Did you watch the theatrical version of Alien 3 or the special edition? The special edition was better, though still not amazing, once some of the deleted scenes were added back in.
They were all very different movies. Alien was more Sci-Fi/Horror while Aliens was Sci-Fi/Action but then Alien 3 kind of went a different direction. A bit back to Horror, but also sort of Surreal. I think people reacted extra negatively to it because it killed off Hicks and Newt immediately and didn't build off of Aliens at all really. I think it was a pretty good film honestly.
Alien Ressurection though (Alien 4). That one sucked ass.
The Aliens vs Predator movies were both blah, other than the little treats left for fans like having Charles Bishop Weyland in one, and Ms. Yutani and the Yutani Corp in the other. I'd rank both above Alien Ressurection though.
Resurrection could have been better, but it could have been a lot worse. I recall reading about how the executives forced a bunch of edits, making the end result not really what had been intended, and it definitely shows. It was entertaining if nothing else.
Aliens Vs. Predator likewise had some flaws but was generally pretty decent. It very closely parallels one of the AVP books, wherein a human gets caught by a Predator, and shows enough determination and killing instinct to be brought along as a hunter herself. The second movie, Requiem, was absolutely terrible - it had no real plot, and seemed to just be an overly gratuitous monster movie, with 90% of the cast being killed completely at random.
Hated Resurrection. Alot of it stemmed from having it be directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet and making it this weird Sci-Fi French Arthouse Weirdness Film. With a $70 million budget.
So I hated just the overall style of art direction and overall direction. It was cooky in a way the other films never were. Cooky in that French Delicatessen type style. NOw I don't mind that style in it's own right and it's own films. It just felt totally out of place in the Aliens franchise.
I also didn't like just how disconnected it was from the previous films. Ripley. Ripley after 70+ years of hyper sleep. Ripley after more hyper sleep. But hey now she's dead how do we get her back? Oh I know. We'll clone her based on blood samples in order to get the alien embryo. Really? God. Just fucking stupid. Total reach. If I were the studio head and they came to me with that, I'd throw them out and tell them to come back with a better idea. Hell, I'd have been happier with "oh Aliens3 was really just a stasis dream it never happened" which would also have been bullshit, but just better bullshit.
Oh but she's not just Ripley's clone, she's a super clone a alien hybrid.
Oh and they make a human/alien hybrid birthed by the alien mother rather than hatched in an egg.
The whole thing is just fucking stupid body horror in a french bistro with ridiculous casting choices like Winona Ryder and Dan Hedaya breathing into the breath analyzer lock.... Ugh.
I know Joss Whedon wrote the script and some people worship all he does (and I LOVE Firefly) but this was just crap and even he panned the film though.
"It wasn't a question of doing everything differently, although they changed the ending; it was mostly a matter of doing everything wrong. They said the lines...mostly...but they said them all wrong. And they cast it wrong. And they designed it wrong. And they scored it wrong. They did everything wrong that they could possibly do. There's actually a fascinating lesson in filmmaking, because everything that they did reflects back to the script or looks like something from the script, and people assume that, if I hated it, then they’d changed the script...but it wasn’t so much that they’d changed the script; it’s that they just executed it in such a ghastly fashion as to render it almost unwatchable."
His earlier film, City of Lost Children, was also French art-house weirdness but it worked a lot better. It impressed the hell out of me when it came out, I recall.
This movie makes me think abotu something I've been doing lately which is looking for fiction in this mileau.
That is... What good science fiction books are out there that are basically Space Ship Crew goes about it's business and something happens... Or Something happens and they put together a space ship crew to go explore it... etc.
Like the movie Alien. They're a space ship crew. Somethign happens (they get a signal) and they go investigate and all hell breaks loose. Or really any kind of Star Trek episode. Or the movie Forbidden Planet.
Star Carrier is a good book, now a series. Something happens (Earth Colonies get attacked) and the navy puts together their very best crew to go investigate and strike back. I enjoyed it and the sequel. Book 3 comes out this spring.
Peter F. Hamilton has several books and series that all fall into this genre. The first one to read is the Nights Dawn trilogy.
