Alien 5 film official

Resident Aliens fanatic here. I really don't have to post the link as this is trending almost as high as the EU pullout, but it is official that Fox is going forward with an Alien sequel. More exciting are the rumors of a retrofitted canon by bringing Hicks and Newt back, thus eschewing the third and forth films by placing the story directly after Cameron's. Apparently Michael Biehn is all for this and ready to sign up. Sigourney has also made her approval vocal and enthusiastic for Blomkamp's story draft. Anyway, here's my long winded take I wrote up when rumors were taking shape:


So District 9's Neill Blomkamp is dead-set on continuing the Alien franchise. My unwarranted two cents? Leave it be. Cameron made a perfect film that rounded things out nicely. It was a calculated mistake to push further than that--just like with the Terminator franchise. If there's one thing that Cameron can be recognized for, it's closure in genre storytelling.

But let's say Neill gets his wish. I dunno. Dude is a talented filmmaker with a knack for budget-friendly yet realistic FX work and engaging stories. But he falls short on many levels. The concept art made available to the public shows a Ripley-Xenomorph hybrid with the former donning an apparatus of the latter for some reason. This is in line with Neill's Cronenbergesque flair for genetic transmutation which I feel has taken away from the gritty realism of his pictures. It's a far-fetched, overly surreal plot device that allows for wild gaps in real-world logic, not exactly the kind of thing that I'd allow for a long-standing mythology that has been identified and defended by its fans as scientifically legitimate.

But that's not the ultimate issue here. While Neill knows how to show 60 minutes of a good time, it's ultimately the final 30-45 minutes where he loses footing by hyper-cutting overblown, generic climaxes with shootups and the like. He never truly can decided between a film of ideas and a film of mind-numbing spectacle. On top of it all, Neill prefers the hand-held style--not a visual that I necessarily have beef with, but we're dealing with movies (and yeah, I gotta think of Fincher's work here) that are known for some damn sophisticated photography, maintaining a stylish poise while managing to be observant--quite a feat. Neill's work is not this immersive, however, due to the aforementioned parameters.

Both Alien and Aliens succeed in different ways but have common equity in that there is a haunting a terrifying respect for tension throughout. These are exhausting, morale-draining movies which transcend their own catharses. The importance of going for broke with gore-drenching and kamikaze battle is matched in weight by unease and dread. This is accomplished through deliberate pacing and an evocative atmosphere. Lastly there is the character-sketching, given a more thorough treatment by Cameron, that generates sympathy. All of this has escaped Blomkamp's grasp in his first two features. Again, they're enjoyable popcorn titles with more intelligence than your standard Bay vehicle, but Alien never once popped in my head while watching them.

In other words, Neill helming and Alien film could result in something a notch above the Alien: Resurrection junk food yet a notch below the first two. However, if he were to take serious notes from Cameron's eye--who took serious notes from Scott's--I suppose there could be a chance I'd be pleasantly surprised. Just please, no XenoOrganicSynthetics.

Had to get that off my chest.

Neil Blomkamp's Alien would involve a powered suit of some kind and heavy doses of political messaging. No thanks.

That too. Although one could argue that Cameron's take involved subtle notions of the same (impotence of technological warfare, corporate greed, conspiracy, the Power Loader), Neill takes this stuff to the highest level with sheer aplomb.

(shrugs) I'd watch it. He can't screw it up any worse than Alien 3, Resurrection, and the two Alien vs. Predator movies have already.

Not sure how I feel about this. Elysium was a disappointment.

corplhicks wrote:

That too. Although one could argue that Cameron's take involved subtle notions of the same (impotence of technological warfare, corporate greed, conspiracy, the Power Loader), Neill takes this stuff to the highest level with sheer aplomb.

Cameron's story had a bog standard Vietnam War leftover - incompetent Lieutenant leads hardened vets who don't respect him - and corporations are bad and icky. Of course both of those are lame cliches, but at least it was 1986 and you could get away with that then. Blomkamp is a subtle as a sledgehammer to the face with his stuff. I really liked District 9 because it seemed fresh and was done on the cheap. Elysium sucked out loud and had the most cliched story imaginable. I haven't seen Chappie and I don't plan to because it seems to be more of the same.

I hope I am wrong on this one because I'd like to see one more great Aliens film, but really, does anyone think it will be as good as the first two?

As a total aside, ever notice how much Cameron borrowed from the 50s B-movie Them for Aliens?

Good god, just leave well enough alone. Like Freddy and Witchfinder said besides the first 2 these movies have been anywhere between dull to downright terrible. No way I'm paying to see this in the theater. Maybe a rental....maybe.

I've only seen Blomkamp's "District 9," which I enjoyed. Haven't heard good things about "Elysium" but I'll probably check it out eventually.

The trailers for his upcoming robot movie "Chappie" are... strange. It looks like a remake of "Short Circuit" with a heavily armed "Johnny 5."

District 9 was good, Elysium was OK (not great, but a decent time waster.) I'll wait for blu ray or netflix for Chappie......

