Alien: Covenant/Alien Series thoughts.

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Adamska said:
t's hinted in the novelization that the company managed to detect the transmission from scouting uncharted or recently discovered systems for mineral extraction or colonization or some other means, did know of it as a warning, and then sent the nearest company asset to investigate to stake a claim and see what exactly it was. They then tried to ensure completion of acquisition by inserting a synthetic sleeper. That asset was the Nostromo, which was at Thedus stocking an automated refinery's worth of petrochemicals, and pretty darn close via shipping route to Zeta Reticuli II. This was why Ash replaced their science officer right before launch.

However, my assumption here is that Wey-Yu probably didn't know just how viable this warning was, and that for all we know the Special Order was due to them realizing they had sapient, intelligent alien lifeforms on world. The transmission and its recording was clearly inhuman, which at that time was a BIG deal. Reminder that intelligent alien races like the Arcturians were not discovered yet, so this would be a big goddamn find that could be a big break for a lot of its divisions. So Special Order 937 for all we knew could have been in remarks to taking samples of the alien crew to bring back for study, and it may have been a blanket coverage for any xenotech they found. Ash likely was there to initially at least ensure people like Parker or Brett wouldn't try to duck out or take a lucky dip.

However I tend to assume that the company wasn't fully aware of what the warning specified exactly. I also again am taking the logic that Ash's model tends towards going Rampant and being "twitchy", so his own suppositions may have been biased due to those faults. He may have interpreted the Order and his own contempt for Humanity in a way that meant keep the parasite no matter what, even if his efforts result in failing to bring it to corporate. However even he'd see there'd be useful applications to it based on medical studies on the facehugger.

Don't get me wrong, if the company managed to get an egg or Big Chap into storage, they'd try to exploit the shit out of it. I myself can invent quite a few reasons that are not weapon related for it, and I have in this thread. But I tend to regard this as a mix of fuck-ups and not knowing key info.

But then moron directors and retard audiences just took the dumbest take on this.
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I hope you die from an atomic wedgie, man.
 
Overly Serious said:
They absolutely did. It was a horrible gut-punch after everything those characters had been through in the last one. But it backs up the point that movies don't have to have plot armour over everything. And though most do the biggest issue is how obvious it is in Alien: Earth. A franchise that has historically been very, very good about avoiding it. Plot Armour isn't "this character survives." Plot Armour is "this character survives only because they're important to the plot." And this problem is all over Alien: Earth. It jars horribly with the franchise.
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I genuinely think the reason it pissed people off that bad was because it happens right at the beginning of the movie, so if you just watched Aliens before rolling into 3, that hits all the more, and in a way that makes you rage at how unfair things are. I personally believe that if the deaths were paced out through the film a bit more, then people would've been noticeably more okay with the final results.

Even then, it fits the tone of the film, being a bleak and dark film that has an element of Revelations to it; an apocalyptic feel due to religious elements and the sacrifice for man element. Ironically it nails that religious and christian vibe that Scott really goddamn wanted to do a lot better. And this was made out of a disaster frankenstein of a script with actively hostile and meddling producers who managed to make filming so damn bad that the reason those deaths happen are DUE to their meddling.
Overly Serious said:
It's not. That's the first instance of acid for blood we see in the franchise. It sets the benchmark for what the acid is and isn't capable of. They could have had it not eat through any floor, they could have had it go out the bottom of the ship. If they had done the latter it would have just been another scene of them fixing it and saying "I got that hole patched. It'll do for now." It doesn't matter. What matters is if later instances of the xenomorph bleeding (or not) are consistent with it. They're limited with budget and SFX at the time somewhat - like in the big scene where they come out of the ceiling you can't see rains of acid coming out of the props - but on the whole all first three of the movies do a really good job of maintaining our suspension of disbelief.
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Also I'd like to point out that the crew is actively scared of just that stream of blood potentially causing a hull breach, and were trying to chase it and see what they could do to contain the bleed. They expressed noticeable relief the moment the acid lost most of its strength and tested it to make sure that it wasn't just becoming more viscous. Mainly because it was on the lowest decks at that point it stopped burning.

This was also thought up mainly to counter the argument "why don't the space truckers just shoot or kill the thing?", because if even a bit of acid ate through about two decks worth of floor structure, what do you think a large body blasted apart would do. Heck, the Alien loses an arm in an earlier script and the airlock door it got caught in. That almost killed Ripley, it was originally how Lambert was scripted to die, and it made it so the crew had to figure out a plan faster, since they lose most of their oxygen and gas in the breach.

Also I'll state the acid besides killing Drake injured Hicks twice, since he still got lightly splashed with it the first time leaving the reactor, it destroyed their APC's ability to drive due to running one over, and was responsible for Vasquez being placed into a situation where she could not survive; she lost her leg effectively from the stuff.
Aib Ld said:
I watched a compilation of Xenomorph-only scenes from the show and I hate how the Xenomorph looks so... clean? It lost all of the uncanny bio-mechanical looks, the face and teeth are solid instead of slimy, and so on. It lost all of the alien nature.

People already mentioned the behavior and plot armor, but I want to put mention on a scene where it dramatically moonwalks backwards to a door window like a typical modern monster. The hell?
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I noticed what the issue is; the alien lacks saliva since they're bragging about it being a real effect, and the other issue is the reflectivity of the skin; it lacks that beetle like carapace shine; it's too matte for it to look right. The final results make it way too dry and too much like a suit for it to look right.