The Reality Dysfunction (The Night's Dawn) The Naked God (The Night's Dawn) The Neutronium Alchemist (The Night's Dawn)
After that he also has the Pandoras Star books. Fallen Dragon is also a good book, but it doesn't take place on a ship, it's some space marines on a planet. Just check out some of his books, they are definately worth a read!
2001: A Space Odyssey, in book form would be good. Something happens (Lunar Monolith), ship gets sent out to Jupiter to learn about it. It's similar to the movie but more descriptive, and has some variations as they were written simultaneously, with each drawing inspiration from the other in a really screwed up creative process.
Angelmass is extremely good, but it takes until the very end for all hell to break loose, with most of the book focusing on setting up the investigation in the first place. I'd say it's my favourite book, honestly, but only somewhat conforms to what you're looking for I suppose.
I know I've read at least one book that fits what you're after, but I can't remember the title at all..
I think 2001 would apply. Even the sequels 2010 and 2061 both fit the mileau. 3001 I know I read but I don't recall the plot offhand.
I find it surprising there aren't more "Space Ship with Crew on some Mission/Job encounter something in Space and Interact With It" type stories. They seem to be a very common sci-fi movie theme, but thoroughly unrepresetned in book form.
Yea...I can think of a number of movies, but no books. I know I've read books with that story archetype though, but to be honest maybe you should look towards actual comics from the 50's or so, if I recall that was a pretty standard plot hook for scifi stories in that media.
I'm kinda picky about sci-fi. I love reading about it, but it seems I am usually disappointed when trying out a new title for myself.
As far as movies go, Pandorum I thought was a great recent sci-fi movie in that it a very creepy investigation on what happen to the spacehip and its crew :)
Each of the segments on that page is inspired by a comic or novel. If you take a browse through, you should be able to find a couple that follow the pattern you're looking for, Tal. Took me a while to remember where the link was.
The Gateway series by Frederick Pohl. Humans discover a transport hub created by an ancient alien race that leads to destinations all over the galaxy. The catch is that while humans have figured out how to operate the hub, they can't decypher the aliens' language. In order to map all the locations that the hub leads to, volunteers have to go blindly to random destinations. If they are lucky, they'll find alien treasure and return wealthy. If they are unlucky, they won't return at all.
Its not the best looking, but one can still get the awesome factor out of it. Especially since the trailer doesn't officially come out untill tommorow.
If you've ever read any Alien lore, the Space Jockey was a member of an ancient alien race called the Mala'kak that used the Xenomorphs as weapons. The Derelict was some kind of xenomorph transport ship that crash landed. In the trailer, I think the large curved structure is actually the derelict in it's intact form and we see it collapse.
All of the commentary in the Alien and Predator films hints at someday seeing their respective homeworlds (Predators was a step in this direction). Obviously Prometheus is going to be another step towards learning more about the xenomorphs. This is something I'm exited about -- AvP Requiem was a horrible, horrible movie. We don't need anymore films consisting of 'check out these crazy aliens on Earth!'
I've read practically nothing about this movie though it sounds like Ridley Scott has been pretty close mouthed, and this trailer is really my first thinking about it.
My prediction is that they discover that humans were the first bioweapon created by the Space Jockeys... but not their last...
...
So this is a trailer for a trailer?
Man i love Aliens..
except 3, that one was stupid.
I thought that too
but I saw it recently and it wasn't as bad as I remember.
Alien and Aliens are still the best though :)
Did you watch the theatrical
Did you watch the theatrical version of Alien 3 or the special edition? The special edition was better, though still not amazing, once some of the deleted scenes were added back in.
I think it was the theatre version
but since you mentioned it I think I'll try and get the special edition :)
I thought you said you saw
I thought you said you saw the Broadway Musical of Alien-3 ...
I liked Aliens 3
They were all very different movies. Alien was more Sci-Fi/Horror while Aliens was Sci-Fi/Action but then Alien 3 kind of went a different direction. A bit back to Horror, but also sort of Surreal. I think people reacted extra negatively to it because it killed off Hicks and Newt immediately and didn't build off of Aliens at all really. I think it was a pretty good film honestly.
