Random Movie Thoughts Thread

[Doctor Cringelord]

Yeah, on repeated viewings it became clear that Part III was actually a smarter movie than it might have seemed on first viewing, in the ways that it spun / contrasted purposefully with elements of the first two. And the Doc/Clara story is really sweet. I think some of the seriousness of the setting also threw people -- like, Marty almost getting literally killed (and brutally) by that version of Biff. But again, another purposeful juxtaposition, and I think they had to get across that the threat was real.

Yeah, I thought the old west setting was hokey when I was a kid, but now it works because it's not TOO outlandish, yet quirky enough to follow the silly future Hill Valley seen in part II. I liked that they upped the stakes, this Tannen doesn't just want to bully people, he's literally a murderer.

Strickland gets a little more fleshing-out here. You see how he is actually in long line of that "type" of individual, a product of his ancestors and serving a useful role even in modern times he might seem a bit over the top and not as useful.

Made me appreciate the character from the first film more. Other than being a bit of a dick to Marty in Part I, he's actually not a bad guy, just a stern dude who appreciates order and rules. And even then, Marty was late and was kinda being a little shit to Strickland.

(I like the touch of having him sneaking a sip of alcohol in his office in part II)

I think my only issues with the whole thing was that Part II tries to be smarter than it is sometimes and gets a little convoluted (especially when revisiting the first film), and the whole "Yellow" thing kind of came out of left field as a contrivance of the plot.

Some thoughts on Part II:

I realized there's a plot hole or maybe more of a logic hole there. Wouldn't Marty and Jennifer have "gone missing" when they traveled forward with Doc? So how are their older selves present in 2015? Although the changes to timelines in the movies seem to ripple out slowly rather than taking instant effect, they just hadn't been missing from 1985 long enough for the effect of "going missing" to have happened to the timeline and reverberated up to 2015. I guess this explanation would fit with the way the changes to photographs gradually. But honestly, I don't think the writers put that much thought into it, and that it was just an oversight.

There's a deleted scene where old Biff returns to 2015 and collapses and vanishes, and if I remember correctly, this is because Lorraine had shot him in the altered timeline at some point after 1985. I kind of wish they'd left that in.

I've seen fun fan theories that Marty may have died more than once in part II, based on the two moments where Doc conveniently knows exactly when to be waiting in the time machine to save him. Wouldn't be that hard for him to travel back a few minutes to save Marty each time--and I doubt he'd tell Marty about his repeated deaths, because that could really mess with someone's head. The DeLorean is almost a deus ex machina device in the second film, and I think putting it out of commission in Part III mirrored the first film nicely--it upped the stakes, knowing they couldn't just zip around in the DeLorean to fix every problem. Once again Doc and Marty had to really put their heads together to figure out how to get back. And of course the whole fish-out-of-water element also mirrored part 1 nicely. On the other hand, I enjoyed in Part II actually seeing the Time Machine used more than once for its intended purpose. The Mr. Fusion add-on was a convenient addition.

The Flea subplot is kind of crammed into the second two films. I also never liked the recast of Elisabeth Shue as Jennifer; I really like Shue in some films (Leaving Las Vegas, The Boys TV series, etc.) but she just is kind of Meh here. Not that the films spent much time on her.

I much preferred the first actress as well. Nothing against Shue. It is a bit messed up how they conveniently found ways to minimize her role in the sequels, even though the first movie made a big deal out of Marty and her both going with Doc at the end. Like maybe Gale and Zemeckis realized they weren't sure what to do with her, so they just found ways to have her keep fainting, being left sleeping on a random porch, etc. It's a bit of a disservice to both the character and actress, but I understand why they did it.

I never really understood the sudden change in Marty's personality in II and III.

But the Biff future is pretty chilling even on rewatch and I guess actually does match with the Western version of Biff pretty well, less of a joke and more deadly.

