best review yet on imdb
Where do I start with this mess of a movie? An Incoherent, uninspired, lazy piece of work. It unabashedly takes Its cues from every single movie in the Alien franchise. Even down to the opening 20th Century logo mimicking that from Alien 3 with the eerie musical turn before progressing to the opening title sequence of star field and ominous haunting vocals.
Its clear for all to see that they've simply copy and pasted elements and ideas from all previous Alien instalments. It's so obvious throughout this movie, I don't feel the need to list them all here. There's simply too many to note.
But one that should be brought to light is the distasteful recreation of Ash, played by the late Ian Holm. Albeit this android is a different model, only looks the same and goes by a different name. They've attempted to recreate the actors face and performance using deep fake technology but it's desperately bad and what's worse the characters role and purpose is exactly the same as Ash from 'Alien' but lacking in nuance and disturbing performance. The glitchy, poorly rendered CG character parrots the same lines from the first movie in a forced expositional mess. Nearly every other frame of this movie is exposition, explaining events from before with little attempt to create a storyline of Its own.
We end the movie with the hero character Rain, running around with a pulse rifle, wearing those very same Reeboks that Ellen Ripley wore in 'Aliens' before stripping down to her undies and slipping into a space suit, blowing a ghastly new monster into outa space in a pointless attempt at recreating the original ending but with a not so clever plot twist. Shameful.
The original Alien design Itself has been butchered here. Its life cycle has been thrown into overdrive like we saw in Ridley Scotts atrocious Alien Covenant. The Incubation period lasts only 10 mins as apposed to days, reducing any opportunity to explore the story outside of the inevitable arrival of the intergalactic antagonist. And the execution of the beasts are poorly executed, lacking the realism and terrifying beauty of Gigers original designs. Studio Gillis and crew should be ashamed.
The premise of returning to the colony on LV426 is just a pointless plot device here and has no relation whatsoever to James Camerons intriguing and inspired sequel. They've wasted an opportunity to explore the motives behind Wayland Yutanis nefarious agenda to capitalise on the survival and exploitation of these newly discovered 'perfect organisms' and their significance in the larger scheme of things.
Aliens was such a perfect sequel to Ridleys 'Alien' it saddens me to see Camerons story so disrespectfully treated. Instead of exploring that world prior to events in 'Aliens' we're shipped off to yet another haunted house in space setting that resembles and mimics 'Alien'. Where we retread the first movie with the inclusion of Ridley Scotts more recent I. P's like the black goo from Prometheus and the engineer. This time it comes in the form of a dreadful hybrid creature birthed from a pregnant woman. Echoing again 'Prometheus' and of course 'Aliens Resurrection'.
This made for sad viewing. Long gone are the days of inspired storytelling and creative camaraderie. To want to exceed audience expectation and offer something completely fresh and new, whilst respecting and enriching the source material.
The life, soul and craftsmanship of moviemaking has been completely lost on this movie. Compromised by a studios lack of faith in the creative process and desire to want to surprise the moviegoing audience with something fresh and challenging.
And what's most saddening is Ridley Scott is clearly responsible for the creative decisions on display here. With Alvarez, the director, predictably following protocol. Just another yes man lost in a sea of witless studio execs. Long gone are the days were creative talent was bursting at the seams, where directors pushed against the confines of rigid budgets and studio interference to create magic on screen... Oh how the mighty have fallen.
Not only is this a poor Alien movie. This is a poor movie. Possibly one of the worst I've ever seen. With Disneys insistence that all their property must be rehashed and recycled over and over with little to no desire to want to create new and inspired material is deeply depressing. And a scary comparison to the world we live in today where art, movies and music play second fiddle to the forever expanding web of corporate influence and greed.
Wayland Yutani would be proud.