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Do you like Alien 3 "Assembly Cut"?
Yes, Alien 3 "Assembly Cut" was tits.
No, Alien and Aliens are the only valid Alien films.
Nah gently caress you Alien 3 sucks in all its forms.
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Xenomrph
Dec 9, 2005

AvP Nerd/Fanboy/Shill



I can't believe this thread passed under my radar.

I'm a big fan of the Alien3 Assembly Cut, and I almost universally prefer it to the theatrical cut. There's a few alternate scenes I prefer in the theatrical cut, most notably at the beginning and end.

Ripley getting ejected from the EEV and having to be rescued on the beach by Clemens always struck me as goofy, and I always felt the characters finding Ripley in the EEV and realizing she was alive was more visually interesting than finding her on the beach. We also don't really get an indication of how she got out of the EEV. Was she ejected? If so, how?
The Assembly Cut version also introduces a bit of a continuity error, because for whatever reason, the EEV is switched in its position - in the theatrical cut, one side is submerged in the water, and in the Assembly Cut it's the other. This is important because of where the characters are located in the EEV - from left to right, it's Bishop, Hicks, Ripley, and then Newt. In the theatrical cut, the right side of the EEV is underwater, so it makes sense when you find out Newt drowned in her cryotube but the other characters didn't. In the Assembly Cut, it's switched so the left side is underwater.

I also much prefer the ending in the theatrical cut showing the Queen Chestburster popping out of Ripley, and a large part of that is the music. Here's the theatrical version of the scene:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eyZ4nwg7GgE

Here's the Assembly Cut:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L3vbfkRB6gQ

The Assembly Cut really truncates the (awesome) soundtrack, and once you know what to listen for in the theatrical cut, it's really jarring in the Assembly Cut (the music edit happens at about the 1:58 mark).

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Xenomrph
Dec 9, 2005

AvP Nerd/Fanboy/Shill



second-hand smegma posted:

I agree with all this. The assembly cut is better but I'm so used to watching the theatrical cut that there are a few standout scenes that feel like missed opportunities.


The other thing that stood out to me in the assembly cut was the fact that I don't think the dog is ever introduced, as the alien has a different origin, but the dude who gets chopped up by the fan still looks down the hole for his dog. Minor quip.
Yeah, he calls for his dog in the assembly cut, but the dog itself isn't actually seen in that version of the movie.

I have "ideal versions" in my head for all four of the Alien movies, where I'd mix-and-match alternate/deleted scenes from the different versions of each movie. For Alien 3 I'd keep the theatrical version's crash and salvage (it's more visually interesting, keeps with the continuity of the character's deaths, and establishes the dog), keep the theatrical version's Ripley death, and then keep everything else from the Assembly Cut.

Fun fact: the Alien was always intended to be born from an ox. They filmed all the adult Alien scenes first, under the assumption that they could make the "ox-burster" scenes work later. When they couldn't get the effects for the baby Alien to work right, they said "oh poo poo, now what do we do?", and then they remembered that they'd established the dog in the EEV salvage scene and in the dialogue during the fan attack so they changed it to be a dog Alien.

It's just funny seeing people say "the adult Alien acts dog-like, because it was born from a dog", because that was never the intention when filming.

Also for people who like movie merchandise and stuff, NECA's figure of the Dog Alien is fantastic: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=THNiZyObkxo

Xenomrph fucked around with this message at 04:17 on Jul 25, 2015

Xenomrph
Dec 9, 2005

AvP Nerd/Fanboy/Shill



Immortan posted:

I like the Assembly Cut version of her falling because it places an emphasis on why Ripley is sacrificing herself more without shoehorning in the chest burster to make sure a retarded audience knows why she's doing it. It's smarter.
I can understand this, but it just murders the fantastic soundtrack. :saddowns:

They could have gone with the scene as originally scripted, I guess. :v: The Queen pops out of Ripley as she's standing on the ledge, it tries to crawl away, and Ripley falls down, grabs it, and then tumbles backward with it off the ledge before the other characters can stop her.
That version of her death is present in the comic book adaptation, I can't remember if that's how it plays out in the movie novelization.