He's a truly evil guy who happens to come off as a dopey bully. Thinking about it now, young Biff is just as terrifying in the part where he is trying to rape Lorraine in the car. I always forget about that, and when I was a kid I don't think I quite understood the gravity or severity of that situation. Not to mention trying to run down Marty in a car in part II. I do think it's kind of fucked that Lorraine and George would hire this same guy to do their car detailing, versus keeping him as far away from their lives as possible.

 

[Totenkindly]

Made me appreciate the character from the first film more. Other than being a bit of a dick to Marty in Part I, he's actually not a bad guy, just a stern dude who appreciates order and rules. And even then, Marty was late and was kinda being a little shit to Strickland.

(I like the touch of having him sneaking a sip of alcohol in his office in part II)

I liked that part too. It's like once he steps out of his "role" he's actually just a person. But heaven forbid if you challenge him when he's representing the establishment.

James Tolkan did a great job at making the character stand out with very little back story.

I realized there's a plot hole or maybe more of a logic hole there. Wouldn't Marty and Jennifer have "gone missing" when they traveled forward with Doc? So how are their older selves present in 2015? Although the changes to timelines in the movies seem to ripple out slowly rather than taking instant effect, they just hadn't been missing from 1985 long enough for the effect of "going missing" to have happened to the timeline and reverberated up to 2015. I guess this explanation would fit with the way the changes to photographs gradually. But honestly, I don't think the writers put that much thought into it, and that it was just an oversight.

Not sure, and I always thought the photo was cheesy -- I understood it to be a writing convenience to fabricate tension / easily convey the concept of being eradicated for messing with the timeline, but it was my least favorite part of the first film.

There's a deleted scene where old Biff returns to 2015 and collapses and vanishes, and if I remember correctly, this is because Lorraine had shot him in the altered timeline at some point after 1985. I kind of wish they'd left that in.

I don't know if i saw it. I know he had his heart attack and died, breaking off his cane head in the car, in the released film.

That would be good to know... just for Lorraine's sake.

I've seen fun fan theories that Marty may have died more than once in part II, based on the two moments where Doc conveniently knows exactly when to be waiting in the time machine to save him. Wouldn't be that hard for him to travel back a few minutes to save Marty each time--and I doubt he'd tell Marty about his repeated deaths, because that could really mess with someone's head.

I never ever thought of that. I mean, I think he arranged with Doc Brown ahead of time, knowing the stakes and that he was going into the lion's den... but it's kind of a cool thought and one of those "off-canon" ideas that actually makes the story more interesting.

The DeLorean is almost a deus ex machina device in the second film, and I think putting it out of commission in Part III mirrored the first film nicely--it upped the stakes, knowing they couldn't just zip around in the DeLorean to fix every problem. Once again Doc and Marty had to really put their heads together to figure out how to get back. And of course the whole fish-out-of-water element also mirrored part 1 nicely. On the other hand, I enjoyed in Part II actually seeing the Time Machine used more than once for its intended purpose. The Mr. Fusion add-on was a convenient addition.

It's kind of like they tossed in Mr. Fusion as a lark, then had to deal with in Part 2, and decided to remove it in Part 3 since it made the story too easy. It's like the invention of cell phones and now everyone has them; there are certain movie plots that depended on people not having portable ways to contact each other, and so modern-set stories can't take advantage of that lack of communication, so sometimes people will choose to set their stories in pre-cell days.

I much preferred the first actress as well.

I thought she was great. (Claudia Wells.) She left the series because her mom got ill, and later ended up opening a clothing stores. I saw an interview once with her on TV.

Nothing against Shue. It is a bit messed up how they conveniently found ways to minimize her role in the sequels, even though the first movie made a big deal out of Marty and her both going with Doc at the end. Like maybe Gale and Zemeckis realized they weren't sure what to do with her, so they just found ways to have her keep fainting, being left sleeping on a random porch, etc. It's a bit of a disservice to both the character and actress, but I understand why they did it.

