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[Tobor]

Alien is objectively the better movie. It's not debatable. Personal favorite, or a more subjective take, that's certainly debatable.

 

[Insane Metal]

Can't we just agree that both Alien and Aliens are awesome movies, each one with its particularities?

 

[Kraftwerk]

Alien is objectively the better movie. It's not debatable. Personal favorite, or a more subjective take, that's certainly debatable.

Everything is subjective and debatable.

Now, let us discuss why Alien Resurrection is the superior of all films, since it deals with the perils of motherhood and a child growing up in a hostile world.

 

[Insane Metal]

I saw this there:

Spoiler

a bird fetus or an adult bird in a bio-capsule... it looks like some sort of Chicken to be honest!

Also, about the barrels,

Spoiler

see picture above, not all of them are big, there are some smaller ones among them...

Any comments about this?

 

[Woz]

Red laser:

Blue laser:

Always thought that the blue mist in Alien didn't aged well, maybe Scott found a way to give it a new meaning?

 

[JB1981]

I enoyed Aliens, but cmon. It is a dudebro movie with action and (some) suspense.

Alien is all about the tension, horror and pacing. It is completely at another level of awesome.

Yea man, just straight dudebro. The Gears of War of Alien movies.

 

[Funky Papa]

Any comments about this?

The first conceptual form of the xenomorphs was bird like.

It may be a nod to the original design, but nothing else. Who knows.

 

[brandonh83]

Can't we just agree that both Alien and Aliens are awesome movies, each one with its particularities?

That'd be a very difficult thing to disagree with. Aliens was a lot more action driven but it still felt like a horror movie to me. It had its moments, like when they're asleep and Reiser lets the facehugger go in their room. That, and there is a lot of slow build before the shit hits the fan. So yeah I don't get why people have to be all like "prruuwwuuuu Aliens isn't as good because there's more action," it's still one of the best sci-fi movies ever with great characters, great action, set design, music, etc.

I have a friend who doesn't like Aliens at all because of the first one, but every time I ask him why I get nothing more than stuttered, disjointed responses. They're both awesome.

 

[Betta Lines]

I have a problem with most MPEG4 trailers... I don't seem to be getting the full contrast on my monitor. So the blacks are clearly grey - if I run them fullscreen, the black bars creating the letterbox are black, but when a scene fades to black, it never blends into the black bars - it's always grey.

I use Quicktime Alternative to download the Apple trailers, and then run then in Media Player Classic or VLC.

I can see there is nothing wrong with the files, because if I play the same trailers on my iPad, I get full contrast. I've been looking around for setting in both media players, but I'm stuck... any ideas?

 

[Risette]

I have a problem with most MPEG4 trailers... I don't seem to be getting the full contrast on my monitor. So the blacks are clearly grey - if I run them fullscreen, the black bars creating the letterbox are black, but when a scene fades to black, it never blends into the black bars - it's always grey.

I use Quicktime Alternative to download the Apple trailers, and then run then in Media Player Classic or VLC.

I can see there is nothing wrong with the files, because if I play the same trailers on my iPad, I get full contrast. I've been looking around for setting in both media players, but I'm stuck... any ideas?

Try this in MPC

 

[The Librarian]

For a while I held the opinion that Aliens was better than Alien, but I watched the two movies recently and my opinion changed. Alien > Aliens. Actually, I didn't like Aliens that much on my second time watching it. Hm. I'll obviously be watching both movies again soon, though.

 

[Mortrialus]

This trailer was glorious. I am officially hyped. It also made me sit down and rewatch the original Alien. Great movie. My only real complaint is that we didn't get to spend enough time on the alien ship. I loved the way it looked. I wouldn't have minded an entire movie in that setting.

