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Ridley Scott makes a return to sci-fi, trailer finally goes up, I get confused.
http://io9.com/5870445/watch-the-fir...prometheus-now
I've just re-watched it and I was right - there is a hell of a lot of Alien-alike stuff in there. It's... weird. It's either awful or genius but right now I can't tell. Have a look and tell me what you think. It almost looks like it's about searching for the origins of the Aliens and getting into a Situation. But I can't be sure.
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I love a good Aliens movie, and this one seems to be in good hands (Ridley Scott). That said, I can't help but think that the story of the "space jockey" and the origins of the derelict spaceship from Alien might have been best left alone.
It definitely gives me that "Alien" feeling, but whether that's just good trailer design or not remains to be seen.
The big shipthing at the end, the pods/eggs that the guy is walking through at some point, the thing sticking to someone's face... It's like Alien: Genesis or something. The story of how they were bioengineered perhaps?
Word is there's going to be another trailer released in 30 minutes. [or, maybe that's bollocks.]
The eggs are a different shape, and there seems to be some kind of mutant guy. I'm guessing the eggs are mind control weapons.
Last edited by Neb; 22nd Dec 2011 at 14:37. Reason: Matt Damon
Loved that trailer. Definitely the best of the trio released this week and probably the only one that gave a really good feel of the tone and atmosphere of the flick (tense, scary and balls-out action) whereas Batman was all over the place with a focus on demonstrating an Emmerich style setpiece and Hobbit couldn't decide if it's singing and kids friendly or the fantasy action epic like LOTR.
Jesus, there are parts of that trailer that look like a damned Alien prequel. I know it's not (or do I?), but wow. I'll still see it, though!
I've got this really horrible feeling that it will turn out that humans were originally bioengineered. I'm praying that I'm wrong. Why that big carved head? And why the tag line about looking for our beginning?Originally Posted by Subjective Effect
I think it's definitely an Alien prequel. At 0:54, you see that the derelict appears to be the same one as in Alien, except standing upright, which appears to be falling over from 0:56 to 1:02. The head on the table at 0:34 looks like the Space Jockey's, and at 0:44 you can see for an instant the Space Jockey (in its chair as per Alien) rising up into position.
Unless it's a massive covert marketing effort (which I highly doubt) there's no way it's an Alien prequel. It began as that but quickly changed into its own thing.
Unless it's a massive trolling effort, there's no way it's not connected to Alien in some way. It might not feature the xenomorphs themselves, but everything else just SCREAMS alienverse.
Literally, too - the repeating distorted scream is the same one used in the Alien trailer.
It may well take place in the same broad Universe but that's as far as it goes. It's a bit of a stretch to call it Alien-related without face-huggers or xenos imo; space jockey notwithstanding.
They could try to have it both ways by having the movie itself be agnostic on it. It's not billed as a prequel, but have it consistent as a prequel anyway, like this trailer, little pieces that actually fit with the later movie(s) when you notice them. There is something viral about that. (Lots of species, hell all of them, may be connected to a hub.)
Edit1: Unless "our origins" is speaking from the aliens perspective.
Edit2: Re: the bioengineered angle, the first time I heard that idea was from a Omni article about seeding our DNA into space to fly out and perhaps eons later reach a habitable planet and populate a new human line or gene-modify an existing species to be human-like, and then ending with the bombshell idea (to me) that maybe it'd already been done. I thought it was such a cool & fresh idea at the time I wrote a story about it. It's not as cliche as some other ideas yet, but anyway I can't recall a major story or movie that's established it in the way that Matrix does for the "brains in a vat" or Bladerunner does for sentient cyborgs. Even cliches need a good representative.
I'm thinking even if it is that, there'd be a bit more to it, like something that's been embedded in the bioengineering for all this time that suddenly switches on. I don't know. Since I put a lot of love into my own story on the idea, I've always liked it and wanted to see some other good stories with it.
Last edited by demagogue; 23rd Dec 2011 at 00:56.
This is what has confused me. It's the same type of ship, Weyland Yutani symbols on the vehicles...
Wtf?
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I can't figure out whether you're being ironic, disingenuous or naive, or whether I misunderstand your post somehow. This trailer practically screamed Alien, in terms of its pacing, visuals, audio design, even down to the way the titles appear. It goes out of its way to remind viewers of Scott's earlier film. If Scott & Co go for such blatant call-outs to Alien and then give us something that takes place in the same universe "but that's as far as it goes", they're pretty much trolling the audience.