Xenomrph
Dec 9, 2005

AvP Nerd/Fanboy/Shill



david_a posted:

It doesn't look like he had anything to do with the released AvP movie. They had been working on that concept ever since people went crazy for the alien skull gag in Predator 2 so this was a way earlier draft. I read something that claimed to be an AvP draft a long time ago but I have no idea if it was real or not - I vaguely remember something about a colony outpost and a woman fighting side by side with a predator.
His draft is basically an adaptation of the comic series that incorporates more Colonial Marine action (the original comic had no Marines in it whatsoever).

Also the skull in Predator 2 was a nod to that comic series (put there by Stan Winston himself, as a matter of fact), which was in publication and very popular while 'Predator 2' was being made.

You can find the Peter Briggs AvP draft online here.

The AvP movie we ended up getting has some things in common (Predators breeding Aliens for sport, female protagonist, Predator team-up for a bit, Predator ship shows up at the end and honors the protagonist) but a whole lot of it is different.

And he's not wrong that an AvP movie *could* be done well, it just hasn't yet.

Xenomrph fucked around with this message at 05:17 on Jul 25, 2015

Xenomrph
Dec 9, 2005

AvP Nerd/Fanboy/Shill



Neo Rasa posted:

One thing I do wish was carried over from Alien 3 into other Alien products is these sick helmets the the enforcer guys rolling around with Weyland and his doctors are rocking:




Those things show up in the AvP2 PC game (and on a smaller scale, the AvP: Extinction RTS video game on consoles), and NECA has confirmed they'll be making a figure of the W-Y "dog catcher" soldiers with that mask.

Xenomrph
Dec 9, 2005

AvP Nerd/Fanboy/Shill



The Predator in AvPR is hilarious because he straight up doesn't give a gently caress. He's there to do a job, and gently caress these petty humans getting in his way.

I got Ian Whyte, the actor who portrayed the Predators in both AvP movies, to record an audio intro for one of my AvP Lets Play videos several years ago. Really cool, funny guy.

He also played the main Engineer in 'Prometheus'.

Xenomrph
Dec 9, 2005

AvP Nerd/Fanboy/Shill



sticklefifer posted:

So this is weird as poo poo for me because I have remembered this wrong for years; I thought for a long time that the theatrical cut implied Weyland was an android but the Assembly cut changed him to human, and I remember really disliking that change. I still prefer to think of it that way anyway because dude just stands up with his ear hanging off like it's no biggie.
He was always meant to be human; he's described as human in the script and novelization, he bleeds red blood, he reacts in pain after getting hit, and caps it off by shouting "I am not a droid!!!" in the Assembly Cut. He even has a first name: Michael (*)
The theatrical version is somewhat more vague about it.

*The movie's trading cards identify him as Michael Bishop, and then the Colonial Marines game retcons it slightly so that he's actually Michael Bishop Weyland, head of Weyland-Yutani.

Xenomrph
Dec 9, 2005

AvP Nerd/Fanboy/Shill



The problem with this interpretation is that this part:

SuperMechagodzilla posted:

The town sherrif - who knows full well that the kid is dead - lies to the boy's mother and lets her go on believing.

...isn't true.

Xenomrph
Dec 9, 2005

AvP Nerd/Fanboy/Shill



SuperMechagodzilla posted:

Yes it is. He didn't literally find the bodies :words:
Oh, oh okay.

Eh, I'm unconvinced.

Xenomrph
Dec 9, 2005

AvP Nerd/Fanboy/Shill



Baronjutter posted:

I sat through Salo because it's an amazingly made movie but I turned off AvP2 because it was just gross and made me feel disturbed/uncomfortable. I've gotten more and more timid in my entertainment tastes these days, I really don't like movies where lots of innocent people and kids get graphically killed for shock value. Hell I find it hard to even kill in video games any more. If there's a way to do a no-death run I'll do it.
You should play Wolfenstein: The New Order, it sounds right up your alley.

Serious answer: 'Alien: Isolation'. It's entirely possible to do a no-killing playthrough.

Xenomrph
Dec 9, 2005

AvP Nerd/Fanboy/Shill



SuperMechagodzilla posted:

It's neither. It's just a bad transfer by the studio. The same thing happened to Godzilla 2014.

The image is perfect if you just turn up the brightness by 3 notches in windows media player.

Hate for AV|P:R is slightly understandable because, until Prometheus, it was the most abstract film from either series.

As noted, there is absolutely no plot connection between the story of the aliens and the story of the sheriff. Yet, when the nuke hits, the death of the two monsters is intercut with the death of the sheriff and the boy's mother.

