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 Watching Alien on watchw.me and on its accompanying Discord server I'm arguing with somebody over cornbread (as there's cornbread served during the crew's 1st meal when awakened).
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Apr 27, 2022 02:50
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Apr 27, 2022 03:04
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Trip report: 'Prometheus' rewatch I rewatched Prometheus for Alien Day, first time seeing it in 4K. I can't recall the last time I watched it but it's been a good while. Feels weird that the movie's a decade old (or that Alien Covenant is half a decade old). I actually liked it more this go around than I have in prior viewings. I think I stand by a lot of my initial assessments of it, if anything some of them have gotten stronger with time and the re-watch. On the whole I like it as an intellectual science-fiction horror flick, I think the idea of meeting our makers (and learning that they hate us) and finding some crazy space-bioweapon that fucks people up and does all kinds of crazy unpredictable poo poo is a compelling premise. I just don't like it much as an Alien flick. All of the Alien-related stuff feels tacked-on and unnecessary, you could strip all of it away and still have a really solid sci-fi/horror movie with a great premise, lots of great effects, some interesting characters, and essentially the same story beats. "Explaining" the Space Jockey and tying it into 'Alien' or including "Weyland" doesn't really do 'Prometheus' OR 'Alien' any favors; if anything it drags Prometheus down with distracting "franchise" baggage while demystifying some of the most compelling and interesting parts of 'Alien' in the process. I picked up on some interesting ideas and symbolism this time around - David eavesdropping on Shaw's dreams is a pretty hosed up invasion of privacy, it's crazy that the stasis pods even allow that function but whatever haha. That said, I think Shaw's "dream" would have been more visually interesting if it had been shown strictly from first-person; I don't know about anyone else, but I don't really dream in third-person with an omniscient camera picking out all the best cinematic angles for the moment. In the wake of the last 7 years of American politics and the (lackluster) global response to a worldwide pandemic, a lot of the "dumb" poo poo the characters did is a lot less dumb. Frankly I'm not bothered by Milburn and Fifeld getting "lost" in the Engineer structure - they're a geologist and a biologist, not cartographers, and neither of them have access to the overview holographic map that's onboard the Prometheus ship, and I guess I can buy into the two of them getting turned around in the structure. Granted the other characters come and go as they please repeatedly without issue, but I can live with it. Milburn, the biologist, not understanding aggressive behavior from a snake-creature is a little dumb, but it's not as egregious as I remembered it being. I think the scene would have worked better if the Hammerpede had appeared really docile and coy before striking out of nowhere and loving Milburn up, I think that would have made it scarier for the audience that the creature's behavior turns on a dime while still maintaining Milburn's characterization for the scene and not made him look quite as dumb. Shaw and Vickers running in a straight line to escape the tumbling Engineer ship is still a little silly and contrived, but it kind of feels like it's trying to coast on the Rule of Cool - the tumbling ship is a cool visual. I think if I were to change that scene I'd have more debris coming down alongside the Engineer ship that basically keeps the two characters bottlenecked underneath it; have them try to go laterally, but the raining debris forces them back in the path of the rolling ship. Same end result, but more tension and apparent agency and intelligence for the characters. I definitely don't regret re-watching it, and it definitely looked great in 4K. If anything though it made me like Alien Covenant less for utterly squandering the interesting route Prometheus angles towards in favor of killing its protagonist offscreen and then saddling itself with more franchise baggage and doubling down on "demystifying" stuff that didn't need to be explained. Covenant has its moments, and sure David (and Walter) are great, but Prometheus' ending had so much potential for really wild and interesting non-Alien stuff and Covenant just kind of squandered it. Like if you watch the two movies back to back, 'Prometheus' ends with this really fascinating "where is Shaw going? What will she find? Will she get her answers, or find even crazier poo poo?" and then it's immediately followed up with "nope, David murders her offscreen, her journey goes nowhere" and it's kind of a waste. The Pathogen doing all kinds of unpredictable poo poo is really cool and scary, and then 'Alien Covenant' instead tries to "codify" what it does so it's predictable, controllable (via David), and has set outcomes. I think that's an unfortunate change. Interestingly, the "Fire & Stone" spin-off comics that came out after Prometheus came out went more in-line with 'Prometheus's unpredictable pathogen, with all kinds of crazy poo poo showing up as a result. Rewatching Prometheus also gave me a better appreciation of the 'Aliens: Fireteam Elite' level design, seeing how they adapted the Engineer architecture and setpieces and remained faithful to 'Prometheus' is pretty cool.
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Apr 27, 2022 05:49
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Watching the Full Director's Cut of Aliens and I think my favorite version is the TV edit (keeps Ripley learning about her daughter & the sentry guns, drops the Hadley's Hope & 1st introduction to the Jordan family). Either that if the theatrical cut are good IMO.