Alien Ressurection though (Alien 4). That one sucked ass.
The Aliens vs Predator movies were both blah, other than the little treats left for fans like having Charles Bishop Weyland in one, and Ms. Yutani and the Yutani Corp in the other. I'd rank both above Alien Ressurection though.
!
Resurrection could have been better, but it could have been a lot worse. I recall reading about how the executives forced a bunch of edits, making the end result not really what had been intended, and it definitely shows. It was entertaining if nothing else.
Aliens Vs. Predator likewise had some flaws but was generally pretty decent. It very closely parallels one of the AVP books, wherein a human gets caught by a Predator, and shows enough determination and killing instinct to be brought along as a hunter herself. The second movie, Requiem, was absolutely terrible - it had no real plot, and seemed to just be an overly gratuitous monster movie, with 90% of the cast being killed completely at random.
Ugh Sorry
Hated Resurrection. Alot of it stemmed from having it be directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet and making it this weird Sci-Fi French Arthouse Weirdness Film. With a $70 million budget.
So I hated just the overall style of art direction and overall direction. It was cooky in a way the other films never were. Cooky in that French Delicatessen type style. NOw I don't mind that style in it's own right and it's own films. It just felt totally out of place in the Aliens franchise.
I also didn't like just how disconnected it was from the previous films. Ripley. Ripley after 70+ years of hyper sleep. Ripley after more hyper sleep. But hey now she's dead how do we get her back? Oh I know. We'll clone her based on blood samples in order to get the alien embryo. Really? God. Just fucking stupid. Total reach. If I were the studio head and they came to me with that, I'd throw them out and tell them to come back with a better idea. Hell, I'd have been happier with "oh Aliens3 was really just a stasis dream it never happened" which would also have been bullshit, but just better bullshit.
Oh but she's not just Ripley's clone, she's a super clone a alien hybrid.
Oh and they make a human/alien hybrid birthed by the alien mother rather than hatched in an egg.
The whole thing is just fucking stupid body horror in a french bistro with ridiculous casting choices like Winona Ryder and Dan Hedaya breathing into the breath analyzer lock.... Ugh.
I know Joss Whedon wrote the script and some people worship all he does (and I LOVE Firefly) but this was just crap and even he panned the film though.
"It wasn't a question of doing everything differently, although they changed the ending; it was mostly a matter of doing everything wrong. They said the lines...mostly...but they said them all wrong. And they cast it wrong. And they designed it wrong. And they scored it wrong. They did everything wrong that they could possibly do. There's actually a fascinating lesson in filmmaking, because everything that they did reflects back to the script or looks like something from the script, and people assume that, if I hated it, then they’d changed the script...but it wasn’t so much that they’d changed the script; it’s that they just executed it in such a ghastly fashion as to render it almost unwatchable."
His earlier film, City of
His earlier film, City of Lost Children, was also French art-house weirdness but it worked a lot better. It impressed the hell out of me when it came out, I recall.
Round 2 Teaser Trailer
I can't believe I'm getting giddy over these trailers, lol.
(No subject)
Actually...
This movie makes me think abotu something I've been doing lately which is looking for fiction in this mileau.
That is... What good science fiction books are out there that are basically Space Ship Crew goes about it's business and something happens... Or Something happens and they put together a space ship crew to go explore it... etc.
Like the movie Alien. They're a space ship crew. Somethign happens (they get a signal) and they go investigate and all hell breaks loose. Or really any kind of Star Trek episode. Or the movie Forbidden Planet.
But you know... In book form. Anyone know of any?
Not Horror
Star Carrier is a good book, now a series. Something happens (Earth Colonies get attacked) and the navy puts together their very best crew to go investigate and strike back. I enjoyed it and the sequel. Book 3 comes out this spring.
http://www.amazon.com/Earth-Strike-Star-Carrier-Book/dp/0061840254/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1324391098&sr=8-2
I have a bunch more, I will have to put together a more comprehensive list after work.
