perfect-Organism]

Well I actually like Alien 3 and I still want it retconned.  I can appreciate it for what it is, while also knowing that it is the wrong story that was told for so many reasons.  It should also be pointed out that what could have been done in 1992 cannot compare with what technology can offer in 2016.  There was no way they could have done home-world building like we see in Avatar back then.  Now we can.  Now we can build things on a massive world-scale within a reasonable budget.  Not only that, but all the actors that survived Aliens are still around, and they are stoked to come back and continue where Aliens left off.  It is perfect that they are much older.  Most likely, it would take at least that long (25 - 35 years or so) to find the Aliens homeworld after Aliens the movie.  So now we are actually in a prime position to do the Aliens sequel properly.  Maybe it's better that we got that disturbing placeholder Alien 3 project back then, because what Neil Blomkamp probably has planned, would have been impossible back then.

If Blomkamp is able to do what he wants, I expect this movie to be spectacular.  I hope he can deliver.

[BishopShouldGo]

Yeah. I don't even necessarily mean a wide shot of the alien homeworld with thousands of aliens running around spontaneously combusting. Just maybe more shots akin to the brief look of gateway station; and instead of shots they're scenes. Look what Total Recall accomplished back then on a similar budget.

Yeah, I expect nothing less than amazing from Blomkamp.

[Local Trouble]

I've said before that they could easily make a sequel to AR and reveal that the USM was actually a neo-communist rival to the corporatist nations of Earth, much like the UPP from William Gibson's Alien 3 script.  I mean, just look at their patch...

http://i66.tinypic.com/2q8aszq.jpg

It's all about the red star, Comrades.

Nice one, Local Trouble!

I thought it was a more elegant way to reconcile the absence of the company and the marines from AR without resorting to a soft reboot.

[Kurai]

I've said before that they could easily make a sequel to AR and reveal that the USM was actually a neo-communist rival to the corporatist nations of Earth, much like the UPP from William Gibson's Alien 3 script.  I mean, just look at their patch...

http://i66.tinypic.com/2q8aszq.jpg

It's all about the red star, Comrades.

Nice one, Local Trouble!

I thought it was a more elegant way to reconcile the absence of the company and the marines from AR without resorting to a soft reboot.

I for one liked the Iron Bears in AvP2 and would be interested in seeing some more diversity on the stellar scene. Right now it's pretty much American and British.

I could totally go for the Japanese side of Weyland-Yutani popping up as well.

[SpreadEagleBeagle]

I've said before that they could easily make a sequel to AR and reveal that the USM was actually a neo-communist rival to the corporatist nations of Earth, much like the UPP from William Gibson's Alien 3 script.  I mean, just look at their patch...

http://i66.tinypic.com/2q8aszq.jpg

It's all about the red star, Comrades.

Nice one, Local Trouble!

I thought it was a more elegant way to reconcile the absence of the company and the marines from AR without resorting to a soft reboot.

I for one liked the Iron Bears in AvP2 and would be interested in seeing some more diversity on the stellar scene. Right now it's pretty much American and British.

I could totally go for the Japanese side of Weyland-Yutani popping up as well.

I'm sure there are other unscrupulous mega-corporations out there in the Alien universe that can fill the roll of good ol' W-Y. I like A:I addition of Seegson. There is also the option of more or less independent subsidiaries going rogue after the assumed fall of Weyland-Yutani.

[Local Trouble]

I love Alien Resurrection and would love to see more from Ripley8, Call, Vriess and Johner.

I loathe Alien Resurrection, but even I've come around to believing that a continuation of the story after that movie could work so long as they do a little creative retconning and worldbuilding (although I could do without Call, Johner and Vriess).

To wit, I imagine the state of the galaxy during the AR-era looking similar to the Inner Sphere from BattleTech.



It's possible that the USM was like the Terran Hegemony since their home base was Earth, while Weyland-Yutani and various other sociopolitical factions controlled the surrounding regions of space from heavily-populated colony worlds.  One of them could be like the Corporate Sector in Star Wars and home to the megacorporations of the Aliens-era.

[HuDaFuK]

Many A3 fans condescendingly say that people who didn't like Alien 3 just wanted bigger, louder, and more guns(typical "Aliens is a dumb movie cuz one liners n' guns n' bugs" yada). Not at all, we just wanted a story that was consistent with the trajectory carved out by the first two movies.

See, whatever else you might dislike about the third film, I just don't see how the story isn't "consistent with the trajectory carved out by the first two movies". The first two films are pretty bleak and deal heavily in loss. Alien 3 just took that further. But it's hardly a jarring tonal discontinuity.