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Apr 27, 2022 06:44
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Agreed. But the real genius of Prometheus is how they managed to design the Hammerpede to simultaneously be a dick, a pussy and a butthole. Giger would have been proud.
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Apr 27, 2022 06:47
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Typing up a big reply to some of this in the other thread but something I realised as I did: one of the most badass moments in film is brought to us by the protagonist being forklift certified.
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Apr 27, 2022 11:45
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Xenomrph posted:and then it's immediately followed up with "nope, David murders her offscreen, her journey goes nowhere" and it's kind of a waste. This part at least is pretty on brand
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Apr 27, 2022 14:56
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Xenomrph posted:Shaw and Vickers running in a straight line to escape the tumbling Engineer ship is still a little silly and contrived, but it kind of feels like it's trying to coast on the Rule of Cool - the tumbling ship is a cool visual. I think if I were to change that scene I'd have more debris coming down alongside the Engineer ship that basically keeps the two characters bottlenecked underneath it; have them try to go laterally, but the raining debris forces them back in the path of the rolling ship. Same end result, but more tension and apparent agency and intelligence for the characters. I didn't mind the ship just because it's so huge and I felt like, just from a panic gtf away from this thing standpoint them running straight away from it for a bit before splitting off was fine. Plus it's so big that it ends up crushing them both anyway. The visual of it is cool but the shot is so far away it maybe doesn't really sell how that thing is going to hit them both pretty much no matter what. I agree about the black goo in Covenant. It felt like they were setting up David eventually being hoisted by his own petard since it's clear he's just interpretating how he things the engineers used this stuff but without a third film where the stuff is out of control again it feels like an overexplanation (like we already know from Prometheus that this creative/destructive force has a relgious-like significance to the engineers from Prometheus). And Covenant is distant enough from Prometheus that it didn't really come off like a thematic "mastery" of fire either. But again it's cool to see David pontificating about that stuff and all his research sketches and stuff. I'll check out that Fire & Stone comic now, sounds rad. 
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May 4, 2022 14:18
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Neo Rasa posted:I didn't mind the ship just because it's so huge and I felt like, just from a panic gtf away from this thing standpoint them running straight away from it for a bit before splitting off was fine. Plus it's so big that it ends up crushing them both anyway. The visual of it is cool but the shot is so far away it maybe doesn't really sell how that thing is going to hit them both pretty much no matter what.
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May 4, 2022 14:53
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I had some alcohol tonight and I am thinking about Aliens (the movie). I am thinking about the Aliens themed Lootcrate from the ‘Aliens’ 30th anniversary 6 years ago, it came with a set of glow in the dark eggs and facehuggers, a T-shirt, an art print, a really nice hardback reprint of the original Aliens comic series by Dark Horse, and you could turn the box inside out and turn it into an APC, complete with turret and stuff. I don’t buy loot crates unless I’m extremely confident I’m going to enjoy everything inside, but the Aliens crate was a winner.
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May 7, 2022 03:39
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I thought loot crates were a video game thing. Whatever you got sounds pretty neat. Last night I watched Predators and The Predator. Still a fan of both movies.
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May 7, 2022 03:42
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What even is a LootCrate, and how does one get such wonderful things
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May 7, 2022 03:45
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MrMojok posted:What even is a LootCrate, and how does one get such wonderful things Normally it’s like a subscription thing where maybe it’ll have a vague theme like “combat” or “space” or something and you’ll get a box full of random pop culture bullshit tangentially associated with that theme like keychains or a t-shirt or Funko pops or a pint glass or something, but occasionally they’ve done dedicated themed Lootcrates like the Aliens one where you didn’t know exactly what you’d get but you knew it would all be Aliens related, so I figured it was worth the risk to drop $50 or whatever to get a box of random Aliens stuff and I ended up being right. I thought of it like a Christmas gift to myself where I didn’t know what I was going to get but I’d probably end up liking it.
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May 7, 2022 04:31
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That sounds ridiculous. Paying a subscription service to send you things that might be complete garbage, and most likely are. Once a month. For a lot of money. Kinda like gambling. Maybe gamblers are into it.
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May 7, 2022 04:36
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My fiance got into a wreck today and came home from work early so we went to a bar for lunch and they had Aliens playing on the TV. I was thinking about Aliens.
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May 7, 2022 04:41
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drat. Sorry to hear that dude. The Alien movies were on TV all day and have been on for the past few days on some network. Can't remember. All in a row.
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May 7, 2022 04:44
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Thanks! Yeah everyone was ok from the wreck. We got there RIGHT AS IT STARTED too and were tempted to stay for the whole thing but place packs out pretty fast and we could just start it at home afterwards.
