As someone who was in their 20s when Prometheus came out, I distinctly remember there was no marketing towards it being in the alien universe. It was literally the moment you see the engineer's ship in the scan that you realize "holy crap this is how it started!" I think that was a good move on their part at the time. After time people just felt it didn't live up to this imaginary hype. The only hype at the time was that this was Scott's "return to the sci fi genre"
The theatrical trailer literally copied the original Alien trailer and had shots of the space jockey. You would have to be VERY disconnected from the series to not know it was an Alien spinoff.
I quite like Prometheus in many ways, but that movie should have never been connected to the Alien franchise, the damage it did and continues to do will infect all future movies until we get a hard reboot. Ridley essentially removed all aliens/extra-terrestrial lifeforms from the franchise (how ironic) with his weak ideas (black goo/ancient aliens) and retcon of the space jockey from a clearly 15ft+ actual alien skeleton, into just a proto-human in a suit.
@@robertallen2109 I watched the original trailer. There was no sign of the space jockey. But there was his ship. But I didn't really recognize it in the quick clip. And the other call back was the way the title was revealed one piece at a time. But at that time the avp movies were so terrible I certainly didn't expect that it would be connected to alien.
I like Prometheus. I knew it did came with some alien reference back then through some trailers. Rumors and articles also said it was the prequel to aliens. It’s different. It was a jump scare film like Alien 1. It wasn’t heavily action packed as Aliens. It was more philosophical in a way. It made think, how did the Engineers find this black goo or make this black goo? The goo seems synthetic not organic. Then also Egineers were drinking this and drying because they were trying to find immortality like Peter Weyland. Towards the end it answered some questions that this wasn’t the engineers homeland. It was used to test this black goo but was it for immortality or was it use as a bio weapon. Left me thinking the engineers were evil towards the end of the film and there idea was to destroy earth. Too and we won’t get the trilogy saga to answer those questions.
I personally don’t recall fans clamoring for an Alien prequel. I was hyped when it was announced, but it was nothing I had pondered prior to that announcement. The character of David should have been saved for a Blade Runner prequel. He’s the best thing about these movies.
How would David fit into the Blade Runner universe though? As far as I know, there are no actual robots/androids in Blade Runner. The artificial lifeforms there are Replicants, which are basically just genetic superhumans. Though I do like to imagine Blade Runner and Alien movies exist in the same universe, it needs to be handled well if there's ever a proper movie that fuses the two franchises. It would be cool to see Tyrell Corp. (replicants) exist in the same movie as Weyland-Yutani (synthetics).
@@stateazure Well we've only seen Blade Runner up until 2049, where as Alien only down until 2092. Something in between could've happened there. Maybe replicants migrated or were massively put down. As long as Ridley doesn't answer it, I think we're safe.
It was better that it was a scary, unknown threat. Alien in the very nature of it. It did not need a backstory, I quite like Prometheus, but I see it as a competent sci-fi movie by lose association. Alien and s a masterpiece
Alien comics in the past 2 decades have been better than the movies when it comes to originality. They are often one-shot stories that understand that strength of the creature is the mystery and...shockingly, being alien. Without over-explaining it. I recommend Aliens: Labyrinth. Its pretty disturbing in ways a big Hollywood production never could be.
The problem is the lack of writers that can direct with a vision and an understanding of how a story can do something new whilst offering new stories, characters, and ideas. But at the same time, keeping it familiar. There are lots of great stories in the comic books that could be converted to some great cinema.
Another solution to this all is to give Weyland-Yutani the Xenomorph. The stories feel the same because the company wants the alien, screws over the cast to get the aliens, and then doesn't get the aliens.
@@796r But we don't see any of that. We see the company find Big Chap and then we skip to the station being in ruins. No experiments on Xenomorphs, just "we experimented on the alien and extracted the black goo off screen." Aside from that, the story still follows the trend of people wanting to escape the station, WY screwing over the cast to get the alien (it's the goo this time), and then WY doesn't get the alien.
I would have loved to see a proper conclusion to the prequels. I’m not saying that everything had to be fully explained. The mystery and unknown are extremely intriguing. However, ending it on that massive cliffhanger, and not expanding on the Engineers at all following Prometheus, was a huge letdown for me personally.
Prometheus has flaws, but I do enjoy it a lot. Shaw and David are compelling characters, and there are some fantastic moments (alien C-Section, Shaw convincing Yannick to stop the engineer ship, etc.)
I don't think that Lindelof and Sir Ridley Scott are trolling us with this movie. There are a lot of unreleased movie scenes about Prometheus and Covenant. I find the decision of the film studios regrettable.
I want the real Prometheus. Not the surface level dumbed down version we got in 2012, the lore heavy and rich version that was originally planned and explored the significance of the engineers and how the weird proto-xeno at the end is basically a biblical event in lore (only to mean absolutely nothing if you only watched the movie)
Are you referring to the whole “blood of the Deacon” plot? If yes, that came from a fake, fan-made script. Both Lindelof and the actual author admitted it. Was an awesome story though. Arguably cooler than anything Lindelof ever considered.
This is my personal take on just experience for myself. please feel free to disagree but..... Audiences don't want risk. They don't want films with a genuine vision. There's a phrase called "studios go where the money is" and that's not just hauntingly true a couple years ago that is still happening TODAY. Why bother being experimental when you can just make the same movie with a new coat of paint. Then when something actually new and creative comes along it gets met with the most vitriol hyperbolic and toxic reaction you can think of. A lot of blame strictly falls on studios cuz yeah they're the ones making the product but that product's quality is determined on how we perceive it at its surface level as an audience. The actual vision of the filmmakers isn't a priority anymore because fans don't feel like they are listened to and we go into this endless cycle of "listen to the audience" I don't know about you but I like it when a filmmaker pisses me off. It means they had their hand on the wheel It means they're saying "NO THIS IS MY MOVIE". Audiences don't encourage that anymore They think "This should be made for me because I was an OG fan" and it doesn't just apply to alien It applies to literally every big blockbuster franchise still getting movies. Star wars Marvel, DC, video game movies now..... The problem is when you boil it down a lack of communication on both ends. I can only hope that changes for the better.
Prometheus strated such a beautiful story. Covenant was brilliant in roll it over. Romulus dropped everything and left lots of us with a cringe smile on our faces. Seems like movie makers stopped to understand lately that people love stories.
Almost every negative you give Romulus you could give to Covenant as well, lol. The ending is literally the ending of 1 and 2 just with an abysmal and boring character Daniels. At least Romulus has tons of incredible practical fx, Rain and Andy, the retro futuristic aesthetic that Ridley completely threw away. Covenant has Fassbender and that's it. Davids whacky science lab and experiments were cool, but they just go right back to an Alien chasing people on a ship, lol, which Romulus does faaaar better. And, yeah, those are Praetomorphs dude, lol... David is basically Frankensteining his way through trying to make a xeno from notes he found on the planet. There's a reason it looks like a skinned Xeno with barely any biomech appearance and is aggressive to a point of it basically being a rabid animal ,and why the eggs look so different (obviously taken from/created from Shaw)
Honestly, I think Prometheus and Covenant are much closer in feel than they are to any other Alien movie. David is more Dr Frankestien in Covenant despite that being invoked in Prometheus favor in this video. Also apart from the name, the biblical theming was also strong in Prometheus. And certainly there was a lot more that Scott has since revealed that the movie failed to even get across. The weakest one of the videos arguments feels is when you charitably and seriously interpret Prometheus themes and then use a sillier or more dismissive voice to describe very similar themes and characters of faith in Covenant, or tacking a comical "Oh no" after summarizing the end scene. Honestly, I think the ending state of both movies is probably the better aspects about them. Covenant can certainly be criticized for squandering Prometheus' and I'm not saying they are equal in quality, but they really don't feel like they are a 180. And I didn't like them dropping Shaw either, but attributing that to an intentional change in direction to be the opposite of Prometheus isn't quite right. The actress was not coming back for the sequel so they basically wrote her out. We don't know the details of the situation but it doesn't seem like it was Scotts choice. They had to write around it. And I get the points being made, but I think a lot of this perception is just hung up on something closer to the classic alien design appearing in Covenant. (Its actually not the same design, technically but whatever). It feels like semantics, and surface level cosmetic changes if you are just going to invent a black goo to make other things turn into murder monsters that functionally serve the same purpose as an Alien but just look different. Or have baffling writing choices to have a highly advanced alien, the engineer they find, on his own ship find no better way to achieve his goals than to switch off dialogue mode and also just turn into a videogame enemy and magnetize towards main characters until they are dead. The Fifield mutant just kills people with unnatural strength and agility. Its completely telegraphed what is happening to him. Its not a surprise or novel in anyway, its basically a trope. Nothing interesting happens in terms of what he mutates to or is capable of now. Just a gross looking murder machine. Doesn't that already describe the Alien? Just without the creative creation process and a more conventional, "touch evil substance, become evil" scenario. And you can consider Shaws giving "birth" scene to be what they viewed to be the chestburster equivalent. The body horror of an nightmarish twist on pregnancy. Except with none of the weight or consequence that those scenes had in the good movies. Kanes scene in the original is obviously iconic and even though its used for a much smaller scenes in Aliens, its used to hammer home how traumatized Ripley is by her previous encounter and how its still affecting her, with a great reaction shot to the colonist chestburster in the hive. Meanwhile Shaw gets a shiny CGI octopus that gets ignored in a closet until the plot needs it to set up another store brand Alien later. She gets her abs sliced open and then just walks off and is then abseiling off the ship record time and off to adventure for answers. I completely understand being tired of the Alien, and feeling like its hard to make something that familiar to us scary. I feel that way too. But if the alternative is a Prometheus style, bland creature visual design and CGI. Posing many questions but having little answers and pretending that was the deep point of the movie, I think I will take at least one greatest hits entry like romulus after so many years of a series wandering in the woods cinematically and making do with other media, like Isolation.
