They're Remaking 'Alien' -- the 'Prometheus' thread

Meanwhile, Jeunet/Whedon's take was pretty much "Whedon meets French science fiction" which means it either needs to have fart jokes, take itself way too seriously, or both.

Fincher was pretty much screwed from the start

when did jeunet become a stand-in for all french sci-fi?

I was kind of generalizing to the few I've seen? Not necessarily just Jeunet

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:French_science_fiction_films

I've seen more than I thought! I think there are a few Quebec films in here, but French language regardless

the only good part of that movie was the chick that drowned

― the late great, Monday, March 19, 2012 3:14 PM (1 hour ago)

whiney?

Alien Resurrection is pretty funny if you imagine that the Winona android was based on Amelie

nah, i said the chick, not the drowning

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZtlBkGfig4

I had a Hollywood insider friend in college, and I remember him leaking the Alien 4 script to me. I read it over, and I was like, no fucking way. Same thing happened when he showed me the script to "A Life Less Ordinary," and I thought, no one way is this the follow-up to "Trainspotting."

ironic, because danny boyle was attached to direct Alien Resurrection at one point

Had a shot at being better with him attached, imo.

yeah, it was kinda funny seeing how he grafted on a horror subplot to Sunshine. Total "damn I should've taken Alien IV" syndrome

The horror plot is kind of ehhh but Sunshine was pretty awesome cast and visual-wise

yeah, it was a beautiful not-very-good movie.

Alien Resurrection can't even say that for itself. It's just ugly and stupid all the way through.

I'm not very trustworthy though, I watched Pandorum a couple times when it was on starz.

I've waxed about Sunshine elsewhere on ilx, but to sum up: I've made my peace with the third act and I'm glad it's the way it is.

Best parts of Alien Resurrection:

- Ripley clones, including the one who is a main character being "born" and the creepy botched ones
- When Ripley seems especially non-human/cold at the beginning, bleeds acid, and Weaver has a way with motion that really projects something creepy, that she's not human
- The aliens killing one of their own to unleash enough acid to escape, after they've learned about the punishment button from creepy scientist dude
- Total horror of the people revived from stasis only to have the first thing they see be a facehugger

The army, Dan Hedaya, mercenary bits are all... not so hot. The "sheeee's giving birth for YOU, Ripley!" part is trying too hard for body horror and it's not quite there

um now I'm back to thinking about Prometheus

i love brad dourif

is alien 4 the one where they play basketball?

yup

The basketball scene is... some of the best and worst elements of the movie meeting

I really hated how dumbed down the aliens were in that movie. They look like slimy velociraptors. And the movie's so brown that in some shots they look like piles of shit with teeth. There's some really ugly cinematography in that movie.

I mean, it's a space monster movie, this shit's important

I caught a bit of alien 4 when it was on TV - breaks the rule of not showing the monster too much, right?

They also infamously tried to lock out the original writer, Dan O'Bannon, from getting credit.

Ah, well, fuck them, then.

The only shitty thing about the Alien series as far as I'm concerned is a coke-addled James Cameron going on a "they killed Newt / I will never forgive them" tirade. A1 is awesome, A2-4 are almost all equally watchable.

Oh, the part in A4 when the baby hybrid shows up was bad. xp

A2-4 are almost all equally watchable.

no

Although when I saw the movie in the theatre, the projector cinched up right at the moment of the big (crap) reveal, the light burnt the film and the movie ended. We got free passes to the next showing. It was a way better ending than Jeunet's xp

Wm Gibson did a draft of the Alien3 screenplay, iirc

The aliens killing one of their own to unleash enough acid to escape, after they've learned about the punishment button from creepy scientist dude

that part is awesome

the alien baby hybrid getting killed by mama ripley was ... sad :-(

Yeah that's crazy. A2>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>A3>>>>>>>>>>>insert vastness of space where no one can you scream>>>>>>>>>>>A4

was there anybody NOT involved with A3 iirc

tila tequila

I dunno, the A2>A3>A4 thing is popular consensus but I basically feel like Jeunet>Fincher>everybody>Cameron so whatever

i mean i've always sorta felt like 2 and 3 were just sorta "here is the Alien story, with a slightly different (action! apocalyptic!) angle on it

4 was like HI ITS THE 90S

i think the jeunet 4 is kinda good, idk. it's a cable staple now, nobody gives a fuck about 3 anymore

3 is awesome

i really gotta go watch all of them again, if i can (i've seen 1 & 2 so many times)

watched predator last night btw, à cause de l'action poll. fuck that is a terrific movie. only real flaw is that shot of the predator walking off while arnie is first caked in mud, he just looks wayyy too much like a dude skipping through the forest

i think the jeunet 4 is kinda good, idk. it's a cable staple now, nobody gives a fuck about 3 anymore

and the pupil becomes the master

"cable staples" could be a pretty good movie thread

should be stratified by era imo

James Cameron going on a "they killed Newt / I will never forgive them" tirade.

you act like cameron is the only guy who thought that sucked

i mean i've always sorta felt like 2 and 3 were just sorta "here is the Alien story, with a slightly different (action! apocalyptic!) angle on it

4 was like HI ITS THE 90S

― BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, Monday, March 19, 2012 10:23 PM (9 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

otm

i think alien 3's actually pretty good.

This is how it goes:

Alien: Fantastic
Aliens: Sequel perfection--everything is "bigger/louder/more", but done intelligently and with beautiful design work that fits with and expands the world/universe glimpsed in the first film
Alien3: interesting ideas, hopelessly compromised production, flawed but surprisingly good film (especially the not-really-director's-cut)
Alien Resurrection: get that shit away from me, made me hate Joss Whedon and his idiot fans ever since

exactly^

another thing i've noticed: Alien Resurrection and Deep Blue Sea are virtually the same movie

ALIEN is straight up a great (creeping terror haunted house let's take a B movie and make it A+) film. ALIENS is mostly bollocks and way too blue. Smaller/quieter/less is exactly what made ALIEN work. Shit give me just Tom Skerritt talking to Mother over all of ALIENS.

u mad

I feel like Aliens is a great film but as far as the actual premise of the aliens being this insidious thing in the shadows, thinking of nothing else:
1 > 3> 2 > 4

3 screwed up by showing the alien ripping up people in the hallways too many times in the run up to the ending, but ehhh

Aliens also gave us the whole egg-laying thing!