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My terrible confession is that I never really watched much of the X-Files TV show. A few episodes; the one with the fireflies that eat people and only nest on one side of trees for some reason (Darkness Falls?), some episode about a chupacabra, and another one about some mold/fungus that consumes people, I remember it having something to do with cashews for some reason. And one featuring the Lone Gunmen that was about some nefarious AI that killed people. Those are my only memories of the show. The movie was great though. Really terrifying in retrospect how they basically re-enacted the OKC bombing right at the beginning.
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Apr 1, 2023 01:56
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The best thing about The X Files is that in its universe, everything is true. So you have murderous government conspiracies covering up an impending alien invasion, and you also have genies granting three wishes.
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Apr 1, 2023 10:00
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Mrs Splicer and I are doing a no conspiracy/no Samantha rewatch. Such a better show. Also reading the fan wiki summary of the conspiracy, saying "they made it up as they went along" is a kindness.
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Apr 1, 2023 12:45
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Splicer posted:Mrs Splicer and I are doing a no conspiracy/no Samantha rewatch. Such a better show. I've always been tempted - to keep it vaguely related - to re-watch Millennium which starred Lance Henriksen. I remember the first two seasons had some really cool stuff and then the third we don't talk about for reasons that escape me and it was all wrapped up (?) on an episode of the X-Files anyway.
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Apr 1, 2023 14:58
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I managed the Gibson Alien III audio drama and, hmm.. it would've been more liked than Fincher's Alien III since it plays with all the fun toys and has all the favorite characters, but i don't think it would've been all that artistically interesting. I think most of the reason it never got picked up is it would've been far too expensive to make, as it cuts between the Corporate and UPP stations as well as having the Sulaco, along with all the original cast that survived along with a bunch of other actors. It also meandered a lot. A really good director might've been able to elevate that script, but as it was, it did need some elevation.
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Apr 1, 2023 15:50
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Splicer posted:Mrs Splicer and I are doing a no conspiracy/no Samantha rewatch. Such a better show. I loved the show and still do, but the whole mytharc thing was so far up its own rear end, it was incredible. When I rewatch the series now, I mostly just watch the MOTW episodes and skip nearly everything else. I guess it makes me a bad fan, but  e: It’s like 72 episodes of this poo poo. Seriously, try reading this wiki summary of the mytharc and see how far you can get before your eyes roll up into the back of your head. https://x-files.fandom.com/wiki/Mythology MrMojok fucked around with this message at 16:27 on Apr 1, 2023 |
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Apr 1, 2023 16:13
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Watched X-Files: The Movie for the first time since it came out, due to recent discussion, having forgotten most of the show. It's actually pretty wild that the "conspiracy" plot is extremely straightforward and laid out in explicit detail - to the point that nearly all the big suspense and horror scenes lead us to sympathize with the lower-level conspirators as they're like "ah, poo poo, the alien's loose again". Meanwhile, all the references back to the show are bizarre and inscrutable. You mean there's an obscure branch of the FBI that routinely does extralegal domestic spycraft, with ties to a loosely-affiliated network of libertarian kooks? Despite being 'about' a conspiracy, there's zero paranoia or concern about the general public. Like, there's no "the people have to know!!!" kind of stuff, and barely even any indication that these things are happening in secret. So the end result is a surreal drama made up of a procession of abstract setpieces. Alien connections: Tom Woodruff Jr. plays a xenomorph, and the directors of AV|P:R were on the digital effects team.
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Apr 1, 2023 19:53
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MrMojok posted:I loved the show and still do, but the whole mytharc thing was so far up its own rear end, it was incredible.
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Apr 1, 2023 20:43
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SuperMechagodzilla posted:Watched X-Files: The Movie for the first time since it came out, due to recent discussion, having forgotten most of the show. Mulder is depicted as an obsessive kook who believes in every conspiracy theory there is (and usually has the exact right of it), but his primary motivation is self-interest, not overthrowing society. As things progress, the villains often use him as a useful idiot to accomplish their dirty work. In the later reboot of the show, Mulder is reduced to an explicitly right-wing conspiracy theorist. If that last part sounds interesting, be advised: No. The writers wore out the "mytharc" so heavily that the later show is beyond a parody of itself, and the last movie, which I don't think anyone really remembers watching, could just be a retooled script from any horror mystery movie. As far as I can tell fan interest in the show's alien conspiracy arc is pretty dead, or at least badly wounded by the writers' own work, sometimes intentional, to deflate it. Name Change fucked around with this message at 22:31 on Apr 1, 2023 |
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Apr 1, 2023 22:28
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I honestly don’t care about the show’s convoluted narrative that much, but it’s pretty funny how X-Files: The Movie just clearly anticipates Prometheus. A group of like ten incompetent white dudes learn that ancient aliens are hoping to colonize the Earth, unleashing a black goo that they had previously dumped on the planet back at the dawn of life (for some reason). The ancient aliens have implicitly been weakened in the interim, so the purpose of the goo is to repopulate their species by turning humans into xenomorphs. The white dudes hope to make a deal with the ancient aliens that would allow them to not be xenomorphed. That’s it! That’s the whole conspiracy.