 

[Betta Lines]

Try this in MPC

Oooh. The Media Player Classic that comes with Quicktime Alternative doesn't have Renderer Settings in the menu. I downloaded a separate version and it works great! Thanks

 

[andycapps]

Trailer Breakdown by Empire
http://www.empireonline.com/features/prometheus-trailer-breakdown/

Pretty good breakdown. I disagree with their conclusion on one thing. I think that this guy..

Is this same guy jumping on the crew member.. He does seem to be a (former?) crew member. Face seems to be mutated or mutilated. Looking a little closer at it, it looks like he may have a mohawk. Maybe he really is that guy that has shown up in some leaked pictures with the burnt uniform in the back (maybe from acid?).

 

[Tom_Cody]

So I was reading about Prometheus mythology on wikipedia and ...

Spoiler

In Greek mythology, Prometheus (Greek Προμηθεύς, "forethought")[1] is a Titan, the son of Iapetus and Themis, and brother to Atlas, Epimetheus and Menoetius. He was a champion of mankind, known for his wily intelligence, who stole fire from Zeus and gave it to mortals.[2] Zeus then punished him for his crime by having him bound to a rock while a great eagle ate his liver every day only to have it grow back to be eaten again the next day.

This sounds eerily familiar to that leaked script that was supposedly debunked. A few words jump out at me here. Lets play pretend for fun ok?

Spoiler

So Prometheus is the movie title, also the name of the ship in the film .. we know that already. But lets pretend its also a lose easter egg thats been hinting at the plot the entire time? So "Prometheus" isn't a person in the movie, its the crew acting as the role of Prometheus in Greek mythology. Humans were created long ago by the Space Jockeys and we are their children.. they are by definition our gods. The Space Jockeys uncover humanity's wily intelligence, in that we have ventured into space and found them. The crew (Prometheus) steals their fire (bio tech), and the Space Jockey's (Zeus) unleash their Xenomorph (Bird) to punish them.

From here the Prometheus script does what it pleases, and some turn of events allows the wily humans to turn the xenomorph against Space Jockeys and barely escape. We see the Space Jockey ship in the Prometheus trailer, and we see something crash. Prometheus and Alien are tied together via the Space Jockey ship, and loose ties to xenomorph introduced late in the film. Somehow a Space Jockey gets impregnated by a face hugger and after coming to, decides to unleash its wrath on Earth. The movie is taking place at LV426 at this point. The humans are on the planet, the Space Jocket flee's to the ship, takes off.. gets nearly in orbit when the chest burster scene happens. The ship comes crashing back towards to LV426. The humans have survived, they escaped the SJ and its xenomorph pets.

Lastly there are some hints that the chest burster from the Space Jockey is the queen who later lays eggs on the crashed ship for the crew in Alien and colonists in Aliens later find. Her size and intelligence (to use an elevator for example) is explained by her mixed DNA with a Space Jockey. The movie ends with a panned camera angle of the crashed ship, even further out to LV426 and lastly harrowing .. pronounced and familiar beeping a warning beacon earlier activated by one of the humans on the ship. End

That of course leads right into the Nostromo picking up the warning beacon some 50 years later at the beginning on Alien.

Thats my guess.

I think most of what you are saying is plausible, but I think your thoughts on the ending are fundamentally wrong. Your mistake is in thinking that they want to tie up every loose end. That is precisely what they aren't going to do. Fox wants sequels.

Take Lost (also written by Damon Lindelof) for example. A general formula existed throughout the series: present something mysterious and interesting--> pull back the curtain a bit--> original mystery is sort of answered but multiple additional mysteries are revealed. For example:

A hatch is found on the jungle floor. What's in the hatch?! --> Desmond is in the hatch and he needs to press a button and the hatch was built by the Dharma Initiative--> Who is Desmond, why does the button need to be pressed, who is the Dharma Initiative and what are their motives? And so on and so forth.