I can appreciate it for what it is, while also knowing that it is the wrong story that was told for so many reasons.

again, there's nothing "wrong" about it. It's just not what you wanted.

[SpreadEagleBeagle]

Many A3 fans condescendingly say that people who didn't like Alien 3 just wanted bigger, louder, and more guns(typical "Aliens is a dumb movie cuz one liners n' guns n' bugs" yada). Not at all, we just wanted a story that was consistent with the trajectory carved out by the first two movies.

See, whatever else you might dislike about the third film, I just don't see how the story isn't "consistent with the trajectory carved out by the first two movies". The first two films are pretty bleak and deal heavily in loss. Alien 3 just took that further. But it's hardly a jarring tonal discontinuity.

I can appreciate it for what it is, while also knowing that it is the wrong story that was told for so many reasons.

again, there's nothing "wrong" about it. It's just not what you wanted.

Yup.

[The Alien Predator]

Many A3 fans condescendingly say that people who didn't like Alien 3 just wanted bigger, louder, and more guns(typical "Aliens is a dumb movie cuz one liners n' guns n' bugs" yada). Not at all, we just wanted a story that was consistent with the trajectory carved out by the first two movies.

See, whatever else you might dislike about the third film, I just don't see how the story isn't "consistent with the trajectory carved out by the first two movies". The first two films are pretty bleak and deal heavily in loss. Alien 3 just took that further. But it's hardly a jarring tonal discontinuity.

I can appreciate it for what it is, while also knowing that it is the wrong story that was told for so many reasons.

again, there's nothing "wrong" about it. It's just not what you wanted.

Yup.

Indeed, it really boils down to opinions. There's nothing wrong with Alien 3 or Resurrection, some people just wanted something else from these films and didn't get their expectations met, so they understandably felt gutted.

While others appreciated the different route Alien 3 took. Just like how Aliens is quite different from Alien. Alien 3 took the route of "no one is safe" whereas the last two movies pretty much assured us that the action heroine and the people she's protecting will make it out alive.

Some fans were a bit too attached to our action heroine, so they don't like this Game of Thrones style killing of a main character out of nowhere. And unfortunately, one of these fans happens to be a film director who is using his influence to try and derail a storyline to fulfil his fantasy.

No offense to us lot, but I always thought that fans should never be in charge of the project of which they are a fan of. Like directing the next movie. Weren't the Strausse Brothers huge Predator fanboys? Look how that turned out. 

We need someone who is more balanced about their views, someone who is not obsessed with the franchise. Like Ridley Scott or Jim Cameron. They may or may not like this franchise, I don't know, but they're not fanboys of it, they're not obsessed with particular bits of it like Blomkamp is (Rips, Nut, Hiks), and actually want to go to new and interesting directions.

If Cameron was a huge Alien fanboy, we probably wouldn't have had the "Aliens" that we got. But no, he was a sensible minded director with brilliant ideas and that's why we got a great film from him.

While AvP-r (as much as I enjoyed it), re-treaded many previous things while introducing only a few new things. They re-used so many older assets like Predator vision sound effects from first film, cloaking effect from first film, being huge Pred fans, they made Wolf kick so much Alien ass that many Alien fans had acid nosebleeds from the cringe.

Whereas Riddles and Cameron actually energized and expanded upon the franchise so much with Prometheus and Aliens.

I am still hoping Blomkamp sees the light at the end of the tunnel and returns to his older idea before Weaver convinced him to shoe-horn her into the franchise which caused a domino effect of shoe-horning in Newt and Hicks via the laziest of writings and most banal of ideas. He was honestly on the right track.

[Perfect-Organism]

Many A3 fans condescendingly say that people who didn't like Alien 3 just wanted bigger, louder, and more guns(typical "Aliens is a dumb movie cuz one liners n' guns n' bugs" yada). Not at all, we just wanted a story that was consistent with the trajectory carved out by the first two movies.

See, whatever else you might dislike about the third film, I just don't see how the story isn't "consistent with the trajectory carved out by the first two movies". The first two films are pretty bleak and deal heavily in loss. Alien 3 just took that further. But it's hardly a jarring tonal discontinuity.

I can appreciate it for what it is, while also knowing that it is the wrong story that was told for so many reasons.

again, there's nothing "wrong" about it. It's just not what you wanted.

You're being pedantic.  Obviously the overall notions of right and wrong as translated to good and evil do not apply.  But if you assume that negative critical response and public response to a story are the same as it being wrong, then Alien 3 was wrong.  If you assume that the objective of the studio making a movie was in creating something that the broad audience would like, then they were wrong.  If you assume that they made a film in the hopes that it will turn into an ongoing story franchise, they were wrong.  It was 92, so perhaps they weren't thinking in terms of franchise, but in hindsight, that was misguided.  Looking back, it is entirely fair to say that it was the wrong decision.  They just got it wrong.