Yes, she had no real part to play in the plot, but yeah... it was embarrassing to typically just be dumping her somewhere to simplify the story. They had a lot of trouble not incorporating her after the end of the first film, unfortunately (she could have just gone home otherwise), but as soon as they came back from the future, they ditched her on that porch and that was that.

I never really understood the sudden change in Marty's personality in II and III.

Basically it was a stand-alone film with a funny hook to undetermined adventures... but they hadn't written parts 2 and 3 yet. I think Parts 2 and 3 were filmed back to back and were written together, which is why they mesh better.

He's a truly evil guy who happens to come off as a dopey bully. Thinking about it now, young Biff is just as terrifying in the part where he is trying to rape Lorraine in the car. I always forget about that, and when I was a kid I don't think I quite understood the gravity or severity of that situation. Not to mention trying to run down Marty in a car in part II. I do think it's kind of fucked that Lorraine and George would hire this same guy to do their car detailing, versus keeping him as far away from their lives as possible.

Good point with the Bold, and I think why hinges in part based on what you have said. Much of the time Biff actually seems dopey and insecure, and he runs around with his gang and acts like a king because he's trying to cultivate that image for himself -- of feeling important, in charge, successful, better than others. The joke of course is that we see him as a pompous loser, and that's why the running joke with the manure is so successful.

His scene with Lorraine is very personal and isolated. There is no one else there to "impress." He's not trying to look cool. This is who Biff is, when he's not trying to impress anyone. He could do anything. What he chooses to do is repugnant and cruel.

Having biff as the car waxer I think was just a joke, about how the guy who thought he lorded it over everyone in high school is now the servant loser. Plus, they're not intimidated by him at all anymore. But yeah, I'd probably not have anything to do with him either.

 

[Doctor Cringelord]

Not sure, and I always thought the photo was cheesy -- I understood it to be a writing convenience to fabricate tension / easily convey the concept of being eradicated for messing with the timeline, but it was my least favorite part of the first film.

Though I did like the effect that his older siblings disappear first. It does add to the theory that changes butterfly out "slowly" through time. Marty being the youngest sibling feels the effects last.

His scene with Lorraine is very personal and isolated. There is no one else there to "impress." He's not trying to look cool. This is who Biff is, when he's not trying to impress anyone. He could do anything. What he chooses to do is repugnant and cruel.

good character analysis.

And also good acting from Crispin Glover in that scene. It's funny that the other characters arc a lot more than Marty, whose arc is comparatively static and uninteresting. He does seem to develop a touch more confidence in the sequels (with the sudden annoyance at being called chicken or yellow) but otherwise, his character doesn't seem to learn all that much, except to stand up for himself a bit more by the end of III. Doc has an arc. George has an arc. Lorraine sort of has an arc though she still mostly serves the role of the trophy-for-male-protagonist trope more than anything else.

 

[Tomb1]

Unforgiven. Masterpiece.

 

[Julius_Van_Der_Beak]

So who else likes Carnival of Souls? Somehow the low-budget nature of it adds to the creepiness.

The director also directed the Cheating short shown before the Wild World of Batwoman on MST3k. You can sort of sense the hand of someone in that who wants to try their hand at something else besides dopey moral hygiene movies.

 

[Doctor Cringelord]

So who else likes Carnival of Souls? Somehow the low-budget nature of it adds to the creepiness.

The director also directed the Cheating short shown before the Wild World of Batwoman on MST3k. You can sort of sense the hand of someone in that who wants to try their hand at something else besides dopey moral hygiene movies.

I love it. I like the look, the score, the way she’s so isolated from everyone. I think it’s an almost great film. It’s better than many b movies of the era yet not quite on a level with Hitchcock. I like the mesmerizing, dreamlike quality to the parts when no one can see or hear her

 

[Totenkindly]

Finally watched "Nomadland" on Hulu. Yeah, I agree with the consensus -- it's one of the best films I've seen from 2020.

