Last Movie You Watched and Rate It | Spring 2021 Edition
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ItsFineImFine
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A Ghost Story (2017) - 7/10
Much better than the borefest I expected it to be. Still too slow in parts but captivating in others, would be a nice concept if you had someone turn this movie into a mumblecore with two ghosts together making obersvational humour. I might have preferred just watching Rooney Mara go around the house because the 2nd half of the film feels less personal but still decent.
It Always Rains On Sunday (1947) - 7/10
Just can't miss on these British classics. This one has a weak ending because it goes for a prolonged chase scene involving one of the non-major actors. I preferred when it was following the family members around. It's a good little glimpse into post-war east-London middle class family life.
Much better than the borefest I expected it to be. Still too slow in parts but captivating in others, would be a nice concept if you had someone turn this movie into a mumblecore with two ghosts together making obersvational humour. I might have preferred just watching Rooney Mara go around the house because the 2nd half of the film feels less personal but still decent.
It Always Rains On Sunday (1947) - 7/10
Just can't miss on these British classics. This one has a weak ending because it goes for a prolonged chase scene involving one of the non-major actors. I preferred when it was following the family members around. It's a good little glimpse into post-war east-London middle class family life.
Konga (1961) - 6/10 (Liked it)
A respected botanist (Michael Gough) returns to London from Africa with a baby monkey and exotic, fast-growing plants that he plans to use to make a serum to transform his cute little primate friend into a large uncredited actor in a gorilla suit. When not commanding his enslaved freak of nature to kill his enemies, the mad scientist (in both senses of the term) finds time for extra-curricular activities with a pretty college girl less than half his age. It's easy to write this off as just a British B-movie rip-off of King Kong... because that's what it is. In the climax, Konga even rampages through London until he reaches Big Ben and the Parliamentary building, no doubt to protest oppressive government policies. Until that point, though, the movie is less about him and more about Michael Gough doing his best Vincent Price impression as the stark raving mad scientist who becomes increasingly cruel to all living things around him (Konga, plants, women and even a poor cat). Thanks to his character being amusingly evil and despite a silly story, a fake-looking gorilla costume, bad special effects, a bit of a disappointing ending and the fact that Konga and the pretty college girl sadly never hook up like in the promotional image above, I actually enjoyed the film. It's colorful and campy. Besides King Kong, it reminded me of Roger Corman's original The Little Shop of Horrors. It's much worse than both, but potentially "so bad that it's good" if you're in the mood for silly 60s B-movie sci-fi. It's on Amazon Prime.
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Pranzo Oltranzista
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I re-watched every Aliens and Predators films (available on Disney+), in order of production... sorry for the long post!
Alien (Scott, 1979) - Whether a feminist tale or a warning against misandry, there's no denying that Alien is filled with elements asking to be read through the gender angle. In any and all readings lies the central notion of male anxiety: mother running the nostromo (“our man”) with no care for its well-being, the fear of reproduction, the androgynous women characters and the feminisation of the male characters (making them the surrogate mothers), the need for the heroine to strip down to her panties to finally eliminate the (then obvious) huge-penis-invader xenomorph. By wiping out gender expectations, the film manages the feat of being both an efficient genre film (as sci-fi or as horror), and a complex reading proposition – something very few films not signed Stanley Kubrick can manage (Scott follows this one with another one in Blade Runner). O'Bannon lifted his main themes from Cronenberg's Shivers, but the result is here a lot more concise and efficient. The film has been linked to the final girl concept (and there's no denying that we get very close to the closet scene from Halloween at the end), but that's a gross simplification of what's going on here. Sadly, the sequels will capitalize a lot more on the “crew expendable” subtheme, making each time the hostile corporation the worst of two evils and minimizing what made Alien a truly unique and exceptional film (or completely missing the point). 9/10
