A geeky Christmas gift via the Guardian’s film blog. The official trailer for Prometheus – “the long-awaited return to the Alien universe (and indeed science fiction) of one Ridley Scott.” It’s due to be released in June 2012. Can’t. Wait. *hugs self*
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A quick review of all the previous movies.
Alien and Aliens – amazing must watch
Alien 3 – got crap reviews but ok
Alien 4 – A mess
AvP – Suprisingly good
AvP2 – Rubbish
True, john.
But Ridley Scott was only responsible for one of those. The original 1979 Alien.
Pete,
we are in solid, complete and total agreement here: I can not wait for this. It looks incredible and is the film we fans have been waiting for since 1979.
Young West Sider first saw Alien on TV, just after the 1982 World Cup final, and was totally terrified by the beauty, mystery and brutality of the film.
I have been tracking every piece of news about this new film since it was first announced.
I’ve read the original writer, Jon Spaihts, previous scripts, and they point to an amazing talent. Google Shadow 19 pdf or Passengers pdf to get a flavour.
Every single component of this makes it a must watch: Ridley Scott returning to sci-fi to make an epic with an incredible cast and realising his vision in 3D, and it is not a straight prequel to Alien, but an epic story taking place in the same universe but a new grand mythology.
And it is about that strange Space Jockey. Good heavens, this is probably the most excited I’ve ever been about a film since I was a kid.
And John, here is my take on the saga:
Alien – A Masterpiece which gets better with each passing year
Aliens – A cracking sequel, but one which gets more dated with each passing year.
Alien 3 – a decent enough crack at getting back to the original film’s dark and nihilistic roots.
Alien Resurrection – utter cack. And as the great Kim Newman labelled it, “utterly anonymous”
AVP – a sin
AVPR – a cardinal sin.
June 1st can’t come soon enough. Thanks for posting this on Slugger, Pete.
People need to know that next summer at the movies is not all about another Hack Nolan Batman film.
BTW – Happy Xmas all.
And note to Slugger: need to get more movie blogs up as this is a culture site as well. And they don’t have to be about our troubled history.
They also cool the atmosphere on here and bring people together!
Batman films underrated Mr Sider – Nadolig Hapus!
Dewi,
Nolan’s Batman films, like most of his other stuff, are bland, boring and totally unengaging. If you want a dark and dramatic take on comic books, then Tim Burton’s Batman Returns trounces all around it.
And don’t get me started on the truly dreadful Inception, should have been retitled Ineption such was the amateurish quality of this film.
People will say – you’re wrong, it made a fortune and so did his Batman films – but I counter with, so did many dire silly Hollywood comedies and they weren’t hailing them as masterpieces.
There is a very good reason he’s never been even nominated for the Best Director Oscar – he is a hack.
I have to disagree with John above, regarding Alien 4 aka Alien Ressurection which I thought was quite good.
I just hope this new offering won’t be the usual incredible and formulaic set-up …. ladened with faux CGI.
Scot’s movies have become more bland and mainstream Hollywood over the years. Sad for an original director that once gave us Bladerunner too.
Also I think Tim Burton’s movies are quite formulaic overall too….with Johnny Depp’s association his movies are becoming more and more dreadful! ie…. Willy Wonky etc….unessessary remake!
…oh and another remake ‘Planet of the Apes’ ,,,,, totally unessessary!
Surely you agree John?
Meant that for West Sider!
Also I think the uber machismo Alien 3 which is set on a prison planet was rather cheap to make….. and looked it. Set mainly in the dark it was a cheap and cynical money making sequel. David ‘The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Hollywood remake’ Fincher it’s director.
Westsider
I think John is closer to myreading of the franchise than you (and therefore right)
Alien has dated more than Aliens sadly as the monster suit is slightly less impressive. Both great movies, but Aliens is my favourite.
Did not like 3 so much. Too many Englishmen . Brian Glover?
Alien Resurrection was a curate’s egg. The hybrid alien being rather weak.
AVP as John says, actually quite entertaining
AVP2, I think we can all agree on.
I have high hopes for the new one.
Some clarification is evidently required.
