Oh, Ridley Scott, it’s hard to root for you sometimes.
The director is responsible from some of the best sci-fi films of all time, with “Alien” perhaps being his greatest achievement. After handing the reins over to a variety of directors with the subsequent sequels and spin-offs, Ridley was supposed to make his triumphant return to the franchise with the oft-criticized “Prometheus.” After that film did moderately well at the box office, he was supposed to really hit big with the recent “Alien: Covenant.” Sadly, that didn’t go as planned, either. But fear not, if at first, or second, you don’t succeed, try, try again!
So, what’s Ridley’s new plan for recapturing the magic of the original “Alien”? Less aliens, obviously! In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Scott goes over whether or not he’d be willing to do a successor to ‘Covenant’ and which direction he’d like to go in.
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“We are [going to make another], we are,” Scott said. “I think what we have to do is gradually drift away from the alien stuff. People say, ‘You need more alien, you need more face pulling, need more chest bursting,’ so I put a lot of that in ‘Covenant’ and it fitted nicely. But I think if you go again you need to start finding another solution that’s more interesting. I think AI is becoming much more dangerous and therefore more interesting.”
Let’s just say, this sounds ill-advised. It’s clear that Scott might not completely understand the criticism about “Prometheus” and “Alien: Covenant.” It’s not the xenomorph scenes that people aren’t fully enjoying. Those were arguably the best parts of ‘Covenant.’ It’s all that existential nonsense that brings all the actual “Alien”-esque parts to a screeching halt. Many fans just want an “Alien” film that brings back the joy and, more importantly, the fear felt when watching the original.
Perhaps it’s time for Scott to maybe create something new outside of the “Alien” franchise? It was clear, after watching ‘Covenant,’ he’s more interested in following the adventures of David and exploring the origins of humanity than he is in creating another classic sci-fi horror film featuring scary aliens. Let’s see another “Blade Runner”-type of film instead of dragging the “Alien” name through the mud for a third time.
Guess that’s probably too much to ask from a director that is notorious for not letting things be.
I would have been happy with no chest- bursting in Alien Covenant. I think the problem is that stuff was not organic to the story Prometheus began. Sounds like he’d rather do- over Alien Covenant and I’d be happy with that.
I think if a film wants to explore existential questions, it needs to show before it tells. Take 2001 as an example. Or the first Alien film. The absolute otherness of the space jockey, the ship, the eggs, and the xenomorph, showed us the strangeness of being alive in a mostly lifeless and unforgiving universe, while the characters moaned about work conditions, the food, the level of pay, until they too came face to face with something that challenged everything that made sense to them. You show the audience something which represents the question or a possible answer. You don’t tell the audience by having characters sit discussing the nature of existence.
Please no more!
Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
A truly disheartening text to read. It seems to imply that Scott (or any filmmaker) should read the knee-jerk, dumb, often incoherent whining from internet troglodytes and shape his next film based on that. That’s the death of artistry.
And for the most part, the most criticized aspect of Covenant was the phoned-in fan-service that comprised the third act. Eliminate the “existential” themes about creation and destruction that made Prometheus and Covenant two of the most fascinating big-budget sci-fis and all you’ve got is a meaningless rehash of old tropes.
Prometheus put me to sleep, every damn time I tried watching it. Three times, and I still haven’t seen the end.
Look, there are good movies and bad movies. There are thoughtful movies (Ex-Machina) and dumb movies (Event Horizon) both equally good in their own way.
But Prometheus is not a good movie. Not by any standards.
The most disheartening thing is Scott saying “I think AI is becoming much more dangerous and therefore more interesting” – yeah, that’s what THE FIRST ALIEN WAS ABOUT!!!
existential themes LOL The complaints about Prometheus were never about the Lack of Aliens it was about the stupidity of the story and stupidity of the characters. The same can be said of covenant.
Some directors, Scott for instance are not writers–Fincher has more of a writters brain than Scott does, the idea that Scott is pushing the Alien franchise because it’s his is a bit absurd. Alien was actually Dan O’Bannon’s story, not Scott’s. Ridely did a bang up job of directing the first Alien film and it is still one of my all time favorite movies, but Scott was never the actual mastermind behind the story. What we have in his two latest Alien films is a complete misread of why Alien is a thing at all. Alien was never about Androids and AI, it was never a topical film, Alien wasn’t a cold war nightmare it was a Primal nightmare, rooted in anxiety about sexuality, the very nature of life. Having David be the creator of the Xeno-morphs, while a great irony–it’s also flaccid, it robs Alien of it core allure–The Xeno-morph represents everything mysterious and unknowable about the universe. The more you explore the origin of the Alien the more you detract from its orginial Lovecraftian design–fear of the unknown.
That fight between David and Walter–how absolutely absurd–what the fuck?????A kunfu fight between two androids–is that really what Alien is about?? Scott doesn’t know what he’s doing in the slightest.
Boom. It’s really that simple. Very well said.
No more, no more, no more. No more Alien. No more Xenomorphs. And, quite frankly, no more Scott.
No more MikeDK.
But who will do the fingering?
Personally, I find this really encouraging if they’re going to continue the franchise.