Similar to the hatch, the mystery of the space jockey and the xenomorphs provide the foundation of this film, from which they are branching outwards. There is no way that this is going to end by simply leading into the first film. That would be the most boring franchise-crushing thing they could do. For fucks sake, we already know that the Space Jockeys are going to be presented as an ancient race of aliens that tampered with our evolution. I personally want to know more about that. Why would they go that bold and then snuff it all out by simply setting the stage for a bunch of space truckers to get massacred. The ending of this is going to have massive humanity altering implications, and the inevitable sequels will expand from there.

The real question is not "how does this link into the first film", but instead the real question is: what mind-blowing mythology will they present that will form the foundation for the sequels?

 

[SpeedingUptoStop]

I think most of what you are saying is plausible, but I think your thoughts on the ending are fundamentally wrong. Your mistake is in thinking that they want to tie up every loose end. That is precisely what they aren't going to do. Fox wants sequels.

Take Lost (also written by Damon Lindelof) for example. A general formula existed throughout the series: present something mysterious and interesting--> pull back the curtain a bit--> original mystery is sort of answered but multiple additional mysteries are revealed. For example:

A hatch is found on the jungle floor. What's in the hatch?! --> Desmond is in the hatch and he needs to press a button and the hatch was built by the Dharma Initiative--> Who is Desmond, why does the button need to be pressed, who is the Dharma Initiative and what are their motives? And so on and so forth.

Similar to the hatch, the mystery of the space jockey and the xenomorphs provide the foundation of this film, from which they are branching outwards. There is no way that this is going to end by simply leading into the first film. That would be the most boring franchise-crushing thing they could do. For fucks sake, we already know that the Space Jockeys are going to be presented as an ancient race of aliens that tampered with our evolution. I personally want to know more about that. Why would they go that bold and then snuff it all out by simply setting the stage for a bunch of space truckers to get massacred. The ending of this is going to have massive humanity altering implications, and the inevitable sequels will expand from there.

The real question is not "how does this link into the first film", but instead the real question is: what mind-blowing mythology will they present that will form the foundation for the sequels?

Yep, I can fuck with this.

 

[The Librarian]

I think most of what you are saying is plausible, but I think your thoughts on the ending are fundamentally wrong. Your mistake is in thinking that they want to tie up every loose end. That is precisely what they aren't going to do. Fox wants sequels.

Take Lost (also written by Damon Lindelof) for example. A general formula existed throughout the series: present something mysterious and interesting--> pull back the curtain a bit--> original mystery is sort of answered but multiple additional mysteries are revealed. For example:

A hatch is found on the jungle floor. What's in the hatch?! --> Desmond is in the hatch and he needs to press a button and the hatch was built by the Dharma Initiative--> Who is Desmond, why does the button need to be pressed, who is the Dharma Initiative and what are their motives? And so on and so forth.

Similar to the hatch, the mystery of the space jockey and the xenomorphs provide the foundation of this film, from which they are branching outwards. There is no way that this is going to end by simply leading into the first film. That would be the most boring franchise-crushing thing they could do. For fucks sake, we already know that the Space Jockeys are going to be presented as an ancient race of aliens that tampered with our evolution. I personally want to know more about that. Why would they go that bold and then snuff it all out by simply setting the stage for a bunch of space truckers to get massacred. The ending of this is going to have massive humanity altering implications, and the inevitable sequels will expand from there.

The real question is not "how does this link into the first film", but instead the real question is: what mind-blowing mythology will they present that will form the foundation for the sequels?

The script wasn't originally written by Lindelof. He just passed over it.

 

[Woz]

I like that Scott kept the symbolic system used in Alien:

http://propsummit.com/upload/589/semiotic_standard.jpg

 

[Slayven]

Bubble helmets bother me for some reason.

 

[Tom_Cody]

Yep, I can fuck with this.

?

First off, why would you want to fuck with my speculation? That's sort of a strange tone to take.

They are clearly expanding the mythology in an ambitious way and I think it is inarguable that they aren't simply going to end the movie by leading into the original, that would simply make this Alien 0 with no room for sequels.

