Whoever wins, we lose: Aliens and Predator (also Prometheus and stuff)

This is going to sound crass...but I'm sort of hoping Scott just likes to talk, because the man is 79, and with me already skeptical of his new vision for the franchise, I just can't see him making four more films. There's some very healthy older people out there, doing lots of things, but it seems unlikely to me he does even one more of these honestly. Unless he's planning it out and setting up other directors, and even then, reviews so far are extremely mixed, and FOX may not consider his ideas outright after this.

TheDreamMaster wrote:

This is going to sound crass...but I'm sort of hoping Scott just likes to talk, because the man is 79, and with me already skeptical of his new vision for the franchise, I just can't see him making four more films. There's some very healthy older people out there, doing lots of things, but it seems unlikely to me he does even one more of these honestly. Unless he's planning it out and setting up other directors, and even then, reviews so far are extremely mixed, and FOX may not consider his ideas outright after this.

WOW! I thought that he was in his late 60's-early 70's. But I didn't know that he was that old. Between what Fox did to the series starting with Alien 3 and his age, he really does come across as a grumpy old man. I'd like to think that Fox would wrestle the franchise from him, but as I said before, considering how they ran it into the ground since Alien 3, they don't have a legitimate leg to stand on.

TheDreamMaster wrote:

This is going to sound crass...but I'm sort of hoping Scott just likes to talk, because the man is 79, and with me already skeptical of his new vision for the franchise, I just can't see him making four more films. There's some very healthy older people out there, doing lots of things, but it seems unlikely to me he does even one more of these honestly. Unless he's planning it out and setting up other directors, and even then, reviews so far are extremely mixed, and FOX may not consider his ideas outright after this.

Even though I agree with you and I'd rather have  Alien 5.

I can see it from his perspective. He made an awesome movie and was not asked back for the sequel. The sequel was awesome but 3 and 4 have mixed to awful reception generally(I actually like 3). And while he was clearly not needed for Aliens as it turned out, I would be salty as hell if I was not asked back to the sequel of an awesome movie I created. I feel like he wants to die making Alien movies since that opportunity was ripped from him and he wants to shape its universe. I feel like probably never let it go so to speak.

And then when he heard about Alien 5 he was all "nope" and that's why we're seeing all these announcements from him. 

How is Alien Covenant tracking box office wise? Could it underperform? And if so could that derail his train? 

I have no idea how alien movies do at the theaters and what is expected of them tbh.

And even if Scott lives long and he's healthy (for his age) is that really healthy enough to run around on sets and direct big budget movies?  I wouldn't think so.

I still don't think that Scott will de-canonize Aliens, simply because of how massive the backlash would be. Fox would have to force Scott to backtrack and if he wouldn't, they'd have to fire him.

It's the age of rebooting and remaking, do you think Fox really cares that much what happens to the property

Mistral wrote:

It's the age of rebooting and remaking, do you think Fox really cares that much what happens to the property

Yes, mainly because Tom Rothman hasn't been at Fox for a while. If they let Byran Singer ret-con X3 and Wolverine Origins out of existence with Days Of Future Past, then they would have to care if Scott were to do something that radical. And let's not forget how Disney has ret-conned much of the Star Wars prequels while still keeping them canon.

The sequel of Alien: Covenant will start being filmed 14 months from now.

Rhedosaurus wrote:

The sequel of Alien: Covenant will start being filmed 14 months from now.

 Well sh*t, looks like Ridley is pretty serious about all this. Unless Alien covenant is a bomb I guess he's going through with it. 

Also I wanted to let you guys know something. I don't want to give off the impression that i have a HATRED for Ridley or something. It's just that he's not my favorite director (by a long shot) and I really wanted to see Alien 5. I know the director to that would have been very hit or miss based on his track record, but I wanted something different.

But oh well. I shall give Alien covenant a chance and I'll probably go see it in IMAX. 

I just wanted to let you guys know with some of my age comments that I wasn't thinking in my head "man I hope Ridley dies soon" or something like that. It's just a movie lol.

Troyal1 wrote:

Rhedosaurus wrote:

The sequel of Alien: Covenant will start being filmed 14 months from now.

 Well sh*t, looks like Ridley is pretty serious about all this. Unless Alien covenant is a bomb I guess he's going through with it. 

Also I wanted to let you guys know something. I don't want to give off the impression that i have a HATRED for Ridley or something. It's just that he's not my favorite director (by a long shot) and I really wanted to see Alien 5. I know the director to that would have been very hit or miss based on his track record, but I wanted something different.

I also wanted to see Alien 5. Or at least some sort of compromise between that and what Ridley has. It's safe to say that Ridley wants to make his movies until he dies or until he is just too old to make movies. At this point, I can't help but wonder if Fox is going to let Scott make movies until the fans get pissed off to the point where they have to fire him and then let new blood take over. Right now, Fox can't stand on any moral high ground since they have ruined all of that since Alien 3 on forward. Even if they wanted to make a move for the best, they can't do it since it would remind people of how their meddling helped lead to this.

