ALIEN: Covenant (Spoilers allowed starting at post 326)

[Python]

Originally Posted by Hanky Panky

Considering the script was never finished while filming AND director David Fincher since disavowing any association with this film, I think the harshness is quite justified.

Not really, the studio royally screwed up the production, we all know that. But Fincher did a a good job with what he had, he probably likes to forget the movie simply due to all of the negativity around it. I think Alien 3 (the directors cut) Is a better ALIEN movie than Aliens is. Not a better movie, but it is more fitting with the first. I like it anyway.

[Hellboy]

I'm a fan of ALIEN3 as well. That said it was a bit of a dead end for the characters and I always wanted to see more of Hicks and Newt so I'm cool with what they're doing moving forward.

It'll be interesting to see how things line up in terms of what is and isn't canon. I actually like the idea of not writing off ALIEN3 and at the beginning of the fifth film show Ripley's death from the 3rd and have her abruptly awake out of a cryosleep nightmare.

[Python]

I really wouldn't be surprised if they went that route actually. It could be seen as a cheap move, but at the same time, it isn't completely writing off Alien 3, or even A:R I guess..

[Hanky Panky]

Originally Posted by Hellboy

I always wanted to see more of Hicks and Newt so I'm cool with what they're doing moving forward.

I think that sentiment is shared universally by most Alien fans, myself included.

Originally Posted by Python

Fincher did a a good job with what he had, he probably likes to forget the movie simply due to all of the negativity around it.

It's actually quite the opposite. In Fincher's own words...


"We were shooting that shot four days before the film opened, a completely ridiculous mess.

We really only had four or five weeks prep with the script that resembled what you saw. A lot of times we were fitting scenes into sets that we had aleady constructed. It was not the optimum way to make a movie.

We failed to give people the broad, safe entertainment that they seem to want. They want to go to the cinema and get away from it all. If we had just gone out and done a shoot ‘em up we would have cheapened the thing in the long run. Instead we did something weird and ----ed up out there. I just think in terms of the world boxoffice we may have chosen wrong.”

https://mossfilm.wordpress.com/2012/...fincher-talks/

[Hellboy]

That statement still doesn't mean he wouldn't like to distance himself from the experience. I'm sure he's proud of what he did on film but the studio interference and fan backlash directed squarely against him as if he personally destroyed the franchise are things he'd rather put behind him.

[Python]

Beat me to it. I appreciate I'm in a minority, but I just like the film. I understand why others don't, especially as it followed Aliens which had changed the tone, and probably the expectations of future movies in the franchise with it. It was however a fine example of how the studios can royally screw things up by getting too involved.

[Viper245]

Upon my initial viewing of ALIEN3 when it released in theaters, I was let down by several aspects of the film but after subsequent viewings over the years, I have come appreciate the film more. I still think it is a weaker film compared to both ALIEN and ALIENS and it wasn't the direction I wanted the narrative to go after the events in ALIENS but I can now appreciate certain elements of the film when judged independently of the others in the series.

As a side note, I don't consider ALIEN:Resurrection as canon and personally dismiss it from the series.

[Hanky Panky]

Originally Posted by Hellboy

That statement still doesn't mean he wouldn't like to distance himself from the experience. I'm sure he's proud of what he did on film but the studio interference and fan backlash directed squarely against him as if he personally destroyed the franchise are things he'd rather put behind him.

He has stated that he's proud of the f/x, so that's on record.

But when it comes to storyline, I think Fox studios intervening was warranted...and I quote from Fincher:

"When we started this one I thought what could I do with the story that would ride the next yuppie wave?

Sacrifice, the idea that sacrifice was a noble, capitalist alternative. So I thought that’s the obvious place to go with this character because we’re not really going to have too much more to do with her.”


Killing off Newt and Hicks is debatable. Killing off Ripley was just a bad call period on Fincher's part. I can understand why producers had major concerns with this change in story, especially if it meant a potential end to their money-making franchise.

Originally Posted by Viper245

I don't consider ALIEN:Resurrection as canon and personally dismiss it from the series.

Agreed.

[johnclone]

Alien Resurrection has a few good moments, mainly the Ripleys in jars scene, and the design of the alien newborn was cool, but as a film it was just watching a bunch of characters die that nobody cared about anyway. And the whole Ripley is now part alien thing was BS.

[Hanky Panky]

Originally Posted by johnclone

Alien Resurrection has a few good moments, mainly the Ripleys in jars scene, and the design of the alien newborn was cool, but as a film it was just watching a bunch of characters die that nobody cared about anyway.

And the whole Ripley is now part alien thing was BS.

That's all on Joss Whedon's shoulders right there, since he wrote the entire screenplay.

It works with Serenity but not here.