The script wasn't originally written by Lindelof. He just passed over it.

It's impossible to know how much of an impact he had on the script. All we know is that he was given a co-writer credit. The Lost connection is merely tangential anyway, I merely used that as an example in my broader point that they are going to use this a launching point to expand the mythology of the universe. I can not imagine that this will have a "clean" ending of any sort. Coming out of the theater we are going to have many more unanswered questions than we had going in.

 

[Zeliard]

It was most definitely the use of the word "Fuck". I'm pretty sure the chestburster scene would fly, especially since it is about as bad as the face melting in Raiders.

Heh, the chest-burster scene obviously wouldn't pass. And it doesn't matter. Alien hardly relied on its gore. I question if people hand-wringing over the rating even saw the original Alien. You can absolutely create a similar effect with a PG-13 movie. 99% of that movie was PG-13, merely punctuated by a couple moments of gore.

 

[bodyofanamerican]

?

First off, why would you want to fuck with my speculation? That's sort of a strange tone to take.

They are clearly expanding the mythology in an ambitious way and I think it is inarguable that they aren't simply going to end the movie by leading into the original, that would simply make this Alien 0 with no room for sequels.It's impossible to know how much of an impact he had on the script. All we know is that he was given a co-writer credit. The Lost connection is merely tangential anyway, I merely used that as an example in my broader point that they are going to use this a launching point to expand the mythology of the universe. I can not imagine that this will have a "clean" ending of any sort. Coming out of the theater we are going to have many more unanswered questions than we had going in.

:lol He meant "yep, I can get down with this" or "yep, I'm cool with this".

 

[Zeliard]

Yep, I can fuck with this.

?

First off, why would you want to fuck with my speculation? That's sort of a strange tone to take.

lmao

 

[Tom_Cody]

:lol He meant "yep, I can get down with this" or "yep, I'm cool with this".

lmao

Lol, sorry.

 

[BlueTsunami]

Yep, I can fuck with this.

?

First off, why would you want to fuck with my speculation? That's sort of a strange tone to take.

 

[Zeliard]

I question the notion of sequels, at least coming from Ridley Scott. This seems to be one-and-done for him. Fox will undoubtedly want more movies if this one is very successful, but I don't know that Ridley is necessarily beholden to it. Obviously we have no info on the contract situation but everything Ridley has said in interviews makes it seem like he was only interested in coming back to sci-fi to tell this particular story.

Whether it's a story that takes more than one film to tell remains to be seen, but I would doubt it. I completely expect the ending of Prometheus to lead into the first Alien, and for that to be the only truly concrete plot-related connection between the two franchises.

I don't envision a Prometheus 2 because it looks like this movie is attempting to go with an enormous scope ("the beginning of time" up till the Nostromo) and basically tell the full background story behind the creation of the xenomorphs, and apparently the humans. After that, there wouldn't be much more to tell, as the Alien story we're all familiar with would begin.

 

[Tobor]

I question the notion of sequels, at least coming from Ridley Scott. This seems to be one-and-done for him. Fox will undoubtedly want more movies if this one is very successful, but I don't know that Ridley is necessarily beholden to it. Obviously we have no info on the contract situation but everything Ridley has said in interviews makes it seem like he was only interested in coming back to sci-fi to tell this particular story.

Whether it's a story that takes more than one film to tell remains to be seen, but I would doubt it. I completely expect the ending of Prometheus to lead into the first Alien, and for that to be the only truly concrete plot-related connection between the two franchises.

I don't envision a Prometheus 2 because it looks like this movie is attempting to go with an enormous scope ("the beginning of time" up till the Nostromo) and basically tell the full background story behind the creation of the xenomorphs, and apparently the humans. After that, there wouldn't be much more to tell, as the Alien story we're all familiar with would begin.

Agreed. Won't stop Fox from shoehorning in a sequel anyway, but my expectation is that Prometheus and Alien will bookend each other nicely.

