*BEWARE SPOILERS* Alien: Romulus

[jaztermareal]

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You need specific conditions to slow down an Alien to the point where it's a coin flip again. You also need circumstances where it's not just 20 humans armed with pulse rifles chewing up that Alien at a distance and the film ends in 15 minutes. An Alien can move fast, it can climb, it has acid for blood, but it can't teleport though heavy bulkheads. It might get to the point of being clever, but not strategic like a Predator. So people have tried different treatments and pitches. Alien in a prison ( used but arguably wasted at a certain level), Alien in a oil rig. Alien in a cargo shipping vessel. ( How about Alien in the Nakatomi building? ) A lot of concepts just take you back to square one and force you to go over old ground. You can make it environmental, which is much easier on the writers such as putting an Alien in the Arctic, or in the extreme desert or underwater. And while that helps the coin flip situation, it creates a budgetary and logistical burden on the back end.

For example, I've said before and probably to you @Rotfish , that one of the best parts of Alien Resurrection was the underwater scene. Humans moved differently. They had new limitations. Their weapons worked differently. Their ability to fight had to change. But the Aliens had limitations too. The acid for blood has a different wrinkle, They can swim fast but you don't get the total crazy Deion Sanders of xenomorphs effect as you do in Alien Covenant in the open field that turns humans into instant absolute cannon fodder. But the logistics of filming an Alien film that's a large majority underwater is a big undertaking. You can cover a lot of ground in current times with SFX, but extensive water shoots are very hard and very expensive. It's also hard on the cast and now you start to prune your potential cast from performers who won't want to deal with it. ( Just like actors and actresses who turn down roles because they refuse to squeeze into a suit or spend 6 hours a day getting makeup and prosthetics slathered all over them)

Someone shouting, "Just do something creative, have some imagination!" isn't going to be enough here. With other IPs and concepts, maybe that works, but here you have to set the conditions to maintain the audience's suspension of disbelief with already so much ground covered in so many previous films. If you don't have a concept that gives you a logical path to that "coin flip", then you've removed your writers room from having a fighting chance. If the writing fails, nearly all the time, the film with fail badly with it.

I won't assess this as "Difficult But Not Impossible"

I would rather frame it as "Being Cornered Narratively To The Point Where The Few Workable Concepts Have Such Huge Logistical Tradeoffs That No One Will Finance It"

And, unfortunate as it is to say it, Ridley Scott didn't exactly help matters much with Covenant and Prometheus. He just made everything harder for future concepts. But it was his baby to kill in the first place.

And I agree, once Cameron closed off the Ellen Ripley character arc in a complete and organic way ( especially through the Aliens Special Edition version), there wasn't much room left to take the series without her. The various proxies for her just aren't the same and can't resonate the same way with viewers.

Spoiler

All those examples you gave follow the same cat and mouse formula. I think you are assuming there is little room for better simply as you are not engaging enough imagination on this subject yet.

There are many ways to keep the franchise fresh and take it new directions just as I posted earlier.


I also disagree with your point that there weren't many directions to take the franchise after Ellen Ripleys conclusion in Aliens. Again, with imagination you could take it anywhere without her. You just need a new character that the audience attaches to. Imagine if Alien 3 had been an Arnold Shwarzenegger vehicle for example. People today might have been talking about how it breathed new life into the franchise, they might have argued about whether the Ripley films were better than his ones or whether his most Iconic monster was the Xeno, the predator or the Terminator. We don't know because no other Actor became the face of the franchise, Ripley was brought back twice in increasingly unbelievable ways (unluckiest woman ever to exist).


The one main thing I agree with you on is the issue of cost. So long as the films don't do amazing enough for studios to throw big money at further installments budgets won't be big enough to go full scale with planetary invasion stories etc, but then again look at what was done on small budgets with films like District 9 or the Creator. Modern VFX is improving to the point that even home VFX look great and there are film makers who know how to run a project free of bloat and really make every dollar count. It all depends on who is running the project.

Maybe if the execs are smart they will hire better people to not just inject some creativity but to run more lean projects with smaller budgets but more freedom. Might get some great movies that way.

 

[crows]

the only problem is the setting. that's why it stopped working. its not Ripley. its those boring space ships.
Prometheus and covenant had the right idea with the planets.

there needs to be a movie where aliens attack a colony of a living place

 

[xipotec]

Been saying it, that's all this director does, pick the highlights of the franchise and redo them with a modern take.

 

[Wor-Gar]

there needs to be a movie where aliens attack a colony of a living place

Although Cameron did this on a smaller level, a "cowboys and Indians" with a limited group of aliens assaulting a small colony could be interesting. It doesn't stray too far from the "accepted" concept and yet it does open it up somewhat.

 

[wormlander]

the only problem is the setting. that's why it stopped working. its not Ripley. its those boring space ships.
Prometheus and covenant had the right idea with the planets.

there needs to be a movie where aliens attack a colony of a living place

I strongly agree with this. New interesting settings are extremely important to keep me invested in this franchise moving forward. Prometheus and Covenant changed it up in a way I never saw coming and for that I'll always be grateful to Ridley. The lore expansion was clearly divisive, but noone can deny the balls it took to leave the already established "path" of such a classic series. If I ever want to see a horror or an action movie in this universe I'll always have the first two to fall back on. Nomatter how many attempts they'll make, there will never be another Alien movie that even comes close to those two masterpieces. Therefore each new story needs to stand out in a positively spectacular way or don't even bother...

