Blomkamp is officially making an Alien film

[SiL]

The seeded humans, humans being special to some overlord alien race, etc. parts.

The thing I hate most about Prometheus in terms of what it "did" to the franchise is made humans anything special. The universe of Alien was conceived as vast and desolate. Now basically all life in this universe heavily involves us and it was hardly a coincidence we managed to find anything.

[Born Of Cold Light]

The seeded humans, humans being special to some overlord alien race, etc. parts.

The thing I hate most about Prometheus in terms of what it "did" to the franchise is made humans anything special. The universe of Alien was conceived as vast and desolate. Now basically all life in this universe heavily involves us and it was hardly a coincidence we managed to find anything.

Maybe humans are just one species that's being manipulated, and that we're just a tiny, tiny cog in something much larger than ourselves.  The xenomorph ability to adopt some of the traits of its host could hint at deep, sustained interactions with possibly a countless amount of species over a protracted period of time.  I mentioned in another post that this master thing, whatever it was, would not be something anything remotely conceivable to the human mind (allowing it to stay 'alien') and that it would not spread through space ships and invasions but through a gradual, random expansion across the universe over a period of hundreds of millions of years.  This would make it even more sinister as there would be no pattern that anyone could detect; it would be this slow-moving, inexorable plague that gradually spread across the universe, annihilating whole civilizations with no one the wiser.

[SiL]

I'd rather there be no galactic machinations to be a cog in.

But to each their own.

[Born Of Cold Light]

Again, it wouldn't be some master plan that humans could understand, and it might not even be coordinated at all (again, this would take place over hundreds of millions of years over vast expanses of space).  It's not like Ripley, Hicks and Newt would ever find themselves tied up in a room with some cackling alien telling them all about some plot to conquer the universe.  Rather, the aliens could be one filament in the sinews of the fingers that reach out from the blackest core of the universe.  Indeed, it could be the very embodiment the most primal aspects of the universe, which is really just spectacular violence and chaos melded with spectacular beauty.  The 'Alien' might not necessarily refer to an individual xenomorph but rather to this utterly inconceivable void of anti-sentience whose ways simply cannot and will not ever be understood by humans, or any life form period.  It would be anti-life, anti-conscience, anti-reason and anti-plan.  It would be and it would not be.  It would be Alien.

There's a favorite artist of mine by the name of Brian Smith whose art partially captures the essence of what I'm trying to get at:















This one could definitely be retooled towards a xenomorph-based theme:

[SiL]

Rather, the aliens could be one filament in the sinews of the fingers that reach out from the blackest core of the universe.

That kind of thing is exaaaactly what I'm against.

I'm cool with Lovecraftian horrors, I just kind of liked that the Alien universe was big, dead and empty.

[Born Of Cold Light]

Rather, the aliens could be one filament in the sinews of the fingers that reach out from the blackest core of the universe.

That kind of thing is exaaaactly what I'm against.

I'm cool with Lovecraftian horrors, I just kind of liked that the Alien universe was big, dead and empty.

But we know now that it's not big, dead and empty, even with the predators now removed from continuity.  Even from the very beginning of the series, there were hints of something larger at work, with the presence of the Derelict and Space Jockey.  While it was postulated that they were hundreds if not thousands of years old, I don't think that that was ever officially confirmed.  Now with the Prometheus series and the likelihood of more revelations about the Engineers, why not make something incredibly terrifying and awe-inspiring that pays tribute to the visions which Giger tried to suppress with opium, instead of just albino Buddha fascists who probably don't have the equivalent of the Geneva Conventions?  The cat's out of the bag, let's make it a truly epic cat to remember.

And even if Prometheus had never happened, with the exception of Isolation, the Alien series has been going down the drain for years with poor crossover films, repetitious AVP games and the debacle of Colonial Marines.  Heck, the best thing to come out during that time were excellent action figures.  While I'm not pointing figures at anyone on this board, there are a large number of fans who, if they had their way, would have the series be nothing but 'bug hunts' featuring marines who yelled "Stay frosty!" every ten seconds.  The last serious attempt to create something that paid tribute to the vision of the original film was Alien 3, and we all know how flawed that was.  Resurrection had its moments but it was just too goofy and flat.  Since the mid-90s, Aliens has been predominantly about explosions and guys with big guns; completely the opposite of what was originally intended.  The first AVP computer game partially succeeded in bringing back that claustrophobic atmosphere but by and large, it was more of the same.  The Alien series needs to go in another, possibly radical direction; the last twenty years are what's the problem, not Prometheus.

Alien desperately needs a major shake up in order to stay fresh and Isolation only begins to correct the problem.  I'm not saying that my idea has to be accepted but there needs to be something to reinvigorate the series and bring back the original theme.  Despite all its flaws, I applaud Ridley Scott for creating something totally unique.  The Alien universe was honestly never a truly dead place and it's just become more crowded in recent years.  Better to have a nihilistic Lovecraftian vision than something like this which I can easily see Fox lapsing back into.

[SiL]

The space Jockey was long dead. Whatever had happened, happened long ago. They didn't find a thriving alien civilisation, they found one lonely, crashed ship in the middle of nowhere.

Scott didn't give us something unique. He gave us Ancient Astronauts. That idea is so old and used it's not funny. All he did was let it be shoehorned in where it had no place to be.

[NetworkATTH]

The space Jockey was long dead. Whatever had happened, happened long ago. They didn't find a thriving alien civilisation, they found one lonely, crashed ship in the middle of nowhere.