Contrast this with Aliens, where everything revolves around the literal monsters. "We have to stop these Aliens!" "I was traumatized by the Aliens, so I want to kill the Aliens!" "I'm going to take the Aliens home." "No don't take the Aliens home!" And so-on.

AV|P:R and Prometheus basically function like a Garfield Without Garfield comic. Garfield is still 'there', but pushed firmly into the subtext. Meanwhile, fans are like "where's Garfield??? I paid to see an orange cat eat lasagna!"
Yeah uh that's not what people (fans or otherwise) complained about.

Like, at all.

And this is coming from someone who was entertained by AvPR (but recognized its flaws).

Xenomrph fucked around with this message at 04:24 on Jul 28, 2015

Xenomrph
Dec 9, 2005

AvP Nerd/Fanboy/Shill



SuperMechagodzilla posted:

People, generally, do not know why they like or dislike things. I do not expect you to be different.
I must be the outlier, I'm pretty good at recognizing why I do or don't like things. :cheers:

Xenomrph
Dec 9, 2005

AvP Nerd/Fanboy/Shill



LORD OF BUTT posted:

The darkness thing is actually the most common complaint I see about AVPR, and SMG is totally right (the cinematography is fine, the home transfer just got hosed up).

Otherwise, the second most common beef I see with AVPR is that it's not really an Alien vs. Predator movie, but rather a suburban slasher film with Aliens and Predators shoehorned in, which is... kinda what he addressed there, dude.
I was kind of surprised they didn't "fix" the darkness problem for the home release, it seems like it would have been easy.

Then again this is the studio that drastically hosed up the bluray release for 'Predator' where all the characters look like wax people because they half-assed the restoration for bluray.
I wish they'd put the sort of care into the Predator bluray as was given the 'Aliens' one, but I think a large part of why the Aliens bluray turned out as good as it did is because the restoration had Cameron himself at the helm.

Xenomrph
Dec 9, 2005

AvP Nerd/Fanboy/Shill



Silent as in totally silent? Or does the movie provide as "isolated score" viewing option? And if not, do you feel such an option would help a "silent" viewing of the movie?

I do need to rewatch Prometheus, because I honestly cannot remember a single thing about the film's score.

Xenomrph
Dec 9, 2005

AvP Nerd/Fanboy/Shill



Chairman Capone posted:

Actually, on the subject of Prometheus, one of the things that most surprised me about it tying into the Alien universe was that it actually continued the alphabetical android naming where Alien Resurrection left off (Ash, Bishop, Call, then David).
But it's a prequel, it should have been something like Zane. :colbert:

Xenomrph
Dec 9, 2005

AvP Nerd/Fanboy/Shill



LORD OF BUTT posted:

Ignore the first name and it doesn't, which works since her being an android was a minor twist.
The other androids had first names as well - the computer listing all the marines when they're being woken up lists Bishop as "L. Bishop" (for Lance), and Ash has a first initial according to the inquest report scrolling in the background of Ripley's corporate interrogation (although I don't remember what it is off the top of my head).

If anything that means Prometheus is the one that breaks the pattern. :v:
Unless David is his first name, and he has a last name that keeps with the pattern I guess.

Xenomrph
Dec 9, 2005

AvP Nerd/Fanboy/Shill



blackguy32 posted:

For me, one of the worst things about the theatrical cut is that Golic just loving vanishes. In the assembly cut, I believe they actually show him dying. But in the theatrical cut, I don't think we see him again after Clemmons dies.
That's correct, his subplot doesn't get resolved in the theatrical cut. In the Assembly cut, he cons Morse into letting him free from his straight jacket, and then he goes to the vault where they've got the Alien locked up, slits the throat of the prisoner guarding the vault, and opens the vault and is promptly murdered by the Alien.

Xenomrph
Dec 9, 2005

AvP Nerd/Fanboy/Shill



zVxTeflon posted:

Im sick of Ripley too at this point. Alien 3 was a perfect ending to her story. How many times do we need to resurect and torture this poor woman.
Well they only did it once (twice if you count the comics, kinda retroactively three times if you count the novels).

Xenomrph
Dec 9, 2005

AvP Nerd/Fanboy/Shill



Incredibly graphic powerloader mishap where Ripley ends up somehow yanking Hicks in half, Bishop-style.
Out of grief, Ripley commits suicide with Hicks' pump-action.
The camera does not cut away at any point during any of it.

