Yeah that was the moment.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Monday, 15 May 2017 18:55 (six years ago) link
fwiw Vanity Fair preferred Life over this
http://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2017/03/life-jake-gyllenhaal-daniel-espinosa-reviewhttp://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2017/05/alien-covenant-review-ridley-scott
― Sherman's Shermits (S-), Wednesday, 17 May 2017 03:59 (six years ago) link
yeeesh
― Yoni Loves Chocha (VegemiteGrrl), Wednesday, 17 May 2017 04:03 (six years ago) link
I also prefer having a life over this
― The Remoans of the May (Noodle Vague), Wednesday, 17 May 2017 07:26 (six years ago) link
how would you know
― mh, Wednesday, 17 May 2017 13:41 (six years ago) link
:)
:D
― The Remoans of the May (Noodle Vague), Wednesday, 17 May 2017 15:23 (six years ago) link
Matt Zoller Seitz gave it four stars on Ebert's site, Ignaty gave it a B+ on AVClub.
i'm willing to give this a chance, i often don't agree w/the conventional wisdom on movies like this.
― nomar, Wednesday, 17 May 2017 16:16 (six years ago) link
Seitz is about one notch above Peter Travers; the motherfucker likes everything.
― Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, Jr, and Violent J (誤訳侮辱), Wednesday, 17 May 2017 17:42 (six years ago) link
The warning signs are too blatant (not least its red-flag predecessor) and the criticisms too specific and consistent for me to buy that this movie is secretly good.
― Josh in Chicago, Wednesday, 17 May 2017 18:40 (six years ago) link
it's such an awesome secret that you won't actually no how awesome it was until the NEXT sequel comes out and you go see that too
― Οὖτις, Wednesday, 17 May 2017 18:45 (six years ago) link
Has there ever been a backwards series of sequels where each movie takes place before the last one?
― Josh in Chicago, Wednesday, 17 May 2017 18:59 (six years ago) link
Indiana Jones, if you don't count the fourth one
― PressAnarchyToContinue (Ste), Wednesday, 17 May 2017 20:26 (six years ago) link
oh, damn the third one wasn't set first. nevermind
― PressAnarchyToContinue (Ste), Wednesday, 17 May 2017 20:27 (six years ago) link
The Conjouring series does this, doesn't it? Also didn't Paranormal Activity go this route for a while?
― PJD PDJ DPJ (DJP), Wednesday, 17 May 2017 20:36 (six years ago) link
Hmm, I know the second takes place before the first, but the third follows the second. So second is just a standard prequel.
― Josh in Chicago, Wednesday, 17 May 2017 20:43 (six years ago) link
Technically each Back to the Future installment takes place before the last one. But they also take place after.
― Josh in Chicago, Wednesday, 17 May 2017 20:44 (six years ago) link
Rep. Mike Simpson (R-Idaho): “What I’m worried about is, in the early 1970s, politicians like me were standing around saying, ‘Nixon’s okay, he didn’t do anything,’ and look what it led to,” he said. “And every day there is something that adds on to it.”
Genuinely shocked at level of reflectiveness here tbh
― Οὖτις, Wednesday, 17 May 2017 20:49 (six years ago) link
Was Nixon an alien host?
― Josh in Chicago, Wednesday, 17 May 2017 20:54 (six years ago) link
lol whoops
― Οὖτις, Wednesday, 17 May 2017 20:55 (six years ago) link
“What I’m worried about is, in the late 1970s, people like me were standing around saying, ‘Scott’s okay, he didn’t do anything bad with Alien,’ and look what it led to,” he said. “And every day there is something that adds on to it.”
― nomar, Wednesday, 17 May 2017 21:13 (six years ago) link
hahaha
― ﴿→ ☺ (Doctor Casino), Wednesday, 17 May 2017 21:49 (six years ago) link
Lol bump accidental set spike
― Charles "Butt" Stanton (Neanderthal), Wednesday, 17 May 2017 23:56 (six years ago) link
Left the house intending to see Colossal, was too late, couldn't bear the thought of going back out in the heat so I saw this instead. Whoof. Oddly I think it managed to be better than Prometheus in a great variety of ways while still having most of the same flaws, in many cases having them much worse (especially w/r/t the characters all being morons). It basically kind of pissed me off but I can't say I didn't deserve it - fool me once, etc. etc. I will say I was not expecting callbacks to Alien3, so that at least was some kind of surprise.