Rhedosaurus wrote:

Troyal1 wrote:

Rhedosaurus wrote:

The sequel of Alien: Covenant will start being filmed 14 months from now.

 Well sh*t, looks like Ridley is pretty serious about all this. Unless Alien covenant is a bomb I guess he's going through with it. 

Also I wanted to let you guys know something. I don't want to give off the impression that i have a HATRED for Ridley or something. It's just that he's not my favorite director (by a long shot) and I really wanted to see Alien 5. I know the director to that would have been very hit or miss based on his track record, but I wanted something different.

I also wanted to see Alien 5. Or at least some sort of compromise between that and what Ridley has. It's safe to say that Ridley wants to make his movies until he dies or until he is just too old to make movies. At this point, I can't help but wonder if Fox is going to let Scott make movies until the fans get pissed off to the point where they have to fire him and then let new blood take over. Right now, Fox can't stand on any moral high ground since they have ruined all of that since Alien 3 on forward. Even if they wanted to make a move for the best, they can't do it since it would remind people of how their meddling helped lead to this.

Do you have any idea what the budget for Alien covenant is? What does fox expect it to do? Is it tracking well? 

I genuinely haven't seen anyone talk about these things. I mean is there a chance this movie doesn't do so well at the box office?

Troyal1 wrote:

Rhedosaurus wrote:

Troyal1 wrote:

Rhedosaurus wrote:

The sequel of Alien: Covenant will start being filmed 14 months from now.

 Well sh*t, looks like Ridley is pretty serious about all this. Unless Alien covenant is a bomb I guess he's going through with it. 

Also I wanted to let you guys know something. I don't want to give off the impression that i have a HATRED for Ridley or something. It's just that he's not my favorite director (by a long shot) and I really wanted to see Alien 5. I know the director to that would have been very hit or miss based on his track record, but I wanted something different.

I also wanted to see Alien 5. Or at least some sort of compromise between that and what Ridley has. It's safe to say that Ridley wants to make his movies until he dies or until he is just too old to make movies. At this point, I can't help but wonder if Fox is going to let Scott make movies until the fans get pissed off to the point where they have to fire him and then let new blood take over. Right now, Fox can't stand on any moral high ground since they have ruined all of that since Alien 3 on forward. Even if they wanted to make a move for the best, they can't do it since it would remind people of how their meddling helped lead to this.

Do you have any idea what the budget for Alien covenant is? What does fox expect it to do? Is it tracking well? 

I genuinely haven't seen anyone talk about these things. I mean is there a chance this movie doesn't do so well at the box office?

Scott himself said it cost $111 million. You have to read 80-90% of the article before he says it though.

Quote wrote:

A film like Alien: Covenant would normally be 100 days; we did it in 74. We made it for $111m, as opposed to $180m or $260m.

RT rating: 75% so far.
Metacritic: 65 out of 100 so far.

Rhedosaurus wrote:

Troyal1 wrote:

Rhedosaurus wrote:

Troyal1 wrote:

Rhedosaurus wrote:

The sequel of Alien: Covenant will start being filmed 14 months from now.

 Well sh*t, looks like Ridley is pretty serious about all this. Unless Alien covenant is a bomb I guess he's going through with it. 

Also I wanted to let you guys know something. I don't want to give off the impression that i have a HATRED for Ridley or something. It's just that he's not my favorite director (by a long shot) and I really wanted to see Alien 5. I know the director to that would have been very hit or miss based on his track record, but I wanted something different.

I also wanted to see Alien 5. Or at least some sort of compromise between that and what Ridley has. It's safe to say that Ridley wants to make his movies until he dies or until he is just too old to make movies. At this point, I can't help but wonder if Fox is going to let Scott make movies until the fans get pissed off to the point where they have to fire him and then let new blood take over. Right now, Fox can't stand on any moral high ground since they have ruined all of that since Alien 3 on forward. Even if they wanted to make a move for the best, they can't do it since it would remind people of how their meddling helped lead to this.

Do you have any idea what the budget for Alien covenant is? What does fox expect it to do? Is it tracking well? 

I genuinely haven't seen anyone talk about these things. I mean is there a chance this movie doesn't do so well at the box office?

Scott himself said it cost $111 million. You have to read 80-90% of the article before he says it though.

Quote wrote:

A film like Alien: Covenant would normally be 100 days; we did it in 74. We made it for $111m, as opposed to $180m or $260m.

RT rating: 75% so far.
Metacritic: 65 out of 100 so far.