Aliens (Cameron, 1986) - There's a little confusion surrounding the central character in Cameron's film because of the different cuts of the film. The one on Disney is the one that was available when I was younger, in which Ripley is not a mother that was away from her daughter through the first film and who makes it home 57 years later to learn she missed her kid's life. It's still in the film somewhat, when she takes over as replacement mother for Newt and promise to keep her safe. Ripley is no more a quasi-neutral-gender figure, she is a mother figure, and a strong woman – same goes for the other strong women in the military squad, they are (not always) subtly reminded that they are indeed women (Cameron already had success with a similar strong woman type in The Terminator). So even though Aliens' storyline is pretty much a scaled up version of the original (with more characters, more weapons, more action, more creatures, more at stake, but the same basic structure), Cameron's film is really just a very poor cousin, with not a lot of new material but a pool of caricatural characters. It's mother against mother, and most of the depth is lost. The hostile corporation's attempt to impregnate Ripley and Newt with the alien and get rid of the rest of the crew is the real evil here, and that's nothing really new or interesting (it's the sci-fi-horror version of all these resorts films where an evil corporation wants to take the land and turn it into condos). James Cameron's contribution and signature lies more in the “action film” additions than in anything else. Alien was a great dual-genre film. Aliens isn't as efficient as a horror film, but its sci-fi elements still work pretty well and it's a great action film. I've been pretty hard on it in the past, but compared to the bunch of films coming below, one must admit that it's better than average. 7/10
Predator (McTiernan, 1987) - When this came out, it had nothing to do with the Alien universe. Trying to make sense of the film in comparison to the first two Alien films thus make very little sense. Parallels can be made with the challenge to masculinity the Predator brings forth (Arnold's militia being presented as supermales all along), also on the “expendable crew” stuff, but I'm afraid there's not much to get out of it. Predator is almost interesting in its form, switching almost on a dime from action film to soft sci-fi, but this glimmer of interest is ruined by the shot of the spacecraft dropped on Earth at the beginning of the film. It's a tough film to rate, it's pretty bad and very dumb, but it's a core film from my youth and it has such a bad ass creature.... 4/10
Predator II (Hopkins, 1990) - Now this is one ugly motherf***er (from here on, pretty much every Predator film will be weakened by unjustified self-referential innuendos passing as humor). The film is ruined three minutes in, right when the female character (played by Maria Conchita Alonso) opens her mouth. I really can't remember such a terrible performance in a semi-high-scale movie. Right there you understand this was made with total disregard towards the result, and everybody follows (Bill Paxton, famous for being killed by both the Alien and the Predator, is also absolutely terrible). Glover does what he can, but everything around him is too much, even his handgun overacts. Following the comics, the film hints at the merging of the series, with the Predator having an Alien skull in its collection, but as for links to the Alien series and themes, it's an absolute zero (there is one scene that's lifted from James Cameron where a bunch of military-grade characters go against the creature and where the outside agent in charge of comms freezes so our hero has to take the mic and go in). At this point, with two films in each series, it was very obvious the merge wouldn't go well. 2/10
Alien³ (Fincher, 1992) - Fincher's film is a mess. The original project was cut 30 minutes short, and the result was still 30 minutes too long. The first two Alien films were efficient dual and trial genre constructions. Fincher flushes everything out: sci-fi is pretty much nullified by the prison settings, with no working tech and no weapon; horror is scaled down going from the large threat of Aliens to the single creature that won't even hurt Ripley; and action is limited to a bunch of nunified prisoners running around in a maze. It could have been an interesting exercice de style, but it really doesn't work real well. On a thematic level, it hints at going back to the original gender considerations, shaving Ripley's head and presenting her as a trigger for male anxiety, but still making her very clearly