Xenomrph
Dec 9, 2005

AvP Nerd/Fanboy/Shill



Basebf555 posted:

I still have complaints about Prometheus, but they all are related to the marketing of the film, so in the end they are pretty meaningless complaints. I do feel that the marketing campaign for the film was deceptive though.
In what way? I felt the movie largely delivered on what the trailers showed, and I really liked the viral/ARG stuff for its subtle (and not so subtle) commentary on corporate culture, brand image, etc.

I still think Prometheus has some crippling flaws, and I genuinely wish it weren't connected to Alien. Not for the usual fanboy "RAPED MY CHILDHOOD" nonsense, but because I think Prometheus could have gone in much more interesting (and weirder, scarier) directions without being saddled with Alien's baggage, and I ultimately don't think the connections to Alien do either movie any favors.

Xenomrph
Dec 9, 2005

AvP Nerd/Fanboy/Shill



MrMojok posted:

Can you explain a little? I think what you're talking about is the stupidity of the scientists, who do very un-scientist type things, right? How was this the point of the plot? I'm not being sarcastic, I honestly feel the same way about the movie, and never understood half the things these people do and why it was written this way.



It's especially incongruous when the space truckers of 'Alien' don't do anything near as dumb as the Prometheus scientists.
People latched onto it in Prometheus because their actions aren't just stupid, they're unrealistically stupid. Like, profoundly stupid even for horror movie redshirt cannon fodder.

Xenomrph
Dec 9, 2005

AvP Nerd/Fanboy/Shill



Basebf555 posted:

Weyland funded the project because of his fantasy of immortality, but by the time the everything was reaching the final stage where people needed to be hired for the crew he was already in stasis. Vickers, his daughter, is the one puts the crew together and she is simply going through the motions because she doesn't believe in the project. She just wants to fulfill her father's final wish so that he can just die already and she can move on with her life as the head of the company. The film makes a point of telling you that she personally hired the majority the crew, and that's the reason.

Thematically the film is about hubris, so people making mistakes is a major part of that. These scientists probably get away with their lazy practices in their normal work, but they fail to recognize they've entered a world that is not at all forgiving and WILL kill them for the slightest oversight. Its a very important aspect of the film.
Okay this is actually a really interesting point, and makes the characters' stupidity somewhat more palatable.

I think my problem with it is that the characters were TOO stupid; I get that they were careless because maybe they were lazy, but the poo poo they do in Prometheus is beyond the pale by even "average human" standards, let alone "alleged doctoral candidates". as demonstrated in the very same series, space truckers show more caution than they do.

If the filmmakers were trying to display hubris by having the characters do irresponsible things that get them killed by a foreign environment, they took it to a hamfisted extreme. What those characters do would have gotten them killed *on earth*, never mind a crazy alien planet.

Xenomrph
Dec 9, 2005

AvP Nerd/Fanboy/Shill



I do t have a problem with 2 or 4 so much as 1 and 3.

Being a pothead doesn't really excuse getting lost in a tunnel that you personally mapped, and taunting a snake creature is dumb no matter what planet you're on.

Popping off the helmet is above and beyond stupid; even Alien makes a very specific plot point about not breaking quarantine. The fact that the other characters don't immediately flip out a and go "are you retarded???? Put your helmet back on, Jesus Christ" just compounds the issue.

Again, the space truckers act more believably than the Prometheus crew.

Like I said, it's not that they do dumb poo poo, even in Alien you've got people doing dumb poo poo (Kane sticking his face in the egg, Brett hunting for the cat and totally forgetting about the Alien), but the Prometheus characters go above and beyond to the point that it calls attention to itself.

Xenomrph
Dec 9, 2005

AvP Nerd/Fanboy/Shill



Darko posted:

re: Alien - "Looking in the egg" isn't stupid because he doesn't know he's in a horror movie, either, really. But, yeah, you can't compare the actions of a tired crew forced to work overtime working with company regulations and a ragtag, put together group of widely varying personalities on a private journey that just happen to luck into making first contact.
Except that, as mentioned, their actions often defy basic common sense, no on-the-books corporate regulations required.

Yes, the deleted worm scene makes things slightly more palatable, but sticking your face in a really obviously hostile snake creature's space is still profoundly stupid, and he certainly isn't acting like he's incoherently stoned when he does it.