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May 7, 2022 04:46
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I used to get Lootcrates, and each month there was something cool in them, but more and more, it became lovely poo poo. In all fairness, I got a Vault Boy bobblehead, a replica of Rey's lightsabre, a T-60 Power Armor helmet coin bank, a diecast of the Delorean from the first BTTF, a cool little figurine of the Thing, and a couple of NECA action figures of the Jungle Demon predator and meltdown mode Godzilla from Godzilla vs Space Godzilla, but the rest was poo poo, so I stopped.
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May 7, 2022 04:55
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edogawa rando posted:I used to get Lootcrates, and each month there was something cool in them, but more and more, it became lovely poo poo. In all fairness, I got a Vault Boy bobblehead, a replica of Rey's lightsabre, a T-60 Power Armor helmet coin bank, a diecast of the Delorean from the first BTTF, a cool little figurine of the Thing, and a couple of NECA action figures of the Jungle Demon predator and meltdown mode Godzilla from Godzilla vs Space Godzilla, but the rest was poo poo, so I stopped. Yeah that’s why the only two lootcrates I’ve ever bought were specifically Alien themed, that way there was a better chance of me liking what was inside.
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May 7, 2022 17:08
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We're in the pipes 5x5!!
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May 7, 2022 17:57
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Currently thinking about Aliens, because I'm watching the Bob's Burgers Mother's Day episode where they spoof Aliens.
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May 8, 2022 01:58
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Aliens Speedrun. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LOzU9n_o7dU
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May 11, 2022 17:37
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Reminds me of the old stick figure theater segments on liquid television, only more video game-y (probably because it’s animated like a side scrolling video game instead of a movie.) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UUyYhh2jbSU
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May 11, 2022 17:47
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ChairmanMauzer posted:Aliens Speedrun. Lol. "Have a smoke?" "Smoking kills."
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May 11, 2022 17:48
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Today is my Burst Day! 
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May 11, 2022 18:16
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Xenomrph posted:Today is my Burst Day! Happy burst day! Long live the Queen!
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May 11, 2022 18:35
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Saw this cool diagram and thought I'd share. I think they forgot to label the Thagomizer.
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May 11, 2022 19:28
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Are xenomorph anuses canon?
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May 11, 2022 20:14
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Respiratory Wafers
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May 11, 2022 20:38
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Class Warcraft posted:Are xenomorph anuses canon? They're like jellyfish, they poop from their mouth?
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May 11, 2022 23:04
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they lay eggs, it's a fuckin cloaca
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May 11, 2022 23:10
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Getting ready for another Isolation playthough. Just thinking about this game gets me uptight  I think I’m going to use the “unpredictable alien” mod where it’s not tethered to you constantly, but instead roams around the station more randomly. They say it feels a little more “realistic” and makes it scarier when it does show up. Has anyone tried this mod?
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May 11, 2022 23:14
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Ghostnuke posted:they lay eggs, it's a fuckin cloaca Pretty sure that the drones don't, usually.
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May 12, 2022 00:07
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Been watching the extras on my Alien Anthology blu-ray set. This thing is a gold mine. This is super-nerdy, but the packaging is also brilliant, it's one of the best of all the multi-disc sets i've ever bought. It's a hard, durable packaging that is a little book, with hard cardboard pages and no chance of the glue coming loose and letting a disc drop down inside the sleeve, which is a failing of a lot of multi-disc sets I have. Also Ridley's director commentary for Alien is awesome. It really drives home how they did so much with so little. I truly believe Alien is one of the greatest films of all time. It's a remarkable confluence of Ridley's visual brilliance, Giger's strangeness, and a great script. I was a kid in the 70s and we had seen 2001, Star Trek, Space 1999, and Star Wars. The bright, clean, antiseptic whites of ship interiors, etc. The look, feel, and ambience of Alien was just totally different to anything anyone had seen at the time. That Nostromo is a tugboat, that has sections where the lights don't work, water drips, a lot of corners masked by shadow. The crew don't see it as such during the course of their jobs, but it ends up being the perfect haunted house. I was too young to get all the psychosexual aspects of the film when I saw it in the theater during its original run, except to understand that it made me deeply uncomfortable in ways I couldn't articulate. But seeing it as an adult, man oh man does it deliver on that score.
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May 12, 2022 07:29
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The Zombie Guy posted:Saw this cool diagram and thought I'd share. I think they forgot to label the Thagomizer. I'm the Highly developed brain 
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May 12, 2022 10:01
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Biplane posted:I'm the Highly developed brain
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May 12, 2022 10:08
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Splicer posted:And the dormant reproductive system No... no!!! 
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May 12, 2022 10:09
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Splicer posted:And the dormant reproductive system 
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May 12, 2022 11:58
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Splicer posted:And the dormant reproductive system 
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May 12, 2022 17:15
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Splicer posted:And the dormant reproductive system lmao gottem
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May 12, 2022 18:10
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