Don't know about 'Alien: Earth" From what Hawley said, it sounds like a GREAT idea for the 'Cyberpunk 20XX' universe. However, if you use the name "Alien", then at some point you expect it to reference the Xenomorph (and all attached info, good or bad). Seeing as this is a Prequel (again, ugh), I don't see how they can work that in, but we'll see if they can do it well or not.
I loved Romulus, but overall I'm with you. I have felt frustrated with the fanbase for their negative reaction to the Xeno lack in Prometheus. I went in not expecting a Xeno, just based on how it was being sold to us. The Deacon was a nice surprise and gave me all the Xeno I needed. I'm still gutted we never got the Paradise Lost film about the Engineer home planet. That concept has so much potential. But the fans' need for the familiar, coupled with Scott's lack of artistic integrity, resulted in Covenant - a half-baked, half-assed attempt to tell an Alien story when it so obviously would rather be telling a Prometheus story. Now we can be sure the franchise will never stray far from the Xeno again. But I do hope they are able to mix up the formula and introduce some more lore to future entries.
The aliens in the first 2 were not only scary but creepy. The way they move, why they dovwhat they do. As much as i love 3 (and i kind of excuse that one because of the nature of the beast) they just turned into killing machines. No mystery intrigue. Thats when the xenomorph changed.
Well, Aliens pretty much did that and turned the xenomorphs into killing machine bugs..still I love that movie and it's a perfect sequel imo. If anything Alien 3 tried to re-capture more the vibe of the original, and it had to since it was a lone xenomorph. Romulus once again made the xenomorphs bugs and pretty much just useless cannon fodder, they were completely ineffective and lame, which killed any chance of that movie being a real horror movie. Too bad, because we know Alvarez could have really nailed it with a single xenomorph, as terrifying and powerful as the original big chap. He could have given us the Alien version of 'Don't Breathe'
At long last! This is the channel and the presentation that I spent the last 5 years searching for! You've dissected the subject matter thoroughly and offered a near perfect, objective, analysis of all the good the bad and the ugly. Personally, I dont hold much hope for the Alien IP, and have resigned myself to the idea that the Alien franchise ended with Alien 3. The rest are just best viewd or watched as their own seperate entities, that they just happen to enhabit, even in such a remote way, the same universe as the Alien's. It speaks to the general current trend towards mediocrity, and the decline in standards that permeates all avenues of life. When authors are encouraged to copy and paste from other works and hardworking creative and original Sci-Fi authors are brushed aside. A movie is only as good as the story / script. IMHO. There was a glimmer of hope in Alien 3, and once again in Alien 5. The former went through horrific mutations until the end result was a catastrophe, and the latter was starved of air so it got suffocated before it could see daylight. Looking forwards to further content on this channel. You hit all the notes perfectly!
I was 14 when Prometheus was released and my dad liked it but HATED the climax with the Engineer he said if it didnt have that itd be great...skip ahead to Romulus and i feel the exact same way
Absolute banger I feel the same about dune, the movie is precious but the point and the colorful story of the books talks about a different, less "realistic", and more relevant world
I enjoyed Romulus a lot, but I agree on its deficiencies, we will never get what we got in the original 2 then why not go the Andor way? You're onto something
I personally love Covenant I think it's the best Alien film I know many will think I'm wrong but that's ok I loved Prometheus as well and the Engineers are my favorite movie alien.
The first movie had a relatable crew and subtlety in visualization and production design, which totally was ignored in every movie thereafter. That is why every sequel devolved into boring monster movies.
The prequels were just terrible. No point intellectualising why, it's self evident upon the first watch. I have never felt the urge to return to them, I prefer to pretend they don't exist. What makes the first and second films so compelling, is the subconscious elements in the set design that mirror and mimic the alien. There's so many decent stories and settings in the comics to choose from. What id like to see is more of the cool futuristic and subconscious set design from the first 2 movies, A higher stakes story like earth war, or even how the Hadley's hope colony got infested or something similar. Real actual space jockeys would be nice, instead of rubber looking humans in half assed suits. To be honest you're right, its passed its sell by date. What we needed was the actual continuation of Ripley Hicks and Newt instead of Alien 3. It's cooked.
There are a lot stories from the Darkhorse comics that would have made decent screen adaptations, and some of them really pushed the boundaries of the alien mythos. I don't know why they keep going in this direction, Personally i wasn't impressed by Romulus. With all that bieng said, i completely agree with you on what they should have done with the prometheus prequels.
I can't thank you enough for putting into words how I feel about Alien Romulus. One of the most boring and disappointing experiences I've had this year. Alien has followed the path of the MCU, or Hollywood in general. Congratulations for such a good video 👏👏👏
Yeah the mister may be over done with all the shitty sequels and AVP mashups that have been made, but it’s an iconic character and needs an iconic story. Ridley Scott making prequels was what no one wanted. They ruined the mystery of the monster and the space jockey and made the character now boring (genetically engineered by a robot with daddy issues). The monster still has relevance and can be done well, but it needs to be taken away from Ridley Scott and his black goo and taken back to its horror roots.
I'd say check out the Alien RPG (they got 3 main books that cover the core game, being a soldier in the universe and being a colonist in the universe) because it leans heavily into fleshing out the world that is not just the alien BUT I also think it leans a bit too heavily into it being a cold war in space setting. UPP are basically the soviet union in space and sometimes the book leans too much into 'look future ak 47 except now its 174!" also silly now never canon trivia, the alien Deacon turns into a mountain, the dark horse alien comics did a series set on the same planet as prometheus but after aliens and it reveals the deacon grew to the size of a mountain and is still alive but just lays there asleep.
Dark Horse writers were a bit whacky, let's be honest. But I did like some of their much earlier stories where we visit the xenomorph homeworld etc, and get to see ACTUAL space jockeys, not the dumb retconned human version engineers that Ridley insisted on. Dark Horse at least had awesome imaginations.
I just got here, the algorithm sent me knowing my propensity and predilection for channels slamming the memberberries aspect to Alien Romulus. I'm only several minutes in before commenting. I was about 13 when Alien³ came out and I'm still hot in the face about killing off Hicks, Newt and Bishop. I'd have liked a modern film to have made the xenomorphs a naturally evolving species instead of a lab experiment and to have explored their home world and its fascinating ecosystems and biology. Imaginations could have run wild. Crickey, imagine if our xenomorphs had been far down the food chain there due to many more, bigger, badder species dominating that planet. I suppose you'd have to have humans crash land there but hey, why not a film set there without a human presence...? I haven't played the games but I hear the films should have incorporated some of their storylines, there's just so much more unique stories already out there to use in plots or pepper in, let alone how about CREATING something new Hollywood...!?
Good video. I’m gonna have to disagree with you assessment of Vickers though. I think the way she’s contrasted with David works really well with the themes of creation, being a biological creation who has an entirely different relationship to her creator than her “brother” I also think it’s contrasted well with Shawn’s relationship with her creator as well. Shaw having never met her creator and seemingly having a better relationship than Vickers.
My idea for a third alien covenant/prometheus movie is as follows: The engineers are the main characters in the movie and comes to the planet that was in the Prometheus movie. There they find Weyland inside the crashed spaceship. They have a blue elixir which they empty all over him and bring him to life. But while doing this the Deacon from the Prometheus movie sneaks into their spaceship and hide it self in one of the ventilation chambers. In the next part they arrive at the planet from alien covenant and find the other robot(Walter) who is david's twin.The engineers use the blue elixir and repairs him. Once awaken the engineers and Weyland get to know all the horrible things that David has done, and weyland says "we have to stop David" . They set course for origae. When they arrive,they scans all the planet,and finds the planet is full of hostile organisms except on a high mountain where they discover that there are humans inside a cave. Inside the cave they meet a herd of children, who tell that when they had lived on the planet for over ten years, they began to be attacked by Xenomorphs and all the adults died or were turned into these creatures. There were also great giants developed by someone the children calls David. The engineers get ready to wipe out all the Xenomorphs that David has created, but the great giants manage to escape with one of the engineers' spaceships. The engineers and Weyland hunts the spaceship and manage to force the spaceship down on the planet lv426.Where it start sending a distress signal. The engineers return to Origae to find David, but discover that he has escaped. In the last part we see David arriving and meeting an unknown alien species on a tropical like planet. At the same time Nostromo leaves a nearby planet with the cargo of ore. But when he and the unknown aliens have left the spaceship,the deacon slips out of the ship and is seen running toward the nearest settlement. And that makes the cliffhanger that ends the third movie. The ending movie could have a duration about five hours ?
