Alien movie prequel: what will Hollywood deliver

In Hollywood these days there is nothing better than re-working something that someone else has already done. It cuts the cost of writing, set design, and often entertainment value. Examples of this are rampant in the last decade.

Sequels are the current big thing. Why tough out a new idea when you can ride the dead horse of something that already worked? Take the Transformers, X-Men, Terminator, Highlander, Hellboy and countless other film sequels. Some are worth the time. Most are rubbish.

But that is just not enough for Hollywood. You can only go so far forward in some long running series. And for that problem is the answer of a prequel. Taking a proven cash making concept and jumping back in time to before the films started. Examples include: Wolverine, Star Trek, and of course Star Wars (episodes 1,2,and 3).

The real fun with a prequel, by Hollywood standards, is that you generally don’t need the stars that created the initial story – saving huge bucks; and you can often redo the entire storyline. This happens because many of the original fans of whatever movie are older and thus not as valuable to Hollywood. Plus it allows a film to have the latest popular movie actor/actress in it. Besides the fact that Hollywood execs often don’t know the original storyline and/or assume that young movie-goers don’t either.

Thus we get crap like the revisioned timeline of Star Trek. Going forward dozens of new films can be made with a cast and characters that have nothing to do with what made the series popular and timeless in the first place.

So when I heard that Alien will be introduced to the prequel machine, you can imagine I was not very excited. There is a host of things that could be screwed up. The near prequel films of Alien vs. Preadator and that film’s sequel displayed the utter disrespect and lazy writing that passes for entertainment in Hollywood these days.

But a ray of hope hit when Ridley Scott signed onto the production. He was the mastermind that created the vision of minimalist fear that blossomed into 3 additional films. It was his dark, mysterious and utterly disturbing direction that gave the film a quality few films match. It is why of the series, the first remains the best.

So I thought there was a chance that this could be more than a b-rate sci-fi horror film. More than the alien-as-slasher-killer that AVP presented. Far better than the drawn out and over the top visions seen in the subsequent films (though Aliens was done well).

Of course the next question is, what about Ripley – Sigourney Weaver? Will she have a role in this film? How could she have a role in the film?

That recently was answered by Weaver herself. She too found it illogical to be in the film. Which is a loss as she is the driving force of the films, but at the same time a confirmation that some thought might have to be introduced to the film.

Which still leaves the question of what they will do in this film. Will they ignore the series as AVP did to both the Alien and Predator series? How can the storyline be preserved and still be filled with the wanton explosions and cute girls that today’s audiences seem more than willing to pay for (ie. Transformers 2)?

Perhaps this is an idea. Have a small group of exploratory geologists, with one or 2 military scouts, working for Weyland-Yutani. They stumble on a barren planet, that is scarred from an ancient battle. They find skeletal remains of Aliens, and perhaps Predators?, in remnants of long ago cities. They conclude that a planet-wide war erupted with both sides being annihilated.

While searching, they fall through a floor of an old ruin, into a pit of Alien eggs. And thus begins their drama. All of this is being reported back regularly via android to the Company. In the end, after the last of the scouting crew dies in a suicidal blast destroying the Aliens and their egg cache, only portions of the Android survive long enough to state that there must be other eggs in the solar system, as a warning. But the Board of Directors at Weyland-Yutani have other ideas involving a deep-space mining vessel not too far from the now dead geologists.

Now that I would want to see.

They could even have the last scene where we see the Nostromo flying through space, go into the ship, and come upon the sleeping crew as a message beacon transmits orders to ship’s computer, and Ripley’s eyes open.

Perhaps Ridley Scott has a similar vision. Maybe we will get a coherent film with a plot, and scares, and things going bump in the night. Plus the occasional explosion. They can even put in a couple of gorgeous actresses just to ensure the hormonally challenged have something to drool about.

Then again, we might get a mix of Alien Vs. Preadator mixed with Transformers. Which I would need to get paid to see.

Movie Preview: Pandorum

Well at least Hollywood is consistent. That’s the first impression I get from the movie trailer for Pandorum.



Instantly you get the feeling that the movie is a mix of sci-fi horror movies – specifically Alien – and the recent rash of video games. The fact that the producers of the movie are also the ones responsible for the Resident Evil movies just adds to the sense of a video game conversion.

The movie trailer is supposed to give you the feeling of impending doom, yet I just get the memory of the movie Doom. It’s filmed in dark shadows to emphasize the danger. I just think it’s harder to see what’s happening. The big question in the film is whether or not the main characters are really living through this horror or are they just imagining it all. The trailer doesn’t really make me care.

Obviously the film will be doing a series of flashbacks, to show how the crew all met their demise. Likely there will be some video record to show how they inevitably went to some planet, and picked up something. That something became the object of suspicion as crew members died. If this sounds familiar, it should be. Countless numbers of video games and movies has used the same plotline, from Alien, as their theme.

Now I could be completely wrong. And the movie could be quite good. But appearances don’t seem to support those possibilities. More likely this film is perfect for those that want to sit in a theater and have a couple of gotcha moments for an hour and a half. It will be like playing an ok video game without any of the effort. Something you can forget completely once you get up from your seat. Which is not always a bad thing.

Suffice to say I am not impressed yet. I am surprised that Dennis Quaid is in the film. Normally he is pretty good a picking his films. Which means that either the trailer was put together badly, and the film has far more potential than what is presented, or they paid a lot of money to have a name attached to the film and Quaid will barely be in the movie.

There is still time for more trailers to come out. More of the storyline will be seen and either I am right in my gut instinct that this is a good $5 DVD bin movie, or it will be a decent horror sci-fi film. At this moment, I have to go with my gut, and recommend seeing the DVD of Dead Space until this hits the DVD in 6 months or so.