Re: Ridley Scott talks about his upcoming Alien prequel.
I agree with you 100% about the abuse of CG and the blaming of the poor quality of the
Star Wars prequels on George Lucas.
I'm not saying there's anything wrong with CG, just that many times it is overused as a cop out or compensation for not having more in the way of actual writing (see the 2007 version of
Beowulf -- even Neil Gaiman couldn't save that movie). I also agree that the buildup of a monster is far scarier than showing the monster able to do physics altering feats. I, personally, like the original version of the ice monster on Hoth in the first few scenes of
The Empire Strikes Back, where you hear him growling but do not see him, then only see his face for about three seconds and then just the arm that falls when Luke slashes him with a lightsaber. That scene was far more intense and exciting the original way, but when Lucas revamped the movies, he showed more of the monster, taking away a lot of the suspense that (I think) was crucial to the scene. In an interview Lucas said that he originally wanted us to see the creature, and that the "less is more" idea of suspense and monsters wasn't his original intention.
Sometimes when you're on a low budget and pressed for time and you create a film that becomes an instant cult success for 25 years when you did the thing on the seat of your pants, you should probably listen to the fans and accept the fact that whatever you did was successful, no matter how fast or low budget or without certain elements. The only good thing I saw in the Special Edition releases was that I got to see the
Star Wars trilogy in the theater, which I wouldn't have been able to do otherwise, but because of the changes and the fact that it led to the horrible prequels, I sometimes wish Lucas had just left it alone.
He then did the same thing to
E.T., which I never saw so I can't complain, but at some point you just have to say, give it a rest, old man!
As for
Alien, the first one was all buildup and no delivery (in my opinion), there were some good scenes but overall I was left scratching my head. I liked the second movie a lot, especially the way they dragged Ripley back out to the planet that traumatized her (seriously, would you ever go back if you'd seen that stuff happen to your crew?? I sure as hell wouldn't), and then she feels compassion for the little girl, and that story became, for me, even more intriguing than the first one. The third one wasn't horrible, but it wasn't spectacular, but it was fun to watch, especially to watch Ripley make herself like one of the guys by shaving her head, so as to keep them from seeing her as a woman, which they hadn't seen in years, and also to try to have them accept her. I always liked Ripley's character in that she is vulnerable, yes, but she does whatever it takes to survive, and to help others survive. I hope whatever female character Scott writes for the prequel will be even close to what Ripley was.
I never saw any of the
Alien movies past
Aliens 3, and I haven't seen any of the
Alien vs. Predator movies because I never saw
Predator. I liked what I saw, and decided to leave it at that, because I didn't want to see how they'd get Ripley out of molten lava to be the lead in the next film (which I know they did, but I don't particularly feel the need to see it).
I watched all of the first three
Alien movies in one night, and had dreams about aliens for about a week afterward.
I love sci-fi, not particularly aliens unless it's done in a funny way, but Ridley Scott's aliens were as close to scary aliens as I think I'll ever see. I hope he can repeat that fear in his prequel. That would be awesome.
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