The Last Supper
February 23, 2017 3:45 AM Subscribe
...given the cast features James Franco and Danny McBride, is it safe to assume the Alien will be played by Michael Cera?
posted by leotrotsky at 4:09 AM on February 23, 2017 [25 favorites]
posted by leotrotsky at 4:09 AM on February 23, 2017 [25 favorites]
Soooo... Are two of these yahoos Newt's parents, or is this a different colonization trip attacked by xenomorphs?
posted by AlonzoMosleyFBI at 4:17 AM on February 23, 2017 [3 favorites]
posted by AlonzoMosleyFBI at 4:17 AM on February 23, 2017 [3 favorites]
The "Alien" franchise is an American horror film series that depicts majority-white populations in their battles with undocumented alien lifeform(s), portrayed as extremely violent and sadistic animals (with insectoid and lizard-like attributes) that attempt to infiltrate majority-white American societies, mutilating the inhabitants thereof in order to breed and feed their young. The film series makes extensive use of (and develops an advanced mythology around) fears of invasion by, and the abhorrent sexuality of, foreigners - who are characterised as demonic animals lacking in technological development and language, but with immense strength and cunning. The white heroes and heroines of the Alien films must battle against seemingly endless attempts by the aliens to pierce their borders (and their white bodies), as the entire life-cycle of the undocumented aliens is portrayed as requiring the infiltration of American societies and the (sexualized) destruction of white American flesh. The films are thus considered a quintessential expression of white American culture in the early 21st century period.
posted by the quidnunc kid at 4:27 AM on February 23, 2017 [78 favorites]
posted by the quidnunc kid at 4:27 AM on February 23, 2017 [78 favorites]
So we are building a border wall to keep the Xenomorphs out?
posted by killdevil at 4:33 AM on February 23, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by killdevil at 4:33 AM on February 23, 2017 [1 favorite]
Is it just me, or does James Franco lack the gravitas to be a captain? I mean, Tom Skerritt, Idris Elba, heck, even Michael Wincott had that certain something, a feeling of authority that I just don't recognize in Franco. I guess I'm just saying I'd find it hard to take orders from James Franco.
posted by valkane at 4:44 AM on February 23, 2017 [10 favorites]
posted by valkane at 4:44 AM on February 23, 2017 [10 favorites]
In space there's no such thing as a dead horse.
posted by hawthorne at 4:49 AM on February 23, 2017 [34 favorites]
posted by hawthorne at 4:49 AM on February 23, 2017 [34 favorites]
Cheers. In light of recent space discoveries this is nonsense. Pure escapism, what the hell, let's get drunk.
posted by unliteral at 5:09 AM on February 23, 2017
posted by unliteral at 5:09 AM on February 23, 2017
In light of recent space discoveries this is nonsense
Did they prove that Predators would have wiped out the xenomorphs?
posted by thelonius at 5:18 AM on February 23, 2017 [8 favorites]
Did they prove that Predators would have wiped out the xenomorphs?
posted by thelonius at 5:18 AM on February 23, 2017 [8 favorites]
Someday, somebody will make a science fiction film as good as the original ALIEN, something gritty, with working-class subtexts, an amazing atmosphere and sense of place, maybe even some real dramatic tension and characters that fascinate.
Michael Fassbender is working hard to be the new Christopher Walken, at least in the sense of being the best thing to watch in a crappy movie, I think.
posted by KHAAAN! at 5:19 AM on February 23, 2017 [18 favorites]
Michael Fassbender is working hard to be the new Christopher Walken, at least in the sense of being the best thing to watch in a crappy movie, I think.
posted by KHAAAN! at 5:19 AM on February 23, 2017 [18 favorites]
The "Alien" franchise is an American horror film series that depicts majority-white populations in their battles with undocumented alien lifeform(s)... The film series makes extensive use of (and develops an advanced mythology around) fears of invasion by, and the abhorrent sexuality of, foreigners
Heh, I just rewatched the official trailer and found myself rooting for the alien.
posted by Borborygmus at 5:20 AM on February 23, 2017 [2 favorites]
Heh, I just rewatched the official trailer and found myself rooting for the alien.
posted by Borborygmus at 5:20 AM on February 23, 2017 [2 favorites]
Someday, somebody will make a science fiction film as good as the original ALIEN
The key is, it's a horror movie, not a science-fiction movie (like the second half of 2001)
posted by thelonius at 5:21 AM on February 23, 2017 [3 favorites]
The key is, it's a horror movie, not a science-fiction movie (like the second half of 2001)
posted by thelonius at 5:21 AM on February 23, 2017 [3 favorites]
The films are thus considered a quintessential expression of white American culture in the early 21st century period.
But Charles S. Dutton! Haha, checkmate! Your theory is bad!
Wait, he's a prisoner. Fuck.
posted by middleclasstool at 5:25 AM on February 23, 2017 [10 favorites]
But Charles S. Dutton! Haha, checkmate! Your theory is bad!
Wait, he's a prisoner. Fuck.
posted by middleclasstool at 5:25 AM on February 23, 2017 [10 favorites]
Heh, I just rewatched the official trailer and found myself rooting for the alien.
