June 08, 2012[i]. Ripley, you are responsible for the best and the worst of the series.[/i]
You mean RiDley... Ellen Ripley didn't direct it :)
[i]The idea of a humanoid alien species created life on Earth is so damn ludicrious that should have never made the first draft. To insinuiate that the Space Jockey underneath is a huge humanoid creature resembling us spoils the series even more.[/i]
We have to suspend what we know about DNA and evolution as well, the DNA was broken into fragments, and billions of years later, the chance of anything looking like the Engineers is astronomically unlikely.
It also takes away from the utter strangeness of the space jockey, but it's necessary to go with the mythology theme of "Prometheus" and fire from the gods.... which is Lindelhofs entire script really. I think it's a lazy idea held by someone who thinks it's a huge concept.
[i]Fassenbender did a good job as an android but Ash (Ian Holm) and Bishop (Lance Henricksen) were much better. They should have went with a female robot this time around and actually Vickers could have played that part than trying to match Paul Reiser's Burke character in Aliens.
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I disagree that it would be better with Vickers should have been an android, or that she was trying to match Paul Reiser's Burke. In fairness Burke was a slimeball, Vickers is visibly upset and concerned for the crew at times, but she doesn't show it in big ways cos she's got this whole control thing going on.
[i]Also, able to breathe on the planet was ridiculous. At least in Aliens, it made it plausible that the planet was breathable since in the future, humans can now terra form planets and make them breathable.
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It's not really ridiculous. The planet may have been at one time a thriving colony, that was later devastated by war, hence the hardened underground bunkers for the ships and the WMD labs, and the need to create a breathable environment inside. A giant atmosphere processor to do the whole planet would be an easy target.
This could solve a mystery of why the Engineers, if they created life on earth for 'good reasons' pointed the way to a place of death.... all we know is the cave paintings are 35,000 years old, and the Engineers working on the WMDs died 2,000 years ago, so perhaps LV-223 was more than just those bunkers and temples when the last Engineers visited Earth.
I find it a bit odd that they chose Carbon Monoxide as the pollutant, as it breaks down readily in the atmosphere to from CO2 and ozone, and it's lighter than air. Perhaps the planet has a lot of volcanic activity, but CO is lighter than air, so shouldn't be in 3% concentrations at ground level surely?
[i]It seems the movie was purposely sabotaged for some reason.[/i]
I don't think so. I think it was a great director working with a crap writer, and unfortunately, Ridley not being much on scripts, didn't smell the crap dripping from it.
With any film like Alien (1979) there can be problems. Alien did NOT set itself up for a sequel... much as studios would like to milk success. What Cameron did right was have a very credible reason to revisit LV 426, and reopen the story.
Alien 3 did not have this, except by simply ignoring the unlikelihood that the Queen got a chance to lay an egg on the Sulaco... and that Ripley, having been through enough crap, was NEVER going to sleep again without checking every dark corner for nasty creatures.
And Resurrection? Awful.. Ripley incinerated herself, and they clone her? From what sample?
So, Ridley Scott is looking for someone to come up with a reason to re-enter this universe without making the mistakes that Alien 3 and Alien Resurrection did in their premises.
I'm sure it looked good on paper, and the giant, greek statue looking Engineers looked impressive on scene one... but the idea of exogenesis is just so much hokum... which Alien and Aliens never had.
Why not simply have a new generation pick up on what the Weyland Yutani Corp already knew about this creature from the first 4 films.... and base an expedition on that?
There's no reason that this has to pre-date the timeframe of "Alien" unless some action in the next installment leads to the crash on LV-426... which would have to clear up some other chronology issues (perhaps Dallas's idea that the Space Jockey was 'fossilised' by thousands of years is just wrong, because he thinks that exo-suit is its skin (and anyway, where would the minerals, dust come from to fossilie it? There's little to nothing blowing in from outside. )
It would have been simpler to carry on the struggle between caring humans who want to do away with nasty aliens and their space jockey creators, versus greedy corporate types who want it for bioweapons division.
It would make it easier to explain the much better looking technology too.
(Even taking into account that the Prometheus may be cutting edge for 2093 and Nostromo may be already an old mining vessel, possibly older than the Prometheus, the difference in technology is sharp... low definition monitors etc)
But someone either couldn't come up with a story, and went with a lazy - "lets involve religion and mythology line" and/or wanted to touch on some rosetta stones for the franchise... Meet the famous Weyland for example...
Thus Lindelhof decided to add an old mythology onto a perfectly good (and scientifically credible) mythological universe that we've already bought into as the Alien series. And make the film about philosophy of 'why are we here, and he fails to put a decent story around that concept.
I'm not sure if it's worse than Resurrection. I thought resurrection was a circle jerk in that they decided to have fun and hit a lot of buttons, Ripley is reborn as a kick ass clone, with telepathic connections to the Xenomorphs, and a suggestion of some sort of sexual experience with them. This is after Alien 3 has her self sacrifice by diving in a crucifiction pose into fire... which all seemed far too contrived for my taste.
This film has an awful premise, and weak story, which I suspect is down to lack of talent, and effort, and a priority in setting things up for a sequel, where it's hoped to push this 'big question' further. In my opinion, they are trying our patience with this 'big question' by sacrificing the quality of this film to set up the next.
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