stevegordon9

Alien: Covenant is the second part of a planned 3-part prequel to his classic ALIEN planned by master director Ridley Scott. Unfortunately it looks almost certain that Twentieth Century Fox will never allow Scott to make the third prequel despite ALIEN: COVENANT making money. It seems that it didn't make enough money to please the profiteer executives at Fox. This seems endemic to the company as I had a minor experience with the head executive of Fox Australia when I owned a movie poster shop in Melbourne. This CEO brought me a list of all Fox's films that they had posters for and wanted me to tell him which ones were of value. He wanted this all for nothing, offering no payment under the guise that he was going to sell their stock to me. Naturally it was all BS. He just wanted to know which ones were valuable because he had no idea. These are the kind of people that run film studios, the people that Scott has to deal with to this day. They have no idea about film, no idea about it as an art form, and even no idea what is going to be popular. And that is why the third instalment of Scott's brilliant ALIEN prequels will never be made. Unlike Scott, the people who populate film studios are people with no vision, no artistic integrity, and really no knowledge of their medium at all. They would do better to trust directors and just keep an eye on their budgets while they leave them alone to make the films that make money for them. In this second instalment, the Covenant is a ship like Prometheus seeking new worlds to colonise. On board is Walter, a facsimile of the David robot but now updated, a crew of 14, and 2000 colonisers. The Covenant undergoes a solar storm in transit and decides to pull into a nearby planet from which a John Denver signal is emanating. This happens to be the planet of the Space Jockey race from Alien who in Prometheus we discover have actually created humankind. The story goes on from there, and answers to questions raised in PROMETHEUS are provided. Again, we are witness to amazing things in this second prequel and the art direction is once again fabulous and a treat to watch. The tension begins from the moment the landing craft from Covenant arrives on this newly-discovered planet. And it doesn't let up. Another incredible film from Ridley Scott and his brilliant team and crew.

PROMETHEUS was the first of 3 connected prequels planned by Ridley Scott. It is a wondrous and philosophical film in itself as we follow David, a synthetic played by Michael Fassbender, and Weyland, his powerful and human creator, seek the potential creators of humankind, thought to be represented by the mummified space jockey's race in ALIEN. It is important to understand that there are two types of Alien fans. First there are the supporters of Ridley Scott and his originating film ALIEN devised and scripted first by Dan O'Bsnnon (who worked with John Carpenter on the student film DARK STAR, an early vehicle for his idea of an invading alien lifeform). And then there are the supporters of James Cameron's sequel ALIENS. These two groups have been at loggerheads ever since and the difference between the first two films is that Scott is asking questions about our place in the universe through a suspense film while Cameron has made an action film primarily. So when Scott returns to the Alien franchise with PROMETHEUS in 2012, there is much criticism from ALIENS fans that Scott has made a lumbering shallow movie from a multiplicity of scripts. Nothing could be further from the truth, and it must be noted that Scott does not make action films, and all films have many script changes in their making. Those action films like Marvel films are largely the shallow and boring movies. James Cameron is capable of making deeper films too - his ALIENS is still a good picture and continues to promote the Ripley character as heroic as well as the controversy surrounding profiteering by Weyland Industries over ethical behaviour but his AVATAR is one of the most boring films ever made - but Scott always has a deeper subtext going on in every film he does. However, with Scott there is a slower unfolding of the story because he wants the audience to think about the issues raised as they watch and he also wants to build the suspense like a symphony. It is not for nothing that Scott often has shower scenes in his films in a subconscious homage to Hitchcock's PSYCHO. Scott won't have an explosion every 10 minutes like Roger Corman's B movies. He wants to develop the characters and the ideas that form the subtextual meaning of his work. I point out the discrepancy in fan valuations of Scott and Cameron in order to say do not be put off by those that criticise Scott's work, because there is much that is thought-provoking in PROMETHEUS. And it is a film that is meant to set the stage for two following related prequels to ALIEN. The film itself is incredible to watch and though much has to be explained to set up the next films, it is once more a battle between Woman and Man, and Woman and Alien just like the original. But it is also much, much more than this. See it with an open mind, the way all movies should be seen.

Alexandre Philippe has made a wonderful documentary on the origins and mythology behind Alien, the masterpiece directed by Scott, who went on to explore more of his influences in both PROMETHEUS and ALIEN: COVENANT, the prequels to ALIEN. In part, this documentary is also a tribute to the late Dan O'Bannon, the original creator and writer of ALIEN. Anyone who knows anything about O'Bannon knows that he was not given either full recognition or financial compensation by the producing company Twentieth Century Fox. But at least now O'Bannon has been given full recognition, gracefully and lovingly represented by his wife, Diane O'Bannon. This was most pleasing and it was also pleasing to see that O'Bannon's vision for this project was ably and brilliantly supported by Ridley Scott. Together, and assisted by many others like HR Giger and Terry Rawlings, a masterpiece was born. There is much more presented about the origins and development of ALIEN than I have mentioned here but I don't want to spoil it for future viewers because there is much to consider that is truly thought-provoking about Philippe's documentary. One thing I will say is that there has been considerable criticism of the viewpoint expressed in this documentary that ALIEN is a feminist film. Many males have reacted strongly against this but the fact is that ALIEN is really undeniably feminist. If only just based on that Sigourney Weaver is the sole human survivor as Ripley in the film and was the first heroic female ever in a SF film, i don't think it can be disputed that in part ALIEN has a subtext of female guile defeating masculine aggression. However, there is much, much more than just this to focus on in this work. It is truly a great addition to our understanding of the creation of ALIEN.