As far as a new Alien - sure, why not. I like the idea of making it a sequel to Aliens and just forget about the 3rd and 4th movies.

Quote :

I like the idea of making it a sequel to Aliens and just forget about the 3rd and 4th movies.

I've already forgotten the 4th movie... I wish I could forget the 3rd. I paid $$ to see that P.O.S. in a theatre back in the day.

Fat Freddy wrote:

Quote :

I like the idea of making it a sequel to Aliens and just forget about the 3rd and 4th movies.

I've already forgotten the 4th movie... I wish I could forget the 3rd. I paid $$ to see that P.O.S. in a theatre back in the day.

Me too! Talk about a gut-punch right from the beginning.

Witchfinder wrote:

Fat Freddy wrote:

Quote :

I like the idea of making it a sequel to Aliens and just forget about the 3rd and 4th movies.

I've already forgotten the 4th movie... I wish I could forget the 3rd. I paid $$ to see that P.O.S. in a theatre back in the day.

Me too!  Talk about a gut-punch right from the beginning.

I was especially P.O.'d cuz the first teaser I'd seen for "Alien 3" (a year or so prior to the release of the film) seemed to indicate that the movie would take place on Earth:



...so when I was sitting in a theater watching a bunch of filthy guys with British accents being chased around a random prison planet, I was like "Ummm... bait and switch much?"

As for "Resurrection," I know I saw it back when it first hit VHS but seriously, I remember absolutely nothing about it except for a vague memory that it was terrible. I'm sure I probably also wondered "WTF is Winona Ryder doing in an Alien movie?"

My opinion of the movie Aliens has dropped sharply over the years. I much prefer the creeping horror of Alien to the bang-bang-pow-pow action of Aliens.

As for this reboot I'll wait and see how bad Fox hamstrings the filmmaker on this one, since the studio itself shoulders most of the blame for both Alien3 and Resurrection.

Prometheus was my last attempt to get into this storyline.

Boris2008 wrote:

Prometheus was my last attempt to get into this storyline.

I kinda liked Prometheus. Though it may have been due more to the sight of Charlize Theron squeezed into one those spandex astronaut suits than anything else...

Prometheus was a good-looking, bad movie. Which sadly describes most of Scott's films except for a small handful.

Fat Freddy wrote:

I kinda liked Prometheus. Though it may have been due more to the sight of Charlize Theron squeezed into one those spandex astronaut suits than anything else...

I know what you mean, there was one reason and one reason only that I ever watched this crap!

I love the first two equally, but for different reasons. Sadly it's become difficult to enjoy them anymore since milking so many viewings and finding it overly familiar.

Alien 3, no matter how you slice it, was a damn gorgeous movie. But the script was shit. Fox really screwed that up.

Resurrection is one of my most hated films. Nothing about it is any good. What's funny is Whedon's script was great quality, but once again the studio and director tore it to pieces. The newborn has to be the worst looking movie monster since The Creeping Terror.

Prometheus had the same problems as 3. Hack writing from a guy who should've stuck with TV. As canonical as this movie might be, I prefer not to count it as such. The Dark Horse comics had a much stronger origins story.

If they had let Joss Whedon direct Alien Resurrection it would have been great. But Joss said that the director literally misunderstood every single aspect of the script and that none of the actors delivered any of the lines as intended.

I'd forgotten that Joss Whedon wrote "Resurrection." Now I almost wanna see it again. Maybe I should see if the public library's got that one.

Fat Freddy wrote:

I'd forgotten that Joss Whedon wrote "Resurrection." Now I almost wanna see it again. Maybe I should see if the public library's got that one.

I've read the original script he wrote and it would have been great if the director had actually paid attention to it. It also didn't help the director barely spoke English so he misunderstood pretty much all of the humor.

Whedon "borrowed" the salvage ship crew from Resurrection and wrote the series Firefly around them.

Yeah it really would have been very good. Whedon's original version of the Newborn, as articulated in his script, was especially cool--an ashy albino spider-like xenomorph of gigantic proportions. Gave me the creeps just reading about it. Much better than the beer-bellied swamp creature we got.

The part that sums up that movie the best is when the officer pulls a piece of his own brain from the back of his head (while crossing his eyes, of course) after getting nailed there by an Alien inner jaw. That's pretty much a metaphor for that mess.

Witchfinder wrote:

Boris2008 wrote:

Prometheus was my last attempt to get into this storyline.

I liked Prometheus enough to watch it repeatedly as soon as I could.
Looking forward to the sequel. I was wondering if there was a tie-in to "Alien" once they showed the monster creature as it looked similar.

Guess I just like what everybody else considers "bad movies" then, like Aeon Flux, Ghosts of Mars, Pitch Black, Interstellar (2014), etc

Interstellar is good (could have been great but didn't quite get there), Pitch Black is "okay", Aeon Flux is bloody awful and Ghost of Mars was a mediocre retread of Assault On Precinct 13 that wasn't nearly as much fun as it should have been.

At least that's my take on those particular titles.