I wouldn't get your hopes up for the alien series. I avoided getting too much on the Alien Romulus hype train, I think hearing how they found the original alien floating in space was a red flag. I do however agree that future alien movies/series should concentrate on the gritty nature of workers/colonisers in space. I feel like after the franchise is totally depleted of enthusiam they should do a film to follow Aliens and just say the other films don't exist (Terminator Dark Fate but in a good way). Lets face it, we're all still waiting on the Alien3 we really wanted and never got. There is elements of the other films that are good but they all have massive plot issues (such as kiling of key characters after aliens).
Great video, really like your take on the franchise going forwards, a movie or series of movies looking at the world of Weyland-Yutani and the company's effect on society would be brilliant IMO. I'm hoping that the new series coming out next year will be along those lines. I must admit though, that after having watched some of the reviews, basing an Aliens narrative on social problems and how evil the company is will likely just set off the anti-woke brigade, especially in the US, considering how they dislike any sort of narrative dealing with worker's rights, even to the extent that the planet portrayed in Alien Romulus basically had a population living in indentured servitude. Anyway, we can hope. One possible novelisation worth considering is the Aliens vs Predator Rage War trilogy, which I thought was fantastic.
Bruh, the point of having a sequel is to add to an overarching story, try to catch that lightning in a bottle. Your trying to see continuation, and learn more about the mainstays like the Ripley character. So what would you do that would blaze new trails in this entertainment fueled, multiple sequel way of watching? I haven't even seen the movie, but just hearing your words tells me your highbrow opinion is calling out how these movies haven't done anything different. Again, I haven't seen this, but from what I've read, heard, or watched it's a good vote of confidence moving forward. Personally I like prometheus, covenant so playing of those movies I think this movie is kind of a let's see how this does. Find out footing, and start off in a good direction. It looks like a horror movie, and thats it's roots. That's what made alien what it was.
Romulus was fine , but nowhere near a masterpiece like how people thought it would be.. I noticed the Android characters once again steal the show , and they ironically are the most interesting concept about these films nowadays? Go figure... Prometheus did poorly at the box office and got bad reviews.. So Covenant tried to return to form.. But it also did poorly and got bad reviews.. "Damn if you do , damn if you don't " , is how I would describe the Alien fanbase 😂..
Unlike the majority i liked the whole exploring were we came from and engineers story,prometheus had its issues but i liked it,my problem with the rest of it is how the nex movies kept trying to satisfy the masses rather than just telling its story,it had potential hell even blade runner wasnt a succes when it came out .my issue with this new movie is it has no stakes it feels like a one and done for a one and done movie it packs no weight or quality to stand on its own.
Great video. I'm sure a good Alien movie could be made, just give us decent character's & ramp up the terror & suspense. Sadly with the success of Romulus any sequels will just be more rince and repeat. I feel Andor was Star wars for grown ups, it's such a pity it didn't get the view's, very much looking forward to the 2nd series though.
GREAT VIDEO ! 500% agree with all of your thought . ABout ALIEN:HEARTH , I'm not confident about the originality and ambition of the show . Here is the plot that came to the media : Premise. The film's premise reads: "When a mysterious space vessel crash-lands on Earth, a young woman (Sydney Chandler) and a ragtag group of tactical soldiers make a fateful discovery that puts them face-to-face with the planet's greatest threat". If it's that , i'm all ready done with this shit . I prefer go back to watch the cancelled show , so interesting and underrated :Raised by Wolves ... or babylon 5 ??? ahahah Bab 5 was a GREAT show btw . Thank you !
I just heard you talk about smoking on an alien planet...lol. That's the point! Mankind seeing a planet that seems better than what they're supposed to be traveling to, and blinded by their hubris and making mistakes for the sake of shortening their trip and throw caution to the wind. I hear this same routine all the time, and hearing someone say they're fans of a particular movie or franchise and they couldn't wait for the new movie or whatever medium it may be. They then start the non-stop passive-aggressive review as if their ideas or opinions are law. Why are you watching an alien movie? Why are you excited? Do you want the aliens to start talking? Or flip the script and now your the alien trying to stop mankind from eradicating your species? Lol. I watch a movie called alien expecting an alien movie that has a new twist or another way to get to the good stuff. Nothing crazy.
Love this critique it completely echoes my own thoughts on Romulus as someone who is old enough to have been scared witless by Aliens at 16 on home video, which then prompted me to watch the original I have been consistently let down by all but the first two films. However, all the sequels since Alien 3 up to and including the prequel Prometheus have at least tried to give us something new and expand the mythos. Romulus whilst gorgeously shot and a great performance by Andy, with the exception of the bad throw back line misappropriation is a perfect Frankenstein’s monster that stitched together something from each instalment, even those seen as failures and offered very little new. Apart from a few jump scares I practically knew what was going to happen and left feeling underwhelmed. I didn’t feel any real empathy for any of the characters other than Andy. Every shot that echoed iconic Ripley scenes underscored how much less of a great actor Rain was in comparison, I’d even go so far to say she pales against the supporting characters of the first two films. I think if someone hasn’t seen any of the alien movies it would serve as an interesting movie, but as someone who experienced the visceral horror of not knowing anything about the franchise on first watching Aliens, it’s a bitter pill to swallow
Ridley said the beast is done, but he was wrong and didn't understand what the fans really wanted. Some people might be bored with the xenomorph, but many of us aren't and we just want more really good films on par with Alien and Aliens. But Ridley had to keep trying to come up with different (and in his mind better/scarier) designs, that always fell short of the original xenomorph, and let's face it, without Giger around there's not going to be an improvement here. What Romulus promised was the best xenomorphs we've ever seen on screen, together with an interesting premise and great setting similar to what we got with Alien: Isolation..unfortunately it failed in just about every way and the xenomorphs (and face huggers) were weak/lame and barely a threat. We we SHOULD have got, and Alvarez totally had it in him, was an Alien film with the horror of the first movie. All that work on those beautiful sets and amazing looking practical FX were completely wasted. I was expecting this wonderful, creepy, slow burn exploration of this dead station, much like the exploration of the Derelict in the first film, or the exploration of the chambers in Prometheus (my favourite parts of both films), or the beginning of Alien: Isolation (and Dead Space games), but it was all so rushed and too quickly moved on. This could have been a proper return to the horror of Alien. The beast isn't done, but good sci-fi/horror writers are needed to make it great again. Directors like Ridley and Alvarez don't have the imagination to make new classics in the Alien franchise, their ideas are lame. We need new minds like O'Bannon and Giger, much better and original stories and scripts, and much, much better casting and composers on board. (and Ridley to keep his black goo out of the franchise)
If the movie is good or bad, it's because of the writers, not the director. James Cameron wrote the screenplay for Alien so we can totally say Aliens was attributed to him. Alien wasn't written by Ridley Scott; it was written by Danny and Robbie and they are the reason Alien was so good. When Ridley had his creative hand in Prometheus, it sucked because he wrote it and directed it. It also felt rushed and bland. And the part I really didn't like about it: Ridley gave us answers to the aliens origin. True terror is fear of the unknown. Scott turned all the lights on and now it's not scary anymore.
Def disagree with you. The beast is not cooked. People given freedom of this property don't have enough creativity to make a whole movie interesting. If the "beast was cooked" we wouldn't be getting interesting comics to this day. Put talented people in charge. You could make a movie/show where WY actually stops being dumb af and creates an exclusively synth team to capture the xenos. Have the black goo infect one of them. We haven't seen that yet because reasons I guess? A lot of people would just be happy with a new type of xeno. You could easily justify this by saying WY watned to see which animals breed the better xeno. Most people have no issue with other themes being explored within the universe. Problems arise when you do things like feature the word Alien in the title and put a xeno in the teaser trailer. Fans would have every right to be upset if that type of show barely used xenos. You don't get to bait and switch your audience then cry when people rightly criticize you.
28:09 Good of ex these are voice recordings in Alien: Isolation (YT 6hrs cinema ver) Amanda picks up thought out the movie. It reaches to a pt I want to watch the collapse of LV426 or space colony. Due to corruption & distrust w/ the company more so Alien breakout is solely to blame. High hopes Alien: Earth will focus more on humanity.
