Welcome to Franchise Fast Forward a new feature here at the Schurmann Film Blog in which I run thru an entire franchise in quick succession. Look for these periodically whenever I feel like it (as with any and all features and posts here). Up first, to celebrate the release of Alien: Covenant, the Alien franchise. Before you read this and then complain about the lack of the Alien vs. Predator movies let me remind you that a) they suck and b) I'm not gettinior this. So if you really want my thoughts on those terrible movies I'm open to negotiations.
Alien
Director - Ridley Scott
Writers - Dan O'Bannon and Ronald Shusett
Starring - Sigourney Weaver, Harry Dean Stanton, Tom Skerritt, Ian Holm, Yaphet Kotto, Veronica Cartwright, John Hurt
Is Alien the greatest thriller of all time? Quite possibly, yes. I can't think of anything off the top of my head that approaches the masterful build and release of horrific tension aboard the Nostromo. Just perfect writing from O'Bannon and Shusett and perfect execution from Scott. The great acting and special effects help a lot of course.
This film is a perfect exercise in the introduction of a cast in the horror genre. From the captain Dallas (Skerrit) to the navigator Lambert (Cartwright) to the engineers (Stanton, Kotto) and of course, to warrant officer Ripley (Weaver) the characters are grafted into their respective archetypes in such a defining way that they stand out as representative of their roles in the entire medium of film.
Alien is such a perfectly paced film, taking the necessary time to develop the characters and then letting them investigate the distress signal before starting to unleash the horror with the facehugger. It is absolutely incredible just how well all the scares and surprises work even when they have essentially all been absorbed into popular culture. Everybody knows an alien is going to burst out of John Hurt's chest when he collapses on the table but it is still a successful moment in creating a shock in the audience.
In case you couldn't tell from how many times I use the word "perfect" in the above paragraphs I really, really love this movie. In fact I would love to just ignore the rest of the franchise and just talk about this one, not that the rest are bad, but just I love this one so much. Alien is Ridley Scott's masterpiece.
Schurmann Score - 10/10
Aliens
Director - James Cameron
Writers - James Cameron, David Giler and Walter Hill
Starring - Sigourney Weaver, Michael Biehn, Lance Henriksen, Bill Paxton, Jenette Goldstein, Carrie Henn
Aliens is the big, dumb war movie version of Alien. James Cameron crafts a good science fiction action movie out of the horror premise of the first film but what he gains in fun and "awesomeness" he loses in tension, thrills and brains. Ripley again finds herself on a ship heading to the Alien Planet with a ragtag group (well as ragtag as marines get) who gradually all get killed while she survives. It even lifts the final twist from the first one forcing Ripley into one final fight just as she thinks she has gained freedom.
Now, obviously that is a very reductive paragraph and there are some massive difference between the films such as further explorations into Ripley's character and the sheer number of aliens. In case the pluralization of the title didn't clue you in, there is more than one alien in this film.
Ok Kyle, stop being so dismissive of this movie. It's good. Maybe even great. It contains Sigourney Weaver's best performance in this series. The dynamic between Ripley and Newt (Henn) is phenomenal especially as it deepens Ripley's character and set the stage for the climactic showdown against the alien queen which plays as gangbusters on a character and thematic level.
That climax though is pretty stupid in terms of execution though. It is my belief that the loader is the stupidest thing from movie history to become iconic. It's awkward, clunky and just doesn't provide any excitement.
Kyle, stop. You're making this movie sound bad again and you're not even talking about Paul Reiser's Carter who takes the corporate shell mantle from Ian Holm and just butchers it. Sure, the android being "good" this time around is a nice twist but Carter is just such a poorly thought up character who really has no business being here.
I'm going to stop trashing small elements of Aliens now. It is a largely successful sequel that does feature some great action and greatly expands the Ripley character. It just pales in comparison to the classic original and at least it tries to do something different instead of playing it safe and just copying literally everything from the first.
Schurmann Score - 7/10
Alien 3
Director - David Fincher
Writers - David Giler, Walter Hill, Larry Ferguson, Vincent Ward
Starring - Sigourney Weaver, Charles S Dutton, Charles Dance, Paul McGann, Danny Webb, Brian Glover
A quick note before I get into this; I watched the Assembly Cut of Alien 3 for this piece. It is apparently better than the theatrical cut.
Alien 3 continues to change the basics of the Alien formula up while ensuring the fundamentals are kept in tact. Here we find Ripley crash landing into an all-male prison facility after an alien attacks inside her ship impregnating her with a new queen. This casts Ripley quite literally as an outsider, her being the only female cast member, continuing the dumbing down trend started with the previous movie.
