It’s everyone, and it’s been happening all fucking day.
5 Likes
I think everything’s working now
2 Likes
You mean “all dog fuckin’ day”.
1 Like
Hitman Forum is alive!
4 Likes
I have finally earned by flippin’ Devotee badge! Only took forever too!
10 Likes
I watched the original 1979 Alien movie tonight for the second time in quite a long time…
Also because I wanna revisit it because I’ve heard the new Romulus is pretty good, and inspired by going back to its horror roots.
It’s such a good slow burn horror film. Also filmed in a way films aren’t filmed anymore…
The scene where the crew wakes up from hypersleep is like a good 2mins I’m sure, with the camera slowly revealing each of their pods, and putting focus on Kane waking up with a lot of fade-transitions to different angles.
Definitely a slow scene that savours its runtime that wouldn’t happen today…
also right after watching it I downloaded Alien Isolation again which may prove to be a fatal mistake but we’ll see… 
7 Likes
The last time I played it, it was on PS3… One of the DLC missions (or w/e). I recall being in a small room and being too afraid to even move. I was shaking like a leaf. 
Unrelated (right?)… I came across a chicken related meme a couple days back. I’ll try to look for it and post it (likely) in the funny pics/vids topic. It was something about someone casting a spell on a knight (I think) where it was ‘resurrection, but it’s for the last thing you ate’ and a chicken was coming out of a guy’s chest or something… Sort of like a chest burster.
I’ll be sure to tag you if I come across it again.
4 Likes
Sorry to tell you, but you’re setting yourself up for disappointment.
Romulus is a fun movie but it’s also incredibly stupid/campy and nothing like the brooding terror of 1979. 
I would give it a 10 for set design, 6 for pacing and a 3 for the overall story.
We need Denis Villeneuves to direct a proper alien movie.
2 Likes
The thing is, we can’t get a proper Alien movie anymore.
What made the original and the first sequel successful was the mystery of the creature itself. The Alien was unknown, we didn’t know what it could do or what its motivations are and we learned as we went, which was terrifying. Then, Aliens came along and showed us both what a bunch of these things did if they were all in one place together, and showed us where their eggs came from with the reveal of the Queen.
But after that, the novelty wore off, because everything significant that we needed to know about them had already been revealed. The next two sequels gave some variations on the creatures themselves, but nothing significant, just minor tweaks that revealed no mysteries. The two crossover films with the Predator introduced some new concepts, but they were mostly about the Predators, while the Aliens were just the antagonists and any new twists on them were linked directly with the Predators.
Prometheus tried something new, to its credit, but the film wasn’t really about the Aliens themselves, and more about who made the stuff they came from. I haven’t seen Covenant, but the gist I get from it is: dissolutioned android makes new breed of Aliens that makes him think he is the first to make them at all, and sets them against humanity. Don’t know how accurate that is, but that just makes it more about the android and less about the Aliens, and both the original film, the two Predator crossovers, and Prometheus make the idea that he created them impossible, so it can’t even count as another chapter in their origin story.
And from what I’m picking up for Romulus, while it plays the Greatest Hits, it doesn’t provide any new mysteries or answer old ones that significantly impact the franchise lore.
And behind all that is the overarching theme of the Company trying to capture and weaponize the Aliens, but even that grew stale after the second movie, because the mystery surrounding them too - why they wanted the Alien and how far they’d be willing to go to get it - was also fully answered, so even the secondary storyline has nothing new to offer.
For these reasons, I don’t see the Alien series ever returning to its former glory. While the Predator series may still have some stories to tell and some mysteries to reveal, the Alien needs to go sit on a bench with the Terminator for a generation or two.
1 Like
I’d like to add that the Alien Queen and where the eggs come from is a James Cameron thing.
The Alien Life Cycle by large on film has focused more on Cameron’s interpretation of it largely because Ridley’s original plan was ultimately cut from Alien, but has been re-established to some degree in subsequent projects both on film and in comics.
Cameron’s approach to the life cycle while giving a natural evolution from Egg to Queen removed the mysticism and unexplained nature surrounding the Xenomorph.
While Ridley’s focused more on a fantastical approach where Eggs were created from the dead who are cocooned. The issue is that it left more question than answers and when we got answers from Prometheus and Alien Covenant it often led to more questions.
Given how Fox meddled with the development of Covenant it ultimately effected the final product for better or worse since it was originally suppose to be the Prometheus sequel that would Segway into a third film that would lead to what would be Alien.
To simply put it Ridley wanted to steer away from Xenomorphs wanting to focus on the Space Jockey and its origins and the implications they had with with the creation of the Xenomorph because of David’s need to be a creator first and then move on to focus on the AI element of the series too.
I’m in the boat where I prefer Ridley’s interpretation of the life cycle largely cause it’s simply more unnerving and leaves room for the imagination.
4 Likes
Eh, I prefer Cameron’s version. It keeps things simple, and having continuing mysteries gets frustrating after a while. It also makes more sense than what Ridley was going for. Keep the Aliens as more animal than space wizards. Leave the Engineers for that.
1 Like
Sure we can.You’re undermining Denis talent. He’s the guy with the impossible task of making a Blade Runner sequel and he made a slam dunk.
It doesn’t even have to be strictly about “the mystery of the alien”. The universe is much bigger than that. Corporate greed, mining dystopias, synthetic people. Stuff Romulus glanced over but went nowhere with because it wanted to be a campy teenage murder movie.
Denis could absolutely knock out a great Alien movie. You should watch Arrival. A movie about an alien invasion of earth and the most frightening part is how humanity reacts to it. I highly recommend it. His movies oozes the tension and weight that the original Alien is so known for.
On another note, Cameron’s take on the xenomorphs being dumb space bugs should be ignored imo.
That might be well and good for a regular sci-fi movie, but not for the Alien franchise. The entire central conceit is on the Alien itself. And Cameron took the technological step based on what little we saw in the first film and the cocooning aspects of what was cut from it. Really, anyone else would probably have done the same, and it’s the reason the franchise became popular enough to continue making attempts.
I love how you have the authority to define what the franchise is about, largely ignoring Ridley Scott’s Prometheus. I’m not sure your idea that “the entire central conceit is on the alien itself” holds water?
Firstly, it’s not even my idea, I’m just sharing what people more experienced in analyzing movies than I am have said, and after hearing these takes, I could not disagree with them on any rational basis. Secondly, the series is literally about the Aliens, so yeah, it’s holding that water and carrying it across the road. I already talked about Prometheus, and I already pointed out how none of the movies that have come since Aliens has been anywhere near as well-received as the first two, and that is common knowledge. There’s a reason for it. I, in turn, love how your refusal to accept basic facts about a franchise as simple as this one is troubling you so much to hear it.
I refuse to accept basic facts about a franchise when it’s you who say “the movies must be about the alien” and Ridley made an entire movie not about the alien?
Prometheus is a prequel. And I’m talking specifically about the Alien movies, including the one upon which this topic began, Romulus, and why neither it, nor any of its predecessors have captured the magic of the first two installments, and none likely ever will again. And basic facts are basic facts irrespective of who is listing them.
I think Prometheus is part of the Alien franchise? Wouldn’t you agree?