Really Interesting breakdown & analysis of these films!.. Prometheus much like Starwars force awakens i thought was an interesting take on an old franchise! Though storywise i though Prometheus far more superior..but both had sparked a feeling in cinema that i hadn't felt since i was young & seeing those original movies for the 1st time!! Man how i exciting it was !!(I thought to myself yes Great cinema is back!!) & Then the sequels happened & oh biy was i wrong!!..i gota say Convenient was a huge let down only i was fully invested Shaw's character! & & Dynamics of what could have been her going into the unknown with an android!! But then only to have her killed off screen by an android who she had already out smarted..i wasn't believeable for me she would've let it happen twice! Prometheus offered A really interesting prologue to the Alien unanswered question About the Space Jokey..i just feel it feel it fel way short with the convenient movie such a same really but Prometheus is a movie 🍿 i can watch i can over+over just cause the performances was so strong & nit to mention the visuals!!
It was fine brought down by call back lines and fan service. I hate what Lideloff did to the prometheus script. Covernant was terrible even if it did not ruin the Xenomorph as it is a depressing Frankinstein inspired mess that did not explore the wonders of an actual Alien world.
All this talk in the broad strokes is meaningless. Prometheus is not a well executed film. It's characters are dumb, both as a result of the screenplay and over editing. I don't care what the grandiose ideas are behind something if it doesn't deliver up front with a good story, and Prometheus, objectively, does not do that. Alien, on the other hand, does. While leaving the greater mystery as an additional bit of flavor to ponder later on. Prometheus, Covenant, the entire idea of doing prequels, was a mistake. If they weren't going to write a compelling script, and focus on the characters going on the mission of discovery, which they DO NOT DO, then there was no point to any of it other than pretty visuals and pretense.
I'm probably the only one, but i absolutely hate aliens 2 the sequel to the original 79 film. I personally think it ruined the franchise entirely before the other alien sequels and spin offs. And i thought this ever since i was a kid. The original 79 alien was one of the 1st horror films i remembered seeing it as a kid when i was 5 or 4 years old, it scared the crap out of me. But a few years later after that i see alien randomly on tv. but oh it turns out its not the original one i remembered seeing, it was just a bad boring bland action sequel. With no scary or tense moments at all. As a kid i was pissed, i was like this was not that scary movie I remember. and Everyone except ripley is just a bunch of roided out, wise cracking, space marines with bad dialouge. Shooting at a bunch of used to be mysterious scary creatures with acid blood. Honestly to me they're not even the same as the original creature from 79, theyre just mindless horde of overgrown ants waiting to be gunned down by dumb military people. Then there turns out to be a freaking giant super queen!! Leading more into the cringe ant reference. None of it was scary or cool to me. And cool is exactly what the film was trying to be and it failed imo. The original predator did a way better job at being a cool action movie with military people and a mysterious alien creature. Aliens 2 absolutely ruined the franchise for me. They literally turned this scary creature into fodder for a video game shoot em up. Like look at most of the games except isolation they're mostly just acrade shooters. Imo alien should've never been a franchise it only should have only had that original 79 movie as a standalone horror film. The studio and james cameron ruined the franchise before anyone else. Every alien thing after felt like a rip off of aliens 2, except prometheus, i wouldnt even call that a aliens movie its it own thing imo. But to me James cameron is one of the most overrated film people ever. I dont like none of his films. The terminator series, titanic, avatar, etc. I literally dont like any of the guys movies, and now i understand why i hate alien 2. cuz he ruined one of the scariest creatures ever made. Guy doesn't know how to do horror, only cringe one liners and bad romance. Most People think alien 2 is a great film but i just hate it cuz what it did to an iconic mysterious horror creature. I put the other alien movies over it except for avp requiem cuz i can't see a dang thing in that film. Its so dark.
While I enjoy the themes and dark tone and mood of the Alien movies, the lore and such, in the end I watch them because I love monster movies. The creature looks rad af and watching it on screen killing people in fun ways it's all I need. Not saying they need to stop searching for new ideas and concepts for the movies, but as long as they keeping the mosnter in them, and with enough human cattle to play lol
I think the biggest issue with the Alien franchise is the expectation for a new movie to be connected to the original and excellent Alien/Aliens movies. In my opinion, and as an example, Alien3 is an excellent movie but a crap instalment to Aliens. Same with Alien Resurrection. Liked the movie, did not like how it connected/extended Alien3. Why can't they just create a movie set in the Alien world? Alien Romulus is quite close to that albeit still hooks into the first movie. I don't mind that but it does so at its own peril. Just create either new stand-alone movies or stand-alone series. Alien/Aliens is way to excellent of a series to be extended on. The possibility existed up until Alien3, maybe even beyond that but it would have required retconning Alien3. After that: it was "decided" that no "cool" extension of Aliens is coming. Sorry. So create cool new stand-alone movies/series. Also, Colonial Marines are clearly awesome, yet not used outside of Aliens. Why? Alien Resurrection had some soldiers but that was more like armed guards of the station.
This is why I didn't understand why people liked Covenant over Prometheus, I totally understood its purpose, and this is why I don't get it why Ridley Scott just didn't go with the flow of his and continued the journey they set with Prometheus, he should have accepted the failures it could create on the box office, hell, if it would totally backlash, go with it, do your goddamn work if you started it.
The fact people finally get one good movie in the franchise after DECADES and they have the audacity to bring up some of the worst entries to criticize it with "at least they tried something new"... truly saddens me. Yeah, guess what? It's better to have an actually good safe movie than another terrible attempt of destroying itself with "creativity". Anyone who can't understand that has to either be blind or demand to blind themselves with "people are tired". No, YOU are tired of it. People are enjoying it and they're better off with this than going back to suffering with mediocrity. It's not to say people can't demand for better, I certainly encourage that, but anyone that decides to pull their pants down to take a dump on something great like this movie... doesn't deserve better, because they don't know better.
What I worry about regarding the Alien TV show is that it will go heavy on preachy messaging instead of telling stories about people existing in a world that is hostile to them within and without.
Romulus was the second worst Alien film. Just ahead of AVP2: Requiem. Sad thing is the first 5mins are astounding and the first 30mins are pretty good. As soon as we see Rook the bottom falls out of it.
I will never understand the blind praise im hearing for Romulus. Everyone is praising Romulus for exact same issues that they constantly trash Prometheus and Covenant. The characters are flat and forgettable. The writing for them is nonexistent most of the time. The acting is completely dispassionate... or talentless, however you want to look at it. I can remember Ripley obviously, Newt, Hicks, Hudson, Dallas, Parker, and Ash. I can even remember 85, Clemens and Morris and i LOATHE Alien 3. I can remember Call, Johner, David, Shaw, Daniels, Vickers and Tennessee. I cant remember any of the horrible characters in Romulus The fan service is completely inappropriate for a serious Alien film. Not even Resurrection stooped so low as to directly quote better, better movies in the franchise. As a fan, the "Get away from her you b****" line was completely insulting. How or why would they try to cheapen Ripleys glorious moment in Aliens?? Personally, i think Disney is paying for all of these glowing reviews and perhaps even the first reviews trash Prometheus and Covenant This is how i rank the franchise: Aliens Alien Prometheus Alien Covenant Alien Resurrection AVP Alien Romulus Alien 3 AVP: Requiem I cant wait for Ridley Scott to complete his prequel trilogy. I want to see David get his comeuppance.
Watched an alien movie.
“I’ve simply had enough of alien”
As someone who was in their 20s when Prometheus came out, I distinctly remember there was no marketing towards it being in the alien universe. It was literally the moment you see the engineer's ship in the scan that you realize "holy crap this is how it started!" I think that was a good move on their part at the time. After time people just felt it didn't live up to this imaginary hype. The only hype at the time was that this was Scott's "return to the sci fi genre"
The theatrical trailer literally copied the original Alien trailer and had shots of the space jockey. You would have to be VERY disconnected from the series to not know it was an Alien spinoff.
Live up to what imaginary hype?
I quite like Prometheus in many ways, but that movie should have never been connected to the Alien franchise, the damage it did and continues to do will infect all future movies until we get a hard reboot. Ridley essentially removed all aliens/extra-terrestrial lifeforms from the franchise (how ironic) with his weak ideas (black goo/ancient aliens) and retcon of the space jockey from a clearly 15ft+ actual alien skeleton, into just a proto-human in a suit.
@@robertallen2109 I watched the original trailer. There was no sign of the space jockey. But there was his ship. But I didn't really recognize it in the quick clip. And the other call back was the way the title was revealed one piece at a time. But at that time the avp movies were so terrible I certainly didn't expect that it would be connected to alien.