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Apr 1, 2023 23:16
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SuperMechagodzilla posted:I honestly don’t care about the show’s convoluted narrative that much, but it’s pretty funny how X-Files: The Movie just clearly anticipates Prometheus. When you combine ancient astronaut conspiracy theories with other popular alien tropes, it would be more remarkable if they did not come up with primordial goo that creates alien-human hybrids. E: Given that ancient aliens are rooted in racism ("how else could these non-western societies develop anything remarkable?"), it's almost clever that that Mulder becomes Alex Jones. Name Change fucked around with this message at 23:46 on Apr 1, 2023 |
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Apr 1, 2023 23:43
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Veronica Cartwright gets abducted by aliens in X-Files, so you have that connection as well.
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Apr 2, 2023 02:51
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In fairness to the movie, I don’t know about the show but I should specify that the movie’s ‘ancient aliens’ are actually just prehistoric. In fact, there’s little or no indication that the film’s Engineer-equivalents have ever been in contact with humanity - nor is there any indication that they even exist anymore.
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Apr 2, 2023 02:59
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I recall the same. No 'Chariots of the Gods' stuff, certainly not in the movie. Was there anything like that in the show?
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Apr 2, 2023 03:07
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I think the show pretty heavily implies the the Anasazis had some sort of contact with the aliens.
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Apr 2, 2023 03:19
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LOL, (try to) read that wiki I linked. It’s all in there.
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Apr 2, 2023 03:40
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Are you telling us that the truth is out there?
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Apr 2, 2023 10:27
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Alchenar posted:Are you telling us that the truth is out there? I was incredibly pissed when I realized that line was a pun.
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Apr 2, 2023 16:22
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Schwarzwald posted:I was incredibly pissed when I realized that line was a pun. wait aaaaaaaaa
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Apr 2, 2023 16:30
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Schwarzwald posted:I was incredibly pissed when I realized that line was a pun. No. gently caress. No.
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Apr 2, 2023 18:08
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Name Change posted:If that last part sounds interesting, be advised: No. Which is a drat shame considering how much of right wing conspiracy canon since the Obama years is just recycled X-files plots minus the aliens and monsters.
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Apr 2, 2023 19:57
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Schwarzwald posted:I was incredibly pissed when I realized that line was a pun. I'm sick right now so my brain isn't working so good, can you explain the pun to me? 
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Apr 2, 2023 21:11
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Yeah, my excuse is running on zero sleep but I also don't really get it. Maybe I do, but I wouldn't really call the interpretation a 'pun', unless I'm still misreading it. Is it 'out there' like 'far out, man'?
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Apr 2, 2023 21:19
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Mister Speaker posted:Is it 'out there' like 'far out, man'? Yes.
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Apr 2, 2023 22:49
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I watched Alien 4 special edition last night and boy oh boy... wow. It's like they wanted the weird funny french scifi vibes of Fifth Element but with a dogshit Joss script. Absolutely doesn't work for the alien universe, but even as a stand alone thing it's not a good movie. That insanely goofy cartoon intro with the low quality CG bug getting squashed really sets the tone for the whole movie. Great cast for the most part, got a lot of french favourites, got my monkey man, got my worm tongue, but it just doesn't come together. Like so much of it is played as comedy. The scene where 2 aliens kill another in order to escape isn't shot like this brutal scary thing, it could have practically be subtitled with the aliens talking with each other about how the could totally escape with enough acid blood, but where to get it? Then 2 of the aliens look at the 3rd. "Woah guys wait why you looking at me like that??!" as it backs off and starts pleading with them. Or man at the end the guy using his chest burster as a weapon to chest burst AT a guy. It's all pure comedy. Baronjutter fucked around with this message at 22:55 on Apr 2, 2023 |
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Apr 2, 2023 22:53
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Baronjutter posted:Like so much of it is played as comedy. The scene where 2 aliens kill another in order to escape isn't shot like this brutal scary thing, it could have practically be subtitled with the aliens talking with each other about how the could totally escape with enough acid blood, but where to get it? Then 2 of the aliens look at the 3rd. "Woah guys wait why you looking at me like that??!" as it backs off and starts pleading with them.
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Apr 2, 2023 23:33
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Might be imagining things but I remember some of the comics actually writing out Xenomorph dialog as "ree ree ree reeee." Which actually reminds me, I love sound effect design in film (obviously) and something that is still a great mystery to me is how they made the Xenos' vocalizations in Aliens. I know that like many films with alien creatures, it's a lot of layering real animal sounds together, and a few of their trills in particular sound a lot like young elephant trumpeting, but there's something else going on in there. Mister Speaker fucked around with this message at 23:46 on Apr 2, 2023 |
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Apr 2, 2023 23:43
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Mister Speaker posted:Might be imagining things but I remember some of the comics actually writing out Xenomorph dialog as "ree ree ree reeee." Probably a large pitch change on an animal that is the third layered vocal.