a woman, who's presence (“a break in spiritual unity”) is more threatening to the prisoners than the alien and presented as the “intolerable”. When a convict presents himself as a rapist, Ripley answers that “she must make him nervous”. She is undoubtedly a woman, but not Cameron's strong woman, just a woman as the unfamiliar: she is as much “other” as the creature is (and it wants to protect her). Fincher's treatment of Ripley is very confused, making her switch from a walking threat to damsel in distress to sacrificial savior. I think it's still a more complex and interesting film than Aliens, but it's just too flawed to be efficient. The whole running around in the maze until Lance Henriksen shows up should have been trimmed. It's one thing going for Alien³ that the hostile corporation's subplot remains limited, but it could have done without it entirely, without the atrocious CGI, and without the heroic sacrifice. Sigourney Weaver says she asked for her character to be killed off because she didn't want to be part of the coming Alien vs Predator films – she wasn't wrong. 4.5/10
Alien: Resurrection (Jeunet, 1997) - No other film series got blessed with such big names directors. Of the four, Jeunet is probably my favorite, but his style just doesn't fit with the tone of the series. As a sequel to Scott's Alien, his film is by far the worst. He humanizes the aliens, with the birth scene, the learning and teamworking abilities of the creatures, and the pathetic facial expressions of the newborn. He also makes Winona Ryder's robot more humane than humans. The sympathy towards otherness angle could have worked if the film had kept the tone and feel of its predecessors, but with Jeunet everybody is a little too cool and everything is a little too nice (of course, it makes more sense to build a robot using Ryder's frame than Lance Henriksen's or Ian Holm's, but aesthetics was never a consideration in this universe!). Even James Cameron's attempt at coolness doesn't match Jeunet. I'm not quite sure if he's mostly responsible or if the blame should be shared with Joss Whedon's screenplay, but even with a lot of remnants to play with (here the hostile corporation is the initial main focus, and Ripley's otherness is now part of her), there's no attempt whatsoever at a thematic bridge to the previous films, these elements are just laying around to rearrange, with no apparent direction. The coherence of the Alien filmic universe ends with this chapter. I think Caro would have done a better job than Jeunet on this project, or maybe they should have stayed together for one more film – or maybe the idea of bringing an author to direct such a project was simply a bad one. 4/10
Alien Vs. Predator (Anderson, 2004) - It kind of predates Prometheus in trying to go BIG (Predators as ancient Gods), but this is not worthy of its Alien filiation. The part in the buried pyramid is trying to emulate the Alien films tone and imagery – it feels cheap, but it's by far the best parts of the two AVP films. The pyramid settings and dumb changing configuration adds an adventure film feel that could have been an interesting progression to the genre combos of Alien (sci-fi+horror) and Aliens (sci-fi+horror+action), but it falls flat quick. The Alien vs Predator action is better than in the sequel, but still only a nerd fantasy and very poor excuse to make a film – justifying it would have taken a way better story. The point of ridiculous no return is reached when the Predator builds weapons from a dead Alien in order to tag-team with the shero. After that, anything goes: it mimes her that a bomb is about to blow, it even overacts surprise in cartoonish fashion when it sees the Queen coming... This could have been bad enough to ruin both franchise. Oh, and the girl gets the pink outfit! 3/10
Alien Vs. Predator: Requiem (The Brother Strause, 2007) - This one might be even more amateurish than its predecessor, but doesn't come close to its ridicule. It's just a boring and weak horror film. It amplifies a few continuity errors that question its relevance and affiliations to the Alien series, something Ridley Scott will (thank goodness) clearly nullify with his two prequels. The Predalien (I'm not making this up) weirdly raping women is the first clear allusion to rape since the original Alien – it has no value or interest here but I mention it has possibly the only interesting element from this non-cannon fiasco. 2.5/10