Part of the reason for the eager anticipation of Prometheus is that, gréagóir’s gripe about his other work notwithstanding, this is Ridley Scott returning to the Alien universe he helped create in 1979.
And, for the purposes of Prometheus, those other movies involving xenomorphs never happened.
Particularly the ‘sins’ of conflating the Alien universe with the Predator one – however ‘entertaining’ they may, or may not, have been.
Which means that here, arguing about the relative merits of those films, or indeed any other completely unrelated films by different directors, is entirely pointless.
So watch the trailer again. And count the days.
The first two Alien movies are fantastic, I can never decide which of the two I like better; they really are two completely different films sharing some similar elements. Pushed, I’d say the first one edges it out. Back at that time, most space films were idealistic, the characters were professionals all devoted to whatever the cause was (Star Wars, Star Trek, 2001 etc) – I think Alien was one of the first to have the idea of a big mining ship staffed by blue collar types, with a nasty behemoth company trying to build a horrible weapon, an android going mad .. it’s all pretty original.
I am not really a fan of 3. It’s confused, and quite mean spirited. The fourth movie is a barely watchable car crash. I’ve no interest in the AVP ideas at all.
In terms of the Batman movies, I like Nolan’s reworking of the idea, although the second movie was a bit too long and Bale’s acting is a little bit over the top. The first Burton movie was a purely commercial vehicle, I suspect he found artistic concerns frequently being overridden by commercial ones – the hype around that film was something of a phenomenon back then. The second film was a lot better.
Alien is good, Aliens is a good Hollywood yarn the rest are pot-boilers. Blade Runner eclipses them all.
I find Blade Runner a bit overrated too, actually. But it’s worth watching just for Rutger Hauer’s character, and of course the Vangelis soundtrack.
Pete
“Which means that here, arguing about the relative merits of those films, or indeed any other completely unrelated films by different directors, is entirely pointless.”
Pointless but fun. Lighten up dude.
Pete gets kinda sore when the conversation goes beyond whatever his narrow parameters are. Some day I’ll figure it out.
CS
He needs to over to the Guardian film thread pronto and sort them out. They are straying all over the place. They seem to think they are supposed to be having an enjoyable debate about a piece of entertainment. Fools.
By the way, do those egg things in the trailer not look different? All smooth and shiny rather than organic like the ones John Hurt found.
“leathery” I believe was the term used ..
In any way the ‘Prometheus’ movie trailer looks cool overall and it looks like it will be a good movie next summer.
BTW anyone ever realize that the first onscreen depiction of Ireland in a Sci-Fi futuristic sense is the current comical McDonald’s ad.
We’ve never produced a Sci-Fi writer as such … Horror okay, with Le Fanu and Bram Stoker but no H G Wells etc…
Oh. just thought I’d throw in the great piece of music from the Sci-Fi movie ‘Sunshine’ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NQXVzg2PiZw . It was used in the BBC TV series Wonders of the Universe. Vangelis a great influence no doubt.
Isn’t there a new Blade Runner coming out? Ridley’s finest moment was a dying Rutgers Hauer (of all people!) recalling those attack ships in fire off the shoulder of Orion. “All these moments will be lost in time… like tears in rain.” Mesmerising.
Anyone who thinks Nolan is overrated should see The Prestige.
Belfast Gonzo
I seem to remember ( I can do that for you wholesale!) that Rutger Hauer made up a lot of that speech himself.
Still good; though as Orion is a constellation, I don’t see how attack ships could be visible relative to the shoulder. Or am I analysing it too much?
I liked ‘The Prestige’ also.
The prestige was ok but its 2 twists so to speak were poor the one with Christian Bale was so obvious It was unbelievable that all the other characters in the film couldnt see how alike the magician and his manager were and the second with Hugh Jackman was just daft!
gréagóir o frainclín; We’ve never produced a Sci-Fi writer as such … Horror okay, with Le Fanu and Bram Stoker but no H G Wells etc…
Ian Mcdonald, Bob Shaw, James White. And AE and Lord Dunsany had a go too.
Did I just read that Blade Runner is over rated?
Next, someone will tell me that The Ninth Configuration (the entire movie is on Youtube) is not the greatest movie of all time