Good chat. And it's always nice to see the other tie-in media discussed on these talks - the comics, books, and video games - and not just focus on the films themselves; all that stuff is rich in material as well - maybe more so than some of the later films, especially. Some thoughts I had while listening: I can vouch for the Alan Dean Foster Alien novelization but I think its original status as the GOAT novelization is due largely to the fact that, prior to VHS and the later DVD releases, it was the only way you could see some of the original deleted scenes - like the definitive closure on Dallas's fate, for instance. The only other element that I recall being completely new - something that Foster introduced and that wasn't in the script or film - was the lucid dreaming machines that the crew would use while in cryosleep. But that's only at the beginning of the novelization. Everything else though became sort of redundant once the later DVD special editions came out. Same applies for his Aliens novelization. It stuck fairly well close to Cameron's later director's cut - Foster didn't really deviate from it much, if at all. I still need to read his Alien 3 novelization at some point; ditto for the Alien 4 novelization, although that was written by someone else. I actually did read his Covenant novelization but he couldn't do anything to save that shitty script - I was a bit disappointed that he stuck so close it and didn't deviate. And yes, James Remar was the original Hicks in Aliens. He was fired due to his substance abuse issues. There's actually set photos out there of him in costume. An interesting what-if, but Biehn was the better choice. And I do think that "bug hunt" line was an overt reference to Starship Troopers; I know that Cameron was recommending to the cast that they read that novel during filming - to help get them into character. Regarding Romulus: I've seen the trailer for this thing 3 times now in the last 3 weeks on the big screen; I can't seem to avoid it. It's played in front of Longlegs, Maxxxine, and Trap. The impression I'm getting from the footage is that this thing is made for two types of people: 1) The die-hards who are in the tank for whatever has a xenomorph in it, but who in particular just want the 'slop' - which, like you say, is just the first two films remade ad infinitum; and 2) The people that Fede Alvarez is "joking" about in that anecdote of his that you brought up - the people for whom Prometheus is the "first" Alien movie. Basically, we're talking about Millennials/Zoomers who've never seen the original quadrilogy. For them, I'm sure everything in Romulus looks original and fresh. For me though, nothing in it looks new. And Alvarez's filmography doesn't give me the impression that he's someone who's interesting in intellectual sci-fi. He's a polished shooter who knows how to stage a suspenseful scene, but he's not going to expand the world or introduce anything original into this franchise. I think this thing was originally supposed to go direct to Hulu and I think that's where it belongs, quite honestly - especially if they're going to introduce that tie-in concept to the first film, like you allude to at the end there.
Many thanks for the thoughtful and comprehensive comment. And thanks for the confirmation on Remar. I'd love to see a What If scenario in comic book form with Remar still in the cast as they go about their "bug hunt" but I'm happy to let my imagination fill in the gaps for now. I finally read Starship Troopers a year or so ago and it knocked me flat.
I really appreciate the shout-out to Dead Orbit and James Stokoe. He's a brilliant writer/artist and that very visceral, exaggerated style of his fits perfectly when applied to the haunted house sci-fi/horror of an Alien story. And Martin is 100% right, his Godzilla comics are killer as well.
I personally love PROMETHEUS, it's my favorite film in the franchise, I love the concepts and lore despite the weak execution. I have ALIEN in 2nd place, followed by ALIENS and then COVENANT. I don't count Alien 3 and 4 since I loathe them and I hope they're cut from canon. xD Keep up the great work James. Side note: We're gonna have a Blasphemous announcement really soon, I hope it's a Crisanta-chan DLC. xD
Nice! I'll have to dust my copy of the game. Definitely one of the best Metroidvanias I've ever played. On a side note, I've just recently discovered some cool content where people are playing updated NES games that convert games like Zelda II and Castlevania into full blown open world RPGs like Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. Those games will never die. BTW: I fell out of my chair when you proclaimed Prometheus to be your personal favorite.