I haven't yet seen "Minari" but I wouldn't be shocked if it won best picture Oscar especially after Parasite pulled off the Oscar the prior year, although I guess "Minari" also has an in that way. Nomadland has already pulled in a Golden Globe and a Golden Lion, though, and Chloe Zhou is running a hot streak too. It deals with the rubbertrampers, although it's tied pretty closely to economic downswing and people losing jobs / having to pick up seasonal jobs at various locations anywhere from Amazon to local visitor centers to stay afloat and living portably.

I have trouble thinking of any bad Frances McDormand performance, and she's just well-suited for this one. Maybe less quirk than some of her roles, but a strong independent woman whose husband has died and whose job is gone, trying to make her way in the world now. She always carries so much in her face and voice, and she's fearless.

Zhou is really great at establishing mood and also building personal shots / getting an almost documentary feel on-screen. (In some ways, it is; pretty much the entire cast is named after the actors playing them, and three are apparently well known in the rubbertramp community.) She also really shapes the story to film. For example, we know in the first minute or two of the film that Fern is a widow because she is finishing packing things into a temp-storage garage and simply picks up a larger men's flannel coat and buries her face in it, eyes closed, as if saying goodbye; film is not book, and you can tell a story in film without having to say a word. (Later we find out more about Bo...)

Throughout the film, despite the difficulties in making this kind of life work, we realize Fern also loves the freedom involved. She is given opportunities to settle down with others, but for a long time it is not really clear whether she is transient because it's hard for her to move on from her past or because she's (in essence) a sailor in love with the sea.

There's some really great piano and string scoring (I think adapted) for this film, by Ludovico Einaudi from his ongoing work. Also David Strathairn is present a great deal (the other prominent actor), he's been such a great character actor for so long.

 

[Julius_Van_Der_Beak]

I love it. I like the look, the score, the way she’s so isolated from everyone. I think it’s an almost great film. It’s better than many b movies of the era yet not quite on a level with Hitchcock. I like the mesmerizing, dreamlike quality to the parts when no one can see or hear her

Yeah, it's surprisingly absorbing and effective.

 

[Doctor Cringelord]

I'm suddenly very fascinated by the lore and mythology of kaiju and the Godzilla monsterverse. I like that it feels like old Norse, Greek and Hindu religion.

 

[Totenkindly]

‘Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings’ Pushes Back Release Date as Part of Massive Disney Shuffle

Looks like BLack Widow is finally opening in July (until it's moved again ha-ha); actually they are planning to Premium release it on Disney+ so I assume it is sticking with the July date.

I have mixed feelings about Disney+ mainly due to pricing. It's a deal for a families of 3-4 and larger that might go see a film together. It's a ripoff for 1-2 people who have Disney+ but don't have kids. Yeah, thanks -- like I'm going to pay $20-30 for what amounts to a single ticket for an opening film, so I still have to dare a theater for a $10 price or wait 3-4 months for it to show up on non-premium streaming.

(ACtually, that might just be a 45-day window now for some film companies, depending on the deals they set up with theaters.)

COVID definitely is forcing the studio/cinema industry to revamp its practices.

 

[Totenkindly]

Houston Tumlin, ‘Talladega Nights’ Child Actor, Dies at 28

...In his only role as an actor, Tumlin played Walker Bobby, the 10-year-old son of Will Ferrell’s main character Ricky Bobby. Tumlin was part of a star-studded cast that included Ferrell, John C. Reilly, Sacha Baron Cohen, Jane Lynch, Andy Richter, Molly Shannon and Amy Adams.

Tumlin died by suicide on Tuesday inside his home in Pelham, Ala., according to reports. His girlfriend, Charity Robertson, confirmed his death in a Facebook post.

“I’ll miss your big heart, caring spirit, infectious laughter, and oh man could the list go on,” she wrote. “I love you so much Houston Lee and thank you for loving me so passionately and unapologetically for the time we had each other.”

On Feb. 18, Tumlin posted a photo on Instagram of himself and Grayson Crussell, who played little brother Texas Ranger Bobby, at the 2006 premiere of “Talladega Nights.” As the irreverent brothers, the pair bounced off of Ferrell’s outlandish humor, best displayed by the movie’s family dinner scene. Mirroring his dad’s vernacular, Walker compliments, “Dad, you made that grace your bitch...”