I like Prometheus. I knew it did came with some alien reference back then through some trailers. Rumors and articles also said it was the prequel to aliens. It’s different. It was a jump scare film like Alien 1. It wasn’t heavily action packed as Aliens. It was more philosophical in a way. It made think, how did the Engineers find this black goo or make this black goo? The goo seems synthetic not organic. Then also Egineers were drinking this and drying because they were trying to find immortality like Peter Weyland. Towards the end it answered some questions that this wasn’t the engineers homeland. It was used to test this black goo but was it for immortality or was it use as a bio weapon. Left me thinking the engineers were evil towards the end of the film and there idea was to destroy earth. Too and we won’t get the trilogy saga to answer those questions.
I personally don’t recall fans clamoring for an Alien prequel. I was hyped when it was announced, but it was nothing I had pondered prior to that announcement. The character of David should have been saved for a Blade Runner prequel. He’s the best thing about these movies.
How would David fit into the Blade Runner universe though? As far as I know, there are no actual robots/androids in Blade Runner. The artificial lifeforms there are Replicants, which are basically just genetic superhumans. Though I do like to imagine Blade Runner and Alien movies exist in the same universe, it needs to be handled well if there's ever a proper movie that fuses the two franchises. It would be cool to see Tyrell Corp. (replicants) exist in the same movie as Weyland-Yutani (synthetics).
@@stateazure The Weyland androids could be competition for Tyrell replicants. I’m not sure if timelines would cause issues, though.
@@RobsThePrice They are in the same universe so...
@@stateazure
Well we've only seen Blade Runner up until 2049, where as Alien only down until 2092. Something in between could've happened there. Maybe replicants migrated or were massively put down. As long as Ridley doesn't answer it, I think we're safe.
It was better that it was a scary, unknown threat. Alien in the very nature of it. It did not need a backstory, I quite like Prometheus, but I see it as a competent sci-fi movie by lose association. Alien and s a masterpiece
Alien comics in the past 2 decades have been better than the movies when it comes to originality. They are often one-shot stories that understand that strength of the creature is the mystery and...shockingly, being alien. Without over-explaining it.
I recommend Aliens: Labyrinth. Its pretty disturbing in ways a big Hollywood production never could be.
Thank you
The problem is the lack of writers that can direct with a vision and an understanding of how a story can do something new whilst offering new stories, characters, and ideas.
But at the same time, keeping it familiar.
There are lots of great stories in the comic books that could be converted to some great cinema.
Another solution to this all is to give Weyland-Yutani the Xenomorph. The stories feel the same because the company wants the alien, screws over the cast to get the aliens, and then doesn't get the aliens.
I mean that's what Romulus is about. They get the alien only for it to go to shit.
@@magma41158 Romulus didn't follow the company, it followed the aftermath of it.
@@ricardobarragan8258they still got the alien. They literally built a space station for big chap and to extract his dna to 3d print facehugger?
@@796r But we don't see any of that. We see the company find Big Chap and then we skip to the station being in ruins. No experiments on Xenomorphs, just "we experimented on the alien and extracted the black goo off screen." Aside from that, the story still follows the trend of people wanting to escape the station, WY screwing over the cast to get the alien (it's the goo this time), and then WY doesn't get the alien.
@@ricardobarragan8258 in Rez they had the aliens in cages and they escaped.
I would have loved to see a proper conclusion to the prequels. I’m not saying that everything had to be fully explained. The mystery and unknown are extremely intriguing. However, ending it on that massive cliffhanger, and not expanding on the Engineers at all following Prometheus, was a huge letdown for me personally.
Calls the blade runner franchise boring then wants to see the alien universe without the aliens. Well that is the blade runner universe.
But he said it wasn’t a bad thing when it comes to blade runner
@@drinks_menu ok
Prometheus has flaws, but I do enjoy it a lot. Shaw and David are compelling characters, and there are some fantastic moments (alien C-Section, Shaw convincing Yannick to stop the engineer ship, etc.)
I don't think that Lindelof and Sir Ridley Scott are trolling us with this movie. There are a lot of unreleased movie scenes about Prometheus and Covenant. I find the decision of the film studios regrettable.
I want the real Prometheus. Not the surface level dumbed down version we got in 2012, the lore heavy and rich version that was originally planned and explored the significance of the engineers and how the weird proto-xeno at the end is basically a biblical event in lore (only to mean absolutely nothing if you only watched the movie)
Are you referring to the whole “blood of the Deacon” plot? If yes, that came from a fake, fan-made script. Both Lindelof and the actual author admitted it.
Was an awesome story though. Arguably cooler than anything Lindelof ever considered.
@@raducoman6423
Wow... that's really sad.
Brooo... i thought it was real this whole time wtf. It makes so much sense.
Canon of the first three films* Noah Hawley has spoke of the first three films being great in interviews and influencing his whole approach.
Your point about Andor resonates so incredibly well with me and I think that direction is exactly what we need from the next Alien installment.
I never needed a movie to explain Alien.
The Deacon became a mountain.... true story!
This is my personal take on just experience for myself. please feel free to disagree but..... Audiences don't want risk. They don't want films with a genuine vision. There's a phrase called "studios go where the money is" and that's not just hauntingly true a couple years ago that is still happening TODAY.
Why bother being experimental when you can just make the same movie with a new coat of paint.
Then when something actually new and creative comes along it gets met with the most vitriol hyperbolic and toxic reaction you can think of.
A lot of blame strictly falls on studios cuz yeah they're the ones making the product but that product's quality is determined on how we perceive it at its surface level as an audience.
The actual vision of the filmmakers isn't a priority anymore because fans don't feel like they are listened to and we go into this endless cycle of "listen to the audience"
I don't know about you but I like it when a filmmaker pisses me off.
It means they had their hand on the wheel It means they're saying "NO THIS IS MY MOVIE".
Audiences don't encourage that anymore They think "This should be made for me because I was an OG fan" and it doesn't just apply to alien It applies to literally every big blockbuster franchise still getting movies. Star wars Marvel, DC, video game movies now.....
The problem is when you boil it down a lack of communication on both ends. I can only hope that changes for the better.
Hard no.
Prometheus strated such a beautiful story. Covenant was brilliant in roll it over. Romulus dropped everything and left lots of us with a cringe smile on our faces. Seems like movie makers stopped to understand lately that people love stories.
Almost every negative you give Romulus you could give to Covenant as well, lol. The ending is literally the ending of 1 and 2 just with an abysmal and boring character Daniels. At least Romulus has tons of incredible practical fx, Rain and Andy, the retro futuristic aesthetic that Ridley completely threw away. Covenant has Fassbender and that's it. Davids whacky science lab and experiments were cool, but they just go right back to an Alien chasing people on a ship, lol, which Romulus does faaaar better. And, yeah, those are Praetomorphs dude, lol... David is basically Frankensteining his way through trying to make a xeno from notes he found on the planet. There's a reason it looks like a skinned Xeno with barely any biomech appearance and is aggressive to a point of it basically being a rabid animal ,and why the eggs look so different (obviously taken from/created from Shaw)
A aliens vs a super andriod army fighting on a planet tryin to kill all aliens would be much cooler
Honestly, I think Prometheus and Covenant are much closer in feel than they are to any other Alien movie. David is more Dr Frankestien in Covenant despite that being invoked in Prometheus favor in this video. Also apart from the name, the biblical theming was also strong in Prometheus. And certainly there was a lot more that Scott has since revealed that the movie failed to even get across. The weakest one of the videos arguments feels is when you charitably and seriously interpret Prometheus themes and then use a sillier or more dismissive voice to describe very similar themes and characters of faith in Covenant, or tacking a comical "Oh no" after summarizing the end scene. Honestly, I think the ending state of both movies is probably the better aspects about them. Covenant can certainly be criticized for squandering Prometheus' and I'm not saying they are equal in quality, but they really don't feel like they are a 180. And I didn't like them dropping Shaw either, but attributing that to an intentional change in direction to be the opposite of Prometheus isn't quite right. The actress was not coming back for the sequel so they basically wrote her out. We don't know the details of the situation but it doesn't seem like it was Scotts choice. They had to write around it.
And I get the points being made, but I think a lot of this perception is just hung up on something closer to the classic alien design appearing in Covenant. (Its actually not the same design, technically but whatever). It feels like semantics, and surface level cosmetic changes if you are just going to invent a black goo to make other things turn into murder monsters that functionally serve the same purpose as an Alien but just look different. Or have baffling writing choices to have a highly advanced alien, the engineer they find, on his own ship find no better way to achieve his goals than to switch off dialogue mode and also just turn into a videogame enemy and magnetize towards main characters until they are dead. The Fifield mutant just kills people with unnatural strength and agility. Its completely telegraphed what is happening to him. Its not a surprise or novel in anyway, its basically a trope. Nothing interesting happens in terms of what he mutates to or is capable of now. Just a gross looking murder machine. Doesn't that already describe the Alien? Just without the creative creation process and a more conventional, "touch evil substance, become evil" scenario.