Like I said, yeah you can kinda handwave the stupidity by jumping through hoops, but it's still a really ham-fisted way of showing "the hubris of man in the face of the unknown" because it really calls attention to itself to the point that it distracts from that message. 'Alien' more deftly shows the same exact message, without the audience getting distracted by the idiocy of the character's actions.

Bingo. When a comedy/parody movie shows more believable actions, you done hosed up. A major component of horror (and being able to empathize with characters in any situation, really) is being able to place yourself in the character's shoes and say "yeah, I'd act similarly, which means I'd be in danger too and that's scary". When the characters act unbelievably, it takes the audience out of the narrative.

Xenomrph fucked around with this message at 19:25 on Sep 25, 2015

Xenomrph
Dec 9, 2005

AvP Nerd/Fanboy/Shill



computer parts posted:

Probably the most common stereotype for film right now is yelling at horror movie characters that they're "acting stupid".
That doesn't make it any less valid of a complaint. There's a reason it's a cliche, one that even gets lampshaded/subverted in genre-deconstructing flicks like the Scream series or Cabin in the Woods, because audiences recognize when characters do reckless or unrealistically dumb things. It isn't a new thing, or one that's happening just "right now" - it's been a horror movie trope that has made audiences roll their eyes for decades.
It has nothing to do with the characters "not knowing they're in a horror movie". Prometheus could have been a slapstick comedy and audiences would have recognized that Milburn harassing the space snake was profoundly stupid, and with predictable results.

But with horror movies you're supposed to feel for the characters and that's where a lot of the tension comes from, so when they start doing unrealistically stupid poo poo, the audience stops empathizing with the characters and it stops being scary.

Xenomrph
Dec 9, 2005

AvP Nerd/Fanboy/Shill



Yaws posted:

People don't always act 100 per cent rationally. This criticism of yours is such low hanging fruit. Boring.
There's acting dumb, and there's acting so dumb it takes the audience out of the movie.

I'm glad you took the time to talk about a topic you don't care about, though. :cheers:

The problem isn't that the characters did dumb poo poo, it's that the movie executed it so poorly that it undermined an otherwise interesting theme ("the hubris of man").

Xenomrph
Dec 9, 2005

AvP Nerd/Fanboy/Shill



Yaws posted:

I didn't feel any of the characters in Prometheus acted in a way that made the audience not care about them. They're human. Humans are fallible. Humans act irrationally. Especially when they're thrown in extreme circumstances like in Prometheus.

It seems like you're less interested in discussing the film and more interested in having the last word, repeating the same thing over and over again. It's childish.
Don't respond to my posts if you don't like them I guess. :shrug:

Your tolerance for dumb stuff must be higher than mine if you think the Prometheus characters acted realistically.

If you think I've just been repeating the same thing over and over, you haven't been paying attention.

Xenomrph
Dec 9, 2005

AvP Nerd/Fanboy/Shill



Lasher posted:

It's all down the the awful script. We could have had the relevant plot beats WITH the characters acting in a manner that wasn't frustratingly idiotic but the whole thing feels very mish-mashed and cobbled together.
This is a big part of it, too. Alien takes the same exact theme and executes it in a way that doesn't make the audience say, "wait, what did he just do?".
Prometheus could have examined that theme on a grander scale, and in my opinion it flubbed it.

Xenomrph
Dec 9, 2005

AvP Nerd/Fanboy/Shill



Yaws posted:

Well I've been reading your posts, so yeah :)

Ah yes, resorting to insults. Now who's childish?

Edit-- Basebff, I saw your post and I have some thoughts on it, but I'm posting from the Awful app so I'll post them when I get home. :hfive:

Xenomrph
Dec 9, 2005

AvP Nerd/Fanboy/Shill



Y Kant Ozma Diet posted:

If the characters in most movies acted in a %100 rational and believable way movies would be far shorter and more boring. Christ, the people in Alien and Aliens also acted like idiots. Who cares.
No one is saying they should have been 100% rational, just that there were better ways to handle them doing irrational things.

ruddiger posted:

If anything, xenomrph not getting Prometheus just proves it's the superior alien movie.

"Bbbbbbut my alien fanfic (that I paid some livejournal vorefic writer to write for me)!"
-every xenomrph post
I don't even know what this is, I just know it's stupid.