Many A3 fans condescendingly say that people who didn't like Alien 3 just wanted bigger, louder, and more guns(typical "Aliens is a dumb movie cuz one liners n' guns n' bugs" yada). Not at all, we just wanted a story that was consistent with the trajectory carved out by the first two movies.

See, whatever else you might dislike about the third film, I just don't see how the story isn't "consistent with the trajectory carved out by the first two movies". The first two films are pretty bleak and deal heavily in loss. Alien 3 just took that further. But it's hardly a jarring tonal discontinuity.

I can appreciate it for what it is, while also knowing that it is the wrong story that was told for so many reasons.

again, there's nothing "wrong" about it. It's just not what you wanted.

Yup.

Indeed, it really boils down to opinions. There's nothing wrong with Alien 3 or Resurrection, some people just wanted something else from these films and didn't get their expectations met, so they understandably felt gutted.

While others appreciated the different route Alien 3 took. Just like how Aliens is quite different from Alien. Alien 3 took the route of "no one is safe" whereas the last two movies pretty much assured us that the action heroine and the people she's protecting will make it out alive.

Some fans were a bit too attached to our action heroine, so they don't like this Game of Thrones style killing of a main character out of nowhere. And unfortunately, one of these fans happens to be a film director who is using his influence to try and derail a storyline to fulfil his fantasy.

No offense to us lot, but I always thought that fans should never be in charge of the project of which they are a fan of. Like directing the next movie. Weren't the Strausse Brothers huge Predator fanboys? Look how that turned out. 

We need someone who is more balanced about their views, someone who is not obsessed with the franchise. Like Ridley Scott or Jim Cameron. They may or may not like this franchise, I don't know, but they're not fanboys of it, they're not obsessed with particular bits of it like Blomkamp is (Rips, Nut, Hiks), and actually want to go to new and interesting directions.

If Cameron was a huge Alien fanboy, we probably wouldn't have had the "Aliens" that we got. But no, he was a sensible minded director with brilliant ideas and that's why we got a great film from him.

While AvP-r (as much as I enjoyed it), re-treaded many previous things while introducing only a few new things. They re-used so many older assets like Predator vision sound effects from first film, cloaking effect from first film, being huge Pred fans, they made Wolf kick so much Alien ass that many Alien fans had acid nosebleeds from the cringe.

Whereas Riddles and Cameron actually energized and expanded upon the franchise so much with Prometheus and Aliens.

I am still hoping Blomkamp sees the light at the end of the tunnel and returns to his older idea before Weaver convinced him to shoe-horn her into the franchise which caused a domino effect of shoe-horning in Newt and Hicks via the laziest of writings and most banal of ideas. He was honestly on the right track.

Unless you know something we don't, you really have no idea if Blomkamp was on the right track before his discussions with Weaver.  Most likely, he wanted to have Hicks, Ripley, and Newt back in the series, but just didn't think in his wildest dreams that it was an option available to him.  If Weaver says "why not?  Let's do it", then why not indeed.  Just guessing here..

[BishopShouldGo]

Lol did someone just say that Ridley and James were not fans? Who said that? Ahaha Ridley directed the first movie, directed Prometheus, and is directing three more Alien movies. He started this whole thing and wants to contribute more.

James Cameron is a huge Alien fan. So since Aliens is an action film, he's not a fanboy? Quite the opposite. Huge self proclaimed fanboy. It just so happens he's a talented fan whereas the Strauses aren't.

At the end of the day, think what you want about the four nominal Alien movies, but we all know which two are loved and which two aren't viewed favorably. I don't make the rules.

[426Buddy]

The first two films are amazing classics and yeah 3 & 4 just aren't on that level. But all the entries since aliens (including Alien3, alien res, AvP, AvPR, and prometheus) don't stack up because lightning in a bottle is hard or even impossible to reproduce. I think its kinda amazing that a series like this has 2 films that are considered classics.

Personally I doubt any new alien flick will ever approach the quality and greatness that the first two films produced. That's not to say we won't get some good or possibly great movies, but I doubt there will ever be another "ALIEN" or "Aliens" in the future of this franchise.

[Master]

I don't know the formula for another great Alien classic, but I am certain  the way doesn't lead through remaking pieces of earlier entries.

[Perfect-Organism]

I don't know the formula for another great Alien classic, but I am certain  the way doesn't lead through remaking pieces of earlier entries.

How do you know that with such certainty?