 

[crows]

Although Cameron did this on a smaller level, a "cowboys and Indians" with a limited group of aliens assaulting a small colony could be interesting. It doesn't stray too far from the "accepted" concept and yet it does open it up somewhat.

I strongly agree with this. New interesting settings are extremely important to keep me invested in this franchise moving forward. Prometheus and Covenant changed it up in a way I never saw coming and for that I'll always be grateful to Ridley. The lore expansion was clearly divisive, but noone can deny the balls it took to leave the already established "path" of such a classic series. If I ever want to see a horror or an action movie in this universe I'll always have the first two to fall back on. Nomatter how many attempts they'll make, there will never be another Alien movie that even comes close to those two masterpieces. Therefore each new story needs to stand out in a positively spectacular way or don't even bother...

I'm just so tired of the whole spaceship alien crap. I'm so tired.
in aliens they had that LV 426 colony with people living in it. but I want a full city.

aliens multiply like ants and they could target multiple people. they like to hide, they like to hide in ducts, they love coming out at night, they serve a queen. there's so much you could do.

alien 3 and alien vs predator 1 had the right idea of the setting just awful writing. but the ideas for the setting alone were perfect.

 

[Wor-Gar]

I think a small colony -- like an old western town -- that is targeted by three "bad men" (aliens) on an interesting new planet could be good. Small, contained... but maybe each alien has hosted from a different local species. Now you have three NEW Aliens.

 

[ScoutingForToys]

I strongly agree with this. New interesting settings are extremely important to keep me invested in this franchise moving forward. Prometheus and Covenant changed it up in a way I never saw coming and for that I'll always be grateful to Ridley. The lore expansion was clearly divisive, but noone can deny the balls it took to leave the already established "path" of such a classic series. If I ever want to see a horror or an action movie in this universe I'll always have the first two to fall back on. Nomatter how many attempts they'll make, there will never be another Alien movie that even comes close to those two masterpieces. Therefore each new story needs to stand out in a positively spectacular way or don't even bother...

Honestly I hated that he tried to explain where the Xenomorph came from. I hated his answer to the Space Jockey was the "Engineers". What a let down.
I really hated the black goo.
Prometheus would have been better if it was completely separate from anything Alien and was its own thing.
I have nothing nice to say about Covenant.
Yes the Alien franchise is tired and worn out but so what? We don't need anymore. We have Alien and Aliens. If anyone wants more than 2 movies there's the Assembly cut of Alien 3.
No one let's anything be anymore. Every successful movie has to be milked to death.
Instead of trying to change the Alien formula, just make something new for **** sake.
Rant rant rant.

 

[Wor-Gar]

A completely new alien would be wonderful.

But these are our myths. Our Movie Myths of our 20th century era.

New myths will come from new places.

 

[Dr. Anton Phibes]

I was 9 years old when I saw the original. That film was scary. Aliens was suspenseful: but not scary. Alien 3 was depressing. To me, this is where the story ended. I tried Romulus. I know its up for good reviews. I hated it.

 

[YoNoSe]

Surprised by the mostly favorable reviews & talk amongst critics about how scary this is and how "bonkers" the the third act is. It kept my interest but it's almost all tread-flat ground. The third act is almost identical to an earlier sequel. I did enjoy one surprising element that I won't reveal and the popcorn bucket is cool.

 

[ironwez20]

A completely new alien would be wonderful.

But these are our myths. Our Movie Myths of our 20th century era.

New myths will come from new places.

They were really cooking when they introduced those creepy white aliens but they didn’t do anything with em

 

[Wor-Gar]

They were really cooking when they introduced those creepy white aliens but they didn’t do anything with em

white aliens...?

 

[crows]

alien and Terminator the two franchises DESTROYED to the ground. absolutely COMPLETELY OBLITERATED into the ground
massively mismanaged. absolutely horrendous plots. awful sequels.

maybe we need a crossover. alien vs Terminator

 

[csutkakoma]

alien and Terminator the two franchises DESTROYED to the ground. absolutely COMPLETELY OBLITERATED into the ground
massively mismanaged. absolutely horrendous plots. awful sequels.

maybe we need a crossover. alien vs Terminator

Alien is in a lot and I mean is in a lot better place than Terminator. Terminator is ruined to death completely. Alien is still kicking pretty much like the predator franchise. But on the other hand sadly they are milking everything to no end and it shows.

 

[YoNoSe]

white aliens...?

There was one in covenant that looked kind of like an albino Smilo Ren. He washed a lady's hair for her iirc.

 

[Wor-Gar]

Oh, I thought he meant the new movie.

Yeah, an albino alien would be cool -- just has to host on an albino. And bingo -- new alien, new 1/6th toy.

 

[jye4ever]

They really ought to make anthology series for both Alien and Predator. Or something like True Detective, where it's a different story each season.

Alien Noir

Predator Confidential

Alien vs Prohibition

I’m in.

 

[jye4ever]

Oh, I thought he meant the new movie.

Yeah, an albino alien would be cool -- just has to host on an albino. And bingo -- new alien, new 1/6th toy.

Didn’t Brometheus already do that?

I vaguely remember.

 

[Wor-Gar]

I'd see a movie where that Ancient Aliens guy is assaulted by a Bigchap alien in his safari style home.