James Cameron's Avatar (which looks to be the major project of his career, as reports have him shooting up to four sequels at the same time) has been compared to numerous other movies (FernGully, Pocahontas, Dances with Wolves, etc.), but in the context of Cameron's own career, I think it makes the most sense as a remake of Aliens in which the space marines are the bad guys.
posted by Halloween Jack at 5:30 AM on February 23, 2017 [3 favorites]
James Cameron's Avatar (which looks to be the major project of his career, as reports have him shooting up to four sequels at the same time) has been compared to numerous other movies (FernGully, Pocahontas, Dances with Wolves, etc.), but in the context of Cameron's own career, I think it makes the most sense as a remake of Aliens in which the space marines are the bad guys.
posted by Halloween Jack at 5:30 AM on February 23, 2017 [3 favorites]
Alternatively it's a pro choice film about rape culture. See Noomi 's medbay scene.
posted by leotrotsky at 5:30 AM on February 23, 2017 [4 favorites]
posted by leotrotsky at 5:30 AM on February 23, 2017 [4 favorites]
Yeah, that na'vi chestburster scene was unforgettable; glowing blue stuff everywhere.
posted by leotrotsky at 5:33 AM on February 23, 2017 [4 favorites]
posted by leotrotsky at 5:33 AM on February 23, 2017 [4 favorites]
The "Alien" franchise is an American horror film series that depicts majority-white populations in their battles with undocumented alien lifeform(s)...
Watching this trailer/preview/thing and I'm amazed that it's almost forty years later and there's still only one person of color on the ship?
posted by octothorpe at 5:38 AM on February 23, 2017 [5 favorites]
Watching this trailer/preview/thing and I'm amazed that it's almost forty years later and there's still only one person of color on the ship?
posted by octothorpe at 5:38 AM on February 23, 2017 [5 favorites]
My computer or internet are failing me, and I can't see the trailer. But I went to an Alien marathon while I was expecting my firstborn, and I've always since thought it was a documentary series about pregnancy, although the setting was a bit weird.
posted by mumimor at 5:38 AM on February 23, 2017 [10 favorites]
posted by mumimor at 5:38 AM on February 23, 2017 [10 favorites]
Michael Wincott is part and parcel of one of film's worst bad movie tropes: The Big Hit Bag Of Guns fallacy. In the Big Hit (which is a horrible Marky Mark movie about hit men) Marky loads up a duffel bag full of guns, which he then ends up dropping in a clumsy manner, and none of the guns ever get used. Meanwhile, Michael Wincott, whose voice is immediately the best thing in any movie he's ever in and his team of badass smugglers are the worst Bag of Guns I've ever seen, with Wincott Hudsoned by the first alien they come across, and CSI guy with the guns gets his face eaten by acid at first opportunity. Meh, I sez.
And yet, Resurrection is still better than Prometheus.
posted by Ghidorah at 5:40 AM on February 23, 2017 [5 favorites]
And yet, Resurrection is still better than Prometheus.
posted by Ghidorah at 5:40 AM on February 23, 2017 [5 favorites]
I'm gonna go hang around the theater as people are coming out and be all like SO DID YOU ENJOY YOUR RACIST COLONIALIST PATRIARCHAL NARRATIVE. It's not culture-jamming so much as culture-buzzkilling... who's with me?
posted by Sing Or Swim at 5:41 AM on February 23, 2017 [13 favorites]
posted by Sing Or Swim at 5:41 AM on February 23, 2017 [13 favorites]
...given the cast features James Franco and Danny McBride, is it safe to assume the Alien will be played by Michael Cera?
INT. COVENANT SHIP - STORAGE ROOM
DANIELS hurriedly rushes in, looking for medical supplies for BRANSON. She doesn't notice CERALIEN standing awkwardly off to the side. CERALIEN startles, immediately seeing her but not sure how to indicate he's in the room.
CERALIEN
(hopefully)
...uh, hi.
DANIELS turns slowly, sees CERALIEN, freezes terrified, eyes wide.
CERALIEN
(continuing bravely)
...Looking for medicine huh? Me, too! Allergies. This ship is just so dusty! I can't go for like two minutes withou-
CERALIEN SNEEZES, sending a fine spray of acidic saliva all over DANIELS. DANIELS begins to WHIMPER from the pain.
CERALIEN
(concerned)
Oh God! Oh God, I'm so sorry. This always happens! Here, I've got some tissues.
CERALIEN moves quickly to help. DANIELS scampers backward in fear.
CERALIEN
(anxiously)
Wait, they're mostly clean, I swear!
DANIELS turns to run, not noticing the STEEL GIRDER on the floor behind her. She stumbles, falls against the INLET HOSE of an INDUSTRIAL VACUUM. CERALIEN moves towards her, ALSO trips on STEEL GIRDER. As he clumsily falls his tail slaps against RED 'ON' SWITCH of INDUSTRIAL VACUUM. DANIELS is instantly disembowled.
CERALIEN
(concerned)
...are you alright?
CERALIEN places tissues in hand of clearly dead DANIELS
CERALIEN
I'll just leave these with you, OK?
CERALIEN stands next to body for uncomfortably long time, then begins to retreat into the shadows.
CERALIEN
So, uh, I'm gonna go now. Um, bye! Nice meeting you!
posted by leotrotsky at 6:15 AM on February 23, 2017 [36 favorites]
INT. COVENANT SHIP - STORAGE ROOM
DANIELS hurriedly rushes in, looking for medical supplies for BRANSON. She doesn't notice CERALIEN standing awkwardly off to the side. CERALIEN startles, immediately seeing her but not sure how to indicate he's in the room.
CERALIEN
(hopefully)
...uh, hi.
DANIELS turns slowly, sees CERALIEN, freezes terrified, eyes wide.
CERALIEN
(continuing bravely)
...Looking for medicine huh? Me, too! Allergies. This ship is just so dusty! I can't go for like two minutes withou-
CERALIEN SNEEZES, sending a fine spray of acidic saliva all over DANIELS. DANIELS begins to WHIMPER from the pain.