And I "got" Prometheus just fine. :)


Why cookie Rocket posted:

I dunno man I love Prometheus (saw it three times in the theater; bought a blu-ray player for it) but the characters definitely act in a....heightened manner. I can roll with it because I understand we're just watching a big metaphor and the characters are tropes, but it's definitely not naturalistic.

That's what I want, for a critic to specifically explain how Prometheus could be fixed by making the characters more grounded and without throwing out the basic story outline and core message.
I can think of a couple ways.
- Edit down the amount of time Milburn spends prodding the snake before it strikes, or edit down its hostile body-language to something somewhat more neutral. For a good example, there's always Kane and the Alien egg. Alternately, have Milburn not see the snake become hostile, perhaps he looks away to talk to Fifeld and that's when it gets aggressive and strikes.
- Have someone at least speak up when someone pops their helmet on an alien planet, even if the helmet has already been popped and it's too late to do anything about it now. For an example, check the scene from Galaxy Quest.
- Not have the guy who literally mapped the cave with his cool flying toys be the guy who gets lost and forgets that he mapped the cave. Have the characters get lost, but have it be literally any other character who did the mapping, or make it so the map is inaccessible to them, or doesn't work, or is incomplete.

Any of those things still maintain the narrative beats, still maintain the characters' failures, even preserve the characters acting irrationally, without doing it in what I feel is a ham-fisted way.


Basebf555 posted:

We agree that its an interesting theme, so lets discuss the execution of it.

The kind of mistakes that the crew make in Alien are not about hubris. Breaking protocol by allowing an injured team member back onto the ship isn't hubris, its being a human. Kane staring at the egg too long and getting face-hugged isn't hubris, its a dude who doesn't really want to be there being overcome by a moment of natural human curiosity.

If the scientists in Prometheus did everything by the book, and then maybe slipped up and made one mistake, that's not furthering the theme of hubris. Its exactly that "gently caress it, lets discover some poo poo!" attitude that hammers home the point about the hubris of man and its results.
There's a few things here I want to touch on.

I disagree that the characters in 'Alien' aren't exhibiting hubris, they're just doing it in a different way. The people in Prometheus are on the cutting edge of discovery, while the people in Alien are just doing blue-collar jobs. With Prometheus, the idea is "we can tame the unknown", and that's an arrogant stance to take. With Alien, the idea is "we have tamed the unknown", and as far as the characters are concerned, they have - everything is documented, there's procedures for everything, they just go out and punch a clock and it's all commonplace even though they're literally working in space and visiting other worlds, something that would be mind-blowing to us. The arrogance is in the notion that they've tamed the unknown and that they've seen it all, and that there are no dangers lurking in the dark, and that The Book has a procedure for everything.

I agree that the characters wanting to bring Kane back onboard isn't hubris, but what makes the scene "work" is that Ripley at least acknowledges that there are risks involved, even if it makes her look like an insensitive bitch. The narrative is at least acknowledging the danger.
I do disagree on Kane, I feel that Kane poking his head into the egg is a fair degree of hubris. Like yeah he's overwhelmed with curiosity, but even he is hesitant and careful when he's exploring the egg chamber, and even reacts with apprehension when the egg merely opens. But he thinks it's safe, even when he really doesn't have any reason to believe it's safe. But the reason Kane's scene works while Milburn's scene doesn't is that Kane's scene happens so quickly. The egg opens, which is fairly ambiguous from a threat standpoint, and Kane puts his face in and gets zapped seconds later. Milburn's scene is drawn out, with Milburn seemingly oblivious to obvious visual cues from the space snake. Like I mentioned earlier, if the thing had acted more neutrally, and/or the attack had been quicker, it wouldn't have stood out as much. I really feel it comes down to the scene's editing less so than the content.

The scientists in Prometheus didn't need to do everything by the book (because as you mentioned earlier, there is no book yet). But I feel it's possible to express the awe and wonder of discovery and exploration without having the characters be reckless. poo poo, 'Alien' did it. Kane is the embodiment of it, from the moment they detect the Derelict's signal until the moment he gets facehugged. Even when they're marching towards the Derelict, he's saying "We have to go on, we must go on!"

Xenomrph fucked around with this message at 02:04 on Sep 26, 2015

Xenomrph
Dec 9, 2005

AvP Nerd/Fanboy/Shill



Tenzarin posted:

No billion dollar project would ever not create plans and procedures in place for when stuff happens. People do not just wing it in those situations well except really lovely movies.
I don't disagree, but people were saying "Prometheus is about discovery, they don't have procedures because they don't even know what's out there!" and I was rolling with that notion because sure, why not.

