- Joined
- Apr 3, 2014
I have been thinking about the two Alien prequels over the past few days. A:C has been out for a few months now, and all signs point to Ridley Scott wanting to make another, even though A:C seems to have largely flopped.
Unfortunately as an Aliens fan, hese two movies have committed the two most cardinal sins that one could commit for this franchise: Explaining the Alien and explaining the Space Jockey. And most unfortunately, it seems that because it's Ridley Scott and that he had used M. Fassbender for David, fans on several Aliens forums practically lick the man's butt even though it really destroys the alienness of the Alien and makes the universe seem far too small by making the Engineers be the creators of mankind.
What had made the Aliens universe work at it's core was that outer space was cold and unfeeling, that it could kill you in a second if you did something stupid. It could spawn organisms like the Alien that evolved to survive and thrive in this lethal environment, an opportunistic creature that had escaped it's home planet eons ago that had spread by hitch-hiking on space ships and infesting colonies, and that had evolved deterrents severe enough to prevent any determined space-farer from hurting or killing it before it completed it's life-cycle (like acidic blood.)
The elephantine Space Jockeys were similar. What made them intriguing was that they were not human or related to humans, they were simply another Alien creature that existed in the cold black heart of space, a race of space-faring beings that could easily be as mysterious and Other as the Aliens. They seemed to be an H. R Giger creation heavily reminiscent of Ganesh, and their language (from the Derelict's recording) didn't even seem to consist of phenomes that any normal human throat could easily replicate. The one sitting in the ship seemed so old that it had started to petrify, the skull and the body possibly fusing to the chair, with even the 'trunk,' skin and other things slowly turning to hard mineralized flesh. As what could be seen, it clearly had been unlucky. It might have picked up a 'passenger' from some woebegone colony of it's race and implanted, or had been careless with containment and a specimen it was studying escaping. Whatever happened, it had apparently lived long enough to crash land on a dead moon and set off a warning beacon, warning others of it's kind away before dying painfully and alone from a chestburster.
However, Ridley Scott changed all of this. Instead of leaving both these creatures alien, he made them related to us. The 'Engineers' as they were now called, were mankind's creators, pale (very human-like) bald white beings seeding Earth with their DNA to make humans. David using the Engineers' black mutagenic goo on humans, gradually breeding a creature to eventually use against humans, eventually creating the familiar Alien, rather then it being a naturally occurring creature.
It seems that to me, Ridley Scott is not helping his own franchise that he helped create. Rather then trying to step back into the Aliens universe by trying to tie Prometheus and it's David character into it, he should have had Prometheus be a wholly different franchise and that way he wouldn't have Fox (or Aliens fans) dictating to him and he could do what he wanted. He had stated himself that he considered the Alien creature 'over-cooked,' and it is known that he really wanted to do stuff with his character David, why would he attempt a bad merge that only served to potentially undermine both franchises simultaneously? He tried to 'make deep' what is simply a haunted house movie in space, and inadvertently made his David character into a creator's pet.
So, what do you think? Am I wrong, and Ridley Scoot is a genius that improved this franchise, or do you feel that he has overstepped himself, and should have left well enough alone?
Note: He is considering making one to two more sequels to Aliens: Covenant, in attempt to eventually 'tie' these movies to the original Alien.
Unfortunately as an Aliens fan, hese two movies have committed the two most cardinal sins that one could commit for this franchise: Explaining the Alien and explaining the Space Jockey. And most unfortunately, it seems that because it's Ridley Scott and that he had used M. Fassbender for David, fans on several Aliens forums practically lick the man's butt even though it really destroys the alienness of the Alien and makes the universe seem far too small by making the Engineers be the creators of mankind.
What had made the Aliens universe work at it's core was that outer space was cold and unfeeling, that it could kill you in a second if you did something stupid. It could spawn organisms like the Alien that evolved to survive and thrive in this lethal environment, an opportunistic creature that had escaped it's home planet eons ago that had spread by hitch-hiking on space ships and infesting colonies, and that had evolved deterrents severe enough to prevent any determined space-farer from hurting or killing it before it completed it's life-cycle (like acidic blood.)
The elephantine Space Jockeys were similar. What made them intriguing was that they were not human or related to humans, they were simply another Alien creature that existed in the cold black heart of space, a race of space-faring beings that could easily be as mysterious and Other as the Aliens. They seemed to be an H. R Giger creation heavily reminiscent of Ganesh, and their language (from the Derelict's recording) didn't even seem to consist of phenomes that any normal human throat could easily replicate. The one sitting in the ship seemed so old that it had started to petrify, the skull and the body possibly fusing to the chair, with even the 'trunk,' skin and other things slowly turning to hard mineralized flesh. As what could be seen, it clearly had been unlucky. It might have picked up a 'passenger' from some woebegone colony of it's race and implanted, or had been careless with containment and a specimen it was studying escaping. Whatever happened, it had apparently lived long enough to crash land on a dead moon and set off a warning beacon, warning others of it's kind away before dying painfully and alone from a chestburster.
However, Ridley Scott changed all of this. Instead of leaving both these creatures alien, he made them related to us. The 'Engineers' as they were now called, were mankind's creators, pale (very human-like) bald white beings seeding Earth with their DNA to make humans. David using the Engineers' black mutagenic goo on humans, gradually breeding a creature to eventually use against humans, eventually creating the familiar Alien, rather then it being a naturally occurring creature.
It seems that to me, Ridley Scott is not helping his own franchise that he helped create. Rather then trying to step back into the Aliens universe by trying to tie Prometheus and it's David character into it, he should have had Prometheus be a wholly different franchise and that way he wouldn't have Fox (or Aliens fans) dictating to him and he could do what he wanted. He had stated himself that he considered the Alien creature 'over-cooked,' and it is known that he really wanted to do stuff with his character David, why would he attempt a bad merge that only served to potentially undermine both franchises simultaneously? He tried to 'make deep' what is simply a haunted house movie in space, and inadvertently made his David character into a creator's pet.
So, what do you think? Am I wrong, and Ridley Scoot is a genius that improved this franchise, or do you feel that he has overstepped himself, and should have left well enough alone?
Note: He is considering making one to two more sequels to Aliens: Covenant, in attempt to eventually 'tie' these movies to the original Alien.
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