I don't think this deserves its own spoiler thread, but I don't want to spoil anything here. How much longer do we normally give these things?
― ﴿→ ☺ (Doctor Casino), Saturday, 20 May 2017 00:24 (six years ago) link
It's inconceivable that the characters in this can be dumber than those in Prometheus, with its map makers getting long and that idiot petting the space parasite like it's a puppy.
― Josh in Chicago, Saturday, 20 May 2017 00:40 (six years ago) link
it's more diffuse - only one or two actions are quite as dumb as that, but everybody is operating with a generalized dumbness from the word go. the entire reason they are in the situation at all is dumb and the situation chiefly escalates because of further dumb decisions. and, this is as spoiley as i'll go, one character goes full Lambert within the first four seconds of anything remotely stressful happening and it all goes to shit from there and it's like, man, where do they keep finding these crackerjack crews for critical space missions?
― ﴿→ ☺ (Doctor Casino), Saturday, 20 May 2017 00:42 (six years ago) link
a coupla white robots sitting around playing the flute. is what they should have called it.
― scott seward, Saturday, 20 May 2017 02:19 (six years ago) link
"It's inconceivable that the characters in this can be dumber than those in Prometheus..."
you wrong!
― scott seward, Saturday, 20 May 2017 02:20 (six years ago) link
it's pretty quick though. and some great visuals.
― scott seward, Saturday, 20 May 2017 02:21 (six years ago) link
Do ppl get ate
― Charles "Butt" Stanton (Neanderthal), Saturday, 20 May 2017 02:25 (six years ago) link
it's mostly ate.
― scott seward, Saturday, 20 May 2017 02:45 (six years ago) link
it's mostly blood and fassbender. which also would have been a good title. you gotta be down with the fassbender. could have been a one man show on broadway. with flutes.
― scott seward, Saturday, 20 May 2017 02:49 (six years ago) link
on the plus side, you don't have to care about anyone if caring isn't your thing. they are all stock horror movie characters with the exception of aryan robot boy.
― scott seward, Saturday, 20 May 2017 03:33 (six years ago) link
Fassbender hams it up like a goddamn champion in this. He OWNS.
It's basically an evil episode of Star Trek or a wacky mad scientist flick stuffed inside a conventional alien movie. It moves way too fast but I liked it.
― Fiddle Catstro (latebloomer), Saturday, 20 May 2017 03:38 (six years ago) link
all the pretty planet and ship stuff really made me wish he could just make a 3 hour pretty planet and ship movie. that stuff was lovingly done and i wish i could have lingered with it longer. it was worth seeing just for that.
― scott seward, Saturday, 20 May 2017 04:13 (six years ago) link
there is one part, the apex of the part where they're climbing the pretty planet (again trying not to spoil anything specific) that is gooorrrgeous and yeah it was like, if these images were married to a really great story and about half as many characters who actually were characters, there would be the potential there for a really spectacular latter-day sci-fi triumph from scott. in practice it's more like pandorumetheus but so it goes.
― ﴿→ ☺ (Doctor Casino), Saturday, 20 May 2017 04:52 (six years ago) link
These characters would be colonists rather than scientists, right? So I'd expect a certain level of dumb.
― Andrew Farrell, Saturday, 20 May 2017 06:03 (six years ago) link
Not this dumb. You land on a previously unknown planet with a rich ecosystem, take no biological or quarantine precautions, and aren't concerned when someone starts to look really sick really quickly? These are Golgofrinchans.
― Mince Pramthwart (James Morrison), Saturday, 20 May 2017 09:26 (six years ago) link
"guys they're only colonists, doesn't matter if we just choose the first couple of dozen idiots that apply"
― The Remoans of the May (Noodle Vague), Saturday, 20 May 2017 09:45 (six years ago) link
This is the type of movie where an evil robot sings opera to himself in the mirror while cutting his hair.