@@geekinwithJamesHancock That's awesome, I loved playing Mega Drive II (here in Europe that's how we called it) Castlevania: Bloodlines was my first game ever, that music by Michiru Yamane is immortal, it gave the game such atmosphere. For me Blasphemous is not only the best metroidvania game I've played but it's also one of my all time fav games. I prefer 1 over 2 but I'm so down for a story continuation with Crisanta or whomever. Regarding Prometheus, yes, I recognize the many many faults of the film, but the goddamn engineers are such a cool concept and David is my favorite character in the entire franchise, he's so interesting as is Peter Weyland. It's a shame they screwed with the original script and made it worse with horrible character decisions, then they made it even worse with Covenant by listening to fans asking for more xenomorphs...sigh... I'm still very much looking forward to Romulus and the tv series. But I still want an end to David's story, I sincerely hope we get it.
True story. The maternity ward scene in AVP Requiem resulted in the most walk-outs I have ever experienced in a movie theater. The second to the rape scene in the remake of The Hills Have Eyes.
They cast Guy Pearce originally because David visits Wayland in his cryo-state to keep him updated on the mission, and he sees himself as a young man in those scenes.
Awesome conversation and I am so glad that Sam Kieth and James Stokoe Alien comics got a shout out. There's also a Sam Kieth alien short story from Dark Horse Presents collected as Inhuman Condition. If you can find it there's also a Dave Gibbons and Mike Mignola Kevin Nowlan Alien Salvation comicl
I think I rank Mad Max as follows: Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior, Mad Max, Mad Max: Fury Road, Furiosa, Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome. That said I loved Furiosa. Here's my review: th-cam.com/video/oY-9rEb-ZbI/w-d-xo.html
I love that Ripley is the reason why Burke sent people out to find the alien craft, but having Newt just happen to be part of it seems beneath the brilliance of James Cameron. It was his idea and it was his idea to cut it, so that still makes him brilliant lol
Due to time constraints I had to stop at 1:20, but this makes me want to re-visit Alens v. Predator, because I'm only used to the videogame hahaha...the coin-op took too much of my time, and I feel the film will be a lot less violent. I'm kind of off on this series to be honest, for me it's Alien, Aliens then Alien3 is kind of off in its own world and I don't care enough about the rest to watch them consistently, but maybe over the rest of year I'll give them a chance.
Hi James let us know what you think when you finish the Thrawn trilogy i read the books when they were new and picked up the audio books years ago and revisit them every few year's. I ended up with a huge SW audio collection before Disney took over that's when i called it a day. Oh yeh i also collected every Terry Pratchett discworld audio novel the mans a legend😄
Really enjoying the Heir to the Empire audiobook. Great voice acting, music, etc. and it blows my mind how effortlessly entertaining the story is. Light years beyond anything being done by Disney.
A deep Wrong Reel podcast on the Alien franchise is something I really needed. AvP didn’t Peter Weyland also die in Prometheus? AvP Requiem was the inspiration for the Game of Thrones Long Night episode. Not in a good way. Prometheus can thank Damon Lindelof for the stupid space Cobra scene. The smartest dumb scientists ever. Still I loved the lore of the Engineers. Alien Covenant basically reveals a paranoid android is the father of the xenomorphs?!? Alien is perfection in horror science fiction: Wrong place. Wrong time. Alien$ is perfection in action and science fiction. Alien 3 worked better as a wooden space prison. Alien Resurrection felt like the prequel to Earthwar that never happened. Alien Romulus doesn’t have to re-invent the wheel. Just good textbook horror. 👍
I'm rooting hard for Romulus. The good news is that it just needs to get on base to be superior to Covenant. Huge fan of Fassbender's David, but there are certain questions and mysteries that were far more profound to me before Prometheus and Covenant ever got made. Many thanks for the kind words about the video!
Yes, one of the biggest problems with modern movie (and media) production is an almost slavish attention to continuity and forced tie-ins to better franchise entries. Focusing on self-contained, tight storytelling and scripting is what big budget Hollywood should be doing. If there was any artistic integrity in LA left, they'd put Jimmy in charge of a studio and let him go hogwild. Come on James, time to save cinema and start your own production company. A24 needs help!