Yep. Everything about that trailer evokes Alien so strongly it's not even funny. The pacing, the music, the Giger-esque tunnels, the unmistakable sight of the Jockey ship, and the Weyland logo. The Wikipedia, however, links to an interview that says it isn't going to be tied directly to the over-arching Alien narrative, so that's where Scot's coming from.
That interview raises an interesting question - what, indeed, is the state of the Alien franchise? Exactly. So... they want to make something 'different'. Interesting way of going about it. I'm guessing that if Prometheus isn't a prequel, it's going to so strongly resemble one anyway we probably just might get the best of both worlds - recognisably linked to the franchise, but with a strong, original story that's not tied down to the formula.
Then I guess he's trolling? Not sure what you want me to say.
I think with the very sly and self-aware marketing choices they are making that Scott is saying this is a "spiritual successor" to the Alien franchise. It's a very calculated move.
I'm not blind - I can see all of the parallels in the art and audio direction, Obviously the presence of the space jockey and that ship is straight out of Alien and yes, even the way it displayed Prometheus is EXACTLY the same as the Alien/Aliens titles (and made me grin), but every single media release about this movie since it was titled is that it is NOT an Alien prequel/sequel.
I imagine this all takes a long time before Alien and that the story around the space jockey will be an entirely self-contained narrative with no references to xenos etc. And yes, I think that story will be about mankind's origins being alien in nature.
Edit: Bang on, Sulphur, that's exactly what I think it will be and to be perfectly frank I think the divorce from the formula will be the single most creatively liberating feature of the movie..
Last edited by Scots Taffer; 23rd Dec 2011 at 07:08.
By the way, Scots, can't help but notice your location. Been watching reruns of Fawlty Towers, have we?
Thanks - Well, I'm easy - that trailer truly got me excited, finally a SciFi flick to look forward to again.
This is me, avoiding any further spoilers or misguided ideas from this thread, signing off.
Scots, it may just be that we understand "Alien-related" very differently. I don't want this film to be a direct prequel in the usual vein - I'm hoping for something better and more interesting from Ridley Scott - but if the film is set in the same world, uses many of the same motifs, aims for a similar mood (dread, ominousness, paranoia) and has direct links that go beyond easter eggs for the fans (the space jockey, the alien ship, the egg chamber - which is at least strongly evoked), I consider the film Alien-related in a way that goes beyond vague Extended Universe-type ties, even if there's not a single xenomorph or facehugger. Other than that one link, this trailer makes the film look at least as Alien-related as the Alien vs. Predator movies.
I think it's largely semantics; to me an Alien-related movie features xenos and face-huggers as that's been the staple of every Alien movie in the franchise and also the AvP spin-offs.
So if they find evidence of xenomorphs, or precursors to them, or plans to develop them as long as you don't see any it's not Alien-related?
pffffft
This thing may not BE Alien: The Prequel, and not explicitly ABOUT xenos, but to not want to call it Alien-related is just silly. Even if it never mentions them, nor the possibility of their development or existence it's got the same alien tech and company in it. It's related.
dema - RE: seeding human life. Battlestar Galactica? It's been done in many sci fi novels too. I remember reading a short story with this premise when I was a teenager.
Last edited by Subjective Effect; 23rd Dec 2011 at 09:13.
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This has probably been mentioned somewhere, but: The sort of temple imagery and the arranged amphora shaped things are straight out of the original Alien script. Originally the Nostromo 'away team' found the crashed ship which led them to a pyramid which had a temple inside with all the eggs stored thus. They cut it down to just the ship for pacing and budget reasons. Make of that what you will. (one of the AVPs actually injected stuff cut from the original backstory back in as well. Which got Dan O'Bannon a nice fat lawsuit cheque).
Scott's a cheeky fella. I think underneath it all he'd rather say screw the whole broken continuity and then override it with his own, which would probably be better frankly, but he's not rude enough to do that.
He will still cut back in things like eggified people into the original, which shows the life cycle was meant to be much weirder than the Space Termites Aliens gave us. And now we have "Well, it's not a true prequel" ("because like hell I'm accommodating the rest of the crap in this franchise" is I think the subtext there).
Isn't "reboot" the word for it?
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