Xenomrph
Dec 9, 2005

AvP Nerd/Fanboy/Shill



Basebf555 posted:

The recklessness of the characters is exactly the point of those scenes, not the awe and wonder of discovery. You want the scenes to be about something different than what Ridley Scott wanted.
Wait what? You were the one saying the characters were acting out of the excitement of exploration, I was just saying there are better ways to show that.
Now you're saying it's about their recklessness, and I'd still say there's better ways to show that (and I listed a bunch).
But beyond that, there's a pretty wide gap between being arrogant, and being reckless. You can show arrogance without being reckless.

Why cookie Rocket posted:

Xeno's suggestions, for instance, we're so minor that I'm surprised those flaws ruined the movie for him.
I like Prometheus, and those flaws didn't "ruin the movie" for me. They're just such obvious flaws with such easy fixes that it's frustrating and it holds the movie back. Especially when I know the director is capable of better.

If anything, the part that drags the movie down even more are the ties with Alien. I don't feel Prometheus benefits from it, and I'd have loved to have seen what they could have come up with if the filmmakers were really let off the leash.
I was excited that Prometheus 2 was going to distance itself even further from Alien, but apparently now they've done a complete 180 and are going to make it even closer to Alien.

Xenomrph
Dec 9, 2005

AvP Nerd/Fanboy/Shill



If he was going to use a not-Alien, I wish he'd used one of the other ideas that had concept art done up: the Deacon is this graceful albino creature with no mouth, and after birthing from the Engineer, it goes outside the shuttle and stares at the sunrise.

Xenomrph
Dec 9, 2005

AvP Nerd/Fanboy/Shill



If it makes you feel any better about the Space Jockey/Engineer thing, I'm a big fan of the interpretation that they're not the same thing. It adds another layer to the "creators/creations" theme (and Shaw even hints at it in-dialogue), and preserves the mystery of the Space Jockey to boot.

Xenomrph
Dec 9, 2005

AvP Nerd/Fanboy/Shill



SirDrone posted:

I still don't know why they even bothered with two versions of the same scene, still this design seems better then bigfoot zambie man.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RJOv6a_uzNo
Seconding that, the alternate CGI version for monster-Fifeld looks way, way more interesting.

Xenomrph
Dec 9, 2005

AvP Nerd/Fanboy/Shill



Fair enough, I like looking at scenes and considering how they could have been done differently in order to be more effective, and deconstruct it to see what "works" and what doesn't, and why. I find that sort of stuff interesting, but to each their own. :)

Xenomrph
Dec 9, 2005

AvP Nerd/Fanboy/Shill



SuperMechagodzilla posted:

Actually, it isn't. You are not engaged in deconstruction.

Yeah, well that's just, like, your opinion, man.


Xenomrph fucked around with this message at 16:30 on Sep 26, 2015

Xenomrph
Dec 9, 2005

AvP Nerd/Fanboy/Shill



SuperMechagodzilla posted:

Actually, it isn't. You are not engaged in deconstruction.
Nope, sorry, there's actually multiple ways of looking at movies :)
If you don't think honest to god real life filmmakers don't look at movies that way (their own or otherwise), then you're awfully naive. Recognizing what makes a scene effective is important, and so is recognizing what a scene lacks. It's kind of a cornerstone of critical thinking about movies, and recognizing what makes a movie "good" or "effective". Here's a super cool youtube channel about it, for those interested in that sort of stuff. A google search like "what makes a good movie scene" brings up a couple thousand results, too.

And yes it is deconstruction, even if it's not the kind you like.

In short:

Xenomrph posted:

Yeah, well that's just, like, your opinion, man.

Xenomrph fucked around with this message at 16:34 on Sep 26, 2015

Xenomrph
Dec 9, 2005

AvP Nerd/Fanboy/Shill



ruddiger posted:

Writing your own "what if..." Because you can't accept the story being presented to you is the exact opposite of deconstructing the narrative being presented to you. It's ignoring it and positing your own fan fiction as fact, or in this case "canon" as fact goes out the window when dealing with a fictional story.
If you're seeing it as just a "what if", as opposed to, say, thinking critically about what makes a scene effective or good, then you're missing the point by a pretty wide margin, sorry. :)

Yaws posted:

All this is true. Unfortunately you aren't intellectually equipped to do any of it.
Oh hey it's another personal attack that adds nothing to the discussion. Good job! :waycool:
But thanks for agreeing with me all the same, I appreciate it. :)

SuperMechagodzilla posted:

Well I mean, for example, the scene where the soldiers go surfing in the warzone. It would be more effective if they had a reason to be surfing, like it is part of their mission objectives. Maybe they are trying to reach the enemy base covertly, and they can't use outboard motors: "why not use surfboards!"