 

[Totenkindly]

Disney's Black Widow decision is a blow to the theater industry — Quartz

Big-budget movie release schedule: first half of 2021
As of March 24; subject to change

Release....Film.....................Studio..............How to watch
March 31...Godzilla vs. Kong....Warner Bros......Theaters, HBO Max simultaneously
April 16.....Mortal Kombat........Warner Bros......Theaters, HBO Max simultaneously
May 28......A Quiet Place II.......Paramount.......Theaters, Paramount+ 45 days later
May 28......Cruella...................Disney.............Theaters, Disney+ ($30 fee) simultaneously
June 11......In the Heights.......Warner Bros......Theaters, HBO Max simultaneously
June 18.....Luca.....................Disney...............Disney+
June 25.....F9........................Universal...........Theaters
July 2........Top Gun: Maverick..Paramount.........Theaters, Paramount+ 45 days later
July 9........Black Widow...........Disney..............Theaters, Disney+ ($30 fee) simultaneously

 

[Doctor Cringelord]

I love godzilla and kong but I think I'll always side with Kong. This is a hard call for me. Kong is just a super intelligent, misunderstood primate who ultimately is an introvert and wants to be left alone on his island. He just gets dragged into shit by outside forces. In many ways he is very similar to Godzilla in temperament, but I have to side with the ape.

 

[Julius_Van_Der_Beak]

Yeah, I’m hoping they realize a greater threat and come to an understanding.

I once started off my OKCupid profile with a post hoping that the vampires and lycans in the Underworld franchise would come to an understanding (I did this, mind you, without having seen a single one of those movies). I peppered this with a reference to John Lennon's "Imagine". I eventually decided that this was too esoteric of a joke, so I removed it.

 

[Doctor Cringelord]

FLESH IS A NICE COLOR FOR A HOUSE.

 

[Totenkindly]

I'm more of a werewolf guy than a vampire guy. I think it's because they're hairy like me and my roommate. I've never read or watched Twilight but I'd say I'm probably Team Jacob just because he's the werewolf.

War's on!

not fond of twilight, but I know I'm a vampire. (And in high fantasy, I'm typically some kind of high elf if I had to pick kinship. Sigh. I thought "Bright" was hilarious....but sadly I'd still be an elf, not an orc.)



My first CoD character was a vampire (celerity / persuade).
Never cared to play a were character, EXCEPT maybe a werespider.

My current character is a Deviant -- specifically, an "occult cyborg" if I had to generalize her. But I modeled her on a Pathfinder build I had made some years back, who would have been a Dhampir Inquisitor. So same diff.

Now I gotta decide whether I am watching Underworld tonight, or Sunshine, or the 4K I just got of "Dredd".

 

[Julius_Van_Der_Beak]

War's on!

not fond of twilight, but I know I'm a vampire. (And in high fantasy, I'm typically some kind of high elf if I had to pick kinship. Sigh. I thought "Bright" was hilarious....but sadly I'd still be an elf, not an orc.)

I'd maybe do a druid or something. Some kind of mage at the very least.

My first CoD character was a vampire (celerity / persuade).
Never cared to play a were character, EXCEPT maybe a werespider.

My current character is a Deviant -- specifically, an "occult cyborg" if I had to generalize her. But I modeled her on a Pathfinder build I had made some years back, who would have been a Dhampir Inquisitor. So same diff.

Is an occult cyborg created with magic or technology? It reminds me of how the robot in metropolis seems to have been partially created with the aid of the occult.

Now I gotta decide whether I am watching Underworld tonight, or Sunshine, or the 4K I just got of "Dredd".