Predators (Antal, 2010) - Probably the only “serious” Predator film, in that it doesn't fall back on dumb one liners, comic relief, or obvious self-referential insides. It's also the sequel that's the closest to the original, with its jungle settings and band of overtly dangerous and trained misfits. It doesn't really make it a better film, but it makes it easier to compare to the Alien series – and the comparison is still pretty ugly. You do have a single female mixed to a crew of bad boys, but even though she's a capable warrior herself, she's still there as damsel in distress and feminized through her human compassion – as opposed to our abs-showing Adrien Brody (what?), with his no-nonsense cold-blooded rationale, she gets fooled by the lying coward psychopath who wants to take advantage of her (she gets objectified quite a bit for a warrior). We're miles away from the worst of the Alien offerings, with not much to work on. The typical Predator elements – the thermovision, the voice recording, etc. – are still there, and again only used as gimmicks. 3.5/10
Prometheus (Scott, 2012) - The great mistake of the Alien sequels was to try and do more of the same, and always to say less. More crew, more muscles, more weapons, more creatures, more deaths, and more of the evil bad company, but still the films all feel as less. Prometheus goes in the opposite direction: too much ambition and ideas, and just about no xenomorph. It's a film about creation, and it opens with beautiful shots of what might be Earth before mankind: most of these shots are of abstract composition - pointing to a form of creation freed from predetermined design. Then, the Engineer's self-sacrifice launches the creation of life (of humanoid life anyway), and appear some shots of DNA constructs: creation again, but intelligent design, the argument of creationists. Different references to Christianity through the film point to different interpretations of the Story-of-Man that's being told, some where the Engineers decided to punish mankind for the crucifixion. I'm not too fond of these, and I don't really care about the story at face-value. What's really interesting are the themes that are explored through these ideas: creation, procreation, parenthood (or lineage), and again, gender and male anxiety. The Alien sequels did a poor job at bringing anything to the original film's propositions on this regard, even though they all played with some forms of gender-bending ideas. The idea of the female bettering the supermale is kind of lost by Cameron's introduction of Vasquez and the strong woman. There's no reminder of the characters' femininity (the famous panties shots) in assessing their overpowering of men. In Aliens, the female characters show their strengths by adopting male characteristics (“have you ever been mistaken for a man?”) or behaviors (Ripley impressing everyone by her ability to drive the lift), and the male aliens – who lost their gigantic penis shape – are only the weaker soldiers of the powerful Queen. In Alien³, Ripley's femininity is reminded by her pregnancy, but she's reduced to needing the help of men (to save her from rape, and to achieve her plan), and the real threat is again the Queen she has in her.
In Prometheus, as in Christianity, the creators of mankind are supermales. Not presented as huge penis as was the first Alien, but as super muscular giant humanoids (they're actually close in stature to the supermale the original Predator comes to face). Like in the original film, this supermale meets his match when facing the female: Shaw's femininity was just reassessed by her pregnancy and her running around half naked, but this time she needs the help of the superfemale beast that came out of her – first clear inclusion of the vagina dentata in the series (the facehuggers were leaning this way). Through (not exactly immaculate) conception, Christianity's unwilling use of the female body as a vehicle for the birth of Christ is reversed in superb ironic fashion, away from any control of Man. Since the weird alien space jockey was really only an helmet, and the Engineers too close to us to be abject, the superfemale beast really is the only truly horrific being in the film.
The characters of David (the robot) and Vickers (Weyland's daughter) also are very interesting. The women in the film are not exactly androgynous, their refusal of traditional feminine characteristics – Shaw's sterility, and Vicker's cold emotionless front – end up breaking. David is the androgen, his femininity subtly makes him more powerful than the supermale (he has the same fate as the first engineer they encounter, he gets beheaded, but he survives). When one of the male characters tell him he's been made to look like them, he replies that he hopes to be not too close to them, even though it is noted elsewhere that he shouldn't be programmed to hope. Both him and Vickers normalize the desire to see your father/creator die, pointing to Shaw getting rid of the Engineer, her creator, and possibly back to the crucifixion again.
