First trailer debuts for 'Alien: Covenant'

[Kontra Kommando]

Wild Dog said:

It's a long long shot. They can it's a homage to lambert death... but it was a good excuse to show some gratuitous nudity to appeal younger viewers.

Originally, Ridley Scott wanted to have nudity in the 1979 film. According to the director's commentary, in the opening scene, when they woke up from hyper sleep, the crew as supposed to be nude.

Alien (1979) is primarily seen as an avantgarde film, which it is. But it was actually supposed to be kind of campy. Dan O'bannon, one of the original writers, made movies like Return of the Living Dead, and Total Recall.

Despite what I said earlier, now that I think about it, the shower scene is not outside of the realm of possibility, when it comes to the film series. Thus I can look past it.

[PizzaGuy]

Kontra Kommando said:

Originally, Ridley Scott wanted to have nudity in the 1979 film. According to the director's commentary, in the opening scene, when they woke up from hyper sleep, the crew as supposed to be nude.

Alien (1979) is primarily seen as an avantgarde film, which it is. But it was actually supposed to be kind of campy. Dan O'bannon, one of the original writers, made movies like Return of the Living Dead, and Total Recall.

Despite what I said earlier, now that I think about it, the shower scene is not outside of the realm of possibility, when it comes to the film series. Thus I can look past it.

The scene where they awake from hyper-sleep: the women were supposed to be naked but they'd have lost several countries acceptance of the film due to the nudity, so nipples had to be taped up.

There was also a scene taken out of the script where Dallas and Ripley had sex.

[Kontra Kommando]

bedbug182 said:

The scene where they awake from hyper-sleep: the women were supposed to be naked but they'd have lost several countries acceptance of the film due to the nudity, so nipples had to be taped up.

There was also a scene taken out of the script where Dallas and Ripley had sex.

The facehugger eggs were supposed to be shaped more like a vagina at the opening. But they had to make it a four-way opening so it wouldn't be banned by religious countries.

They talk about it in this documentary. Its an interesting video about the making of the film.

Edit: What a shame, they had to eventually tear down those awesome movie sets.

[Wild Dog]

Kontra Kommando said:

Originally, Ridley Scott wanted to have nudity in the 1979 film. According to the director's commentary, in the opening scene, when they woke up from hyper sleep, the crew as supposed to be nude.

Alien (1979) is primarily seen as an avantgarde film, which it is. But it was actually supposed to be kind of campy. Dan O'bannon, one of the original writers, made movies like Return of the Living Dead, and Total Recall.

Despite what I said earlier, now that I think about it, the shower scene is not outside of the realm of possibility, when it comes to the film series. Thus I can look past it.

Well they waking up naked is not that far fetched for a sci fi movie.
Depending on how they play it, it could work.... Example is just a dream or something like that.

[zZaRDoZz]

Call me when cgi can emulate an actor in a xenomorph suit perfectly.

[Agentbromsnor]

I'm not holding my breath for this one. I thought Prometheus was absolutely terrible, and I hated every little plot-hole that it came up with.

One thing I don't get is why they're trying to make this movie scary. I know the original Alien was mostly a horror-movie, but there's just nothing scary about it anymore. Are we still scared of face-huggers and xenomorphs after thirty-eight years? If they want to do the horror right, they should add a new threat, in my opinion.

[TheMightyHeracross]

Nothing scary about it? Maybe if you're not watching it for the first time, but the original Alien is scarier then any modern CGI-packed movie could hope to be.

That said, what I would really like is a new Aliens. I want action!

[Agentbromsnor]

TheMightyHeracross said:

Nothing scary about it? Maybe if you're not watching it for the first time, but the original Alien is scarier then any modern CGI-packed movie could hope to be.

That said, what I would really like is a new Aliens. I want action!

Like I said, it's been thirty-eight years. As a kid I thought it was scary, sure, but yes, I am very much desensitized to it these days. This is what tends to happen with long lasting horror franchises. Remember Nightmare on Elmstreet? Exactly.

