The Wife and I just saw it at the IMax. We both loved it.
Amazingly enough it is both an Alien origin story as well as a completely fresh Sci-fi story.
It tells the full story of the Derelict craft on LV426 and tells us where the Aliens came from….but it answers these questions with more questions.
It also LOOKED really good both with the huge screen, as well as the 3D which was never overbearing. Just everything had a tangible texture and depth. Add that to being three stories tall, that’s a special slice of awesome.
Add to it that I’ve been a hardcore Alien fan since my parents would let me watch such “Scary” things, and I’m in heaven!
Thanks for the review, It’s definitely on the must see list 🙂
Guess I’ll see it when it comes to United…LOL
You know you travel too much when your movie theater of choice starts the showing when you reach 30,000 ft…
While I love the “4th” movie…I don’t consider it canon. I refuse to watch the 3rd “prison” movie.
Also, apparently, Joss Whedon wrote a great script for an Alien movie and its online. I think it was Whedon.
I’d love to see more movies set in that universe. They hinted at so much. And if they must use the universe in the 4th movie, my question is….why do they have such a huge military? Why do they need the aliens as weapons? The aliens are bad enough. What’s out there that they’re REALLY afraid of?
Joss Wrote the 3rd Movie, and I think many would agree that the crew of the smuggling ship “Betty” is essentially a darker more sinister version of the smuggling ship “Serenity”. I consider it Cannon, but really the Cannon gets stretched pretty far by the 3rd film. And Resurrection is really weak.
The 3rd one is one of my faves (I debate between Aliens and Alien3 on which I love more) It has some of the most complex characters, a really interesting story line, and with David Fincher at the helm, hands down the best cinematography. I’d say its worth a watch.
Also note that the Alien movies are just like any good zombie movie. They aren’t ABOUT the Aliens its about how the people REACT to the aliens. The beasties are just a foil in these movies, its all about human nature.
Also you may or may not be aware (and it gets referenced a lot in Prometheus) is the Aliens are gene manipulators. That’s what makes them so deadly is they adapt to the environment that their host lives in. That also might be some interest to Weyland Yutani.
Plus there more stuff in the new film to think about. Nothing gets answered, just a lot of stuff gets built upon.
My problem with the last two movies is that Ripley is “impregnated” by the alien.
Exactly how did that happen?
The queen ripped her reproductive organs off when she attacked Ripley. Then, she’s on a spacecraft that’s in vacuum. Then she’s fighting and killed.
So, where does the alien come from?
When I heard that S. Weaver didn’t want to play Ripley anymore, I pictured a great movie taking place on a habitat in orbit around Earth. Hicks and Newt are there. It all goes to hell, and as the aliens somehow get ready to infest Earth, Ripley blows up the station, saying, “We have to nuke it IN orbit. Its the only way to be sure.”
Instead, a movie about a prison planet, unarmed prisoners, and an infected Ripley. Plus an alien that came from….where? What delayed Ripley’s “emergence?”
Well in 3 allegedly (tho 3 is the first film to break Alien morphology cannon) the queen dropped a few eggs when she stormed the Sulaco, and when Ripley, Hicks, and Ripley got face-hugged while in Cryo-sleep by a “Queen Facehugger” which is straight up bullshit IMHO.
Still Alien Resurrection that bit makes perfect sense. The Aliens sample the host’s genes to adapt to their environment. So when Ripley had her “physical” in the Escape Pod while feeling sick on Fury 161, the pod took a sample of her DNA, and Weyland Yutani got a copy of the data.
So when they cloned her, they cloned the Alien…tho the data was fucked up, so the Ripley clone became part Alien, and the Alien was more human. Kinda messed up, but it makes sense.
And I rather liked the setting of a prison planet with “Prisoners” who refused to return to Earth once their sentence was up.
Yarrr… eye candy indeed. Pity about the plot, complete lack thereof.
Also good to see that Microsoft is still around in the future, with their upgrade to the autodoc to handle female patients still in the pipeline.
I would disagree with the “lack of plot”, and just again say it answers a LOT of questions with many BIGGER questions.
The overall plot is one of humans seeking their makers…with an Android who knows and frequently speaks to HIS makers…
I’m still trying to sort through my feelings about it. I think I need to see it again.
I will say that it is the first SF movie that really stirred my sense of wonder since I saw 2001: A Space Odyssey. (And that was on TV in the late 70’s/early 80’s.)
Also, I have to say: “Yo, String, where the aliens at?”
There is a bit of 2001 in it, but rather than talking about humanity as we know it, its more talking about humanity of the Alien universe.
My interest waned pretty sharply when I read that it started as an Aliens prequel but “became something else”. I’m still intrigued, but not enough to pay theater prices. I’ll watch for it on Netflix, Redbox, or Amazon streaming.