Like Alien, Prometheus works both as a true original sci-fi/horror genre film and as a rich thought-provoking tale. In that, it feels like its only true deserving descendant (or is it ancestor?). 8.5/10
Alien: Covenant (Scott, 2017) - Probably as a reaction to fans' reception of the first prequel, this one blurs the lines a little. It more clearly ties-in with the Alien films in tone (darker, and more horror-oriented, with the “return” - or the birth - of the original xenomorph) but is still a direct sequel to Prometheus in themes (and might be the film that's further away from the original Alien themes of the whole series). It starts off solidifying the parallel that was proposed between the creation of life and arts, and promises to go further in its theological considerations (covenant) – again, the film is swarming with ideas and leads, but it's not as ambitious as its predecessor, and surely not as focused as the original Alien. Of the new mind-toys to play with, the double was to me the most interesting. The same-same but different androids differ on one thing, their ability to create: Walter can retain and repeat with precision, and he thinks he is closer to perfection because he is the upgraded version of David, but David thinks he is the perfect model, for he has free will, and thus can create. Creation here is both composing an elegy/drawing portraits, and the creation of life. Dizygotic twins refer to the two disparate eggs they come from, it's not directly mentioned in the film, but they are kind of the echoed remnants of the original themes. David is playing God and, like his father created him, he is creating life throufh his experiments. In destroying the Engineers, he is Zeus punishing Prometheus for his creation. But when Walter proves to him that his free willed perfection is fallible (and that one wrong note can destroy a symphony), when David wrongly attributes Ozymandias to Byron, it is just about impossible not to think about The Modern Prometheus, even though they are discussing Mary Shelley's husband. David wishes to be the God of the Prometheus tale, but he is first of all our creation, the Monster. The ending, with weak suspense about the identity swap, opens itself to plot holes and cheapens the film a little, but it is the darker and more sinister chapter of what was an already pretty bleak series of films, and for that deserves some credit. 7/10
The Predator (Black, 2018) - I just can't believe I watched this thing a second time. We're back to the self-referential dumb humor (“You're one beautiful motherf***er”), but with levels of stupidity unattained yet. It burrows from the dumber stuff Predators introduced (the hunting dogs, the bigger preds hunting the smaller ones), but makes them even worse. The dogs now have dreads (maybe they're sensors - !?), but if that's not enough for you, the Predator – at first subtitled, but eventually right out translated to English – will get you rolling on the floor when he gets the mic with his stand-up routine where he identifies the 9 y/o autistic kid as the true warrior leader of the army and rogue soldiers. 2/10
From best to worst:
Alien
Prometheus
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Aliens
Alien: Covenant
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Alien³
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Alien: Resurrection
Predator
Predators
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AvP
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AvP: Requiem
Predator 2
The Predator
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Nice work, PO. In my younger days I did a major paper on Alien (the first one) for a film class taught by Robin Wood, who was ahead of his time concerning a lot of this stuff. I focused on subtext and argued that the film was actually anti-feminist. It was a lot of fun.
Pranzo Oltranzista
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That's what I meant by warning against misandry. It can really be read both ways - one of its strenghts IMO.
I see that trying to trigger Star Wars fans by putting The Last Jedi up at the top with The Empire Strikes Back wasn't enough for you, Pranzo. You're now trying to trigger Alien fans by putting Prometheus at the top with Alien. I'm onto you. 
You deeply offended me with many of those thoughts, but I threw you a "like" because I greatly respect the effort to watch all of those and write them up so superbly for us.
You deeply offended me with many of those thoughts, but I threw you a "like" because I greatly respect the effort to watch all of those and write them up so superbly for us.
Pranzo Oltranzista
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I see that trying to trigger Star Wars fans by putting The Last Jedi up at the top with The Empire Strikes Back wasn't enough for you, Pranzo. You're now trying to trigger Alien fans by putting Prometheus at the top with Alien. I'm onto you.
You have deeply offended me with many of your thoughts, but I threw you a "like" because I greatly respect the effort to watch all of those and write them up.
I somehow doubt Alien fans are as dumb as SW fans
But most people don't watch films the way I do, so no worry. I'll still gladly read your thoughts on Prometheus.
I don't have many thoughts, myself, since I saw it once 8 years ago and don't remember much, except that it was a disappointment and I didn't like it. I was more referring to how poorly it's regarded by Alien fans in general. I'd have to re-watch it, but my thoughts probably wouldn't be very interesting to you because we watch these films differently.
Since you seem to appreciate Ridley Scott's themes, you might like the recent HBO Max sci-fi series Raised by Wolves, which he helped produce. It has similar motherhood and religious themes and allusions. I didn't really like the series, but you might.
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Pranzo Oltranzista
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On that level, I guess the link to TLJ is relevant - a lot of people are comfortable being told the same thing over and over again and don't like new ideas. I guess some might enjoy Aliens more for its dumber-action side, but saying Prometheus is a lesser film than any other Alien sequels/prequels (and don't get me started on the Predator films) sounds really funny to me.