Do you like the Underworld movies? (I'm assuming someone must if there's four of them, haha)

 

[Totenkindly]

Okay. With the Alien series going off HBO Max in a few days, I broke down and watched Alien Resurrection. I think what I watched was the regular theatrical cut, especially as I could have sworn what I started to watch before had some stupid "bug in a wiper" scene in the opening credits but that did not appear there.

I made it through. My opinion is that it doesn't really feel like part of the Alien franchise; instead, it feels more like a "one-off" or some kind of satirical parody. I'd place it in the same category as the two AVP films, essentially. If this were a comic book, basically it would be a one-off graphic novel riffing on the actual Alien franchise. ("What if Ripley were... well, you know? And hey, what if we had fun just doing all the shit that no one ever could do in an Alien film, because the tone is all wrong?") My impression of Weaver's performance is that she mostly agreed to do this just to have some fun.

There's not much characterization at all here, although Weaver and Ryder try despite the flimsy script. This is another patented "asshole douchebag" part by Ron Perlman, which he perfected after this. It's also got Whedon crap (he scripted this) that was progressive for the time but nowadays is getting him in trouble. That was one huge mismatch, btw, as far as tone goes. They used a Whedon script. They also hired Jeunet to direct; don't get me wrong, I have really liked Jeunet's films (Delicatessen, The City of Lost Children, and I still need to see Amelie), but tone-wise this is a huge miss from the franchise. Cameron was able to preserve tone despite pulling Aliens into more of an action film, but this film is so off the franchise feel. Too silly, too quirky, it's more spoofing / playing fun at the Alien franchise, another reason it has been mostly forgotten.

In any case, I found the film more enjoyable when I viewed it through a goofier lens and just at how it was spoofing the Alien franchise, calling back old sequences (like Ripley in the lab with her clones, compared to Ripley discovering Dallas in the extended Alien cut), or just going for all out body horror with the alien/human hybrid late in the film. Even the ending sequence was silly body horror; like, I can't take it seriously, but I can laugh at how extreme the emotions are pitched and contrived the circumstance is. There are also some things that I could totally see in a one-off graphic novel that don't fit in how they were filmed with the Aliens franchise in general.

Like, although it filmed in a rather quirky way, I was laughing at the aliens coming up with the obvious way to escape the cage: Sacrifice one of their own to bleed through the metal and make a large hole. Human beings are so dumb sometimes. It's such an obvious escape, but humans typically aren't willing to do that kind of thing. Well, you're dealing with a hive.

Alien queen gets preggers and swells up like a balloon, and gives birth with cries of pain and joy. OMFG.

Ripley eats a hole in the glass to once again suck an alien into space. But this time it's a human alien hybrid, and it's got human eyes, and it had imprinted on her as its mother, and ... now she watches its guts sucked out into space and deflate from explosive decompression. It's horrific, silly, over the top, and ridiculous. But it fits perfectly with the tone of the film.

Ripley floating on her back in a sensual/sexualized sea of squirming aliens. And then cuddling with the Queen I think. Hilarious, awkward, squirmy, but... again, somehow appropriate.

Also, the paraplegic character is ironic nowadays because with the last month of WOTC releases for D&D game, there's a huge stink in the fan base about whether wheelchair-based gaming (i.e., CHARACTERS in wheelchairs or on crutches) is appropriate. Basically it's the irrational inclusives versus the total a-holes in the fan base, tearing at each other. Realistically, in a world of magic, you'd just heal and/or provide magical means for paraplegics to get around, rather than having characters in wheelchairs, which is why no one has bothered with it. Bad guys are also not going to design their abodes / dungeons to be disabled friendly, if the whole point is to keep people out. And so on. But now there's all these people arguing online about it, based on some recent releases by WOTC. [My own stance is: Do whatever your individual gaming group wants to do, as part of their campaign. The game is flexible enough to include whatever play style you want. But there is no "objective" resolution about it per se.]

 

[Totenkindly]

Okay, and to top things off -- yes, I chose to watch the Extended Edition of Alien 3 (which is around 143 minutes, 30 minutes more than the theatrical cut?) Even though Fincher did not return to deliver the cut, it is all based on footage that the studio excised from his assembly after he left the project.

