[Closed] New Alien/ Prometheus film

mikey74

I'd be interested to see your list of the other films that have covered the same territory as Prometheus and the "engineers".

Well I said back there that it hadn't been covered so specifically by mainstream sci-fi cinema but it has been done before in novels and comics.

Saying that, here's wikipedia's list [url= https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_astronauts_in_popular_culture#Movies_and_television_series ]of ancient astronauts in film and tv.[/url] And here's [url= https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_astronauts_in_popular_culture#Novels_and_comics ]novels and comics.[/url] Get back to me when you've watched them all.

Those aren't exhaustive lists either, as far back as 1995 I remember reading a Judge Dredd story set on Mars that basically had the entire plot of Prometheus from start to finish. Discussing it with fellow geeks around that time everyone could cite similar plot lines in other sci-fi.

...but not in films?

mikey74

...but not in films?

Remember Stargate?

Precursors?
Xeno[img] [/img]

I always held that the biggest mistake they made with Alien Cubed was killing off Newt. a) it could've been a great handover to a new, younger female lead and b) it completely shat on the entire point of Aliens from a great height.

Losing Newt was a crap idea for the reasons you state. The original idea for Alien 3 actually seemed really good. As usual studio interference put a stop to that. Although Prometheus was a let down I was actually looking forward to a direct sequel.

Neil Blomkamps take on the Alien franchise could have been good. Saying that his last film, the ultra violent short circuit remake, was a bit meh.

Remember Stargate?

Of course. Good film. I'm not sure it's quite the same thing: Aliens having an influence on the planet is little different to Aliens creating humans. However, I do get your point: I just enjoy the Aliens/Prometheus take on it. I'm not saying they invented the idea, it was just taken somewhere that really interests me.

I like Prometheus. Some problems for sure but I enjoyed it and enjoy rewatching it.

I even think Alien3 was interesting.

As well as Newt I think the Hicks/Prisoners conflict would have been interesting with the suspicion over who was killing everyone

Lifer - Member

As well as Newt I think the Hicks/Prisoners conflict would have been interesting with the suspicion over who was killing everyone

At one point Hicks was supposed to be the main character. I can't remember the specifics but there was a big problem with Michael Beihn.....either he asked for far too much money or he had a scheduling issue, or he was being deliberately stubborn out of loyalty to Cameron, maybe a combination of things.

Apparently he still got paid as much for his likeness being used in Alien 3 as his performance in Aliens.

But apart from the Xenomorphs, in that Covenant clip they're talking about some giant bugs that have been found - I'm sure in Aliens everyone is sceptical because no other life has been found yet?

They have definitely come across Alien life before Aliens... whether they're similar to the aliens we know & love we don't know...

Private Hudson: Sir?
Lieutenant Gorman: What is it, Hicks?
Private Hudson: Hudson, sir. He's Hicks.
[signals to Hicks]
Lieutenant Gorman: What's the question?
Private Hudson: Is this gonna be a standup fight, sir, or another bug hunt?
Lieutenant Gorman: All we know is that there's still no contact with the colony and that a xenomorph may be involved.
Private Frost: Excuse me, sir, a-a what?
Lieutenant Gorman: A xenomorph.
Corporal Hicks: It's a bug hunt.

I always assumed "bug hunt" was just Marine slang for flushing out enemies; ie, a direct contrast to a "stand-up fight."

There was also that line where someone referenced the fact that Ripley had apparently seen and Alien and the response was "Whoopee for her" or maybe it was "whoopee ****ing doo".

To be fair, if someone told you they'd seen an alien, would you go "wow, gosh, really?"

It's entirely possible of course that they have encountered aliens before, just not our Aliens.

A further trailer possibly spoiler heavy.

Like the look of the newest trailer. I enjoyed Prometheus, never understood the hate and am a massive Alien fan so to me, a lot of the hand wringing above is pretty funny. You'll all still go to see it, stop kidding yourselves. Stop getting those panties in a bunch over a sci-fi film and just sit back and enjoy the big angry things eating the small scared things.

I'd much rather see Ridley Scott step away from the series and do more great films like The Martian.