CERALIEN
(concerned)
Oh God! Oh God, I'm so sorry. This always happens! Here, I've got some tissues.
CERALIEN moves quickly to help. DANIELS scampers backward in fear.
CERALIEN
(anxiously)
Wait, they're mostly clean, I swear!
DANIELS turns to run, not noticing the STEEL GIRDER on the floor behind her. She stumbles, falls against the INLET HOSE of an INDUSTRIAL VACUUM. CERALIEN moves towards her, ALSO trips on STEEL GIRDER. As he clumsily falls his tail slaps against RED 'ON' SWITCH of INDUSTRIAL VACUUM. DANIELS is instantly disembowled.
CERALIEN
(concerned)
...are you alright?
CERALIEN places tissues in hand of clearly dead DANIELS
CERALIEN
I'll just leave these with you, OK?
CERALIEN stands next to body for uncomfortably long time, then begins to retreat into the shadows.
CERALIEN
So, uh, I'm gonna go now. Um, bye! Nice meeting you!
posted by leotrotsky at 6:15 AM on February 23, 2017 [36 favorites]
Ridley Scott should do everyone a favor and stop making movies.
posted by codacorolla at 6:15 AM on February 23, 2017 [5 favorites]
posted by codacorolla at 6:15 AM on February 23, 2017 [5 favorites]
The "Alien" franchise is an American horror film series that depicts majority-white populations in their battles with undocumented alien lifeform(s), portrayed as extremely violent and sadistic animals...
good job but you forgot to mention the brownface in the second film as well the organic actors taking roles that should have been played by synthetic humans and
please.... kill.. me...
posted by entropicamericana at 6:18 AM on February 23, 2017 [2 favorites]
good job but you forgot to mention the brownface in the second film as well the organic actors taking roles that should have been played by synthetic humans and
please.... kill.. me...
posted by entropicamericana at 6:18 AM on February 23, 2017 [2 favorites]
Well, the politics *I* want to see in an ALIEN movie are more of the class tensions. My read of the first movie was Parker, Brett, and Lambert being the working stiffs, Dallas, Ripley, and Kane as management, and Ash as that dude from corporate headquarters, poking his nose in to find fault and generally fuck things up for everybody else.
There was so much more going on in that movie than the chest bursters and acid for blood.
posted by KHAAAN! at 6:20 AM on February 23, 2017 [19 favorites]
There was so much more going on in that movie than the chest bursters and acid for blood.
posted by KHAAAN! at 6:20 AM on February 23, 2017 [19 favorites]
Alien is the best film about office politics ever made.
posted by dng at 6:30 AM on February 23, 2017 [29 favorites]
posted by dng at 6:30 AM on February 23, 2017 [29 favorites]
I was happy for a minute because I thought this was going to be the first trailer -- I'd forgotten that I already saw the first trailer back in December. Which speaks to my overall level of post-Prometheus excitement for this franchise, even in Scott's hands.
posted by doctornecessiter at 7:04 AM on February 23, 2017
posted by doctornecessiter at 7:04 AM on February 23, 2017
It's sort of amazing that they've been making these films for 38 years now but haven't managed to make a good one since '86.
posted by octothorpe at 7:16 AM on February 23, 2017 [3 favorites]
posted by octothorpe at 7:16 AM on February 23, 2017 [3 favorites]
Yeah, don't get the first Alien film mixed up with the rest of the series. The first film was about the working class getting fucked, hard, by the military industrial complex. (It was also a feminist nightmare about the violation of bodily integrity, capped by a sequence where its hero gets the upper hand on her stalker and blasts that fucker into outer space.) James Cameron decided to approach the story as a war movie, complete with a fetishization of military hardware, and that's where the inherent xenophobia of the concept starts to become potentially #problematic.
posted by Mothlight at 7:17 AM on February 23, 2017 [16 favorites]
posted by Mothlight at 7:17 AM on February 23, 2017 [16 favorites]
I continue to be irked by the irresponsible drinking and unprofessionalism of the crew in these films. Call me old fashioned, but is it too much to expect the crew of a multi-billion quatloo starship to fly sober?
Or maybe interstellar travel has become so commonplace by this time that the best of the best are no longer necessary...or maybe I'm overthinking everything again.
posted by SonInLawOfSam at 7:36 AM on February 23, 2017 [2 favorites]
Or maybe interstellar travel has become so commonplace by this time that the best of the best are no longer necessary...or maybe I'm overthinking everything again.
posted by SonInLawOfSam at 7:36 AM on February 23, 2017 [2 favorites]
Listen, I go into the space-hauling business I'm going to be slamming laser whiskeys all the time.
posted by Artw at 7:42 AM on February 23, 2017 [3 favorites]
posted by Artw at 7:42 AM on February 23, 2017 [3 favorites]
Someday, somebody will make a science fiction film as good as the original ALIEN, something gritty, with working-class subtexts, an amazing atmosphere and sense of place, maybe even some real dramatic tension and characters that fascinate.
It's called Outland.
posted by under_petticoat_rule at 7:59 AM on February 23, 2017 [18 favorites]
It's called Outland.
posted by under_petticoat_rule at 7:59 AM on February 23, 2017 [18 favorites]
I continue to be irked by the irresponsible drinking and unprofessionalism of the crew in these films. Call me old fashioned, but is it too much to expect the crew of a multi-billion quatloo starship to fly sober?