If I ever find a briefcase full of cash in the back of a taxi cab, I'll immediately splurge on a slate of wildly inappropriate genre content. That's a promise!
Nice! I did the same. Even after talking about the topic for nearly 3 hours I had to go back and watch the first half of Aliens for the billionth time.
You have been killing it lately. It's hard sometimes because you are a harsh critique. I took i personally that you made fun of Episode 1. But time heals all wounds. I am glad I hung in there because the HOuse of Dragons, Rebel Moon, Con news and a few other videos have been firing on all cylinders. Great channel, although I am a bit flummoxed about your Star Wars takes. Agree to disagree.
Well I'm currently relishing some Star Wars content listening to the audiobook of Timothy Zahn's 'Heir to the Empire'. Features music, sound FX and killer voice work by Marc Thompson. Most fun I've had with Star Wars in a long time. Thanks for sticking with the channel and being patient when I talk a little trash.
Couldn’t agree more with what you both say about writers and directors trying to erase or forget past films just to pander to an audience. Alien 3 happened, Newt and Hicks died, just deal with it.
It's fucked up that some filmmakers feel like they can just erase other filmmaker's movies. If the past is inconvenient to them, then they can just write something new which is always the best idea.
I like the look of Prometheus a ton, parts of the story were not good but Covenant went off the rails (terrible film). AvP was great like Freddy vs Jason was great. Like both of those films.
Can’t wait to watch this. Both covenant and prometheus were fails by Ridley Scott. Raised more questions than it answered each had interesting parts but the sum of the whole didn’t work for me. Her delivering that Alien hybred thing was gruesome yet entertaining
I'm not a fan of those flicks either, but Prometheus at least has some scenes that I enjoy. I much prefer to see franchises slowly but surely work their forward instead of tackling essential mysteries through prequels.
The Alien franchise is just like the Terminator franchise because the first two films are stone cold classics but all else ranges from mediocre to terrible.
I have a lot more love for Alien 3 and Alien Resurrection than for later entries in the Terminator franchise but both franchises could have easily called it a wrap after 2 movies.
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Good stuff. Long Live Wrong Reel!
It took me years to figure out how to merge my channel and Wrong Reel but I think I've finally landed on the perfect hybrid approach.
Nearly 3 hours talking about one of my favorite franchises especially now with hype being high about romulus is well appreciated 🥰
It was our pleasure! Thanks for sticking with us. Fired up tp review Romulus.
It’s hard to fathom, but you both are exactly correct about every point made here today.
Looking forward to unleashing you on Secret Wars!
I swear, my movie options are reasonable once people hear me out haha
Great take....Definitely earned yourself a new sibscriber...👍
Many thanks for the sub! Fired up to step back into this world next week.
Great vid guys!!!! Alien Isolation is a wonderful game.
I'm just getting started with it but Mr. Kessler has cleared it multiple times.
Great podcast, really has me pumped for Romulus
The Alien Trilogy is the best sci-fi/horror trilogy ever made.
I have no problem with that. Alien and Aliens are straight up masterpieces in my opinion.
What about number 4 ? 🥹
It's my guilty pleasure 🤗
Good chat. And it's always nice to see the other tie-in media discussed on these talks - the comics, books, and video games - and not just focus on the films themselves; all that stuff is rich in material as well - maybe more so than some of the later films, especially.
Some thoughts I had while listening:
I can vouch for the Alan Dean Foster Alien novelization but I think its original status as the GOAT novelization is due largely to the fact that, prior to VHS and the later DVD releases, it was the only way you could see some of the original deleted scenes - like the definitive closure on Dallas's fate, for instance. The only other element that I recall being completely new - something that Foster introduced and that wasn't in the script or film - was the lucid dreaming machines that the crew would use while in cryosleep. But that's only at the beginning of the novelization. Everything else though became sort of redundant once the later DVD special editions came out. Same applies for his Aliens novelization. It stuck fairly well close to Cameron's later director's cut - Foster didn't really deviate from it much, if at all. I still need to read his Alien 3 novelization at some point; ditto for the Alien 4 novelization, although that was written by someone else. I actually did read his Covenant novelization but he couldn't do anything to save that shitty script - I was a bit disappointed that he stuck so close it and didn't deviate.