I've seen plenty of movies that put CG to good use, but if you want to try some modern horror movies of the scary kind that don't have swirling computer effects in them, you could give a movie like The Babadook a shot. I also really liked Wind Chill, which I think is a bit of an underrated movie when it comes to modern horror flicks.

[FreddBoy]

I'm just hoping it fells more like an Alien movie like the first, second and (to some extent) the third films did.

Prometheus felt like a confused film. I tried to see it as an "origin" story, but it felt like a bit of a mess, especially with the big plot holes. I honestly didn't mind the nudity in the trailer - it felt more horrifying as it plays on you being naked both in the sense of nudity but also for no protection either. Prometheus sex scene felt more forced to move the plot along.

I hope the alien is like the one in the 1979 film - a sneaky, vicious fucker who will pick them off one by one, rather than the warrior type in the second film.

[Kontra Kommando]

Agentbromsnor said:

Like I said, it's been thirty-eight years. As a kid I thought it was scary, sure, but yes, I am very much desensitized to it these days. This is what tends to happen with long lasting horror franchises. Remember Nightmare on Elmstreet? Exactly.

I've seen plenty of movies that put CG to good use, but if you want to try some modern horror movies of the scary kind that don't have swirling computer effects in them, you could give a movie like The Babadook a shot. I also really liked Wind Chill, which I think is a bit of an underrated movie when it comes to modern horror flicks.

I think CGI works best for large-epic battle scenes, like in Troy (2004). To me, that's when it looks most realistic. Maybe because it's usually from a high-up aerial view; the viewer is focusing on the whole image, instead of one CGI model.

[Agentbromsnor]

Kontra Kommando said:

I think CGI works best for large-epic battle scenes, like in Troy (2004). To me, that's when it looks most realistic. Maybe because it's usually from a high-up aerial view; the viewer is focusing on the whole image, instead of one CGI model.

When people talk about computer graphics in movies, they're usually talking about computer generated characters and effects. There's a ton of more subtle applications for computer graphics in movies though. A lot of background-details are things that most people don't pay much attention to, but they're there because of clever chroma-keying and talented artists and art directors.

But yes, generally speaking I do agree with you. :)

[varth]

The intensity of micro details that CGI can provide is amazing, I didn't think much of Rogue One but the views of planet surfaces from space were the best of the part of the movie.

The original Alien is one of my favorite mood/ambient pieces, much like Blade Runner with both eventually inspiring the anime director Mamoru Oshii with his amazing Patlabor and Ghost in The Shell movies (which I deem great sci-fi movies that just happen to be anime as I'm not really deeply into the stuff, in fact I vehemently hate a lot of it and its culture). I don't really care for the quick ADHD appeasing editing and pacing that is done in movies now, paper thin plots seem even more uninteresting when you're watching an uninspired routine unfold marking some obligatory plot checkboxes along the way. Alien comes alive from measured pacing, groundbreaking creature and set design and convincing world building achieved by a daring and successful naturalistic acting approach. Studios simply don't have the balls to be Alien anymore, but they'll do a stupid-mode re-skin for people to occasionally look up at from their smartphones for a couple of seconds.

I found Prometheus sadly a waste of time, Ridley Scott excels at elegantly presented shit at this point with hollow genre exercises that are not as brainy as they want to be. I wish movies weren't so disappointingly stupid now, because they seem like a waste of time. Yes they look pretty, but that isn't enough.

This trailer looks like a lowering of audience expectation, I would have rather seen a balls out sequel to Prometheus instead of this massive step back. I am becoming weary of these bland soft remake/reboots, I don't think I can stomach another one. Seeing a bunch of shit you recognize do more shit, it's depressing, where is the innovation and inspiration? Why are movies so stunted?

[Fulgrim]

The problem with most new horror movies is the fact that directors/writers have completely forgotten that atmosphere,tension and pacing are what make horror in general scary. With the right amount of atmosphere, tension and good pacing it's possible to make a monster movie where you never fully see the monster one of the scariest monster movies of all time. Alien was one of the few monster movies that completely nailed all three.