I will immodestly refer you to my "B-Ark" theory of Prometheus, with the now-prescient identification of Donald Trump as one of the people that richly deserves to be hurled at a distant and lethal planet.
posted by Shepherd at 8:05 AM on February 23, 2017 [8 favorites]
I will immodestly refer you to my "B-Ark" theory of Prometheus, with the now-prescient identification of Donald Trump as one of the people that richly deserves to be hurled at a distant and lethal planet.
posted by Shepherd at 8:05 AM on February 23, 2017 [8 favorites]
I continue to be irked by the irresponsible drinking and unprofessionalism of the crew in these films. Call me old fashioned, but is it too much to expect the crew of a multi-billion quatloo starship to fly sober?
Aren't they all about to go into suspended animation?
posted by biffa at 8:05 AM on February 23, 2017
Aren't they all about to go into suspended animation?
posted by biffa at 8:05 AM on February 23, 2017
Someday, somebody will make a science fiction film as good as the original ALIEN, something gritty, with working-class subtexts, an amazing atmosphere and sense of place, maybe even some real dramatic tension and characters that fascinate.
posted by KHAAAN! at 8:19 AM on February 23 [7 favorites +] [!]
It may not be as good as Alien, but I would make a pretty good case for "The Expanse" series running right now on SyFy.
posted by Thistledown at 8:07 AM on February 23, 2017 [13 favorites]
posted by KHAAAN! at 8:19 AM on February 23 [7 favorites +] [!]
It may not be as good as Alien, but I would make a pretty good case for "The Expanse" series running right now on SyFy.
posted by Thistledown at 8:07 AM on February 23, 2017 [13 favorites]
What kind of trailer is this? I didn't see Blade Runner anywhere.
posted by beerperson at 8:11 AM on February 23, 2017
posted by beerperson at 8:11 AM on February 23, 2017
I will immodestly refer you to my "B-Ark" theory of Prometheus, with the now-prescient identification of Donald Trump as one of the people that richly deserves to be hurled at a distant and lethal planet.
I want to favorite that post but it's at 42 and I can't quite bring myself to click the button.
posted by Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish at 8:14 AM on February 23, 2017 [7 favorites]
I want to favorite that post but it's at 42 and I can't quite bring myself to click the button.
posted by Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish at 8:14 AM on February 23, 2017 [7 favorites]
It may not be as good as Alien, but I would make a pretty good case for "The Expanse" series running right now on SyFy.
Also, the books have a passage where a villain's support among the space working class is described in exactly the terms that pundits have used to explain Donald Trump's support in 2016, except it was published in early 2015 so they're just horrifyingly prescient on class resentment.
posted by Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish at 8:17 AM on February 23, 2017 [2 favorites]
Also, the books have a passage where a villain's support among the space working class is described in exactly the terms that pundits have used to explain Donald Trump's support in 2016, except it was published in early 2015 so they're just horrifyingly prescient on class resentment.
posted by Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish at 8:17 AM on February 23, 2017 [2 favorites]
Is it just me, or does James Franco lack the gravitas to be a captain?
But...but...Spider-Man killed his dad.
posted by straight at 8:32 AM on February 23, 2017 [3 favorites]
But...but...Spider-Man killed his dad.
posted by straight at 8:32 AM on February 23, 2017 [3 favorites]
Scott Pilgrim vs The Nostromo
Scott Pilgrim vs Predator
Scott Pilgrim vs Batman
People say I'm a world-builder.
posted by zippy at 8:33 AM on February 23, 2017 [5 favorites]
Scott Pilgrim vs Predator
Scott Pilgrim vs Batman
People say I'm a world-builder.
posted by zippy at 8:33 AM on February 23, 2017 [5 favorites]
Yeah, that na'vi chestburster scene was unforgettable; glowing blue stuff everywhere.
You laugh, but the real humor is that, in contrast to the xenomorphs' reproduction cycle, the Na'vi reproduce by braiding their ponytails together, which is the sort of slumber party girl-crush expression of affection that you'd expect from a planet that's a cross between a stoner's favorite blacklight poster and Lisa Frank throwing up on everything.
posted by Halloween Jack at 8:39 AM on February 23, 2017 [15 favorites]
You laugh, but the real humor is that, in contrast to the xenomorphs' reproduction cycle, the Na'vi reproduce by braiding their ponytails together, which is the sort of slumber party girl-crush expression of affection that you'd expect from a planet that's a cross between a stoner's favorite blacklight poster and Lisa Frank throwing up on everything.
posted by Halloween Jack at 8:39 AM on February 23, 2017 [15 favorites]
OK so 40 years later this trailer got me. They were definitely playing on my expectation that something was going to come bursting out of somebody.
posted by chavenet at 8:48 AM on February 23, 2017 [3 favorites]
posted by chavenet at 8:48 AM on February 23, 2017 [3 favorites]
They're all gonna die.
posted by gwint at 8:50 AM on February 23, 2017 [3 favorites]
posted by gwint at 8:50 AM on February 23, 2017 [3 favorites]
James Cameron decided to approach the story as a war movie, complete with a fetishization of military hardware, and that's where the inherent xenophobia of the concept starts to become potentially #problematic.
Whoa, whoa, whoa. The whole point of Cameron's Aliens is that the butch-as-fuck Space Marines don't know what the Hell they're doing and all their fancy hardware is basically useless. Corporal Hicks only makes it to the finale because he doffs his armour and starts listening to the working class female civilian and the little girl who survived in the alien-infested colony longer than anybody else. There's even a role-reversal where the synthetic human, rather than being representative of corporate control and surveillance, turns out to be another exploited worker on whose solidarity Ripley must learn to rely in order to leave the planet.
