Quote from: Xenomorphine on Jun 06, 2009, 07:39:26 PM
Quote from: Neon_Knight on May 31, 2009, 08:37:51 PM
Enough with Ripley, can't we have a male protagonist, for once, just for once?
One of the mainstays of the 'Alien' series (when done properly, anyway) is the psychosexual subtext. You wouldn't get that with a bloke being the lead.
Plus, the sight of a female in obvious trouble, on screen, brings out the psychological impulse, in a viewer, of protection. It's an easy way to get the audience more emotionally involved.
Yes, I know, it worked in Alien, and Aliens, and even Alien3 and Alien Resurrection, but really, it's starting to wear a bit thin now. I for one am sick of it.
I mean it's just cheap really, re-using old ideas to try to fudge together a film that people will think is good. It's a cliché in the film industry, one successful film is successful due to some traits going against expectation etc, and then all of the sequels/spinoffs/most other films in the genre just flat out copy the exact same idea, as though somehow the audience will be 'tricked' into thinking that it's something new and original when it simply isn't.
The very fact that they're looking for a "new Ripley", (ie a female character that's going to have the exact same role and exact same presence on screen as Ripley) is almost proof enough for me that they're just trying to cheaply bundle together a film, ripping off the success of the originals in the franchise. It's cheap, it's lazy, and it's disgraceful script-writing. And it's almost certain that they aren't going to come up with a particularly complex character for this "new Ripley", she's going to have lazy, uninspiring character development, and I'm willing to bet this new film will stink of mediocrity. The very idea of reusing the
exact same character, again, just with a new name is simply appalling, especially considering Ridley Scott is involved.
Even Aliens changed Ripley's character somewhat during the transition - in Alien, she was a fairly scared, not particularly physical, not particularly authoritative figure, not even the other crew members recognised her authority when Dallas was off the ship. Dallas didn't listen to her about destroying the facehugger, Lambert was hysterically against Ripley and her ideas after Dallas had died, Ash tried to kill her and she pretty much helpless during that struggle and she had absolutely no physical contact with the Alien.
In Aliens, she was a much more hardened figure, where Ripley's stereotype character came into play, with her protective mother-like figure, and bitter, aggressive resentment of the aliens that took away her relationship with her own daughter. (The Queen/Loader fight scene comes to mind)
But there's only so many times you can develop a single character role, and I really think the Ripley character is a dead horse that's been flogged into a mashed up, bloody pulp.
