Alien: Covenant/Alien Series thoughts.

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My main issues with the second Romulus trailer are the following aspects:

1. While this trailer is a lot better at showing stuff that isn't clearly from the third act like the first one did, it still relies heavily on it. That's usually a concern.
2. The line delivery from the actors are stiff and bland. They just don't come off as interesting.
3. The cgi looks pretty bad; the one time they nut up and show you a xeno using it really is awkward.

Which admittedly makes this trailer a hell of a lot better than the first one, which had the extra issues to go with it:

1. The cgi is so bad that the facehuggers move more like a bad water effect.
2. The fucking obnoxious and incompetent usage of the original Alien trailer's alarm effect.

I'm not interested in the movie honestly. The first trailer absolutely ripped off from Isolation, and this next one is duplicating Aliens, but were too incompetent to recreate the clunking effect and way too freewheely with it. Both also relied heavily on third act footage too, meaning it's relying desperately on the action to carry it.
I liked the directors cut of Kingdom of Heaven
This. It's the last of Scott's movies I liked.
 
Blackhawk Down and Matchstick Men came out after Gladiator (2001 and 2003), but since then, nothing. Unless you count The Counselor (2013) because it's so bad it's good, and has the hilarious and magical Cameron Diaz channeling her inner remora scene.
Kingdom of Heaven has its fans.
 
Kingdom of Heaven has its fans.

I mean it's watchable, but just seems so tepid. I hesitate to call it "sorta good," although I guess some people might feel the same about Matchstick Men, which I really enjoyed. So I guess people can swap in their preference. Either way it's been WELL over a decade since he's made anything actually good. And he's had quite a few chances.


TBF I haven't seen the director's cut of Kingdom of Heaven, but I jist don't see it making that much of a difference. Unless it adds a Harrison Ford voiceover.
 
I think Scott's problem is that he's only as good as the script he has to work with.
 
I'm not interested in the movie honestly.
No one is. They are making Alien and Predator films every few years to hold onto the license. In some vain hope that James Cameron or some mega producer either buys the franchise. Or that they somehow string together a series of Marvel or Hunger Games level hits. It's desperate. This franchise has been niche or dead since the 80s. It must make money overall though for Fox and now Disney to continue to churn out so much trash.
I think Scott's problem is that he's only as good as the script he has to work with.
He had a prequel script to Alien in his hands. Instead he inserted his idiotic ancient aliens story into the movie and the Aliens lore.
 
He had a prequel script to Alien in his hands. Instead he inserted his idiotic ancient aliens story into the movie and the Aliens lore.
There's more to it then that: Ridley Scott AND James Cameron approached Fox to make an Alien prequel with Scott directing and Cameron writing and producing. Fox, headed by known retard Tom Rothman, told them no because (this is true) Alien VS Predator was in development... This lead to Cameron disappearing into Avatar land and here we are.

I blame the majority of problems with Prometheus on Damon Lindelof. Which is why I thought Covenant was a dramatic improvement.
 
There's more to it then that: Ridley Scott AND James Cameron approached Fox to make an Alien prequel with Scott directing and Cameron writing and producing. Fox, headed by known retard Tom Rothman, told them no because (this is true) Alien VS Predator was in development... This lead to Cameron disappearing into Avatar land and here we are.
Prometheus is literally a remake of AvP. It's the same exact story on nearly ever level. Scott is just lazy now. Same with Cameron whose Terminator output since the second film shows that lost the plot decades ago. Neither one of them are capable of making anything quality in the Alien or Predator series anymore and probably haven't been since the 80s.

We're at the point where both franchises are just soft rebooting themselves every few years. Prometheus was a failed attempt. Predators was another. At some point someone will just have to commit to restarting the series from scratch. And not randomly picking and choosing the canon of the made movies and stories.
 
Not really that interested, since it looks like there's going to be another-another-another-ANOTHER Ripley clone, and frankly it'd be more refreshing to have a male lead at this point.

It also does not inspire confidence in me to know that the crew are a bunch of teenagers. Because that's the kind of crew you entrust a spacefaring scavenging mission to along with the very expensive hardware needed for that sort of thing, right?
 
I agree that they just need to move away from Ripley and establish a different protagonist. There’s no real stake for a character that can be brought back over and over and over again by the sheer will of the Director.