Aliens is not perfect, but it's ultimately a satire of oo-rah military sci fi, not a straight example of it.
posted by tobascodagama at 9:25 AM on February 23, 2017 [47 favorites]
Whoa, whoa, whoa. The whole point of Cameron's Aliens is that the butch-as-fuck Space Marines don't know what the Hell they're doing and all their fancy hardware is basically useless. Corporal Hicks only makes it to the finale because he doffs his armour and starts listening to the working class female civilian and the little girl who survived in the alien-infested colony longer than anybody else. There's even a role-reversal where the synthetic human, rather than being representative of corporate control and surveillance, turns out to be another exploited worker on whose solidarity Ripley must learn to rely in order to leave the planet.
Aliens is not perfect, but it's ultimately a satire of oo-rah military sci fi, not a straight example of it.
posted by tobascodagama at 9:25 AM on February 23, 2017 [47 favorites]
biffa: Aren't they all about to go into suspended animation?
Yeah, and with full stomachs, so they'll all wake up feeling vaguely queasy and grouse about the food, when it was really their dumb eat-then-sleep-immediately schedule that's to blame.
posted by wenestvedt at 9:35 AM on February 23, 2017 [1 favorite]
Yeah, and with full stomachs, so they'll all wake up feeling vaguely queasy and grouse about the food, when it was really their dumb eat-then-sleep-immediately schedule that's to blame.
posted by wenestvedt at 9:35 AM on February 23, 2017 [1 favorite]
Tobasco, you were doing so well until that last sentence. Of course Aliens is perfect .
posted by biffa at 9:38 AM on February 23, 2017 [4 favorites]
posted by biffa at 9:38 AM on February 23, 2017 [4 favorites]
As for Covenant, though. I fucking loathe James Franco, so I'm hoping his sickness in this scene is a hint that he's going to die in cryosleep. If he makes it any longer than that, I'll probably just sit the movie out.
posted by tobascodagama at 9:40 AM on February 23, 2017
posted by tobascodagama at 9:40 AM on February 23, 2017
wenestvedt, my point was they aren't piloting.
posted by biffa at 9:40 AM on February 23, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by biffa at 9:40 AM on February 23, 2017 [1 favorite]
I'm stunned that the only way to watch Prometheus is to watch a fan edit. The movie as released is an incoherent mess. It's like Ridley Scott had an obsession with bubble headed spacesuits and lethal dirtstorms left in his craw after The Martian and didn't give a whit about the script or story. I'm not looking forward to this one, except for the Franco/McBride This Is The End mashups that are going to come from it.
posted by Catblack at 9:44 AM on February 23, 2017
posted by Catblack at 9:44 AM on February 23, 2017
See, right back on target with the JF hate. Here's to an early demise .
posted by biffa at 9:44 AM on February 23, 2017
posted by biffa at 9:44 AM on February 23, 2017
The Martian shows that Scott is still great with a good script. He's utterly blind to whether he has one of those or not though.
posted by Artw at 9:47 AM on February 23, 2017 [5 favorites]
posted by Artw at 9:47 AM on February 23, 2017 [5 favorites]
Artw: "The Martian shows that Scott is still great with a good script. He's utterly blind to whether he has one of those or not though."
He's a hell of a technician but it does sometimes seem like he made his best films by accident.
posted by octothorpe at 10:00 AM on February 23, 2017 [10 favorites]
He's a hell of a technician but it does sometimes seem like he made his best films by accident.
posted by octothorpe at 10:00 AM on February 23, 2017 [10 favorites]
My Prometheus Covenant predictions: No POC crew Survive. The Gay couple wont survive. Androids loyalties will be questionable.
posted by Faintdreams at 10:18 AM on February 23, 2017 [3 favorites]
posted by Faintdreams at 10:18 AM on February 23, 2017 [3 favorites]
The Martian shows that Scott is still great with a good script. He's utterly blind to whether he has one of those or not though.
Because of the degree to which I loathed The Martian it's tough to say if it was dreck because of Scott helming it, or the braindead material he was working from. I think the safest assumption is that it was a good portion of both.
posted by codacorolla at 10:25 AM on February 23, 2017 [2 favorites]
Because of the degree to which I loathed The Martian it's tough to say if it was dreck because of Scott helming it, or the braindead material he was working from. I think the safest assumption is that it was a good portion of both.
posted by codacorolla at 10:25 AM on February 23, 2017 [2 favorites]
Eh, I'm watching this for Fassbender who was born to play the role of Ambiguously Ominous Android.
posted by longdaysjourney at 10:26 AM on February 23, 2017 [5 favorites]
posted by longdaysjourney at 10:26 AM on February 23, 2017 [5 favorites]
My previous comment about Ridley Scott and his scripts
posted by kokaku at 10:35 AM on February 23, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by kokaku at 10:35 AM on February 23, 2017 [1 favorite]
Do the writers secretly want to explore AI and human interactions but have had to package it with xenomorphs the whole time?
I always remember more about the androids than I do about the humans.
posted by Slackermagee at 10:47 AM on February 23, 2017
I always remember more about the androids than I do about the humans.
posted by Slackermagee at 10:47 AM on February 23, 2017
I have to throw in with The Expanse as well. The series starting hitting on all cylinders by the last few episodes of last season and they're not letting up in the slightest.
posted by Ber at 10:52 AM on February 23, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by Ber at 10:52 AM on February 23, 2017 [1 favorite]
So we are building a border wall to keep the Xenomorphs out?
You're building it to keep you hosts from escaping.
posted by otherchaz at 10:56 AM on February 23, 2017
You're building it to keep you hosts from escaping.
posted by otherchaz at 10:56 AM on February 23, 2017
Comics readers wanting something with an Outland/Alien vibe (and some spookiness too) should check out Southern Cross.
posted by Artw at 11:02 AM on February 23, 2017 [7 favorites]
posted by Artw at 11:02 AM on February 23, 2017 [7 favorites]
Do the writers secretly want to explore AI and human interactions but have had to package it with xenomorphs the whole time?