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Apr 3, 2023 00:25
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Covenant is the one that makes me feel the most uneasy. Like, a sort of malaise. I don't ever really want to watch it again and it's been probably a couple years since I've seen it last. Not to say I think it's a bad movie... I think it was a good movie. Good at making me feel bad lol. Not just the ending but the whole thing through.
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Apr 3, 2023 01:38
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I watched Prometheus + Covenant last week. Prometheus is stronger overall, but i'd have been very happy with the series continuing past Covenant. Prometheus is certainly a deeper story, touching on creation and the origin of species. The c-section scene is more memorable than anything in Covenant. The engineer and trilobyte just aren't particularly exciting screen presences. I love the way the cast is whittled down, with the goofy geologist being a total coward and that paying off in the most predictable fashion. Noomi Rapace is just amazing in this, and it's always fun seeing Charlize and Idris in smaller roles. The old-man makeup is a good effort. I've seen worse. Covenant does have double the Fassbender, which is obviously great. I also really enjoyed the themes of faith and divine ineraction. More classic xenos in this, which I'd kinda forgotten. It has the - perhaps dubious - honor of the best ever "actor shares the screen with themselves" scene, where David gives Walter a spooky robot kiss after their subtext-free flute lesson. It is a little distracting seeing how much Fassbender aged between the two, and Danny McBride being there (he's cool but an odd fit for this series). That ending is great, classic horror camp. I was pretty harsh on Covenant when it came out, but it's a good movie and definitely aesthetically gorgeous. It's better than most other Alien movies, which pretty much brings me to the maximum allowed level of faint praise for one post.
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Apr 3, 2023 04:28
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Covenant would've been ten times better if it had pulse rifles. The idea of Danny McBride wearing a cowboy hat while wielding a pulse rifle is like what dreams are made of.
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Apr 3, 2023 06:26
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well why not posted:Covenant does have double the Fassbender, which is obviously great. I also really enjoyed the themes of faith and divine interaction. More classic xenos in this, which I'd kinda forgotten. It has the - perhaps dubious - honor of the best ever "actor shares the screen with themselves" scene, where David gives Walter a spooky robot kiss after their subtext-free flute lesson.
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Apr 3, 2023 06:43
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teagone posted:Covenant would've been ten times better if it had pulse rifles. The idea of Danny McBride wearing a cowboy hat while wielding a pulse rifle is like what dreams are made of. That would've been cool. I did notice that their guns seemed very much of our era. The laser sights were a smart addition.
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Apr 3, 2023 07:04
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Greg Davies has a lovely story about Prometheus. He is rather engineer sized... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-ZEXyu7DCs
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Apr 3, 2023 07:11
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Baronjutter posted:I watched Alien 4 special edition last night and boy oh boy... wow. It's like they wanted the weird funny french scifi vibes of Fifth Element but with a dogshit Joss script. Absolutely doesn't work for the alien universe, but even as a stand alone thing it's not a good movie. That insanely goofy cartoon intro with the low quality CG bug getting squashed really sets the tone for the whole movie.
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Apr 3, 2023 11:49
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SuperMechagodzilla posted:That is not what is being asserted. I understand your perspective regarding the black goo, but we must consider that the inclusion of similar elements in other franchises or media doesn't necessarily imply an intentional dissolution of boundaries. These thematic connections could be unintentional, or simply a result of creators drawing inspiration from each other, rather than an attempt to make the Alien universe more "open source." As for Xenopedia, its existence is to provide a centralized source of information for fans, to track and document the Alien franchise in a comprehensive manner. Although it may not encompass every possible interpretation or connection, it serves as a valuable resource for those who want to explore and engage with the franchise more deeply. Beyond that, I don't know. We must also remember that franchises can evolve over time, and the introduction of new elements, like the black goo, can enrich the world-building and storytelling within the Alien universe. This expansion should not be seen as a hostile takeover or an attempt to devalue the franchise's core themes, but rather as a natural progression in the creative process. Ultimately, we should embrace the growth and change that comes with the development of the Alien franchise, as it enables us to explore new stories, themes, and ideas within this rich and captivating universe.
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Apr 3, 2023 14:52
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Sneeze Party posted:I understand your perspective regarding the black goo, but we must consider that the inclusion of similar elements in other franchises or media doesn't necessarily imply an intentional dissolution of boundaries. These thematic connections could be unintentional, or simply a result of creators drawing inspiration from each other, rather than an attempt to make the Alien universe more "open source." Did you get ChatGPT to write this post
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Apr 3, 2023 15:09
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No Dignity posted:Did you get ChatGPT to write this post
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Apr 3, 2023 15:42
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Oh I get it!
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Apr 3, 2023 15:58
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Sneeze Party posted:I understand your perspective regarding the black goo, but we must consider that the inclusion of similar elements in other franchises or media doesn't necessarily imply an intentional dissolution of boundaries. These thematic connections could be unintentional, or simply a result of creators drawing inspiration from each other, rather than an attempt to make the Alien universe more "open source." SMG is rejecting intentionality in favor of a thematic sort of canonicity.
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Apr 3, 2023 16:33
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