Scott didn't give us something unique. He gave us Ancient Astronauts. That idea is so old and used it's not funny. All he did was let it be shoehorned in where it had no place to be.

Have you ever heard of Death of the Author? It's a great idea, helps with blank slate worlds, for you to build, when the desire is for you to build. It is arguable that the above is more tried and tripe than the bottom. You might as well leave it as Roswell in Space.

I'm also with you, leaving space dead and empty. I am totally with you. 100%. My idea, is that all what I was implying happened long long ago. There are no more people anywhere other than Earth and its colonies. Its desolate. Everything died. But the point being, the galaxy, maybe even the universe, is surrounded by potential hazards that remain from that time. The Aliens being one of them. From microscopic to human sized or maybe a bit larger. And there's other non-sentient average ordinary life disconnected mostly from this.

But, the point being, it's mostly empty aside from endless danger. Which is, really, what space is in reality. The dangers we have to face in the Real World, are just things like radiation, time, zero g, and mostly inhospitable planets that would crush our most over designed space suits.

[RakaiThwei]

I'm cool with Lovecraftian horrors, I just kind of liked that the Alien universe was big, dead and empty.

We need to go back to this.. But we won't, unfortunately.

[OpenMaw]

We need to go back to this.. But we won't, unfortunately.

Unfortunately not, indeed. Everything has to be related and interconnect and we have to see all the continuity of events.

No mystery. No deep voids of emptiness. It's a crowded narrative sky.

[OmegaZilla]

Scott didn't give us something unique. He gave us Ancient Astronauts. That idea is so old and used it's not funny. All he did was let it be shoehorned in where it had no place to be.

Nailed it.

[Alien³]

I just kind of liked that the Alien universe was big, dead and empty.

Could still be the case.

So far humans have only found left overs from things that existed long before.

As far as we know Earth is the only place in the universe which houses millions of diverse species and out there in space are just scattered locations of abandoned Engineer/jockey technology and the alien.

That idea is what I love. It's us, the engineers and the alien. Nothing else.

The ultimate fear is that we're alone.

[A_Sexual_Tyrannosaurus]

I just kind of liked that the Alien universe was big, dead and empty.

Could still be the case.

So far humans have only found left overs from things that existed long before.

As far as we know Earth is the only place in the universe which houses millions of diverse species and out there in space are just scattered locations of abandoned Engineer/jockey technology and the alien.

That idea is what I love. It's us, the engineers and the alien. Nothing else.

The ultimate fear is that we're alone.

I always thought that the reason the universe was so dark and empty was because of the Alien, whatever other life and civilization had been out there had been destroyed. Hence why the "Aliens on Earth: scenario was such a terrifying prospect (and f*ck AvP eternally f**k messing that up).

[[cancerblack]]

I just kind of liked that the Alien universe was big, dead and empty.

Could still be the case.

So far humans have only found left overs from things that existed long before.

As far as we know Earth is the only place in the universe which houses millions of diverse species and out there in space are just scattered locations of abandoned Engineer/jockey technology and the alien.

That idea is what I love. It's us, the engineers and the alien. Nothing else.

The ultimate fear is that we're alone.

I like the idea that we're alone (with the Alien).

The Engineers are our predecessors. That was always the case on some level (and in fact was the point of including the derelict in Alien) but is now very literal. Although placing them as being active as recently as two millennia ago isn't to my taste, I don't hate the ancient aliens thing on principle and I can handle them not just being the guys who got wiped out by the Alien before us but also our creators - I still like them best as an extinct race though, and any ones surviving in stasis should be super rare.

The Alien, as I see it, is rogue genetic material with a "sentience" (but not sapience) handed down through generational memory (possibly in a literal sense, see A:R). It's the Lovecraftian crawling chaos that could be in any dark corner of space, just waiting. I'm very much a fan of the concept that outbreaks of the Alien as we know it burn out fairly quickly as they deplete hosts, but that through some sort of handwavium, eggs can survive indefinitely. So there's eggs, Engineer ruins containing modified strains or other applications of the Alien genetics, and who knows what else, scattered throughout space.

Which leads to us, alone in the dark with the Alien, which is just silently waiting out there amongst the stars.

[RakaiThwei]

Unfortunately not, indeed. Everything has to be related and interconnect and we have to see all the continuity of events.

No mystery. No deep voids of emptiness. It's a crowded narrative sky.

Not sure if sarcastic or genuinely agreeing.

In either case... Prometheus did something to the Alien franchise, and that something was at the cost of expansion. Let me say that I am more of a Predator fan, and an AvP fan than strictly Alien-- but this is something I happened to notice. Prometheus, with the introduction (or re-introduction) of the Engineers dethroned the Alien as the main villain. For well over thirty years, the Alien was the main villain of the story and characters had to find ways to beat this unstoppable horror. Now... it's been reduced to being nothing more than a genetic f**k up by-product (assuming that is the case) where as the Engineers are the main villain and for all intents and purposes, the Masters of the Universe (No, not He-Man). And quite frankly.. that cost for the sake of expansion was a price too steep. One of the most iconic extraterrestrial threats.. now made an insectoid by-product f**k up.

But what really gets me, is that now the Engineers are being shoe-horned into the Predator and AVP franchises. Personally, I want Handsome Squidward to stay out of those two universes. But alas, it seems as if they are here to stay and dethrone the original antagonists and have them rendered being to second flute.. Which if you ask me, isn't really fair.