Amph On Earth, Everyone Can Hear You Scream: The Prometheus / Alien Discussion Thread (Romulus, Earth)

Well, the movie is quite good. It doesn't repeat as many things from the other films as some reviews led me to believe, though there is one callback/callforward to Aliens that I wish they hadn't done for chronological viewing purposes (but, at the same time, got the audience cheering).

And it's actually a surprisingly smart film that explores ideas that somehow all 6 previous films failed to depict or utilize in some way*. And often does so in ways that tie all 6 films together in the process**. Even the characters generally act very smart and lack cheap deaths (with one exception- though they didn't have all the information at the time, and I usually afford horror films one bad choice to cash in if the results are good, which they are here***).

It genuinely makes for an unpredictable film. I must have made 3 predictions for how things would turn out, and none of them were accurate. And that is all set against the backdrop of some phenomenal and majestic visuals particularly the clever rings impact conveying an eerie visual countdown, in addition to some of the ceiling details inside the station itself, and the expansive company town on the planet below.

There is also a stop motion effects sequence in the film by Phil Tippet. Which I did not expect.

Spoiler

*Seriously, how have they never shown a Chestburster evolving into a full Xeno before? Or freezing a Facehugger free? Or using zero-G to limit the acid blood's threat?

**I was half expecting the Offspring to be a Newborn, but it actually makes ore sense that the Offspring is an inverted Newborn given where it came from. And that it resembles an Engineer to some degree is creepy as anything. And finally establishing what The Company really wanted to do with the xenos beyond potential bioweapons (which seemed so limited in application), by tying it into modifying the original black goo extracted from their DNA and using it to increase their profits by making more resilient workers with it links together so many themes and concepts in the franchise into a more cohesive whole, despite the absence of a 3rd David film.

***Alien Resurrection's 3rd act bad choice results were not .

The closest we have right now is the short film/epilogue of David's post-Covenant transmission, where he basically states his intention to use Daniels for parts in creating a Queen. But that still leaves a lot of gaps of how that leads to the first film (if at all- as we see, David is just recreating the Xenos, so he may just be a tangent that alerted the Company of this information, while the eggs and Queen cycle already existed from previous evolutions/developments prior to David, and were already aboard the Juggernaught on LV-426).

 

Alvarez teases an interest in a new AVP movie.

“Maybe it’s something I have to co-direct with my buddy Dan [Tratchenberg, director of Prey]. Maybe we should do like Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez did with Dusk Till Dawn. I’ll direct a half, and he’ll direct another half.”

That Deadline article also highlights an apparently lesser known fact that industry sources say that the first AVP was considered "an extremely profitable title for the studio". That would presumably be profitability beyond the 3x multiplier that it pulled in (almost $180m on a $60m budget) would indicate. Perhaps the marketing costs weren't as high for that film?

Spoiler

The way they did it it was a great reveal. I recognized the uniform, but they hid his face well enough that you just assume it's another android type in a company science officer uniform (they obviously weren't widely known because crew members of ships didn't even know that their androids were androids). Then you see the silhouette when they start to reactivate him, and that's when I at least exclaimed "Is that Ash?!".

Spoiler

Fair enough with the freezing- and because of this film we can infer that that's how it was probably done.

As far as the chestburster growth, I feel like that;s something they had several opportunities to. The original film, no, because they're obviously keeping things hidden for the full Xeno reveal. Aliens, maybe not because the hive is already there. 3 could have (but there's also some fuzziness on its size depending on if you go dog or bull), and probably should have. 4 being all about regrowing the species would have been a perfect notion for them to explore the... chrysalis maybe we call it? phase of the lifecycle. And Covenant was all about the creation of "the beast", so including it there would have made a ton of sense in the same way.

One of the clever bits in the film is that, when we see the chestburster, it really strikes you that this is the last moment/form where the Xeno is still vulnerable. Then we cut to the chrysalis after the snakeskin and that shows us a new moment where they might still be vulnerable if one acts quickly enough.

And I love that Bjorn realizes this and does what probably anyone else would do (at least those willing to act instead of just running) and go after it in that state with the shock stick or other weapon nearby (obviously you can't predict that the tail is that developed or that it does so in a defensive striking position within the chrysalis- but of course it is! Perfect organism and whatnot, naturally it would still have defenses in that state).

 

Yep, it's all about a girl and her droid.

 

This is a very "Alien elitist" take. I strongly disagree. The two AvP movies diminished both franchises with their hamfisted execution by sub-par filmmakers. But neither franchise elevates or diminishes the other. Both are elevated or diminished by the quality of filmmaking they receive.

 

Been on some Alien rabbit hole kicks the past day or so. Came across this fan edit (combining Assembly and Theatrical) project for Alien 3 called A34K:



Most notably it is regrading the film, and, in particular, has redone both the lighting and rotoscope compositing (frame by frame) for the mo-motion rod puppet effects shots to improve them (as the mismatch in lighting with the background, and rushed roto/compositing, are the main reasons why the puppet effects have aged so poorly). Their website also has some additional video examples.

May very well end up being the best the film will ever look. It never consciously crossed my mind over how soft the film's blacks/contrasts looked until seeing the adjustments here.

AVP1 did address that indirectly- the Queen was being pumped with chemicals that accelerated the chestburster process in the eggs she produced.

In Romulus, I assume it is something similar, given the nature of the station's research. But I agree that it did seem noticeably accelerated to the point that I'm surprised it wasn't addressed (at least for the initial incident).