I always remember more about the androids than I do about the humans.
I would say no.
The betrayal with Ash in the first film sticks with us because it's a second layer of body horror, I think - first we saw John Hurt's chest explode, something completely unexpected. And then suddenly Ash has a weird white fluid dribbling down his face and he's twitchy and throwing Ripley around one handed; in a film where we already have one inhuman thing that took over a body, introducing another is pretty effective.
But past that, in the films there is a running (sub)text about the idea of humanity versus that of the alien. The alien is cold and relentless, designed and focused on survival at all costs; the humans aren't - they form attachments and look for angles and deals and so forth. The androids are also an extension of this; in the first film, Ash is the sleeper agent sent precisely because he will follow orders and bring a xenomorph home; his judgment won't be clouded by emotion. In the second film, Bishop is given that shading early in the film, but by the end, it is Burke who is the problem - out of a cold profit motive. (Note that in Aliens, everything the military and corporations do makes the situation worse - it is Ripley and her desire to keep people alive at all costs that wins the day.) The third film only has a brief moment with Bishop, but the same theme is there - a bunch of losers at the ass end of the galaxy coming together to fight against an a cold, relentless alien and galaxy.
The aliens in the Alien films are monsters, yes. But so is humanity - the corporations who only see profit, the people who send Ash on his mission, our capacity to decide to screw over another human being for something we think is more important than survival of a fellow human being. The films are generally about a ragtag bunch of humans in an impossible situation and the choices they make that lead to survival - the betrayals, the sacrifices, the split second choices and what they are informed by. The androids make (generally) compelling characters precisely because we as the audience suspect they have more in common with the alien than with us as a starting point.
posted by nubs at 11:18 AM on February 23, 2017 [14 favorites]
I always remember more about the androids than I do about the humans.
I would say no.
The betrayal with Ash in the first film sticks with us because it's a second layer of body horror, I think - first we saw John Hurt's chest explode, something completely unexpected. And then suddenly Ash has a weird white fluid dribbling down his face and he's twitchy and throwing Ripley around one handed; in a film where we already have one inhuman thing that took over a body, introducing another is pretty effective.
But past that, in the films there is a running (sub)text about the idea of humanity versus that of the alien. The alien is cold and relentless, designed and focused on survival at all costs; the humans aren't - they form attachments and look for angles and deals and so forth. The androids are also an extension of this; in the first film, Ash is the sleeper agent sent precisely because he will follow orders and bring a xenomorph home; his judgment won't be clouded by emotion. In the second film, Bishop is given that shading early in the film, but by the end, it is Burke who is the problem - out of a cold profit motive. (Note that in Aliens, everything the military and corporations do makes the situation worse - it is Ripley and her desire to keep people alive at all costs that wins the day.) The third film only has a brief moment with Bishop, but the same theme is there - a bunch of losers at the ass end of the galaxy coming together to fight against an a cold, relentless alien and galaxy.
The aliens in the Alien films are monsters, yes. But so is humanity - the corporations who only see profit, the people who send Ash on his mission, our capacity to decide to screw over another human being for something we think is more important than survival of a fellow human being. The films are generally about a ragtag bunch of humans in an impossible situation and the choices they make that lead to survival - the betrayals, the sacrifices, the split second choices and what they are informed by. The androids make (generally) compelling characters precisely because we as the audience suspect they have more in common with the alien than with us as a starting point.
posted by nubs at 11:18 AM on February 23, 2017 [14 favorites]
Somehow I'd forgotten this, but back in my smart ass phase (let's be nice and say it ended in the late 90s) I managed to convince a teacher to let me do an essay on Aliens for a class project. I ended up writing about how Aliens, the Directors Cut is a film about two mothers fighting for their children. You have Ripley, who in the DC finds out that her daughter died of old age between the end of Alien and the beginning of Aliens, setting up Newt as more than a helpless kid in need of saving, but as a potential replacement for the child Ripley has lost.
I got ten pages out of that. If I added in the xenophobic and othering aspects of the film as seen through current ideas, I probably could've gotten thirty. Of course, having worked as a teacher, I guess my sympathy now is for the teacher that ended up having to read the essay in the first place.
posted by Ghidorah at 1:44 PM on February 23, 2017 [5 favorites]
I got ten pages out of that. If I added in the xenophobic and othering aspects of the film as seen through current ideas, I probably could've gotten thirty. Of course, having worked as a teacher, I guess my sympathy now is for the teacher that ended up having to read the essay in the first place.
posted by Ghidorah at 1:44 PM on February 23, 2017 [5 favorites]
I want a Prometheus fan edit where the biologist is replaced by Jar-Jar.
posted by zippy at 2:33 PM on February 23, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by zippy at 2:33 PM on February 23, 2017 [2 favorites]
Here is a sentence i never thought i would write: I laughed when she choked. Solid homage, to the first film, humor without actually being funny. Brilliant. It's an in joke where they aren't making a joke and the scene is straight. Honestly, I've never seen that in a movie.
posted by Nanukthedog at 3:00 PM on February 23, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by Nanukthedog at 3:00 PM on February 23, 2017 [2 favorites]
Wow what a hack setup. "Let's party!" with arm-wrestling and people just straight up stating what category of character they are. Just have them extruded from a machine with big labels on it at the beginning and be done with it. I hate this film so much.