It's still a bit silly, but i think this would fix a lot of the character inconsistencies.

Either that or they could explain that this part of Vietnam is very safe, so surfing is okay.
I really wish you'd recognize that there's more ways of looking at/enjoying movies than your own, because you write a lot about them and sometimes you even write interesting and insightful things about them and it's disheartening when you're so dismissive. :sigh:

What are your thoughts on director's cuts, or "fan edits" (The Phantom Edit, the Hobbit trilogy edited down to one movie, etc)?

Xenomrph fucked around with this message at 18:54 on Sep 26, 2015

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Xenomrph
Dec 9, 2005

AvP Nerd/Fanboy/Shill



SuperMechagodzilla posted:

"Dismissive" implies that I've rejected your 'way of looking' without first evaluating it.

The reality is that I've read what you've written, carefully, and found it to be bad.
Fair enough, that's a good point. I'm pretty okay with agreeing to disagree. :)

computer parts posted:

Fan edits frequently miss the point. It's funny when they end up reinforcing the complaints people had about the films, though.

Like a frequent complaint about Phantom Menace is that it's full of racial stereotypes, the Neimodians being an example of Asian stereotypes. I forget if it's Phantom Edit or another one, but their solution to this problem is to dub them in an alien language and add subtitles.
I more of meant fan edits as a concept; I personally think editing is really interesting and important, and it's a powerful filmmaking tool. Like this thread's initial premise is based around how editing can make a break a movie, and recognizing when scenes work or don't work: 'Alien 3', and its myriad alternate/extended scenes, which change a lot of the narrative's execution (mostly for the better, in my opinion) without really altering the movie's themes or message. Likewise with, say, the 'Alien' "director's cut", which is actually *shorter* than the theatrical cut, as it truncates some scenes (for better or for worse).
Hell, Ridley Scott has had plenty of his movies get screwed with in the editing room - Blade Runner, Kingdom of Heaven. Even Prometheus, there have been plenty of instances where people said "yeah, this deleted scene would have made this characters' actions make more sense", or "this alternate take is scarier/more interesting/more visually compelling".

Off topic but regarding your specific Phantom Menace example, could you clarify what you mean?, Wouldn't dubbing them in a nonsense language address the alleged racial stereotyping, though? Or are you saying that them "fixing" the Asian stereotype misses the point, and that the Asian stereotype is important and should be in the movie?


IM_DA_DECIDER posted:

I'd argue that Prometheus has the one most realistic depiction of a bunch of poo poo tier PhDs in all of movie history. People who complain about their behaviour haven't spend enough time in academia.
This is an interesting idea, could you elaborate on it? I don't spend a lot of time with poo poo tier PhDs, so the idea that the characters are literally intended to be "unrealistic" (to the layman) inept assholes is interesting.

The_Rob posted:

Isn't one of the major ideas behind Alien and Prometheus to take the genre conventions, and cliche's of old sci fi and horror B Movies and present them in different ways? I feel like that right there should explain some of the sillier stuff of the films. It's not like these movies don't realize when they are being funny. Prometheus is actually really funny,
I never really found 'Alien' funny, but yeah a big part of 'Alien' was taking genre conventions and turning them on their head, for shock value. The male hero/lead character (Dallas) goes out to confront the Alien, ends up getting murdered. The Alien establishes a pattern of picking off lone characters, so when Ripley gets separated from the group, the Alien takes out the other two and leaves her the last character standing.

I didn't really get that vibe with Prometheus, though, aside from perhaps the juxtaposition of 1950s "clean" sci-fi aesthetics (the designs of the space suits, the ship, even smaller things like David's hair) with the gritty and unsettling "reality" of 'Alien'. I vaguely remember seeing someone say in the old Prometheus thread that the movie is a 1950s "optimistic" sci-fi movie where things go horribly, disastrously wrong.

Xenomrph fucked around with this message at 23:12 on Sep 26, 2015

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