This movie also gives Ripley something she hasn't had before (and won't have again) in a love interest, the prison doctor Jonathan (Dance). It does provide a new direction for Ripley to go but we know that this is an Alien movie and expect anybody not played by Sigourney Weaver to die horrifically at some point so when Jonathan does die we are more surprised by how early in the movie it occurs than by the actual death itself. Not exactly the ideal reaction when killing off the main character's love interest.
The rest of the prison is mildly interesting as an uneasy peace exists between Dillon (Dutton) and the rest of his religious sect and the warden (Glover) and his staff before Ripley shows up and disrupts the entire operation. Dutton is fantastic as a religious leader convict but the entire drama again falls apart because we know that aliens will soon start killing everybody forcing the tension away from prisoner-jailer towards human-alien.
Alien 3 also saw the effects team discover CGI and it looks awful. The practical effects are still present at times but Fincher largely decides to go with the computer graphics and 25 years later they look like complete garbage ruining any potential horror from the aliens. Fincher is largely anonymous here, it is his first feature film and it is a big budget studio blockbuster. and he does a marginal job for the most part. He does excel at the finale though which is worth sitting through the rest of the film to get to. Ripley's final confrontation with the alien queen inside her is a great way to end her saga (well, temporarily at least).
This movie also gives Ripley something she hasn't had before (and won't have again) in a love interest, the prison doctor Jonathan (Dance). It does provide a new direction for Ripley to go but we know that this is an Alien movie and expect anybody not played by Sigourney Weaver to die horrifically at some point so when Jonathan does die we are more surprised by how early in the movie it occurs than by the actual death itself. Not exactly the ideal reaction when killing off the main character's love interest.
The rest of the prison is mildly interesting as an uneasy peace exists between Dillon (Dutton) and the rest of his religious sect and the warden (Glover) and his staff before Ripley shows up and disrupts the entire operation. Dutton is fantastic as a religious leader convict but the entire drama again falls apart because we know that aliens will soon start killing everybody forcing the tension away from prisoner-jailer towards human-alien.
Alien 3 also saw the effects team discover CGI and it looks awful. The practical effects are still present at times but Fincher largely decides to go with the computer graphics and 25 years later they look like complete garbage ruining any potential horror from the aliens. Fincher is largely anonymous here, it is his first feature film and it is a big budget studio blockbuster. and he does a marginal job for the most part. He does excel at the finale though which is worth sitting through the rest of the film to get to. Ripley's final confrontation with the alien queen inside her is a great way to end her saga (well, temporarily at least).
Schurmann Score - 6/10
Alien: Resurrection
Director - Jean-Pierre Jeunet
Writer - Joss Whedon
Starring - Sigourney Weaver, Winona Ryder, Ron Perlman, Dan Hedaya, Raymond Cruz, Dominique Pinon
By reputation Alien: Resurrection is the film so bad and so unloved that it forced the alien franchise to merge with the predator one to create even worse. In reality it is the crazypants insane member of the alien family that is actually quite lovable. Jeunet takes the franchise in the bold new direction of crazytown bringing in such elements as a cloned version of Ripley who has alien queen DNA in her, a government working to breed aliens, an android version of Winona Ryder hanging out with a ragtag group of scoundrels, a room full of failed Ripley clones, and an alien queen giving birth to an alien-human hybrid of sorts that believes Ripley is it's mother. Like I said, this movie is a little bit crazy.
Written by Joss Whedon this movie at times feels like a dry run for Firefly. It's really only largely missing the necessary level of wit to pull off the quippy banter present here. Also hurting the banter is a cast the largely doesn't quite know what to do with it. Enter Ron Perlman to salvage what he can as the charismatic jokester, Johner. Sigourney Weaver and Winona Ryder also deliver good performances though their's are largely aside from the quippy nature of the mercenaries and instead more focused and mature in nature as two women who know their circumstances.
Resurrection might be the best looking film in the franchise. Darius Khondji brings his A-game as cinematographer fills every shot with a sense of uneasy warmth building towards the final destination of a ravaged Earth. Largely gone are the terrible CGI-aliens from Alien 3 replaced with the classic practical effects that are the bread and butter of the franchise.
Not everything works in this movie, in fact a decent amount of it doesn't such as the impromptu basketball game (because this was made in 97 and Michael Jordan was cool enough to make his own movie with the Looney Tunes there was a contractually obligated basketball scene). Jeunet fully commits to the insanity of the script bringing the necessary manic energy to the proceedings and it results in an entertaining thrill ride that is my second favourite Alien movie.
Written by Joss Whedon this movie at times feels like a dry run for Firefly. It's really only largely missing the necessary level of wit to pull off the quippy banter present here. Also hurting the banter is a cast the largely doesn't quite know what to do with it. Enter Ron Perlman to salvage what he can as the charismatic jokester, Johner. Sigourney Weaver and Winona Ryder also deliver good performances though their's are largely aside from the quippy nature of the mercenaries and instead more focused and mature in nature as two women who know their circumstances.