Also yeah, that alien kill montage was more like watching Jason Voorhees get to work in a later Friday the 13th film than the stalking and killer parasitoid bug-men that can hide along walls and machinery casually tbh. It's clearly done to get the phone glancers to look up.
BrunoMattei said:
I hope you die from an atomic wedgie, man.
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TRVTH NVKE: Cornbread, dipping birds and Sigourney Weaver's panties are as much of a part of Alien as HR Giger drawing things made entirely out of dicks.
 
I guess this is a first for Hollywood. It's clear that none of the writers in this show are nonces, because the 12 year olds that they write talk like they're actually 6 or 7 not 12. It's pretty obvious they don't ever spend time around children.
 
RollerGator said:
Alien Resurrection was kino and I'm tired of pretending it's not.
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There were certainly some excellent things about it.
  • I like hybrid-Ripley.
  • I like the basketball shot which is still incredible, except for Ron Perlman fucking things up and breaking character before the director says cut, which is why the scene cuts off prematurely. Fucking idiot.
  • I like swimming xenomorphs - very elegant, very cool.
  • Wynona Ryder will never not look good.
  • Brad Douriff will never not be entertaining
  • Michael Wincott's voice which sounds like someone dragging a Louis Cane chair across a Carrara marble floor.
On the downside.
  • Ron Perlman I like less and less as time goes on.
  • The offspring looks bad and worse, the way it gets blown out into Space through the tiny hole is just absurd. The movie is from the era where everybody thought if there's s small hole in an aircraft everything magically gets sucked through it.
  • The fucking Walmart reference, buying out Weyland-Yutani.

We could also perhaps add some culpability to it for the Alien: Earth TV show seeing as the latest episode is ripping off elements from it. On the subject of which...

Episode 4 sadly brings in a few small elements that I actually liked. The red-headed synth woman is the first time any of them have been (almost) convincing to me as a child with her weird fantasy pregnancy, which is the sort of thing a young child might actually do. Timothy Oliphant remains one of the only decent pieces of acting in the show. But his character creates something of a problem. He's not inconsistent with what we see of synthetics like Ash and especially Bishop or David. But given he appears to be smart, creative and willing to challenge his employer on things, it makes you ask why these hybrids are actually that different. The synthetic character is bluntly, already human enough. He solves problems, interacts well with others, asks questions, voices dissent, takes charge. So why the hybrids? You can head-canon reasons but there's not enough in the show.

We also got more stupidity. They double down on how the five corporations rule the Earth after the failure of democratic government. The way Hermit just wanders around the base after being brought there and surprises Boy Cavalier by just walking in places, the crap security, the not very believable way Morrow is befriending one of the kids, the eyeball that takes over animals and people's brains, the faux-intelligence "child genius" who is written the way a midwit thinks a brilliant person would be. The stupidity of growing the alien in her brother's lung for no logical reason and the arbitrariness of bringing his old squad to the island just so they can play an inevitable part in some escape or action sequence later (calling it now). Also, the fucking Rock music.

The chest burster actually looked decent though.
 
Internet War Criminal said:
I guess this is a first for Hollywood. It's clear that none of the writers in this show are nonces, because the 12 year olds that they write talk like they're actually 6 or 7 not 12. It's pretty obvious they don't ever spend time around children.
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OR...they are pedos, and they target young children.
 
So far I'm mixed on the show. By the end I could see myself really liking it or hating it. Some of it comes across as goofy, but at the same time, I'm not sure how you could do the stuff with the kids without it coming across as goofy.

I like a lot of the ideas in the show, but so far I'm not sold on the execution of it.
 
Overly Serious said:
What's different about the director's cut version? I'm not sure right now which one I saw.
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It starts off with a close of what looks like an alien but pulls out to show it's just a random bug inside of a space crane cab with a dude drinking out of a fountain drink who then squishes the bug but it makes a mess so the guy tries wiping off the bug guts.

It's also done very slowly the scene is like 2-3 minutes because it's also the opening credits. Utterly bizarre and wtf.
 
The scene that bothers me the most in Alien: Resurrection is how the captain of the not-Firefly crew following a trail of guns like a joke you'd see in Family Guy leads to his death. For whatever reason that scene constantly annoys me to the point I have stopped a watch or two just to boggle at the stupidity in that moment. I think it's because it also compounds by having one of the military guys join the crew no questions asked; I remember one watch going "wait... when did this fucker join the gang? I don't remember".

It's still far more entertaining than Welcome to Earf is, especially since this is a show about anything but the setting as far as I'm concerned.
 
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I kind of like it so far, though I've forgotten the Aliens lore I used to know from the Aliens moviebook. Alien:Erff is at least as good as Raised By Wolves, another pricey sci-fi series with a showrunner that kept Senile Scott at arm's length. I think this will be an anthology like Fargo, so this is probably the only season that'll feature these OP hybrids. At least it avoids doing the obnoxious memberberries of Romulus.
 
Adamska said:
The scene that bothers me the most in Alien: Resurrection is how the captain of the not-Firefly crew following a trail of guns like a joke you'd see in Family Guy leads to his death.
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You just had to remind me that Joss Whedon originally wrote that crap.
 
I am so glad I didn't get into this fucking show. I didn't even need spoilers. The thumbnails from youtubers discussing the last episode were enough for me.

EDIT: Example
Screenshot 2025-08-31 154912.webp
 
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