posted by turbid dahlia at 3:03 PM on February 23, 2017 [3 favorites]
posted by turbid dahlia at 3:03 PM on February 23, 2017 [3 favorites]
Where the hell is Jonesy?!
posted by barkingpumpkin at 3:44 PM on February 23, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by barkingpumpkin at 3:44 PM on February 23, 2017 [1 favorite]
I said in the Tony Scott obit thread a year or so back when he died (I'm on my way home from work and can't devote the time to look for it ATM) that while Ridley's films always looked better then Tony's, they often lacked Tony's consistent ability to to tell a coherent, logical story (even if the story might be Big Dumb Fun like Top Gun or Days of Thunder).
posted by KingEdRa at 3:59 PM on February 23, 2017
posted by KingEdRa at 3:59 PM on February 23, 2017
Listen, I go into the space-hauling business I'm going to be slamming laser whiskeys all the time.
Yes! Laser whiskeys are the best thing from Resurrection and simultaneously are the fucking dumbest thing ever shown on screen. In fact that whole scene was ridiculous. Who eats a lemon like that? Why do they have fresh lemon slices but a shot of whisky comes in a military MRE pack as big as a Rubik's cube? And the whisky laser device is enormous!
Even the prop label is stupid! "Ol' Kentucky Scotch Drink" packaged in Scotland? How does laser whisky even work? What! What! *chestburster of misplaced rage*
posted by turbid dahlia at 4:01 PM on February 23, 2017 [4 favorites]
Yes! Laser whiskeys are the best thing from Resurrection and simultaneously are the fucking dumbest thing ever shown on screen. In fact that whole scene was ridiculous. Who eats a lemon like that? Why do they have fresh lemon slices but a shot of whisky comes in a military MRE pack as big as a Rubik's cube? And the whisky laser device is enormous!
Even the prop label is stupid! "Ol' Kentucky Scotch Drink" packaged in Scotland? How does laser whisky even work? What! What! *chestburster of misplaced rage*
posted by turbid dahlia at 4:01 PM on February 23, 2017 [4 favorites]
Laser whiskeys are the best thing from Resurrection
Dominique Pinon's stealth battle wheelchair was pretty badass, too.
posted by zippy at 4:07 PM on February 23, 2017 [3 favorites]
Dominique Pinon's stealth battle wheelchair was pretty badass, too.
posted by zippy at 4:07 PM on February 23, 2017 [3 favorites]
It's like this: Water is a limited resource in space, whereas lasers are infinite, therefore they save space on water to make room for lemons.
If you has to deal with logistics on this and all the corporate subterfuge as well you'd be drinking laser whiskeys.
posted by Artw at 4:10 PM on February 23, 2017 [1 favorite]
If you has to deal with logistics on this and all the corporate subterfuge as well you'd be drinking laser whiskeys.
posted by Artw at 4:10 PM on February 23, 2017 [1 favorite]
Dominique Pinon's stealth battle wheelchair was pretty badass, too.
True, if it was a Saints Row game and not a damn Alien movie.
While we're all here: Alien 3 is great in the Director's Cut and the franchise absolutely should have ended there. Ridley Scott has directed three genuinely good ("classic") movies in the 36 movies IMDB reports him as directing: Alien, Blade Runner and Thelma & Louise. The rest are okay-to-mediocre. He is not the visionary director he was once (mistakenly) taken for, and is just a guy who got three mini-jackpots in 40 years of feeding other people's money into fruit machines at the RSL.
posted by turbid dahlia at 4:11 PM on February 23, 2017 [3 favorites]
True, if it was a Saints Row game and not a damn Alien movie.
While we're all here: Alien 3 is great in the Director's Cut and the franchise absolutely should have ended there. Ridley Scott has directed three genuinely good ("classic") movies in the 36 movies IMDB reports him as directing: Alien, Blade Runner and Thelma & Louise. The rest are okay-to-mediocre. He is not the visionary director he was once (mistakenly) taken for, and is just a guy who got three mini-jackpots in 40 years of feeding other people's money into fruit machines at the RSL.
posted by turbid dahlia at 4:11 PM on February 23, 2017 [3 favorites]
Artw, you're right, I guess. Maybe that's where Alastair Reynolds got inspiration for his Pushing Lemons one shot, set inside the Revelation Space universe? He really goes into pretty strong future detail on space-lemon-logistics. I never would have imagined the Oort Cloud was just big citruses.
posted by turbid dahlia at 4:18 PM on February 23, 2017
posted by turbid dahlia at 4:18 PM on February 23, 2017
I just came here to say the only way I ever saw Prometheus was as Derelict. I was surprised the Prometheus scenes weren't in colour, since I clearly rememberd Alien as a black-and-white film. Then I remembered I first saw Alien on my parents' old black-and-white set when it was the midnight movie at some point in the early 90s.
It's a great film to watch in B&W, and the splice helped un-ruin the other film a bit.
posted by rum-soaked space hobo at 4:21 PM on February 23, 2017 [1 favorite]
It's a great film to watch in B&W, and the splice helped un-ruin the other film a bit.
posted by rum-soaked space hobo at 4:21 PM on February 23, 2017 [1 favorite]
Jar-Jar...or one of the Engineers...
EXT. LV-393
THE LAST ENGINEER performs dumb magic tricks for the colony's small children.
*FREEZE FRAME* *SPACE FLUTE NOISE*
LAST ENGINEER: Yousa probably wondering how meesa ended up here.
posted by turbid dahlia at 4:26 PM on February 23, 2017 [4 favorites]
EXT. LV-393
THE LAST ENGINEER performs dumb magic tricks for the colony's small children.