Peter F. Hamilton
http://www.amazon.com/Peter-F.-Hamilton/e/B00287WTBG/ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1?qid=1324395493&sr=8-1
Peter F. Hamilton has several books and series that all fall into this genre. The first one to read is the Nights Dawn trilogy.
The Reality Dysfunction (The Night's Dawn)
The Naked God (The Night's Dawn)
The Neutronium Alchemist (The Night's Dawn)
After that he also has the Pandoras Star books. Fallen Dragon is also a good book, but it doesn't take place on a ship, it's some space marines on a planet. Just check out some of his books, they are definately worth a read!
!
2001: A Space Odyssey, in book form would be good. Something happens (Lunar Monolith), ship gets sent out to Jupiter to learn about it. It's similar to the movie but more descriptive, and has some variations as they were written simultaneously, with each drawing inspiration from the other in a really screwed up creative process.
Angelmass is extremely good, but it takes until the very end for all hell to break loose, with most of the book focusing on setting up the investigation in the first place. I'd say it's my favourite book, honestly, but only somewhat conforms to what you're looking for I suppose.
I know I've read at least one book that fits what you're after, but I can't remember the title at all..
Yeah
I think 2001 would apply. Even the sequels 2010 and 2061 both fit the mileau. 3001 I know I read but I don't recall the plot offhand.
I find it surprising there aren't more "Space Ship with Crew on some Mission/Job encounter something in Space and Interact With It" type stories. They seem to be a very common sci-fi movie theme, but thoroughly unrepresetned in book form.
!
Yea...I can think of a number of movies, but no books. I know I've read books with that story archetype though, but to be honest maybe you should look towards actual comics from the 50's or so, if I recall that was a pretty standard plot hook for scifi stories in that media.
Yeah
I have the sets of the old Weird Tales and those sorts of sci-fi comics. They were great. Lots of those sorts of stories.
Your right, I wish there was more of those kind of stories
I'm kinda picky about sci-fi. I love reading about it, but it seems I am usually disappointed when trying out a new title for myself.
As far as movies go, Pandorum I thought was a great recent sci-fi movie in that it a very creepy investigation on what happen to the spacehip and its crew :)
Aha
http://www.projectrho.com/rocket/crossindex.php
Each of the segments on that page is inspired by a comic or novel. If you take a browse through, you should be able to find a couple that follow the pattern you're looking for, Tal. Took me a while to remember where the link was.
I'd recommend
The Gateway series by Frederick Pohl. Humans discover a transport hub created by an ancient alien race that leads to destinations all over the galaxy. The catch is that while humans have figured out how to operate the hub, they can't decypher the aliens' language. In order to map all the locations that the hub leads to, volunteers have to go blindly to random destinations. If they are lucky, they'll find alien treasure and return wealthy. If they are unlucky, they won't return at all.
Sketchy Full Trailer
Its not the best looking, but one can still get the awesome factor out of it. Especially since the trailer doesn't officially come out untill tommorow.
THE Official Trailer
Finally!
Oh Em Gee!
I can't decide if I'm more apprehensive about this or Dark Knight Rises....
I'm really pumped up for this one :)
Is it me or does that look like the Space Jockey's head in the medical area at 0:29?
You're exactly right. I
You're exactly right. I noticed that as well.
If you've ever read any Alien lore, the Space Jockey was a member of an ancient alien race called the Mala'kak that used the Xenomorphs as weapons. The Derelict was some kind of xenomorph transport ship that crash landed. In the trailer, I think the large curved structure is actually the derelict in it's intact form and we see it collapse.
All of the commentary in the Alien and Predator films hints at someday seeing their respective homeworlds (Predators was a step in this direction). Obviously Prometheus is going to be another step towards learning more about the xenomorphs. This is something I'm exited about -- AvP Requiem was a horrible, horrible movie. We don't need anymore films consisting of 'check out these crazy aliens on Earth!'
Awesome
I've read practically nothing about this movie though it sounds like Ridley Scott has been pretty close mouthed, and this trailer is really my first thinking about it.
My prediction is that they discover that humans were the first bioweapon created by the Space Jockeys... but not their last...