Was with you till this. Martian had the tension of a blancmange and the soundtrack made me want to kill kittens.

Scott has barely made a decent movie since Gladiator

*suspension of disbelief moment*

In Prometheus they set off to LV-223 on the basis of some drawings in a cave on Skye

Peter Weyland is a secret passenger on the trip

The trip goes wrong, the ship is destroyed, I'm assuming none of this gets relayed back to earth so everyone is missing presumed dead

Shaw has survived however and takes off in the engineers space ship

Now...

There are 100 billion stars in the universe, and god knows how many planets orbiting them

Given that earth must assume the prometheus mission went wrong, they probably wouldnt send the next ship to the same location

So they send them to a different location, however by some miracle they happen to run into Shaw as they've both arrived at the same planet

😆

I'm assuming none of this gets relayed back to earth

There you go.

Which can only point to an ulterior motive?..

A bit like the original Alien and Aliens.

nickhit3 - Member
Like the look of the newest trailer. I enjoyed Prometheus, never understood the hate

Stupid plot, borderline retarded characters. Supposedly expert biologist removes helmet and touches alien snake, cartographer dude gets lost, captain takes the ship into the dangerous atmosphere without scanning it first, running in the shadow of rolling object (after c-section 😆 ) rather than simply stepping sideways etc.

That said I am a huge fan of the series, and will probably still watch this.

[quote=Drac ]I'm assuming none of this gets relayed back to earth
There you go.

Yeah they didn't show anything being messaged back in Prometheus but it's not outwith the realms of possibility that David was sending reports back.

However given it was the WU boss on the Prometheus, they might have sent a rescue mission, but that's not what Covenant looks like.

Also, if you were going to choose couples to populate a planet, would this be on the list 😆

[img] [/img]

Scott has barely made a decent movie since Gladiator

A line in the trailer mentions a "large scale" colonisation mission, yet there's only maybe a dozen or so folk, however there's a brief scene in the trailer with the hooded character walking towards what looks like buildings and they're surrounded by what looks like thousands of deformed bodies. Could be there's a whole bunch of folk in stasis on the ship that the facehuggers can have a field day with resulting in lots of xenomorphs!

Scott has barely made a decent movie since Gladiator

However given it was the WU boss on the Prometheus, they might have sent a rescue mission, but that's not what Covenant looks like.

He was dying anyway and if the ship or Davied relay back it's fair to say they probably mentioned it.

A line in the trailer mentions a "large scale" colonisation mission, yet there's only maybe a dozen or so folk,

Maybe they're the first. Is that not mentioned in the previous trailer?

Could be there's a whole bunch of folk in stasis on the ship that the facehuggers can have a field day with resulting in lots of xenomorphs!

Or that.

Given that earth must assume the prometheus mission went wrong, they probably wouldnt send the next ship to the same location

So they send them to a different location, however by some miracle they happen to run into Shaw as they've both arrived at the same planet

Pretty sure I've read somewhere that it is LV-223 they go to in Covenant.

However given it was the WU boss on the Prometheus

Point of pedantry, it wasn't WU in Prometheus, it was Weyland Corporation.

It looks like it'll make about as well thought out and coherent as Prometheus

BTW for anyone who wants to see what we should have had in Prometheus, the original script (before that phallus from Lost dicked about with it) is online if you search for "alien engineers script"

The Martian was one

I hugely disagree, the soundtrack alone was nearly enough for me to switch off.
It was a massive missed opportunity to portray sci-fi isolation in a relatively believable context, instead it felt like a jolly-up. There was almost no concept of the time scales involved. Plus having since found out that storms on Mars are fractionally as violent as portrayed kind of kills the reality for me.

I still hope Scott has some quality to offer, Bladerunner 2 will be defining for me.

Plus having since found out that storms on Mars are fractionally as violent as portrayed kind of kills the reality for me.

It wasn't a documentary. It also wasn't great.

I hugely disagree, the soundtrack alone was nearly enough for me to switch off.
It was a massive missed opportunity to portray sci-fi isolation....

slimjim78

I still hope Scott has some quality to offer, Bladerunner 2 will be defining for me.