Prometheus is an absolute mess that does little to explain the origin of the Xenomorph, its supposed purpose. Yet, somehow, the producers actually made it even worst with a sequel that rendered the first movie completely obsolete. Frankly, the whole "origin" prequel is just pure incompetence, and should not even exist. I like the insight on the symbolism that was mentioned, but those aspects likely flew over casual fans.
I actually watched The Predator recently, and I thought it has a rather interesting concept. Usually, other movies in regards to extraterrestrials usually pits mankind against an all-powerful invader that wants either resources man has, or it has intergalactic domination on the agenda. Predator, on the other hand, is very different, in that the titular character really has little to no malice towards our species, and sees human beings more as exotic creatures it hunts for sport. That aspect makes it stand out, and it also allows the titular character to act as either friend or foe in later movies. Add to the fact that Schwarzenegger is still at the height of his action hero prowess during this time, with off-the-charts leading man charisma, this movie is quite fun.
I actually watched The Predator recently, and I thought it has a rather interesting concept. Usually, other movies in regards to extraterrestrials usually pits mankind against an all-powerful invader that wants either resources man has, or it has intergalactic domination on the agenda. Predator, on the other hand, is very different, in that the titular character really has little to no malice towards our species, and sees human beings more as exotic creatures it hunts for sport. That aspect makes it stand out, and it also allows the titular character to act as either friend or foe in later movies. Add to the fact that Schwarzenegger is still at the height of his action hero prowess during this time, with off-the-charts leading man charisma, this movie is quite fun.
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NyQuil
Big F$&*in Q
The plot of Prometheus:
It starts off well enough, and then devolves into the worst kind of tripe.
The saving grace of the movie is Fassbender imitating Peter O'Toole as his idealistic representation of humanity.
It starts off well enough, and then devolves into the worst kind of tripe.
The saving grace of the movie is Fassbender imitating Peter O'Toole as his idealistic representation of humanity.
Mr Jiggyfly
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I watched this a year ago, but still can’t decide if the pie eating scene was great art or the most boring 4 1/2 minutes in film history.
Pranzo Oltranzista
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I'm pretty sure the pseudo-xenomorph at the end was added through pressure, so I don't know how it was supposed to be its supposed purpose. If anything, the "story level" purpose was to explain the origin of the space jockey - and it does it with panache. Not what fans expected that's for sure.
ItsFineImFine
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Gaslight (1944) - 7/10
In which Ingrid Bergman literally gets gaslit (gaslighted?) by a sleazy French guy for almost 2 hours. That's it, that's pretty much the whole movie. Curiously re-made from a British version 4 years prior and with a young Angela Lansbury as the dislikable maid.
In which Ingrid Bergman literally gets gaslit (gaslighted?) by a sleazy French guy for almost 2 hours. That's it, that's pretty much the whole movie. Curiously re-made from a British version 4 years prior and with a young Angela Lansbury as the dislikable maid.
Watched Minari.
10/10.
After decades of Marvel, Star Wars, and CGI-fests, I forgot how much I love simple great scripts with amazing acting.
Don't be fooled by the language.
This is about an American family in America, starring an American actor, directed by an American film maker.
10/10.
After decades of Marvel, Star Wars, and CGI-fests, I forgot how much I love simple great scripts with amazing acting.
Don't be fooled by the language.
This is about an American family in America, starring an American actor, directed by an American film maker.
NyQuil
Big F$&*in Q
Don't you feel like the execution was all over the place?
You had Fassbender, you had zombie boyfriend, you had family squabbling and stowaway Guy Pearce, you had psychotic Charlize Theron, you had idiot scientists, you had the Space Jockey, you had the elephant alien. Wasn't Idris Elba in this movie? What the hell was the point of him?
Pranzo Oltranzista
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As I said, it's a pretty ambitious film, so yeah there's a lot of stuff, but I think Scott manages to keep a hold of everything. The only thing that kind of bothers me in the prequels regarding the storyline as a whole is that technology seems a lot more advanced then it was (or will be) in the two first films.