Resurrection might be the best looking film in the franchise. Darius Khondji brings his A-game as cinematographer fills every shot with a sense of uneasy warmth building towards the final destination of a ravaged Earth. Largely gone are the terrible CGI-aliens from Alien 3 replaced with the classic practical effects that are the bread and butter of the franchise.
Not everything works in this movie, in fact a decent amount of it doesn't such as the impromptu basketball game (because this was made in 97 and Michael Jordan was cool enough to make his own movie with the Looney Tunes there was a contractually obligated basketball scene). Jeunet fully commits to the insanity of the script bringing the necessary manic energy to the proceedings and it results in an entertaining thrill ride that is my second favourite Alien movie.
Schurmann Score - 7/10
Prometheus
Director - Ridley Scott
Writers - Damon Lindeloff and John Spaihts
Starring - Noomi Rapace, Michael Fassbender, Charlize Theron, Idris Elba, Logan Marshall-Green, Guy Pearce
Prometheus is also a crazy movie but in an incredibly frustrating way unlike Resurrection's gleefully entertaining insanity. Prometheus has grand ideas but is ruined by very poor character writing, especially in actions the characters take throughout the film. It attempts to tackle ideas as grand as humanity's relationship with our creators and our place in the universe. It also features a biologist who attempts to pet a random snake encountered on an alien planet before doing any sort of investigation into the potential danger of such an action.
Damon Lindelof has attempted big ideas on television with Lost and The Leftovers but seems to lose himself when restricted to 2 hours. For every instance of Prometheus attempting to answer it's big questions it features about five instances of terrible, boneheaded character writing. To make matters worse it doesn't even get close to answering those big questions (though this may be completely intentional as this is the first film in a planned prequel trilogy). It mostly just brings them up. There is a certain amount of bravado in doing so though, especially as a $100 million science fiction franchise blockbuster. These kinds of movies usually don't try and do anything more than entertain it's audience and set up a sequel. Prometheus has to be admired on some level for its ambitions.
The duality of Prometheus' nature isn't limited to its script though, it is also reflected in its cast. Michael Fassbender's Peter O'Toole inspired android, David, is potentially the most interesting non-Ripley character in the entire series and the best parts of the movie are him just doing things by himself. Fassbender brings the same level of craft as he does in his awards nominated performances such as Shame, 12 Years a Slave or Steve Jobs. The other side of the coin is Noomi Rapace who performance can only be described as ugh. Yes, ugh. Also present it the questionable decision of casting Guy Pearce as an 80 year old man and a largely forgettable crew outside of the big names of Charlize Theron and Idris Elba.
Ridley Scott's direction is strong bringing an equal sense of wonder and horror to the explorations of the alien planet and engineer's ship. He is just saddled with a frustratingly bipolar script and cast that completely weighs the movie down. The ambitious nature of Prometheus is easy to admire and certainly earns it points in it's favor but not enough to outweigh Charlize Theron dying because she in incapable to movie 2 feet to her left or right.
Damon Lindelof has attempted big ideas on television with Lost and The Leftovers but seems to lose himself when restricted to 2 hours. For every instance of Prometheus attempting to answer it's big questions it features about five instances of terrible, boneheaded character writing. To make matters worse it doesn't even get close to answering those big questions (though this may be completely intentional as this is the first film in a planned prequel trilogy). It mostly just brings them up. There is a certain amount of bravado in doing so though, especially as a $100 million science fiction franchise blockbuster. These kinds of movies usually don't try and do anything more than entertain it's audience and set up a sequel. Prometheus has to be admired on some level for its ambitions.
The duality of Prometheus' nature isn't limited to its script though, it is also reflected in its cast. Michael Fassbender's Peter O'Toole inspired android, David, is potentially the most interesting non-Ripley character in the entire series and the best parts of the movie are him just doing things by himself. Fassbender brings the same level of craft as he does in his awards nominated performances such as Shame, 12 Years a Slave or Steve Jobs. The other side of the coin is Noomi Rapace who performance can only be described as ugh. Yes, ugh. Also present it the questionable decision of casting Guy Pearce as an 80 year old man and a largely forgettable crew outside of the big names of Charlize Theron and Idris Elba.
Ridley Scott's direction is strong bringing an equal sense of wonder and horror to the explorations of the alien planet and engineer's ship. He is just saddled with a frustratingly bipolar script and cast that completely weighs the movie down. The ambitious nature of Prometheus is easy to admire and certainly earns it points in it's favor but not enough to outweigh Charlize Theron dying because she in incapable to movie 2 feet to her left or right.
Schurmann Score - 6/10
Definitive Ranking of the Alien Franchise:
1. Alien
2. Alien: Resurrection
3. Aliens
4. Prometheus
5. Alien 3
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