Define what? He's not directing it and his filmography speaks for itself, about three good films out of twenty four.

about three good films out of twenty.

mikewsmith

Alien
Blade Runner
Thelma and Louise
Gladiator
Black Hawk Down
American Gangster - enjoyed I remember
The Martian

Even if I agreed for the sake of argument it's still not a great ratio. But I don't agree. Black Hawk down is just complete shit. If someone told me Michael Bay made it I would believe it 100%. Just a glorification of the American military from start to finish.

I saw American Gangster and can't remember anything about it, not a good sign. And I got about half way through the Martian.

Thelma and Louise?

So this totally ignores the fact a bunch of Xenomorphs were chased around a pyramid under the ice in AvP by Weyland himself, and the army rocked up in AvP Requiem?

Just a glorification of the American military from start to finish.

Except it about being one big cluster ****.

I saw American Gangster and can't remember anything about it, not a good sign.

Fantastic film.

Drac

Just a glorification of the American military from start to finish.

Except it about being one big cluster *.

Nope. The reality was a politcal mess that led to a cluster *. The film was a story about triumph in the face of adversity and an advert for the heroism and bravery of the American war machine in the face of an inhuman (non human foe) that made no effort to explain the situation.

Reports vary but some sources estimate the Americans killed up to 2000 civilians during that battler - it seems plausible since their own records show they fired hundreds of thousands of rounds into Mogadishu from helicopter gunships. Here's an account from the Washington post about an earlier engagement

][i]it was a slaughter. A half-dozen Cobras pumped sixteen TOW missiles and two thousand rounds of cannon fire into the house with deadly accuracy. First they blew away the stairwell to prevent anyone from escaping. … A video taken just after the attack showed the mangled bodies literally blown apart in the attack—the religious leaders, the elders, even the women in their colorful wrap dresses who were always on hand to serve the tea.[/i]

That attack apparently turned the civilian population against them which is why so many civilians rounded on them when they got stuck.

But hey, they're only "skinnies". Faceless black rabble who can be blown apart with rpg's, grenades and machine gun fire. It's not like they feel pain like white people, the way white people do when they lose part of their thumb for example. 🙄

EDIT. Rolling eyed smiley added to highlight implied sarcasm, as opposed racism, but no doubt I'll get reported for racist comments anyway.

Also Black Rain

edit:

Thelma and Louise?

what d'you mean? that you didn't know Ridley Scott had directed it, or you don't know of the film? If it's the first, then your comments about his hit rate is a bit suspect if you're not aware of his filmography, if it's the latter, your opinion of what makes a good film is pretty suspect outside your own narrow interests

I would suggest..

New trailer looks a lot more promising

Didn't Shaw go off with David at the end of Prometheus? If so, isn't it likely that he would have tracking equipment built-in, making it possible for the corporation to find out where they went.

Most people I've heard on it or spoken to see to have the complete opposite view

Turns out my other half really is a perfect match for me then, she reached virtually the exact same conclusions.

Interesting to read how much Ridley doubt there is out there, I really did think I was in a minority there also.
American Gangster - great soundtrack (they kind or relied on the soundtrack,no?) but I too can barely remember the plot. It's not up there with Goodfellas/Heat/Godfathers/King of New York/Departed. Heck, I'd rate it below Donnie Brasco/Carlitos Way

nickc - Member

Also Black Rain

edit:

Thelma and Louise?

what d'you mean? that you didn't know Ridley Scott had directed it, or you don't know of the film? If it's the first, then your comments about his hit rate is a bit suspect if you're not aware of his filmography, if it's the latter, your opinion of what makes a good film is pretty suspect outside your own narrow interests

I would suggest..

I know he directed Thelma and Louise, it's just a totally generic road movie / chick flick. Similarly, Black Rain is a buddy cop action film that looks lovely and has an exotic feel because it's set in Japan.

Neither are "bad" films, but they wouldn't convince me that Ridley Scott is interested in doing anything other than make safe films that look good.

Other opinions are available...

it's just a totally generic road movie / chick flick.

It may be several things, award winning, selected for the Library of congress as worthy of preservation because of it's importance, but "generic" it is not.

😆