*FREEZE FRAME* *SPACE FLUTE NOISE*
LAST ENGINEER: Yousa probably wondering how meesa ended up here.
posted by turbid dahlia at 4:26 PM on February 23, 2017 [4 favorites]
Ridley Scott has directed three genuinely good ("classic") movies …
I would add The Duellist. Amazing underrated film.
posted by Omon Ra at 4:29 PM on February 23, 2017 [4 favorites]
I would add The Duellist. Amazing underrated film.
posted by Omon Ra at 4:29 PM on February 23, 2017 [4 favorites]
The alien is cold and relentless, designed and focused on survival at all costs; the humans aren't - they form attachments and look for angles and deals and so forth.
This is the actual subtext.
On the one hand, there are the (literally) faceless totalitarian nightmares of the Fascists and/or Communists, on the other hand there is the machine-masquerading-as-man face of cold and merciless capitalism, willing to sell you and yours out to the last child to get the slightest edge over their enemies. Weyland-Yutani is every inch as frightening as the Alien - the prototypical Zaibatsu that haunted the Cyberpunk movement (and it was a movement, we forget there was a time "Cyberpunk" was a slur meant to put down the genre. Like true punks, they took the slur and used it for their own purposes.)
The phony, relentless, uncaring self-interest taken to the point of ultimate evil; embodied in purest capitalism - that's the true political and cultural heritage of Alien.
The Viet Cong will kill you because they must, sure, but they're not the enemy. The enemy was very well defined in Alien.
In this sequel, there are two POC, clearly of different social classes. Since this is a parable of the overreach of colonial imperialism (examine a moment, Tennessee's line about what he'd do to the table), I'd be uncomfortable if there were more.
posted by Slap*Happy at 5:07 PM on February 23, 2017 [3 favorites]
This is the actual subtext.
On the one hand, there are the (literally) faceless totalitarian nightmares of the Fascists and/or Communists, on the other hand there is the machine-masquerading-as-man face of cold and merciless capitalism, willing to sell you and yours out to the last child to get the slightest edge over their enemies. Weyland-Yutani is every inch as frightening as the Alien - the prototypical Zaibatsu that haunted the Cyberpunk movement (and it was a movement, we forget there was a time "Cyberpunk" was a slur meant to put down the genre. Like true punks, they took the slur and used it for their own purposes.)
The phony, relentless, uncaring self-interest taken to the point of ultimate evil; embodied in purest capitalism - that's the true political and cultural heritage of Alien.
The Viet Cong will kill you because they must, sure, but they're not the enemy. The enemy was very well defined in Alien.
In this sequel, there are two POC, clearly of different social classes. Since this is a parable of the overreach of colonial imperialism (examine a moment, Tennessee's line about what he'd do to the table), I'd be uncomfortable if there were more.
posted by Slap*Happy at 5:07 PM on February 23, 2017 [3 favorites]
Octothorpe: Watching this trailer/preview/thing and I'm amazed that it's almost forty years later and there's still only one person of color on the ship?I count four POC in that scene: Carmen Ejogo, Jussie Smollet, Uli Latukefu, and Callie Hernandez.
Slap*Happy: In this sequel, there are two POC, clearly of different social classes.
posted by zakur at 6:05 PM on February 23, 2017 [1 favorite]
I count four POC in that scene
Absolutely correct, I wasn't paying enough attention, and didn't do the research.
The analysis of the original Alien and the probable arc of this film still stands - we just have more heroes to be bad-ass. (Remember the original Hero of the '70s film, who saved her own damn self against both unstoppable, implacable enemies, was a woman.)
posted by Slap*Happy at 8:27 PM on February 23, 2017 [1 favorite]
Absolutely correct, I wasn't paying enough attention, and didn't do the research.
The analysis of the original Alien and the probable arc of this film still stands - we just have more heroes to be bad-ass. (Remember the original Hero of the '70s film, who saved her own damn self against both unstoppable, implacable enemies, was a woman.)
posted by Slap*Happy at 8:27 PM on February 23, 2017 [1 favorite]
You...are my...lucky...star...
posted by rum-soaked space hobo at 5:14 AM on February 24, 2017
posted by rum-soaked space hobo at 5:14 AM on February 24, 2017
The thing that got me on my last viewing of the original Alien was how amazingly heavyweight the cast was. We all remember Weaver but Hurt, Skerritt, Cartwright, Stanton, Holm and Kotto are all serious actors and not the who you would have expected to be in an action/horror movie in 1979. They were also all at least thirty years old and none of them conventionally Hollywood beautiful.
posted by octothorpe at 5:28 AM on February 24, 2017 [6 favorites]
posted by octothorpe at 5:28 AM on February 24, 2017 [6 favorites]
The "Alien" franchise is an American horror film series that depicts majority-white populations in their battles with undocumented alien lifeform(s), portrayed as extremely violent and sadistic animals (with insectoid and lizard-like attributes) that attempt to infiltrate majority-white American societies, mutilating the inhabitants thereof in order to breed and feed their young. ... The films are thus considered a quintessential expression of white American culture in the early 21st century period.
We all know what that leads to.
"The chickens has come home to roost, y'all."
posted by prepmonkey at 7:18 AM on February 24, 2017
We all know what that leads to.
"The chickens has come home to roost, y'all."
posted by prepmonkey at 7:18 AM on February 24, 2017
gameplay footage of the brand new Alien pinball machine, by Heighway Pinball
posted by Theta States at 7:13 AM on March 2, 2017
posted by Theta States at 7:13 AM on March 2, 2017
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posted by valkane at 4:02 AM on February 23, 2017 [2 favorites]