And yes, James Remar was the original Hicks in Aliens. He was fired due to his substance abuse issues. There's actually set photos out there of him in costume. An interesting what-if, but Biehn was the better choice. And I do think that "bug hunt" line was an overt reference to Starship Troopers; I know that Cameron was recommending to the cast that they read that novel during filming - to help get them into character.
Regarding Romulus: I've seen the trailer for this thing 3 times now in the last 3 weeks on the big screen; I can't seem to avoid it. It's played in front of Longlegs, Maxxxine, and Trap. The impression I'm getting from the footage is that this thing is made for two types of people: 1) The die-hards who are in the tank for whatever has a xenomorph in it, but who in particular just want the 'slop' - which, like you say, is just the first two films remade ad infinitum; and 2) The people that Fede Alvarez is "joking" about in that anecdote of his that you brought up - the people for whom Prometheus is the "first" Alien movie. Basically, we're talking about Millennials/Zoomers who've never seen the original quadrilogy. For them, I'm sure everything in Romulus looks original and fresh. For me though, nothing in it looks new. And Alvarez's filmography doesn't give me the impression that he's someone who's interesting in intellectual sci-fi. He's a polished shooter who knows how to stage a suspenseful scene, but he's not going to expand the world or introduce anything original into this franchise. I think this thing was originally supposed to go direct to Hulu and I think that's where it belongs, quite honestly - especially if they're going to introduce that tie-in concept to the first film, like you allude to at the end there.
Many thanks for the thoughtful and comprehensive comment. And thanks for the confirmation on Remar. I'd love to see a What If scenario in comic book form with Remar still in the cast as they go about their "bug hunt" but I'm happy to let my imagination fill in the gaps for now. I finally read Starship Troopers a year or so ago and it knocked me flat.
Great episode guys. Thnx
Awesome retrospective, you guys 👌 Agree with most of your takes. You know what movie Sigourney was smokin' hot in? Galaxy Quest 😍
Fan Edit of The Keep! would be my dream
I'd be all over watching that. That flick has so many great ingredients but what a mess. Total production chaos.
I really appreciate the shout-out to Dead Orbit and James Stokoe. He's a brilliant writer/artist and that very visceral, exaggerated style of his fits perfectly when applied to the haunted house sci-fi/horror of an Alien story. And Martin is 100% right, his Godzilla comics are killer as well.
Martin's original pitch was just to focus on the comics so I was thrilled that we got to showcase so many cool comic book adaptations.
Ridley Scott is the GOAT!
I'm a massive fan as well. If you missed it, here's a giant video I made about his career: th-cam.com/video/x49L3yr1Pd0/w-d-xo.html
I like most of what I see and hear in the trailer. I'll be seeing it opening day in Imax.
Rooting for it to deliver. Has the potential to be the biggest flick of the month to help close out the Summer.
Thanks for doing this. Would like to hear you guys discuss Romulus.
I personally love PROMETHEUS, it's my favorite film in the franchise, I love the concepts and lore despite the weak execution.
I have ALIEN in 2nd place, followed by ALIENS and then COVENANT. I don't count Alien 3 and 4 since I loathe them and I hope they're cut from canon. xD
Keep up the great work James.
Side note: We're gonna have a Blasphemous announcement really soon, I hope it's a Crisanta-chan DLC. xD
Nice! I'll have to dust my copy of the game. Definitely one of the best Metroidvanias I've ever played. On a side note, I've just recently discovered some cool content where people are playing updated NES games that convert games like Zelda II and Castlevania into full blown open world RPGs like Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. Those games will never die.
BTW: I fell out of my chair when you proclaimed Prometheus to be your personal favorite.
@@geekinwithJamesHancock That's awesome, I loved playing Mega Drive II (here in Europe that's how we called it) Castlevania: Bloodlines was my first game ever, that music by Michiru Yamane is immortal, it gave the game such atmosphere.