 

[RustyNails]

Prometheus 2 starring Russel Crowe

 

[Stet]

Prometheus 2 starring Russel Crowe

I'll kill you

 

[demosthenes]

I'll kill you

In this life or the next.

 

[Ether_Snake]

Alien was Halloween with an alien, just like Terminator was Halloween with a killer robot from the future. It was basically a slasher movie.

Aliens was a zombie movie.

 

[jett]

Prometheus 2 starring Russel Crowe

I'd watch that. Prometheus 2: Xenomorphic Boogaloo.

 

[Zeliard]

Also worth noting that Ridley Scott has never made a sequel, and also tends to work in a different genre entirely with his subsequent film. Though I'm curious if Ridley Scott is still gonna helm the Forever War adaptation - not to mention the Blade Runner sequel. :>

 

[jett]

Also worth noting that Ridley Scott has never made a sequel, and also tends to work in a different genre entirely with his subsequent film. Though I'm curious if Ridley Scott is still gonna helm the Forever War adaptation - not to mention the Blade Runner sequel. :>

Hannibal is a sequel. He didn't direct the original, obviously, but he has made a sequel.

 

[FStop7]

Bioware for the Prometheus videogame?

................................ /--Embrace the Alien
Have sex with Alien--O
.................................\--Blow Alien's head off with shotgun and steal its child's lunch money

 

[Zeliard]

Hannibal is a sequel. He didn't direct the original, obviously, but he has made a sequel.

A sequel to one of his own films, duh. We're talking about the likelihood of a Prometheus 2 coming from Ridley.

 

[Kinky John]

Interesting aside: the script originally ended with Ripley escaping in the shuttle, but Ridley Scott wanted to add in the scene where she fights the alien at the very end. His plan was for the alien to bite her head off.

Thank fuck we didn't get that ending.

I didn't know that. According to Wikipedia...

Alien originally was to conclude with the destruction of the Nostromo while Ripley escapes in the shuttle Narcissus. However, Ridley Scott conceived of a "fourth act" to the film in which the Alien appears on the shuttle and Ripley is forced to confront it. He pitched the idea to 20th Century Fox and negotiated an increase in the budget to film the scene over several extra days. Scott had wanted the Alien to bite off Ripley's head and then make the final log entry in her voice, but the producers vetoed this idea as they believed that the Alien had to die at the end of the film.

lol

 

[Mortrialus]

I didn't know that. According to Wikipedia...



lol

Executive meddling is not always a bad thing.

 

[alphaNoid]

How can proto-Michelle Rodriguez be one of the best movie characters ever?

Holy shit, perfect response

 

[Anton Sugar]

I didn't know that. According to Wikipedia...



lol

You know, I read that on the Wiki too, but the Alien Anthology making of actually has Scott discussing that it was he who pushed the "it's not over yet" alien sequence in the escape shuttle. He had wanted both Ripley and the alien to have a fight outside of the spacecraft (I think it was something like they were tethered or tangled together in Ripley's cord), but Ripley eventually shoots it with a pistol, gets back inside, then incinerates it. They cut the fight (I don't think they even filmed it), and they wanted to cut the alien stowaway altogether, but Scott fought for it.

I don't know where the Wiki info came from--the source isn't really a source, just lists a name.

 

[Tom_Cody]

I question the notion of sequels, at least coming from Ridley Scott. This seems to be one-and-done for him. Fox will undoubtedly want more movies if this one is very successful, but I don't know that Ridley is necessarily beholden to it. Obviously we have no info on the contract situation but everything Ridley has said in interviews makes it seem like he was only interested in coming back to sci-fi to tell this particular story.

Whether it's a story that takes more than one film to tell remains to be seen, but I would doubt it. I completely expect the ending of Prometheus to lead into the first Alien, and for that to be the only truly concrete plot-related connection between the two franchises.

