That's certainly an arguable standpoint. They certainly never do anything that contradicts Kane's Son.
Quote from: Quick N Slick on Apr 13, 2010, 12:58:14 PM
There is still nothing in the film, at the end of the day, to show their intellect surpasses humans.
And there's nothing in the film depicting them as Lovecraftian nightmare warriors created from the stuff of shadows... yet that's still a part of the concept under O'Bannon's writing and definitely a part of Giger's direction in bringing the creature to life.
Absolutes aren't as important as the thematic concepts.
Quote from: Quick N Slick on Apr 13, 2010, 12:58:14 PMI actually prefer the portrayal of them as mindless termite-esque beasts. They just have so many advantages already, physically & all, that when you combine that with their numbers, well...I like a creature to be exploitable in weakness somewhere, no matter how badass it may be. More believable that way, IMO.
Believability, for me, is in the atmosphere and the draw of any given film.
Alien did that with acting that I couldn't tell was acting, characters that seemed organic, architecture that never made me question the film and a creature that was so powerfully close to its namesake that it instantly became more believable than any other monster bearing the name.
The lack of weaknesses part is the Lovecraftian aspect speaking. His monsters rarely had any sort of weakness, simply because they represented the iron fist of reality that can slam you into place. And Lovecraft knew all about that, too - he was the son of a wealthy couple, both of whom died early in his life, forcing him to spend his 40 or so years in poverty and misery.
Aliens having any real weakness is really a subversion of the original film and the underlying concept. They're supposed to seem insurmountable and unstoppable. Because that's good cinema.