WOW! The movie certainly looks way better than a 110M, atleast imo from the trailers. Looks like he's made his money go a long way.

Troyal1 wrote:

Rhedosaurus wrote:

The sequel of Alien: Covenant will start being filmed 14 months from now.

 Well sh*t, looks like Ridley is pretty serious about all this. Unless Alien covenant is a bomb I guess he's going through with it. 

Also I wanted to let you guys know something. I don't want to give off the impression that i have a HATRED for Ridley or something. It's just that he's not my favorite director (by a long shot) and I really wanted to see Alien 5. I know the director to that would have been very hit or miss based on his track record, but I wanted something different.

But oh well. I shall give Alien covenant a chance and I'll probably go see it in IMAX. 

I just wanted to let you guys know with some of my age comments that I wasn't thinking in my head "man I hope Ridley dies soon" or something like that. It's just a movie lol.

I sort of felt the same way about my post. I don't want the man to die, but I just feel like it's not exactly right for him to take a franchise that's been out of his hands for so long and try to reinvent it. Yeah reboots and remakes sort of do it all the time, but so far he hasn't really proven to be doing anything ground breaking or, well great. Prometheus has its moments so I hear, still haven't watched it yet, but the reviews for Covenant are pretty all over the place which doesn't give me a lot of confidence. True it could be Resurrection bad, which no review has said it is yet, but him wanting to keep going forward on mediocrity isn't what I want. I mean yes he directed and had control over the original Alien, but he didn't even actually create the concept or write the script, so I don't exactly see why he thinks he's the savior of the franchise anyway. I'll always respect the great films he did, Hell I still respect him for working like this at his age. That said, I wish they'd either take a chance on Alien 5, or wait a while and pick up the series somewhere down the line instead.

Honestly I wish they'd take another shot at AvP, but actually in the Alien future with marines and such.

Ridley Scott admits that he blew it with Prometheus and dialed back the sequels to Alien: Covenant from 4 to either 1 or 2.

Quote wrote:

“I don’t know. [I’ll make] maybe two more [films], or maybe one more, I don’t know.”

Rhedosaurus wrote:

Ridley Scott admits that he blew it with Prometheus and dialed back the sequels to Alien: Covenant from 4 to either 1 or 2.

Quote wrote:

“I don’t know. [I’ll make] maybe two more [films], or maybe one more, I don’t know.”

Good Idea, I'm off to see Covenant tomorrow, looking forward to it, been getting good reviews here in Oz, will report back with my rating out of 10 tomorrow!

Troyal1 wrote:

WOW! The movie certainly looks way better than a 110M, atleast imo from the trailers. Looks like he's made his money go a long way.

It's kind of sad that 111 million today is considered lower end.

Rhedosaurus wrote:

Ridley Scott admits that he blew it with Prometheus and dialed back the sequels to Alien: Covenant from 4 to either 1 or 2.

What the hell was he expecting? Even if Prometheus had been the most brilliant piece of film ever put on cinema - which it of course wasn't but for arguments sake - it was always going to get people moaning for more aliens. Masses aren't interested in complicated 1970's scifi stories about humanity and eternal life and whatever, they want the same crap as before. Now, had he actually completely removed the Alien aspect from Prometheus and just produced the movie without them, the backlash very likely wouldn't been bad... even with all of it's other bland qualities and Lost-writing. Because the hype also wouldn't have been to millionth degree. Of course, the studio never likely would've green-lighted the film, or at least not with that budget, if the Aliens hadn't been there in the first place - I mean it was even marketed heavily as such - but that's another issue.

I don't think he's admitting anything here. He's just giving people what they want now that the flood doors have been opened. He hasn't had particularly successful track record lately so doing more of crowd-pleasing "fanservice" will make up for it. What I think he would actually like to do is tell more of his "deeper" scifi stories, but now that's too late now, so he will just do couple of Alien films to finish it off with some of those scifi premises mildly integrated into them. Enthusiastically or not.

TheDreamMaster wrote:

Troyal1 wrote:

Rhedosaurus wrote:

The sequel of Alien: Covenant will start being filmed 14 months from now.

 Well sh*t, looks like Ridley is pretty serious about all this. Unless Alien covenant is a bomb I guess he's going through with it. 

Also I wanted to let you guys know something. I don't want to give off the impression that i have a HATRED for Ridley or something. It's just that he's not my favorite director (by a long shot) and I really wanted to see Alien 5. I know the director to that would have been very hit or miss based on his track record, but I wanted something different.

But oh well. I shall give Alien covenant a chance and I'll probably go see it in IMAX. 

I just wanted to let you guys know with some of my age comments that I wasn't thinking in my head "man I hope Ridley dies soon" or something like that. It's just a movie lol.