For me Blasphemous is not only the best metroidvania game I've played but it's also one of my all time fav games. I prefer 1 over 2 but I'm so down for a story continuation with Crisanta or whomever.
Regarding Prometheus, yes, I recognize the many many faults of the film, but the goddamn engineers are such a cool concept and David is my favorite character in the entire franchise, he's so interesting as is Peter Weyland. It's a shame they screwed with the original script and made it worse with horrible character decisions, then they made it even worse with Covenant by listening to fans asking for more xenomorphs...sigh...
I'm still very much looking forward to Romulus and the tv series. But I still want an end to David's story, I sincerely hope we get it.
True story. The maternity ward scene in AVP Requiem resulted in the most walk-outs I have ever experienced in a movie theater. The second to the rape scene in the remake of The Hills Have Eyes.
Wish you could of discussed the moment they enter the tomb in Prometheus. That’s the best bit.
They cast Guy Pearce originally because David visits Wayland in his cryo-state to keep him updated on the mission, and he sees himself as a young man in those scenes.
Lmaooo! The pee break music is from Shadowrun! 🤣 SNES?
Awesome conversation and I am so glad that Sam Kieth and James Stokoe Alien comics got a shout out. There's also a Sam Kieth alien short story from Dark Horse Presents collected as Inhuman Condition. If you can find it there's also a Dave Gibbons and Mike Mignola Kevin Nowlan Alien Salvation comicl
Nice! Thanks for the heads up. I'm always down to read anything with art by any of those guys.
2 weeks…I’m going to Lincoln Square IMAX . Excited
Perfect place to see it. I took my dad and younger brother there last week to see Deadpool & Wolverine. No other screen in NYC can compare.
My buddy Trevor recommended Alien: Dead Orbit to me a while back. I'll have to follow through on it.
Well worth hunting down. Gnarly trade paperback. Now a proud owner.
Furiosa is my favourite Mad Max then Fury Road then Mad Max 2.
Great podcast. Wish you had spent more time talking about Alien 1979 (masterpiece).
I think I rank Mad Max as follows: Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior, Mad Max, Mad Max: Fury Road, Furiosa, Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome. That said I loved Furiosa. Here's my review: th-cam.com/video/oY-9rEb-ZbI/w-d-xo.html
You're totally right about Alien. We bit off a little more than we could chew given the time constraints, lol.
I love that Ripley is the reason why Burke sent people out to find the alien craft, but having Newt just happen to be part of it seems beneath the brilliance of James Cameron. It was his idea and it was his idea to cut it, so that still makes him brilliant lol
I need to see Kessler review monster hunter from 2020.
That might take his loyalty to the breaking point. Not sure if I've heard opine on that one yet.
Alien 4 is an underrated gem. Clouded by conscious, remorse or delusions of morality (of its haters and naysayers).
The gorgeous Sanaa Lathan is the main reason I watched Alien vs Predator lol
what is the full chronological in universe order you watched the movies in? can you share pls
Battle of the bookshelfs
I think Kessler's entire home consists of nothing but bookshelves of horrible monstrosities.
Due to time constraints I had to stop at 1:20, but this makes me want to re-visit Alens v. Predator, because I'm only used to the videogame hahaha...the coin-op took too much of my time, and I feel the film will be a lot less violent. I'm kind of off on this series to be honest, for me it's Alien, Aliens then Alien3 is kind of off in its own world and I don't care enough about the rest to watch them consistently, but maybe over the rest of year I'll give them a chance.
Aliens Dark Descent is a damn good game as well.
I would love to see a final Prometheus/ covenant movie
Hi James let us know what you think when you finish the Thrawn trilogy i read the books when they were new and picked up the audio books years ago and revisit them every few year's. I ended up with a huge SW audio collection before Disney took over that's when i called it a day. Oh yeh i also collected every Terry Pratchett discworld audio novel the mans a legend😄
Really enjoying the Heir to the Empire audiobook. Great voice acting, music, etc. and it blows my mind how effortlessly entertaining the story is. Light years beyond anything being done by Disney.