On a related note, I have pretty much decided that I’m going to have to get a Roku box when funds permit. My Blue Ray player will do Netflix and Hulu, but it sounds like a Roku will be very much superior.
I’m such a hardcore fan that I was going to watch this in the theater. That being said I generally ONLY watch movies at home, or at the IMax because there is nothing gained except time for theater watching, and its expensive, and I generally have to pee before the film is over, and most theater seats suck. Not to mention the issue of getting to the theater in time and either cutting things close, or waiting in a theater for stuff to start.
Yeah it is overall a movie that is not exactly about the creatures in the other films, and I rather liked it. It easily could have been a separate series (or a tangential series…like the Predator movies where in the 2nd *horrible* film it was mentioned that the Predators hunt the Aliens, as well as other alien species) but I’m glad its not.
This is the point at which I drive everyone crazy by talking about how wonderful the local Alamo Drafthouse chain of cinemas is.
Is this one of those dinner cinemas? I once took a lady-friend to see Kenneth Branagh’s production of Hamlet at a dinner cinema. I wasn’t a huge fan of the production (I’m more partial to the more Medieval setting say in the Mel Gibson production, vs the Victorian setting by Branagh…and I don’t feel that quoting EVERY line of the play is necessary for telling the story) but damn that was a nice way to watch a film. Big screen, good sound (back in the days when CRT screens were small, and projection TVs suck, and surround-sound home systems sucked and were expensive) comfy seats, we made a meal of it (I wasn’t of drinking age then, but if I were I could have had a beer or three), and there was an intermission for me to empty ye olde piss-tank.
I’ve seen a ton of those places go out of business. Not sure if its a great business model, or just a sign of the times where it seems every major city has an abandoned movie theater.
Still I like to eat, and I love movies, and I gotta pee, I like this model.
Still its hard to beat having some burgers on the patio, then retiring to the bedroom or the movie room for a good watch.
“Is this one of those dinner cinemas?”
Not so much one of those, but they do have a pretty good food selection. You could have dinner at one, and they sometimes even do special movie/dinner combos. They also have an extensive beer selection.
“I’ve seen a ton of those places go out of business.”
Ours seem to be doing quite well. But the big thing for me isn’t the food and drink; it is that they’re really serious about the movie-going experience. The stuff they show before the movie starts is always (somehow) related to the movie, not just promotional advertising. I never have to worry about being subjected to a commercial (house ads and previews of coming attractions excepted). And they WILL kick you out if you’re talking during the movie or using your cellphone or otherwise being disruptive.
I don’t have a home theater, so either I see movies at the homes of friends, I go to an Alamo Drafthouse, or I don’t go.
Sounds pretty awesome. BTW if you watch a lot of movies look into a system. We don’t have a very big room for it, and we decided to get a more inexpensive all-in-one single-disk system, and the setup wasn’t that much, and BOY does it change the experience. Now only the IMax competes with my home system, because my moderate LED TV I got on sale 10 feet away with surround sound looks and sounds just as good as the big cinneplex siting 10 rows back. But I didn’t pay $20 for the wife and I to get in, the popcorn is practically free, and I’m sipping single-malt.
And when the rental term on the scotch is up, I hit the pause button and go take a leak!
“…if you watch a lot of movies look into a system”
My problems are:
* I live in an apartment.
* I don’t even have a digital TV. My TV is a 32″ tube TV that I haven’t even bothered to connect the converter box to. (I have a USB digital TV receiver that I use to watch TV on my laptop.)
* Every time I look at purchasing a digital TV, I look at the price tag and think, “For that much money, I could get a K-22 Combat Masterpiece with box, tools, and papers!”
LV-223 is the setting for Prometheus.
LV-426 is the setting for Alien and Aliens.
Yep, you don’t actually see THE Derelict or THE Space Jockey from Alien/Aliens.
But you can do the math pretty easily on what happened. (and I think we can assume LV 426 is another moon of the gas giant that LV 223 orbits….tho some of the dialogue doesn’t add up with the visual effects scene, as they call LV 223 a “Planet”, meanwhile you SEE it as a moon orbiting a gas giant with rings.)
Or they’re completely different systems.
It’s an important plot point that they aren’t the same ball of rock. People who didn’t notice have been complaining that the Space Cowboy wasn’t in his chair when he died.
What makes you think they’re different systems? The Ringed Gas Giant LV-223 is orbiting looks very similar to the one LV-426 is orbiting. I know nothing about generic planet naming, but I assume that “LV” is the star that they’re orbiting….but I guess it could be a constellation name, which really doesn’t mean crap as far as proximity goes.