For me Prometheus fell flat because it seemed like Scott was doing everything he could to redo the Xenomorph mythos instead of making a good horror movie. The pacing was out of wack to the point where it threw any tension the movie built out the window. The over all atmosphere was pretty underwhelming as well. While I'll give Alien: Covenant a shot, but after Prometheus, I'm more excited about Neill Blomkamp's Alien movie.

[Koko Ricky]

Fulgrim, you made some really good points about horror cinema. "Prometheus" also suffered not only from bad pacing but from bad character writing. The original "Alien" had very well fleshed out characters. We barely got to know them, but those brief interactions feel incredibly natural, even somewhat improvised. They talk over one another and at times you don't even catch the dialogue; instead, you're just engrossed in the human element, which emotionally connects you to them. You end up legitimately giving a shit when they're inevitably slain; "The Thing" has this same effect, as does James Cameron's "Aliens" sequel.

Contrarily, the characters in "Prometheus" are incredibly flat and forgettable, to the point that they're even difficult to describe in broad, stereotypical terms. Problematic also was the mind numbing stupidity of some of the crew members, particularly the one that gets attacked by the worm-like creature. The "Alien" cast's naïveté was completely backed by their status as resource miners who had no idea what they were getting into, while the "Prometheus" ensemble are supposed to be experts who instead fuck things up because the plot requires them to. It's really just a transparent excuse to let the monsters come out and play, because the movie behaves as though it has no choice but to rehash elements from previous films, rather than tell a new story.

And a new story is what we were supposed to get, apparently, with initial treatments for what was going to be a "Prometheus" sequel...but it now appears to be a retelling of the original "Alien" disguised as a prequel. Everyone crapped their pants when the space jockey/pilot was iconically introduced all those years ago, and "Prometheus" hinted at a very provocative and intriguing backstory for their race. They and their home world need to be the focus. I think we've seen enough xenomorphs for now.

Kontra Kommando said:

The facehugger eggs were supposed to be shaped more like a vagina at the opening. But they had to make it a four-way opening so it wouldn't be banned by religious countries.

They talk about it in this documentary. Its an interesting video about the making of the film.

I have this great Giger book on his involvement in the film and he jokingly remarked that the four slits created a kind of double vagina effect which if you think about it is far more "offensive" than the original design.

[varth]

I liked never knowing anything about the space jockey or his ship and letting your mind fill in the blanks. Prometheus if anything tried its best to crush that aspect of the original Alien and also shit on Giger's endlessly unnerving design. I always liked the idea that the space jockey is indeed grown into the ship and there is no way to tell where the ship ends and the life form begins (also is he manning a navigational tool or gun?). Seeing it as a plain space suit is underwhelming and the easy way out.

For all of Ridley Scott's intellectual posturing he never breaks free of remaking the same space slasher movie only much more forgettable, Prometheus should have been smarter sci-fi, now with the newest Alien its pretty much over.

Hopefully that Aliens sequel happens.

[Chezza]

Speaking of horror movies forgetting about atmosphere and loving CGI, do you guys remember the modern installment of 'The Thing'?

YouTube the making of its puppetry and be stunned at the level of quality and robotics that went into the abominations. Then quickly turn to rage knowing most of the work was covered in painly obvious CG.

[Aquanet]

James Cameron, charming as ever.

http://etcanada.com/news/199307/james-cameron-is-concerned-with-ridley-scotts-alien-covenant/

I still think the basic math holds,

More Alien(s) movies (even if bad) > Fewer

[Jon]

Hmm. Haven't I seen this one before?

I'd quite like to see one where the humans are not killed by their own idiocy (no quarantine procedure when landing on a new unknown planet, yaddayadda). Perhaps a rogue "by the book" scientist survives without transmogrifying into an elite marine killer too.

But I shouldn't judge this before I've seen it. Too much.