Quote from: Voros;965195Any of the movies past the first Alien, which was heavily informed by a very 70s paranoia, don't make a lick of sense if you think about them. This includes Aliens, how does Ripley's strong but vulnerable second-in-command of a mining transport suddenly transform into a military and arms bad-ass expert for the second film? As usual for Cameron his dynamic action sequences covered for a second-rate script.

Helen Ripley was an intelligent, strong woman who was driven to survive, save newt and defeat the aliens. That's how she did what she did in Aliens.

Also hicks gave her a crash course in weapons 101. Between having a minimal education in weapons and high intelligence and strength she winged it. Kinda like, I dunno, a character in a RPG?

Saw this last night.

Meh with some commentary.

CGI gives filmmakers some incredible freedoms, but it also allows them to do stuff that, IMO, are better executed with the limitations of practical effects. The Deacons (proto-xenommorps) were action monsters instead of horror monster. Running around, jumping and snarling. Even the xenos in Aliens were better done, lurking and sneaking instead of charging like monkeys on speed.

Making David a crazy villian was a bit of a dissapointment. I liked him best as an amoral commentator on humanity. Now he's a nut that makes monsters.

I was not scared by anything in the movie until the very end. When Danny realizes that Walter is really David, even though it was telegraphed earlier, is really creepy because she realizes it   just as she's sealed up in the cryo chamber, and can do nothing about it!

Now, the xenomorph is dissected and laid bare, revealing it's origin and nature. It's no longer as scary, just a monster to be defeated. And that's kinda sad.

Personally, I would much rather they'd stuck to their guns and continued the story of Shaw and David going to confront the Engineers about why they decided to destroy humanity. In that way, I think Prometheus, despite it's flaws, was a better film.

Quote from: Ratman_tf;985506Now, the xenomorph is dissected and laid bare, revealing it's origin and nature. It's no longer as scary, just a monster to be defeated. And that's kinda sad.

I wonder how they are going to tie David's creation of the Xenomorph we know and love with the beginnings of Alien.  I can overlook the tech difference, to a degree, space truckers don't need cutting edge sensor equipment like a planetary survey crew, and the Marines...let's just say made by the lowest bidder for 10 times what it would cost on the civilian market and being horribly out of date at the same time is truth in advertising.

But, if David is the origin of the xenomorphs, it doesn't time into Alien.  Even assuming a few centuries between the two films (which is a big assumption mind you), it makes no goddamned sense.

I don't see how they're going to tie in David to the 1st film that makes any real sense.

Ellen Ripley, isn't it?

Quote from: Ras Algethi;986502I don't see how they're going to tie in David to the 1st film that makes any real sense.

I can see-
David is a wolf among sheep at the new colony. Nobody who knows better survived, and he keeps up his façade of Walter.
Makes monsters before anyone a the colony wises up, and bloody hijinks ensue.
Finale: The Heroes of the flim beat David and his monster(s), a ship of Engineers arrives to take the eggs that David has created out of the colonist's hands. They dont' destroy the eggs because plot.
The Engineers take off, but crash at LV426 because the aliens got loose AGAIN and killed the crew. A ship of dead Engineers and xenomorph eggs lays there until the Nostromo arrives.

Quote from: Ratman_tf;986584I can see-
David is a wolf among sheep at the new colony. Nobody who knows better survived, and he keeps up his façade of Walter.
Makes monsters before anyone a the colony wises up, and bloody hijinks ensue.
Finale: The Heroes of the flim beat David and his monster(s), a ship of Engineers arrives to take the eggs that David has created out of the colonist's hands. They dont' destroy the eggs because plot.
The Engineers take off, but crash at LV426 because the aliens got loose AGAIN and killed the crew. A ship of dead Engineers and xenomorph eggs lays there until the Nostromo arrives.

What happens to the surviving heroes and colonists?

The Company is actively looking for this stuff during Ripley's tenure as well. Which doesn't make sense if it's thought of as a myth and anyone who finds out different gets murdered by xenomorphs or crazy androids.

Unless David was submitting quarterly reports. And I'd love to read those.

Quote from: Ras Algethi;986592What happens to the surviving heroes and colonists?

Stranded, their colony smashed by alien attacks, they are conveniently forgotten, left to either die off or spend decades restoring their infrastructure.

Quote from: CRKrueger;964003That was the big problem with Prometheus.  The crew.  When a random group of space salvage chuckleheads encounter something alien, you expect dumb people to do dumb things.  When the world's richest man who owns the world's richest corporation builds the most expensive vessel in the history of earth to launch our first interstellar voyage to encounter new life...you'd think they'd get the best and brightest, or maybe the second best and brightest if the first was so socially maladjusted they are barely functional.

I picked up the DVD cheap but stopped watching it halfway through. I don't have enough alcohol in the house to numb me into finishing it.

Goddamn, is it too much to ask for a starship crew to use basic biological contamination protection? Just once?

Quote from: jeff37923;990437I picked up the DVD cheap but stopped watching it halfway through. I don't have enough alcohol in the house to numb me into finishing it.

Goddamn, is it too much to ask for a starship crew to use basic biological contamination protection? Just once?

Hah! Welcome to real life. Not picking on you per se, but people in real life don't really follow safety rules, especially when there isn't consistent immediate catastrophic results for not following them and when some of the safety rules are irrational or impractical.

An anthrax lab and a DNA-only genetics research lab don't need the exact same rules, especially when the genetics research lab doesn't have non-lab areas for their personnel, meaning there is no place to have water or snacks that isn't in the lab. Or one of my favorites, the workbench and the machine for processing the samples are on totally different floors or even in different buildings. I know why the rules are one-size-for-all and why schools don't give non-lab space to grad students and lab personnel, I'm just reporting on the results.

I see people working with dangerous reagents ignoring basic lab procedures. ("I don't wear gloves. I just spray my hands with ethanol.") I've talked to people that work with sepsis, anthrax, and engineered diseases and they report their co-workers are the same way. One group came in and checked the areas around the disease lab for contamination. They found lines of contamination going from the lab, to the bathroom and the break room.

Watch people wearing gloves--food places the good for this too. They act like the gloves magically stay clean, rather than protecting their hands from disease and vice versa. By this I mean, watch how people will put on gloves, handle food, then handle garbage, and then handle money, without ever taking off, changing, or cleaning the gloves. Lab jackets are treated the same way.