I don't envision a Prometheus 2 because it looks like this movie is attempting to go with an enormous scope ("the beginning of time" up till the Nostromo) and basically tell the full background story behind the creation of the xenomorphs, and apparently the humans. After that, there wouldn't be much more to tell, as the Alien story we're all familiar with would begin.

Agreed. Won't stop Fox from shoehorning in a sequel anyway, but my expectation is that Prometheus and Alien will bookend each other nicely.

Eh, I can see how Ridley would want to do a self contained movie but I don't believe that Fox would spend so much money on this unless it is meant to set up other films. To be directed by Scott or not.

Also, ending it with a direct set up for the first film would be the most boring thing they could possibly do. Who wants to know the final shot of a movie when they walk into the theater?

 

[Zeliard]

Eh, I can see how Ridley would want to do a self contained movie but I don't believe that Fox would spend so much money on this unless it is meant to set up other films. To be directed by Scott or not.

Also, ending it with a direct set up for the first film would be the most boring thing they could possibly do. Who wants to know the final shot of a movie when they walk into the theater?

Well we're big ol' nerds so we are aware of that sort of thing.

I imagine most people won't make that connection, and if they do something like show the Nostromo at the end of Prometheus to tie it to Alien, many people will probably have no idea what that's meant to represent (unless they take it further and show the people on board, or a similarly obvious visual).

I don't think there's an issue with knowing how it ultimately ends, especially because this story is still rife with mystery. It's not going to hinge on the conclusion, but rather the meat of the content.

 

[Tom_Cody]

Well we're big ol' nerds so we are aware of that sort of thing.

I imagine most people won't make that connection, and if they do something like show the Nostromo at the end of Prometheus to tie it to Alien, many people will probably have no idea what that's meant to represent (unless they take it further and show the people on board, or a similarly obvious visual).

I don't think there's an issue with knowing how it ultimately ends, especially because this story is still rife with mystery. It's not going to hinge on the conclusion, but rather the meat of the content.

At this point I'm not even sure where we agree and disagree. It is going to be fun to continue to speculate about this though.

 

[Brolic Gaoler]

Read the production section of the Wiki page.

No shit, read the posts (and subsequent posts) you're quoting.

 

[How About No]

Fassbender's android character is named David? Heh, so Ridley decided to continue with the naming pattern of androids throughout the series.


Ash -> Bishop -> Call -> David

(This is just according to the Empire article, haven't seen it mentioned anywhere else)

 

[Zeliard]

I'm curious if the David name is a shout-out to A.I., outside of any biblical connotations.

 

[.la1n]

I never considered that thought process but yes if this is a large budget movie, i'm sure the studio expects sequels, ridley involved or not. I am hoping for some tie ins to Alien.

 

[Anton Sugar]

I never considered that thought process but yes if this is a large budget movie, i'm sure the studio expects sequels, ridley involved or not. I am hoping for some tie ins to Alien.

Prometheus Resurrection!

 

[Warm Machine]

Having watched 1/2 of Alien last night I'm convinced it isn't the same ship in Prometheus. I was wrong about the hole in the hull being the one they entered in in Alien. This ship looks like it gets too messed up to be the same one.

That and the planet atmosphere and lighting seems completely different.

Reading interviews with Ridley and crew it seems as though they simply want this to exist in the same universe without a direct link. They seem to feel that the Alien creature shape and style has been done to death and has been made irrelevant due to multiple sequels and AVP films, and want something new for the audience to fear.

Ridley is also pretty convinced that this thing is a bomber that deploys alien eggs on enemy planets to cleanse them.

I have a feeling that the only reason the Nostromo is called to LV426 is due to picking up a similar warning message and that is the only thing the company has to go off of when searching the galaxy for these things.

 

[SilentProtagonist]

Yep, I can fuck with this.

?
First off, why would you want to fuck with my speculation? That's sort of a strange tone to take.

This is probably the funniest exchange I've seen on this forum in long time.