I sort of felt the same way about my post. I don't want the man to die, but I just feel like it's not exactly right for him to take a franchise that's been out of his hands for so long and try to reinvent it. Yeah reboots and remakes sort of do it all the time, but so far he hasn't really proven to be doing anything ground breaking or, well great. Prometheus has its moments so I hear, still haven't watched it yet, but the reviews for Covenant are pretty all over the place which doesn't give me a lot of confidence. True it could be Resurrection bad, which no review has said it is yet, but him wanting to keep going forward on mediocrity isn't what I want. I mean yes he directed and had control over the original Alien, but he didn't even actually create the concept or write the script, so I don't exactly see why he thinks he's the savior of the franchise anyway. I'll always respect the great films he did, Hell I still respect him for working like this at his age. That said, I wish they'd either take a chance on Alien 5, or wait a while and pick up the series somewhere down the line instead.

Honestly I wish they'd take another shot at AvP, but actually in the Alien future with marines and such.

Watched Prometheus. Liked it actually. #Suprised.

Lots of flaws but I was intrigued and it held my interest the whole time. You should give it a go.

And it's convinced me that I should see Alien Covenant in theaters. If it can marry what I just watched with the original Alien, I think I'll like Covenant quite a bit!

I've seen Alien: Covenant twice now and it's... below average in my opinion. Not as good as Prometheus. Negatives outweighed the positives.

Aegyptiacus3 wrote:

I've seen Alien: Covenant twice now and it's... below average in my opinion. Not as good as Prometheus. Negatives outweighed the positives.

I was meant to see it yesterday but couldn't, is it worth seeing in cinemas or waiting for the Blu-ray? Thanks

Is it full of fanservice and pointless references? That's my main concern with these soft reboots. The trailers certainly indicate that direction again

You can answer in spoiler tags if you wish, but I'll read them nevertheless (here I don't particularly care if I get spoiled before seeing it, since my excitement levels are near zero anyway)

Aegyptiacus3 wrote:

I've seen Alien: Covenant twice now and it's... below average in my opinion. Not as good as Prometheus. Negatives outweighed the positives.

Can your rate both out of 10 please?

In terms of if it is worth watching in the cinema... Maybe I guess? Depends on what you like.

Mistral wrote:

Is it full of fanservice and pointless references? That's my main concern with these soft reboots. The trailers certainly indicate that direction again

You can answer in spoiler tags if you wish, but I'll read them nevertheless (here I don't particularly care if I get spoiled before seeing it, since my excitement levels are near zero anyway)

It does have some recycled elements from the original Alien and Aliens which was a bit 'eh' but most noticeably I don't think I spotted 1 practical Alien, they were all CGI. And they didn't look convincing. I'd say it's half soft-reboot, half Prometheus sequel.

Troyal1 wrote:

Can your rate both out of 10 please?

I don't really like giving movies numbered scores, they don't really do justice to a film. But I suppose it was a 5 or 6?

-

Aegyptiacus3 wrote:

In terms of if it is worth watching in the cinema... Maybe I guess? Depends on what you like.

Mistral wrote:

Is it full of fanservice and pointless references? That's my main concern with these soft reboots. The trailers certainly indicate that direction again

You can answer in spoiler tags if you wish, but I'll read them nevertheless (here I don't particularly care if I get spoiled before seeing it, since my excitement levels are near zero anyway)

It does have some recycled elements from the original Alien and Aliens which was a bit 'eh' but most noticeably I don't think I spotted 1 practical Alien, they were all CGI. And they didn't look convincing. I'd say it's half soft-reboot, half Prometheus sequel.

Troyal1 wrote:

Can your rate both out of 10 please?

I don't really like giving movies numbered scores, they don't really do justice to a film. But I suppose it was a 5 or 6?

But which one was the 5 or 6? I'm trying to gauge how much you enjoyed Prometheus.

Troyal1 wrote:

But which one was the 5 or 6? I'm trying to gauge how much you enjoyed Prometheus.

I enjoyed Prometheus and I felt like this produced even more questions. I said I'd give Covenant maybe a 5.5 out of 10

Aegyptiacus3 wrote:

Troyal1 wrote:

But which one was the 5 or 6? I'm trying to gauge how much you enjoyed Prometheus.

I enjoyed Prometheus and I felt like this produced even more questions. I said I'd give Covenant maybe a 5.5 out of 10

Thanks. I enjoyed Prometheus as well and this is kinda what I've been hearing from friends. They said it had a lot of missed opportunities to where they could have fleshed out the story better.

But hey, I'm going to try and remain optimistic and give it a go anyway.

Our first pictures of Shane Black's Predator 4/The Predator.

Just saw it, 5/10 on first viewing, probably the worst Alien movie for me. Could have been so much better I feel.

Only good thing is we now know who created the Aliens...

Is it just me, or are the Neomorphs are not being seen as much in the marketing ads as they should be?