My past big-picture comments still stand, it is a terrible "continuing story" movie because it spits on the characters and themes from prior films. It is also derived from an impossible series of events: There is no real way that alien Egg(s) could have gotten onto the ship based on the sequences from Aliens, and even if you ignore a few things, they would not have been located where the film clips show the egg to be located. So the movie starts out right away feeling like a cheat.

(Note, this isn't Fincher's fault. he was a first-time director brought into the film later in production, he did not write or produce the film, and he was fighting with the producers camp every step of the way. The film was notorious for the production issues and an insane amount of plot rewrites, scraps, then more rewriting; and during production the crew would often discover sequences they had recently filmed had now been cut from the movie. Actors weren't even sure they their characters were going to die and often went through 4-5 iterations until it was finally solidified in the finished film. They also were forced to jam the story into sets that had already been constructed, in many respects, and Fincher had to fight about any additions or changes. The poor guy almost needed four years to put on Se7en, which really established him as a director, after this crazy beginning.)

All that being said, if you set all that aside and just look at the footage:

- The film harkens back to the original Alien film, trying to depend on moodiness and suspense. I would say it succeeds on the former, as the sets and the lighting are pretty great. The suspense is kind of predictable.

- Some of the acting is superb. Weaver, obviously. Dutton is decent. Brown is solid though understated. McGann does a decent job with crazy. I think my favorite performance though is Dance as Clemens, the doctor, and it's hugely ironic that 20 years after the film came out (2010-2011), the general populace had stopped really talking about Dutton (who was big in a comedy at the time of Alien3, I think?) but they couldn't stop talking about Charles Dance, as Tywin Lannister, and that role has stuck him on the map for all time. In any case, he is the best written and best acted character of the film, and probably the most likable, so where his plot arc leads actually has a heavy impact on the viewer. Dance is just great. he is trusting without being stupid, considerate without being a roll-over, helpful while still having needs of his own, and so own. I like Clemens a lot.

- The film is uneven, in part because of the damn fighting over the storyline and the constant shoots, reshoots, rewrites, etc. Emotionally it is hard to pull all these scenes together because they were never understood as a whole, although I guess it is admirable that they tried. One thing they did get right in terms of an ongoing timeline was Ripley's continually weakening state.

- I thought they managed to walk a decent line between showing too much and not showing enough. The child autopsy early in the film is one of those things. I had read the original autopsy was far too graphic and test audience members were walking out. they wisely settled on more of a "sound" progress rather than "sight", and mostly focused on zooms and full-on shots of the surgical tools before and after. The sound effects were enough, let me tell you. But in general I felt it walked a decent line. The emergence of the alien/dragon was covered in more detail and nicely juxtaposed with the eulogy sequence (I think), which is one of the few cool artistic sequences of the film, drama-wise.

- Aside from the obvious shortcomings generated by a trouble production where even the plot was being battled over regularly, one thing the film could have used was more of a descent into the surreal and viewing everything more through the lens of the cult the prisoners were following. The alien was being viewed as a baby of satan and in apocalyptic terms, so why not veer much more in that direction. They should have really played up the surreal view of the alien more as a dragon (through the waves of heat) and really dived into surreal versus literal. I wish Fincher would have had control over this production from the start (because I know he can do it) or Brian Fuller (after seeing his TV show Hannibal) -- that's the kind of thing I'm talking about. In any case, it would have made the film its own unique entry into the canon and greatly improved the film. YOu could have also had Ripley seeing religious iconography because in essence her soul is in mortal balance in this film, as she is struggling over what to do. There's even the last minute attempt to seduce her because she wants the cup taken from her but she knows what that means.

Anyway.

Ultimately, the meat of the film (Extended Edition) itself places the film squarely in third place in the first series. How it chalks up compared to Prometheus and Covenant depends on one's inclinations, I guess.

 

[Doctor Cringelord]

I wish I had Jeremy Irons’ voice