And you can consider Shaws giving "birth" scene to be what they viewed to be the chestburster equivalent. The body horror of an nightmarish twist on pregnancy. Except with none of the weight or consequence that those scenes had in the good movies. Kanes scene in the original is obviously iconic and even though its used for a much smaller scenes in Aliens, its used to hammer home how traumatized Ripley is by her previous encounter and how its still affecting her, with a great reaction shot to the colonist chestburster in the hive. Meanwhile Shaw gets a shiny CGI octopus that gets ignored in a closet until the plot needs it to set up another store brand Alien later. She gets her abs sliced open and then just walks off and is then abseiling off the ship record time and off to adventure for answers.
I completely understand being tired of the Alien, and feeling like its hard to make something that familiar to us scary. I feel that way too. But if the alternative is a Prometheus style, bland creature visual design and CGI. Posing many questions but having little answers and pretending that was the deep point of the movie, I think I will take at least one greatest hits entry like romulus after so many years of a series wandering in the woods cinematically and making do with other media, like Isolation.
DAMN! that punchline did NOT miss! GREAT video!
Don't know about 'Alien: Earth"
From what Hawley said, it sounds like a GREAT idea for the 'Cyberpunk 20XX' universe.
However, if you use the name "Alien", then at some point you expect it to reference the Xenomorph (and all attached info, good or bad).
Seeing as this is a Prequel (again, ugh), I don't see how they can work that in, but we'll see if they can do it well or not.
I loved Romulus, but overall I'm with you. I have felt frustrated with the fanbase for their negative reaction to the Xeno lack in Prometheus. I went in not expecting a Xeno, just based on how it was being sold to us. The Deacon was a nice surprise and gave me all the Xeno I needed. I'm still gutted we never got the Paradise Lost film about the Engineer home planet. That concept has so much potential. But the fans' need for the familiar, coupled with Scott's lack of artistic integrity, resulted in Covenant - a half-baked, half-assed attempt to tell an Alien story when it so obviously would rather be telling a Prometheus story. Now we can be sure the franchise will never stray far from the Xeno again. But I do hope they are able to mix up the formula and introduce some more lore to future entries.
The aliens in the first 2 were not only scary but creepy. The way they move, why they dovwhat they do.
As much as i love 3 (and i kind of excuse that one because of the nature of the beast) they just turned into killing machines. No mystery intrigue. Thats when the xenomorph changed.
Well, Aliens pretty much did that and turned the xenomorphs into killing machine bugs..still I love that movie and it's a perfect sequel imo. If anything Alien 3 tried to re-capture more the vibe of the original, and it had to since it was a lone xenomorph. Romulus once again made the xenomorphs bugs and pretty much just useless cannon fodder, they were completely ineffective and lame, which killed any chance of that movie being a real horror movie. Too bad, because we know Alvarez could have really nailed it with a single xenomorph, as terrifying and powerful as the original big chap. He could have given us the Alien version of 'Don't Breathe'
At long last! This is the channel and the presentation that I spent the last 5 years searching for! You've dissected the subject matter thoroughly and offered a near perfect, objective, analysis of all the good the bad and the ugly.
Personally, I dont hold much hope for the Alien IP, and have resigned myself to the idea that the Alien franchise ended with Alien 3. The rest are just best viewd or watched as their own seperate entities, that they just happen to enhabit, even in such a remote way, the same universe as the Alien's. It speaks to the general current trend towards mediocrity, and the decline in standards that permeates all avenues of life. When authors are encouraged to copy and paste from other works and hardworking creative and original Sci-Fi authors are brushed aside. A movie is only as good as the story / script. IMHO. There was a glimmer of hope in Alien 3, and once again in Alien 5. The former went through horrific mutations until the end result was a catastrophe, and the latter was starved of air so it got suffocated before it could see daylight.
Looking forwards to further content on this channel.
You hit all the notes perfectly!
I was 14 when Prometheus was released and my dad liked it but HATED the climax with the Engineer he said if it didnt have that itd be great...skip ahead to Romulus and i feel the exact same way
The prequels are great! Exactly for all the reasons you described
Great analysis!
Absolute banger
I feel the same about dune, the movie is precious but the point and the colorful story of the books talks about a different, less "realistic", and more relevant world
I enjoyed Romulus a lot, but I agree on its deficiencies, we will never get what we got in the original 2 then why not go the Andor way? You're onto something
Excellent breakdown. 💯💯💯‼️
I personally love Covenant I think it's the best Alien film I know many will think I'm wrong but that's ok I loved Prometheus as well and the Engineers are my favorite movie alien.
The first movie had a relatable crew and subtlety in visualization and production design, which totally was ignored in every movie thereafter.
That is why every sequel devolved into boring monster movies.
This is one of the most intelligent and thoughtful analysis I have seen. Agree with every word. Amazing. Great stuff.
The prequels were just terrible. No point intellectualising why, it's self evident upon the first watch. I have never felt the urge to return to them, I prefer to pretend they don't exist.
What makes the first and second films so compelling, is the subconscious elements in the set design that mirror and mimic the alien.
There's so many decent stories and settings in the comics to choose from.
What id like to see is more of the cool futuristic and subconscious set design from the first 2 movies, A higher stakes story like earth war, or even how the Hadley's hope colony got infested or something similar. Real actual space jockeys would be nice, instead of rubber looking humans in half assed suits.
To be honest you're right, its passed its sell by date. What we needed was the actual continuation of Ripley Hicks and Newt instead of Alien 3. It's cooked.
There are a lot stories from the Darkhorse comics that would have made decent screen adaptations, and some of them really pushed the boundaries of the alien mythos. I don't know why they keep going in this direction, Personally i wasn't impressed by Romulus. With all that bieng said, i completely agree with you on what they should have done with the prometheus prequels.
The hospital scene was legit the only good thing about avp2
I can't thank you enough for putting into words how I feel about Alien Romulus. One of the most boring and disappointing experiences I've had this year.
Alien has followed the path of the MCU, or Hollywood in general.
Congratulations for such a good video 👏👏👏
I want a Union of Progressive Peoples series! ☭
I love this, where I see small, fresh and new channel instead the big ones. Love this video mate 👊
Yeah the mister may be over done with all the shitty sequels and AVP mashups that have been made, but it’s an iconic character and needs an iconic story.
Ridley Scott making prequels was what no one wanted. They ruined the mystery of the monster and the space jockey and made the character now boring (genetically engineered by a robot with daddy issues).
The monster still has relevance and can be done well, but it needs to be taken away from Ridley Scott and his black goo and taken back to its horror roots.
David REMADE the Xenos
I loved Romulus!!!
I'd say check out the Alien RPG (they got 3 main books that cover the core game, being a soldier in the universe and being a colonist in the universe) because it leans heavily into fleshing out the world that is not just the alien BUT I also think it leans a bit too heavily into it being a cold war in space setting. UPP are basically the soviet union in space and sometimes the book leans too much into 'look future ak 47 except now its 174!"
also silly now never canon trivia, the alien Deacon turns into a mountain, the dark horse alien comics did a series set on the same planet as prometheus but after aliens and it reveals the deacon grew to the size of a mountain and is still alive but just lays there asleep.
Dark Horse writers were a bit whacky, let's be honest. But I did like some of their much earlier stories where we visit the xenomorph homeworld etc, and get to see ACTUAL space jockeys, not the dumb retconned human version engineers that Ridley insisted on. Dark Horse at least had awesome imaginations.
Seriously this guy deserves more people watching him
For real his videos are well put together and his thoughts are voiced well
I just got here, the algorithm sent me knowing my propensity and predilection for channels slamming the memberberries aspect to Alien Romulus. I'm only several minutes in before commenting.
I was about 13 when Alien³ came out and I'm still hot in the face about killing off Hicks, Newt and Bishop.
I'd have liked a modern film to have made the xenomorphs a naturally evolving species instead of a lab experiment and to have explored their home world and its fascinating ecosystems and biology. Imaginations could have run wild.
Crickey, imagine if our xenomorphs had been far down the food chain there due to many more, bigger, badder species dominating that planet.
I suppose you'd have to have humans crash land there but hey, why not a film set there without a human presence...?
I haven't played the games but I hear the films should have incorporated some of their storylines, there's just so much more unique stories already out there to use in plots or pepper in, let alone how about CREATING something new Hollywood...!?
Good video.
I’m gonna have to disagree with you assessment of Vickers though. I think the way she’s contrasted with David works really well with the themes of creation, being a biological creation who has an entirely different relationship to her creator than her “brother”
I also think it’s contrasted well with Shawn’s relationship with her creator as well. Shaw having never met her creator and seemingly having a better relationship than Vickers.
My idea for a third alien covenant/prometheus movie is as follows:
The engineers are the main characters in the movie and comes to the planet that was in the Prometheus movie.
There they find Weyland inside the crashed spaceship. They have a blue elixir which they empty all over him and bring him to life.
But while doing this the Deacon from the Prometheus movie sneaks into their spaceship and hide it self in one of the ventilation chambers.