A deep Wrong Reel podcast on the Alien franchise is something I really needed.
AvP didn’t Peter Weyland also die in Prometheus? AvP Requiem was the inspiration for the Game of Thrones Long Night episode. Not in a good way. Prometheus can thank Damon Lindelof for the stupid space Cobra scene. The smartest dumb scientists ever. Still I loved the lore of the Engineers. Alien Covenant basically reveals a paranoid android is the father of the xenomorphs?!? Alien is perfection in horror science fiction: Wrong place. Wrong time. Alien$ is perfection in action and science fiction. Alien 3 worked better as a wooden space prison. Alien Resurrection felt like the prequel to Earthwar that never happened.
Alien Romulus doesn’t have to re-invent the wheel. Just good textbook horror. 👍
I'm rooting hard for Romulus. The good news is that it just needs to get on base to be superior to Covenant. Huge fan of Fassbender's David, but there are certain questions and mysteries that were far more profound to me before Prometheus and Covenant ever got made.
Many thanks for the kind words about the video!
Yes, one of the biggest problems with modern movie (and media) production is an almost slavish attention to continuity and forced tie-ins to better franchise entries. Focusing on self-contained, tight storytelling and scripting is what big budget Hollywood should be doing. If there was any artistic integrity in LA left, they'd put Jimmy in charge of a studio and let him go hogwild.
Come on James, time to save cinema and start your own production company. A24 needs help!
If I ever find a briefcase full of cash in the back of a taxi cab, I'll immediately splurge on a slate of wildly inappropriate genre content. That's a promise!
Great work guys💚🇬🇧🌱 could be brothers? Definitely going for the same look🤣😂 I'm going to binge some alien content today🫶
Nice! I did the same. Even after talking about the topic for nearly 3 hours I had to go back and watch the first half of Aliens for the billionth time.
You have been killing it lately. It's hard sometimes because you are a harsh critique. I took i personally that you made fun of Episode 1. But time heals all wounds. I am glad I hung in there because the HOuse of Dragons, Rebel Moon, Con news and a few other videos have been firing on all cylinders. Great channel, although I am a bit flummoxed about your Star Wars takes. Agree to disagree.
Well I'm currently relishing some Star Wars content listening to the audiobook of Timothy Zahn's 'Heir to the Empire'. Features music, sound FX and killer voice work by Marc Thompson. Most fun I've had with Star Wars in a long time. Thanks for sticking with the channel and being patient when I talk a little trash.
James, you should at least be a film professor at a prestigious film school. Or become a show runner. You have the chops brother.
Couldn’t agree more with what you both say about writers and directors trying to erase or forget past films just to pander to an audience. Alien 3 happened, Newt and Hicks died, just deal with it.
It's fucked up that some filmmakers feel like they can just erase other filmmaker's movies. If the past is inconvenient to them, then they can just write something new which is always the best idea.
I like the look of Prometheus a ton, parts of the story were not good but Covenant went off the rails (terrible film).
AvP was great like Freddy vs Jason was great. Like both of those films.
Quick philosophical question, which was superior, AVP or Freddy vs Jason?
@@geekinwithJamesHancock Freddy v Jason was the more entertaining film, story was kind of wacky tho but out of necessity. Lol.
for me, the worst of the Alien/ Predator franchise is Predator 2.
Can’t wait to watch this. Both covenant and prometheus were fails by Ridley Scott. Raised more questions than it answered each had interesting parts but the sum of the whole didn’t work for me. Her delivering that Alien hybred thing was gruesome yet entertaining
I'm not a fan of those flicks either, but Prometheus at least has some scenes that I enjoy. I much prefer to see franchises slowly but surely work their forward instead of tackling essential mysteries through prequels.
Twins 2
If Arnie and DeVito never make it, I'm game.
Only our mother could tell us apart.
The Alien franchise is just like the Terminator franchise because the first two films are stone cold classics but all else ranges from mediocre to terrible.
I have a lot more love for Alien 3 and Alien Resurrection than for later entries in the Terminator franchise but both franchises could have easily called it a wrap after 2 movies.