It's not wrong to say that the characters frequently act like idiots in this but it feels kinda beside the point maybe?
― Fiddle Catstro (latebloomer), Saturday, 20 May 2017 10:13 (six years ago) link
Also like, have y'all been watching the news lately at all or
― Fiddle Catstro (latebloomer), Saturday, 20 May 2017 10:25 (six years ago) link
a coupla white robots sitting around playing the flute. is what they should have called it
waiting for podot *awaits erudite applause*
― mark s, Saturday, 20 May 2017 11:19 (six years ago) link
Is it possible... Weaver is the most interesting thing about the movies, the irreplaceable thing that holds them together - not Scott, Cameron, Fincher, or even the alien - and that's why the last two movies are so dire?
I guess that doesn't explain why 3&4 were bad - unless you say they're both deconstructions so we're not getting the "real" Ripley as the first two movies.
Haven't seen the new one. Sounds fucking idiotic, like Prometheus with added torture porn. Also, the first two are FUN!
― Chuck_Tatum, Saturday, 20 May 2017 12:29 (six years ago) link
I guess that doesn't explain why 3&4 were bad
Exactly. She's the best thing about them (well, Winona is good, iirc), but she can't save them. I think her character is great, but the irreplaceable thing about the first two, imo, is the ensemble. Every character is a real character. By three (despite some good characters, tbf) it's mostly fodder, and the ensemble camaraderie of 4 is forced and artificial.
― Josh in Chicago, Saturday, 20 May 2017 12:36 (six years ago) link
i like the grumbly jobsworth britishness of 3 but mileage evidently varies: still wish vincent ward had directed it tho (his concept was that entire planet was built of wood, clearly >>>> than any ridley s idea for 30-odd years)
― mark s, Saturday, 20 May 2017 13:40 (six years ago) link
the soundtrack/score/clanking noises of 3 was my favorite thing about it. so much so that i saw it a second time at the movies and taped it with my tape recorder! but if that's your favorite part of an alien movie...
― scott seward, Saturday, 20 May 2017 13:57 (six years ago) link
here's an interesting thing about Alien(s) i did not know
http://lwlies.com/articles/alien-gender-politics-ellen-ripley-joan-lambert/
― Number None, Saturday, 20 May 2017 13:58 (six years ago) link
JiC is right about ensemble. The casts have grown bigger and bigger and less and less real. Cameron thins his down quickly, Fincher just accepts having a bunch of lookalike background guys, Jeunet aims for a cartoonish vividness for each person (but ends up instead with the first issue of an Image Comics team book), and then Scott's new entries, like Anderson's AvP, become just huge groups of basically faceless young actors who die before you know their names, no matter how long they stick around. The deaths are therefore not very interesting or memorable. (We also learn at one point about some really horrifying atrocities that happened in the past, which if taken seriously kind of dwarf anything the Xenomorphs will accomplish in the other films, but the film doesn't really incorporate this knowledge or treat it with the gravity it deserves, imho.)
The dumbness matters imho - it's distracting when it's clearly just plot mechanics being squeezed through the character's mouths, but it just generally reflects a failure to write them as people who do things for reasons that come out of who they are, how they relate to each other, how they handle situations and conflict. Alien had that in spades - here, though, half the dialogue comes out as "ooh, this looks like a good spot to get separated!" or "listen pal, I am ORDERING you to lead me into that spooky old house!" How many script pages are wasted on people trying to see if they can get a transmission through? Zzzzzzzzz.
― ﴿→ ☺ (Doctor Casino), Saturday, 20 May 2017 14:10 (six years ago) link
it felt quick though. so i didn't get bored. but yeah the amount of cliches...you couldn't count them all. "i have to go take a leak..." i mean that is right out of friday the 13th part 400.
still think it was worth it for stuff like the solar sail. which really did belong in a better and grander film.
― scott seward, Saturday, 20 May 2017 14:34 (six years ago) link
Good point re: ensembles. Is it fair to say that none of the Alien movies since Alien3 are... better than Event Horizon? (Even that iirc had a distinct, if B-list, ensemble.)
― Chuck_Tatum, Saturday, 20 May 2017 14:36 (six years ago) link