Though speaking of Director, I’m curious to see how an Alien movie without Ridley Scott will play out. Imagine failing so hard at creating good films the past decade that fans are nonchalant about the franchise’s creator not getting involved. Ouch.
 
No one is. They are making Alien and Predator films every few years to hold onto the license. In some vain hope that James Cameron or some mega producer either buys the franchise. Or that they somehow string together a series of Marvel or Hunger Games level hits. It's desperate. This franchise has been niche or dead since the 80s. It must make money overall though for Fox and now Disney to continue to churn out so much trash.

He had a prequel script to Alien in his hands. Instead he inserted his idiotic ancient aliens story into the movie and the Aliens lore.
I'd say niche since the mid 90s not the 80s. As shitty as 3 was, the leadup to its release caused alot of interest and marketing went into overdrive with tons of toys, comics, games and announcements of plans that fizzled out after the movie flopped. It got an iffy revival with resurrection in 97 but after that it pretty much petered out. The AVP stuff was just kind of there and didn't generate anywhere near the hype the studios were expecting. The 2010 game got some attention back onto the franchise and kicked up enough interest to lead to isolation and colonial marines being created. Neither of which really went anywhere after getting released. The shit they're putting out now is mostly just to hold onto the license like you said with some slim hope that it'll generate enough interest to do something further to make some money, which it won't. Just like covenant screwed the pooch

Aliens had its time and the franchise is best left as it is, much like the old romero style zombie movies, ninja turtles, the from dusk till dawn franchise and even star trek is starting to head into that direction. Studios seem to have forgotten that franchises aren't meant to go on forever
 
I'd say niche since the mid 90s not the 80s. As shitty as 3 was, the leadup to its release caused alot of interest and marketing went into overdrive with tons of toys, comics, games and announcements of plans that fizzled out after the movie flopped. It got an iffy revival with resurrection in 97 but after that it pretty much petered out. The AVP stuff was just kind of there and didn't generate anywhere near the hype the studios were expecting. The 2010 game got some attention back onto the franchise and kicked up enough interest to lead to isolation and colonial marines being created. Neither of which really went anywhere after getting released. The shit they're putting out now is mostly just to hold onto the license like you said with some slim hope that it'll generate enough interest to do something further to make some money, which it won't. Just like covenant screwed the pooch.
The most beloved entries in the series are the video games from 1999 and 2001. Both still have quite a loyal following of players and modders. If the mouse wants to renew interest in the franchise, they should consider contracting video game remakes of these titles, or develop a film/miniseries adaptation of them.
Aliens had its time and the franchise is best left as it is, much like the old romero style zombie movies, ninja turtles, the from dusk till dawn franchise and even star trek is starting to head into that direction. Studios seem to have forgotten that franchises aren't meant to go on forever
I’m concerned Disney is going to whittle away at Alien in a manner they did with Star Wars: endless sequels and half-assed adaptations until Alien is little more than a corpse drained of its vitality and potential. I feel we may already be halfway there.
 
This series is dead. It had the opportuniy to expand and go further than dark corridors and jumpscares after the release of Prometheus (despite its flaws). Then with the release of Covenant they went back to the stale and tired formula, as a half assed apology to the very shallow criticism thrown at Prometheus. Covenant had the potential to be a really good movie and they blew it.

Now with Romulus we get the same old dark corridor running and jumpscares, again.
Its the Star Wars problem; an entire galaxy with endless things to see but all you get is Tatooine and Xwings.
Put it to bed already.
 
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Though speaking of Director, I’m curious to see how an Alien movie without Ridley Scott will play out. Imagine failing so hard at creating good films the past decade that fans are nonchalant about the franchise’s creator not getting involved. Ouch.
To be fair, Aliens came after Alien and Ridley Scott had no involvement with that one, nor Alien 3, Alien Resurrection, or the crossovers with the Predator movies.

So it depends on whose directing.

Ridley's only involvement in Romulus is a producer so who knows if he tries to put something in it.
 
To be fair, Aliens came after Alien and Ridley Scott had no involvement with that one, nor Alien 3, Alien Resurrection, or the crossovers with the Predator movies.
Oop, I forgot that Scott wasn’t involved with Aliens. Didn’t know about Alien 3 and Resurrection though. :informative:
 
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