Alien Covenant Prologue: The Last Supper
Discussion
ClockworkCupcake said:
But there is nothing wrong the adding a richness, depth, and self-consistency to a film to satisfy some your audience.
Alien is basically a stalk-and-slash horror put in outer space that has been reincarnated several time to make money. As a S' n S horror it's a good movie - that's its strength. As another poster has said Aliens - brilliant though it is - was unnecessary. We've all seen the movie before, called Last stand at the Alamo, or somesuch. Someone who knows their stuff suggested there are only 5-6 basic plotlines that describe every film ever made. Too much padding dilutes the essential thrust of the movie, if people want richness and depth why on Earth expect it from a fantasy horror movie about a baddie from outer space?popeyewhite said:
ClockworkCupcake said:
But there is nothing wrong the adding a richness, depth, and self-consistency to a film to satisfy some your audience.
Alien is basically a stalk-and-slash horror put in outer space that has been reincarnated several time to make money. As a S' n S horror it's a good movie - that's its strength. As another poster has said Aliens - brilliant though it is - was unnecessary. We've all seen the movie before, called Last stand at the Alamo, or somesuch. Someone who knows their stuff suggested there are only 5-6 basic plotlines that describe every film ever made. Too much padding dilutes the essential thrust of the movie, if people want richness and depth why on Earth expect it from a fantasy horror movie about a baddie from outer space?
ker' - you don't want to pay heed to him 
I agree with you completely though.
It might be different if they created an entire world first and then decided to build a story in it, but I can near guarantee that Alien was written exactly as you say, as an s and s horror in space, with the details tagged on as they went.
As the series continued, there was pressure to explain things like the space jockey, the company and all that s
t. Not needed and disappointing because there never was an original answer - it's all retrospective.popeyewhite said:
Someone who knows their stuff suggested there are only 5-6 basic plotlines that describe every film ever made.
Very true. And there are only a finite (and small) number of musical chords too. But it's how you put them together that matters. Star Wars was a complete rehash of a number of existing plots and tropes, and look at the impact it has had on Pop Culture.
Disastrous said:
Yeah, but the guy who said that was 'an opiniated glaswegian wker' - you don't want to pay heed to him
ker' - you don't want to pay heed to him 
I'm so glad you took that in the light-hearted spirit that I intended.
ClockworkCupcake said:
Very true. And there are only a finite (and small) number of musical chords too. But it's how you put them together that matters.
And the manner in which they are executed. Even the same song with broadly the same chords and lyrics can have a very different impact depending on how it is executed. Compare:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0WUdlaLWSVM
with
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZtxO1gwbHPQ
In this case however - both versions are awesome in their own way
ClockworkCupcake said:
Very true. And there are only a finite (and small) number of musical chords too. But it's how you put them together that matters.
Agree in general. Introduce too many musical chords and it just gets messy. Keep with the simple idea. Leave sci-fi movies alone to their central premise - why overburden them with plot when we know it just gets messy and things start not-adding up? There's plenty of German arthouse movies that could do with serious discussion if you must.. 
One of the problems is that there is some good material out there but at most only a few fragments make it to the screen. Even if you're lucky and there was a decent script someone will find a way to screw it up.
Say for example what Ridley Scott did to Alien: Engineers...
In the main franchises the original Alien vs Predator comic would have made a good film, or the Terminator novels (follow on to T2) which did some good stuff and had a full story loop - you'll have seen little bits of these in the film sequels. But people seem to want to create something 'original' but lack the creativity to make it work and end up with bks.
Especially things like Alien3 which was interesting as an art project but shat all over the previous film by killing all but one of the previous characters offscreen; not a great way to draw in the existing audience. At least it wasn't a wooden planet by the time it was shot...
Say for example what Ridley Scott did to Alien: Engineers...
In the main franchises the original Alien vs Predator comic would have made a good film, or the Terminator novels (follow on to T2) which did some good stuff and had a full story loop - you'll have seen little bits of these in the film sequels. But people seem to want to create something 'original' but lack the creativity to make it work and end up with b
ks. Especially things like Alien3 which was interesting as an art project but shat all over the previous film by killing all but one of the previous characters offscreen; not a great way to draw in the existing audience. At least it wasn't a wooden planet by the time it was shot...
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