Xenemorph

[This post does contain spoilers]

The exams are done and that meant the flood gates are open for the summer with the following three events to look forward to:

1. Prometheus
2. Brother's stag do
3. Brother's Wedding

Let's set the scene. Alien is my favourite sci-fi movie of all time. In a genre where you are meant to put yourself in either the Star Wars or Star Trek camp, I went a bit off piste and decided I don't like either. For me, you can't look past facehuggers and xenemorphs.

1. Alien - the first one was immense. A limited cast scifi horror which used darkness and suspense to create genuine terror and claustrophobia.
2. Aliens - One of the few films where the sequel stakes a genuine claim to the first. A new director was involved and the terror and suspense was swapped for an all out Man v Alien acionfest.
3. Alien 3 - Another new director and a return to the feel of the original. It doesn't quite match the setting of the Nostromo but does a good deal to move along the evolution story of the Alien.
4. Resurrection - An abominiation
5. AVP/AVP:R - A disappointing realisation of a fanboy's dream

So imagine the excitement when it was announced they were going to revisit the world that Weyland Industries operates in with Ridley Scott taking the helm. The internet went into overdrive. What were we going to see? Is it a prequel? etc etc etc.

Skip forward a few years the motley crew were gathered in Cineworld with our 3D specs on as if we were a Roy Orbison tribute act.

Skip forward a couple of hours and it was over. My initial reaction - disappointment. Where was the Aliens, where's the linkage, the ship looks similiar but it's the wrong bloody planet.

However, I thought I'm not going to rant and rave about it now. I'll let it settle and see what my views are in the morning. This is the result.

After thinking about the movie, my feeling on it is better than it was last night when you look at the bigger picture. Yes, the movie was to serve as a prequel to the original franchise but it was always stated it would explore the extreme beginnings and try and explain who the big dude in the seat on LV-426 was. I think I kind of lost this in my hype and excitement.

That's what it did. It focused on the 'Engineers' who were involved in the creation of man and their motives in creating what appeared to be an organic weapon of mass destruction. SO in fairness, it did do what it set out for this part. You can now go and watch Alien and say, that's who the Space Jockey is and where he came from.

But it still leaves a major plothole in the series - How come all the eggs appear on LV-426 and how did the Alien race evolve from black goo to an egg laying queen?

Another area it focussed on was the 'Company'. They appear throughout the franchise but they began somewhere and the virals and movie go someway to showing the exploration ambitions of Weyland Industries.

All in all it was a good scifi movie. Visusals were great, majority of the cast was good with the Fassbender putting in another great performance. Besides the obvious lack of series linkage my main gripe is that it lacked suspense. The beauty previously was the use of darkness and pulse sounders to create the atmospheric suspense which was completely lacking here.

So what next? There were more new questions asked than answers answered. But it does leave the door open for a follow up to bridge the gap and evolve the story up to the point of the LV-426 crash. If part one deals with the 'Engineers' the next part should hopefully deal with the 'Engineered'. The Company knew about the Aliens in the original so between then and now we should hopefully see a proper linking prequel with a good deal of human interaction.

Until now, I have not read a single review and limited my pre movie hype to the official virals. So everything I have stated above could be way off, but it is my 2 pence on the situation.

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