In the next part they arrive at the planet from alien covenant and find the other robot(Walter) who is david's twin.The engineers use the blue elixir and repairs him.
Once awaken the engineers and Weyland get to know all the horrible things that David has done, and weyland says "we have to stop David" .
They set course for origae. When they arrive,they scans all the planet,and finds the planet is full of hostile organisms except
on a high mountain where they discover that there are humans inside a cave.
Inside the cave they meet a herd of children, who tell that when they had lived on the planet for over ten years,
they began to be attacked by Xenomorphs and all the adults died or were turned into these creatures.
There were also great giants developed by someone the children calls David.
The engineers get ready to wipe out all the Xenomorphs that David has created, but the great giants manage to escape with one of the engineers' spaceships.
The engineers and Weyland hunts the spaceship and manage to force the spaceship down on the planet lv426.Where it start sending a distress signal.
The engineers return to Origae to find David, but discover that he has escaped.
In the last part we see David arriving and meeting an unknown alien species
on a tropical like planet.
At the same time Nostromo leaves a nearby planet with the cargo of ore.
But when he and the unknown aliens have left the spaceship,the deacon slips out of the ship and is seen running toward the nearest settlement.
And that makes the cliffhanger that ends the third movie.
The ending movie could have a duration about five hours ?
Trash
Great vid
I wouldn't get your hopes up for the alien series. I avoided getting too much on the Alien Romulus hype train, I think hearing how they found the original alien floating in space was a red flag. I do however agree that future alien movies/series should concentrate on the gritty nature of workers/colonisers in space. I feel like after the franchise is totally depleted of enthusiam they should do a film to follow Aliens and just say the other films don't exist (Terminator Dark Fate but in a good way). Lets face it, we're all still waiting on the Alien3 we really wanted and never got. There is elements of the other films that are good but they all have massive plot issues (such as kiling of key characters after aliens).
Manbearpig is not what anyone asked for
Alien The Force Awakens
Very interesting analysis and you are right in everything you say! greetings from Germany
Great video, really like your take on the franchise going forwards, a movie or series of movies looking at the world of Weyland-Yutani and the company's effect on society would be brilliant IMO. I'm hoping that the new series coming out next year will be along those lines. I must admit though, that after having watched some of the reviews, basing an Aliens narrative on social problems and how evil the company is will likely just set off the anti-woke brigade, especially in the US, considering how they dislike any sort of narrative dealing with worker's rights, even to the extent that the planet portrayed in Alien Romulus basically had a population living in indentured servitude. Anyway, we can hope. One possible novelisation worth considering is the Aliens vs Predator Rage War trilogy, which I thought was fantastic.
Bruh, the point of having a sequel is to add to an overarching story, try to catch that lightning in a bottle. Your trying to see continuation, and learn more about the mainstays like the Ripley character.
So what would you do that would blaze new trails in this entertainment fueled, multiple sequel way of watching? I haven't even seen the movie, but just hearing your words tells me your highbrow opinion is calling out how these movies haven't done anything different.
Again, I haven't seen this, but from what I've read, heard, or watched it's a good vote of confidence moving forward. Personally I like prometheus, covenant so playing of those movies I think this movie is kind of a let's see how this does. Find out footing, and start off in a good direction. It looks like a horror movie, and thats it's roots. That's what made alien what it was.
Romulus was fine , but nowhere near a masterpiece like how people thought it would be..
I noticed the Android characters once again steal the show , and they ironically are the most interesting concept about these films nowadays? Go figure...
Prometheus did poorly at the box office and got bad reviews.. So Covenant tried to return to form.. But it also did poorly and got bad reviews..
"Damn if you do , damn if you don't " , is how I would describe the Alien fanbase 😂..
I loved this. Now to binge his channel. Nom nom.
Re edit. 29:00 minutes in. It's not the future of aliens. It's the past. BEFORE ALIEN
David didnt make the Xenos he REMADE them
Bro spent 30 minutes just trying to say we want USCM’s back
LOL, you are so funny!!
Unlike the majority i liked the whole exploring were we came from and engineers story,prometheus had its issues but i liked it,my problem with the rest of it is how the nex movies kept trying to satisfy the masses rather than just telling its story,it had potential hell even blade runner wasnt a succes when it came out .my issue with this new movie is it has no stakes it feels like a one and done for a one and done movie it packs no weight or quality to stand on its own.
Yeah... And you're being nice.
Great video. I'm sure a good Alien movie could be made, just give us decent character's & ramp up the terror & suspense. Sadly with the success of Romulus any sequels will just be more rince and repeat. I feel Andor was Star wars for grown ups, it's such a pity it didn't get the view's, very much looking forward to the 2nd series though.
Goes and watch the RLM review,ok here are my thoughts on this movie.
GREAT VIDEO ! 500% agree with all of your thought . ABout ALIEN:HEARTH , I'm not confident about the originality and ambition of the show . Here is the plot that came to the media : Premise. The film's premise reads: "When a mysterious space vessel crash-lands on Earth, a young woman (Sydney Chandler) and a ragtag group of tactical soldiers make a fateful discovery that puts them face-to-face with the planet's greatest threat". If it's that , i'm all ready done with this shit . I prefer go back to watch the cancelled show , so interesting and underrated :Raised by Wolves ... or babylon 5 ??? ahahah Bab 5 was a GREAT show btw . Thank you !
I just heard you talk about smoking on an alien planet...lol. That's the point! Mankind seeing a planet that seems better than what they're supposed to be traveling to, and blinded by their hubris and making mistakes for the sake of shortening their trip and throw caution to the wind.
I hear this same routine all the time, and hearing someone say they're fans of a particular movie or franchise and they couldn't wait for the new movie or whatever medium it may be. They then start the non-stop passive-aggressive review as if their ideas or opinions are law.
Why are you watching an alien movie? Why are you excited? Do you want the aliens to start talking? Or flip the script and now your the alien trying to stop mankind from eradicating your species? Lol.
I watch a movie called alien expecting an alien movie that has a new twist or another way to get to the good stuff. Nothing crazy.
Love this critique it completely echoes my own thoughts on Romulus as someone who is old enough to have been scared witless by Aliens at 16 on home video, which then prompted me to watch the original I have been consistently let down by all but the first two films.
However, all the sequels since Alien 3 up to and including the prequel Prometheus have at least tried to give us something new and expand the mythos. Romulus whilst gorgeously shot and a great performance by Andy, with the exception of the bad throw back line misappropriation is a perfect Frankenstein’s monster that stitched together something from each instalment, even those seen as failures and offered very little new.
Apart from a few jump scares I practically knew what was going to happen and left feeling underwhelmed. I didn’t feel any real empathy for any of the characters other than Andy. Every shot that echoed iconic Ripley scenes underscored how much less of a great actor Rain was in comparison, I’d even go so far to say she pales against the supporting characters of the first two films.
I think if someone hasn’t seen any of the alien movies it would serve as an interesting movie, but as someone who experienced the visceral horror of not knowing anything about the franchise on first watching Aliens, it’s a bitter pill to swallow
Ridley said the beast is done, but he was wrong and didn't understand what the fans really wanted. Some people might be bored with the xenomorph, but many of us aren't and we just want more really good films on par with Alien and Aliens. But Ridley had to keep trying to come up with different (and in his mind better/scarier) designs, that always fell short of the original xenomorph, and let's face it, without Giger around there's not going to be an improvement here. What Romulus promised was the best xenomorphs we've ever seen on screen, together with an interesting premise and great setting similar to what we got with Alien: Isolation..unfortunately it failed in just about every way and the xenomorphs (and face huggers) were weak/lame and barely a threat. We we SHOULD have got, and Alvarez totally had it in him, was an Alien film with the horror of the first movie. All that work on those beautiful sets and amazing looking practical FX were completely wasted. I was expecting this wonderful, creepy, slow burn exploration of this dead station, much like the exploration of the Derelict in the first film, or the exploration of the chambers in Prometheus (my favourite parts of both films), or the beginning of Alien: Isolation (and Dead Space games), but it was all so rushed and too quickly moved on. This could have been a proper return to the horror of Alien. The beast isn't done, but good sci-fi/horror writers are needed to make it great again. Directors like Ridley and Alvarez don't have the imagination to make new classics in the Alien franchise, their ideas are lame. We need new minds like O'Bannon and Giger, much better and original stories and scripts, and much, much better casting and composers on board. (and Ridley to keep his black goo out of the franchise)
If the movie is good or bad, it's because of the writers, not the director. James Cameron wrote the screenplay for Alien so we can totally say Aliens was attributed to him. Alien wasn't written by Ridley Scott; it was written by Danny and Robbie and they are the reason Alien was so good.
When Ridley had his creative hand in Prometheus, it sucked because he wrote it and directed it. It also felt rushed and bland.
And the part I really didn't like about it: Ridley gave us answers to the aliens origin.
True terror is fear of the unknown. Scott turned all the lights on and now it's not scary anymore.