As for Idris Elba, I'm not too sure what you're asking for. What's Lino Ventura's point in Predator? Elba is at the helm of the Prometheus when it is sacrificed to save the human race, so in terms of overall reading of the film, if you choose the mythic path, he plays a pretty important part.
NyQuil
Big F$&*in Q
It just seemed like a waste for someone of his capabilities.
I think you like the idea and concept of the film which is admittedly and laudably ambitious.
Sometimes a more tightly conceived story ends up better in execution, which is why I would prefer the first two Alien films.
Alien 3 would actually be quite interesting as a stand-alone film but it ended up as derivative of the first two.
Alien: Resurrection was Firefly meets Alien. It seemed more like a video game than a film.
I only saw Alien: Covenant once, and while I once again liked Fassbender’s yeoman’s effort, it suffered from illogical decision making on the part of the crew to move the plot forward, and that usually bugs me.
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Pranzo Oltranzista
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I have no real interest for this, but there you go:
What made you want to do Prometheus?
I wanted to work with Ridley again. I loved working with him the first time [in American Gangster]. His return to this genre is a landmark in filmmaking. So to be a part of that certainly it feels like a big achievement for me. Ridley called me and said, “Look, this film isn’t about Captain Janek at all. But I want a really good actor to play this part.” So, he gave me the job and it was great.
You would have asked me a ranking before these rewatch and I might have put Aliens under Alien³. I'm just not a fan of James Cameron's action-driven superficial type of films. I was actually surprised and liked it a lot more than I remembered. Fincher's film probably had better intentions, but that to me is lacking in execution/competence. I'm with you on Alien: Resurrection, completely out of tune with the rest, and I would have mostly agreed about Alien: Covenant before watching it again, but there too I was pleasantly surprised, especially seeing it right after Prometheus.
**I was not pleasantly surprised by any of the Predator films...
NyQuil
Big F$&*in Q
I think there's a subtle art in establishing enough detail of a future setting to intrigue the viewer, while leaving most of it up to their imagination.
Fans will pore over the minute details that hint of a much larger and expansive universe, marveling and wondering and hypothesizing about it.
Weyland-Utani. The Corporation.
I thought both Alien and Aliens did a masterful job of it. Sometimes you have to leave a little mystery.
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NyQuil
Big F$&*in Q
**I was not pleasantly surprised by any of the Predator films...
The one thing that Predator did well was establish how formidable the human soldiers were before the Predator took them out one by one.
It's not enough to have various characters just walk around talking about how great they are, the viewer has to see it with their own two eyes.
Aliens does this fairly well by demonstrating the professionalism of the Marines as they perform that first infiltration sweep of the colony. Despite all the hijinks and banter earlier, the team is focused and calm. It shows terrific restraint in those initial scenes because you assume something is going to happen and it just doesn't.
In Predators, stereotypes are dropped by parachute onto an alien world and the viewer is supposed to assume that the Yakuza, Spetznatz, guy in an orange jumpsuit, Narco, etc. are tough bad-asses worth hunting because of their clothes and general demeanor.
It just doesn't have the same impact.
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Pranzo Oltranzista
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I think Prometheus opens up a lot more questions that are left to our imagination than the first two films did. And I think the hostile corp is the lamest thematic element of the 3 first sequels (and the first AVP film). Proof that we can come from very different angles to the same films.
NyQuil
Big F$&*in Q
I don't see a claustrophobic horror film as the right vehicle for philosophical explorations of immortality, divine creation and hubris.
It just seemed ham-fisted and forced, sort of welded together. The film couldn't maintain the gravitas of those initial scenes because the scientists are touching completely foreign alien parasites with their hands.
I prefer a more reasonable and rational approach to those kinds of themes, like in Arrival. It just seemed more plausible.
I liked how we know very little about it, but lurks as a sinister Orwellian presence nonetheless.
I definitely preferred the subtle malice of Holm and Reiser and the caustic bureaucratic indifference of the board room scene to the more obvious tinfoil wearing thugs of Alien 3 or the overacting of Guy Pierce (who is either good or terrible in like everything he does).
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