Def disagree with you. The beast is not cooked. People given freedom of this property don't have enough creativity to make a whole movie interesting. If the "beast was cooked" we wouldn't be getting interesting comics to this day. Put talented people in charge.
You could make a movie/show where WY actually stops being dumb af and creates an exclusively synth team to capture the xenos. Have the black goo infect one of them. We haven't seen that yet because reasons I guess? A lot of people would just be happy with a new type of xeno. You could easily justify this by saying WY watned to see which animals breed the better xeno.
Most people have no issue with other themes being explored within the universe. Problems arise when you do things like feature the word Alien in the title and put a xeno in the teaser trailer. Fans would have every right to be upset if that type of show barely used xenos. You don't get to bait and switch your audience then cry when people rightly criticize you.
Andor is second best. I grew up with the clone wars and nothing will be better. Only wrong thing you said all video
28:09 Good of ex these are voice recordings in Alien: Isolation (YT 6hrs cinema ver) Amanda picks up thought out the movie. It reaches to a pt I want to watch the collapse of LV426 or space colony. Due to corruption & distrust w/ the company more so Alien breakout is solely to blame.
High hopes Alien: Earth will focus more on humanity.
Alien - Aliens - Alien 3 (yes, cry more), that's it, a neat trilogy. Everything else is just schlock, fanfiction and rehashes.
Really Interesting breakdown & analysis of these films!.. Prometheus much like Starwars force awakens i thought was an interesting take on an old franchise! Though storywise i though Prometheus far more superior..but both had sparked a feeling in cinema that i hadn't felt since i was young & seeing those original movies for the 1st time!! Man how i exciting it was !!(I thought to myself yes Great cinema is back!!) & Then the sequels happened & oh biy was i wrong!!..i gota say Convenient was a huge let down only i was fully invested Shaw's character! & & Dynamics of what could have been her going into the unknown with an android!! But then only to have her killed off screen by an android who she had already out smarted..i wasn't believeable for me she would've let it happen twice! Prometheus offered A really interesting prologue to the Alien unanswered question
About the Space Jokey..i just feel it feel it fel way short with the convenient movie such a same really but Prometheus is a movie 🍿 i can watch i can over+over just cause the performances was so strong & nit to mention the visuals!!
It was fine brought down by call back lines and fan service. I hate what Lideloff did to the prometheus script. Covernant was terrible even if it did not ruin the Xenomorph as it is a depressing Frankinstein inspired mess that did not explore the wonders of an actual Alien world.
All this talk in the broad strokes is meaningless.
Prometheus is not a well executed film. It's characters are dumb, both as a result of the screenplay and over editing.
I don't care what the grandiose ideas are behind something if it doesn't deliver up front with a good story, and Prometheus, objectively, does not do that.
Alien, on the other hand, does. While leaving the greater mystery as an additional bit of flavor to ponder later on.
Prometheus, Covenant, the entire idea of doing prequels, was a mistake. If they weren't going to write a compelling script, and focus on the characters going on the mission of discovery, which they DO NOT DO, then there was no point to any of it other than pretty visuals and pretense.
I'm probably the only one, but i absolutely hate aliens 2 the sequel to the original 79 film. I personally think it ruined the franchise entirely before the other alien sequels and spin offs. And i thought this ever since i was a kid. The original 79 alien was one of the 1st horror films i remembered seeing it as a kid when i was 5 or 4 years old, it scared the crap out of me. But a few years later after that i see alien randomly on tv. but oh it turns out its not the original one i remembered seeing, it was just a bad boring bland action sequel. With no scary or tense moments at all. As a kid i was pissed, i was like this was not that scary movie I remember. and Everyone except ripley is just a bunch of roided out, wise cracking, space marines with bad dialouge. Shooting at a bunch of used to be mysterious scary creatures with acid blood. Honestly to me they're not even the same as the original creature from 79, theyre just mindless horde of overgrown ants waiting to be gunned down by dumb military people. Then there turns out to be a freaking giant super queen!! Leading more into the cringe ant reference. None of it was scary or cool to me. And cool is exactly what the film was trying to be and it failed imo. The original predator did a way better job at being a cool action movie with military people and a mysterious alien creature. Aliens 2 absolutely ruined the franchise for me. They literally turned this scary creature into fodder for a video game shoot em up. Like look at most of the games except isolation they're mostly just acrade shooters. Imo alien should've never been a franchise it only should have only had that original 79 movie as a standalone horror film. The studio and james cameron ruined the franchise before anyone else. Every alien thing after felt like a rip off of aliens 2, except prometheus, i wouldnt even call that a aliens movie its it own thing imo. But to me James cameron is one of the most overrated film people ever. I dont like none of his films. The terminator series, titanic, avatar, etc. I literally dont like any of the guys movies, and now i understand why i hate alien 2. cuz he ruined one of the scariest creatures ever made. Guy doesn't know how to do horror, only cringe one liners and bad romance. Most People think alien 2 is a great film but i just hate it cuz what it did to an iconic mysterious horror creature. I put the other alien movies over it except for avp requiem cuz i can't see a dang thing in that film. Its so dark.
You know what. If they had just made Prometheus not an Alien IP everything would have been fine.
While I enjoy the themes and dark tone and mood of the Alien movies, the lore and such, in the end I watch them because I love monster movies. The creature looks rad af and watching it on screen killing people in fun ways it's all I need. Not saying they need to stop searching for new ideas and concepts for the movies, but as long as they keeping the mosnter in them, and with enough human cattle to play lol
Great video
I think the biggest issue with the Alien franchise is the expectation for a new movie to be connected to the original and excellent Alien/Aliens movies. In my opinion, and as an example, Alien3 is an excellent movie but a crap instalment to Aliens. Same with Alien Resurrection. Liked the movie, did not like how it connected/extended Alien3. Why can't they just create a movie set in the Alien world? Alien Romulus is quite close to that albeit still hooks into the first movie. I don't mind that but it does so at its own peril. Just create either new stand-alone movies or stand-alone series. Alien/Aliens is way to excellent of a series to be extended on. The possibility existed up until Alien3, maybe even beyond that but it would have required retconning Alien3. After that: it was "decided" that no "cool" extension of Aliens is coming. Sorry. So create cool new stand-alone movies/series. Also, Colonial Marines are clearly awesome, yet not used outside of Aliens. Why? Alien Resurrection had some soldiers but that was more like armed guards of the station.
This is why I didn't understand why people liked Covenant over Prometheus, I totally understood its purpose, and this is why I don't get it why Ridley Scott just didn't go with the flow of his and continued the journey they set with Prometheus, he should have accepted the failures it could create on the box office, hell, if it would totally backlash, go with it, do your goddamn work if you started it.
The fact people finally get one good movie in the franchise after DECADES and they have the audacity to bring up some of the worst entries to criticize it with "at least they tried something new"... truly saddens me.
Yeah, guess what? It's better to have an actually good safe movie than another terrible attempt of destroying itself with "creativity". Anyone who can't understand that has to either be blind or demand to blind themselves with "people are tired". No, YOU are tired of it. People are enjoying it and they're better off with this than going back to suffering with mediocrity.
It's not to say people can't demand for better, I certainly encourage that, but anyone that decides to pull their pants down to take a dump on something great like this movie... doesn't deserve better, because they don't know better.
What I worry about regarding the Alien TV show is that it will go heavy on preachy messaging instead of telling stories about people existing in a world that is hostile to them within and without.
inb4 the xenomorph is defeated by some illegal immigrant.
Romulus was the second worst Alien film. Just ahead of AVP2: Requiem. Sad thing is the first 5mins are astounding and the first 30mins are pretty good. As soon as we see Rook the bottom falls out of it.
Good video
I will never understand the blind praise im hearing for Romulus. Everyone is praising Romulus for exact same issues that they constantly trash Prometheus and Covenant.
The characters are flat and forgettable. The writing for them is nonexistent most of the time. The acting is completely dispassionate... or talentless, however you want to look at it.
I can remember Ripley obviously, Newt, Hicks, Hudson, Dallas, Parker, and Ash. I can even remember 85, Clemens and Morris and i LOATHE Alien 3. I can remember Call, Johner, David, Shaw, Daniels, Vickers and Tennessee. I cant remember any of the horrible characters in Romulus
The fan service is completely inappropriate for a serious Alien film. Not even Resurrection stooped so low as to directly quote better, better movies in the franchise. As a fan, the "Get away from her you b****" line was completely insulting. How or why would they try to cheapen Ripleys glorious moment in Aliens??
Personally, i think Disney is paying for all of these glowing reviews and perhaps even the first reviews trash Prometheus and Covenant
This is how i rank the franchise:
Aliens
Alien
Prometheus
Alien Covenant
Alien Resurrection
AVP
Alien Romulus
Alien 3
AVP: Requiem
I cant wait for Ridley Scott to complete his prequel trilogy. I want to see David get his comeuppance.