A reassessment of The Films Prometheus and Covenant

[BAYLOR]

There is no reason that Weyland would presume that terraforming + colonists are the best way of investigating an incredibly valuable spacecraft.

Aliens was written separate from any connection to Alien, and the studio had Cameron re-write it as a sequel. So the logic of it is thin.

The presentation in the films makes it appear that Ash has a standing order to recognize alien stuff that is more valuable than the crew or mission and act accordingly, and the Nostromo stumbles across the derelict. Then Ripley takes so long getting home that the colony is already in existence by the time she's debriefed. And maybe the derelict is missed due to the violent nature of the terraforming initiation.

All of which goes out the window if Weyland had already sent a mission decades earlier.

The Company knowing the location of the the derelict and its deadly cargo wouldn't sent have sent colonists in the first place but rather an exploration team and it's unlikely that they Company would commences any kind of costly terraforming operation there.

 

[Toby Frost]

It would make sense that Ash was on permanent orders to look out for signs of alien life. However Dallas mentions at one point that the former science officer was removed and replaced with Ash at short notice, which implies that the company suspected something about the Nostromo's flight in particular. To be honest I think it's very hard to know for sure, and like a lot of the Alien setting, it works best remaining vague and sinister.

 

[JunkMonkey]

The Company knowing the location of the the derelict and its deadly cargo wouldn't sent have sent colonists in the first place but rather an exploration team and it's unlikely that they Company would commences any kind of costly terraforming operation there.

This assumes that the Terraforming division of The Corporation knows what the Special Weapons Division of the Company is doing.

Memo from Special Ops CEO to Special Ops Line manager Eastern Sector:

Please tell me those Numnuts in Terraforming aren't sending a standard colonization program to LV-426!

Special Ops Line manager Eastern Sector to Special Ops CEO.

Looks like they are. All files LV-426 Special Ops classified Eyes only. As far as they are concerned it's just another rock. Want me to inform?

Memo from Special Ops CEO to Special Ops Line manager Eastern Sector:

Are you crazy? Advise when colony destroyed. Arrange accident for idiot responsible at Terraforming. Usual cleanup. See you at Nigel's Friday for drinks and nibbles?

 

[Toby Frost]

To be honest, the only bits of the Alien world I consider to be canon are Alien, Aliens, the computer game Alien: Isolation and the recent Alien roleplaying game (which encourages the player to pick and choose what they use, anyhow). Everything else either isn't very good or takes the story in directions that I don't feel works very well (or both).

 

[Mr Cairo]

The fact that Ash had the company directive to "collect the Organism at all cost and that the crew was expendable" suggest that Weyland Yutani were aware of the alien signal and ship but possibly not aware of what the content of the ship was, also as mentioned earlier the Special division and the Colonisation division possibly had no idea what each other was doing. Hell I worked for a Global media company for 19 years and for 18 of those had no idea what the guy 2 desks over was doing.

 

[Venusian Broon]

It would make sense that Ash was on permanent orders to look out for signs of alien life. However Dallas mentions at one point that the former science officer was removed and replaced with Ash at short notice, which implies that the company suspected something about the Nostromo's flight in particular. To be honest I think it's very hard to know for sure, and like a lot of the Alien setting, it works best remaining vague and sinister.

So, theory time....

If you take Prometheus as cannon, then perhaps, somehow, Weyland and everyone on board that expedition had hidden their exact destination, but the Weyland-Yukani board that remained on Earth knew that something with his descendent had happened with an expedition and they had vanished, Maybe they pieced together a rough idea of where they were going, but had no idea on the exact star system. (From memory Weyland was supposed to be dead at the start, so perhaps he was already off the radar.)

Hence any ship flying through space in that particular volume would be instructed by the company to look for distress signals so perhaps turn up what happened to them?

I find this a weak theory, though. It seems more sensible to me that someone on the Prometheus expedition would have left some sort of communique about where they were going - then the company could launch a rescue mission/backup. There was a treasure trove of alien stuff and pyramids on that world for them to try to study, which made the crashed alien ship on LV-426 look like cheap tat.

However, as you say TF, best to not worry too much about it and just shroud it in vague darkness, and avoid the terrible entries in the series

 

[BAYLOR]

To be honest, the only bits of the Alien world I consider to be canon are Alien, Aliens, the computer game Alien: Isolation and the recent Alien roleplaying game (which encourages the player to pick and choose what they use, anyhow). Everything else either isn't very good or takes the story in directions that I don't feel works very well (or both).

Okay I do admit that ive have a bit of a soft spot for the first AVP film . It's totally silly but does have entertainment value a bit like a big time wresting. show .

 

[Rodders]

I also enjoyed AvP and felt it underrated.

I thought Prometheus was awful, but I really enjoyed Covenant. One or two changes would've made it a genuinely good film.

 

[JacobEvaro]

Hello. This is amzaing blog thanks for that great information. Thanks!

 

[Mr Cairo]

I thought Prometheus was awful,.

It was but I have to admit it was shot and looked just Beautiful the prometheus landing sequence in particular was stunning. Shame teh story had so many "Oh Why the hell would you ......." moments.

 

[paranoid marvin]

I've learned to switch my mind off to much of what happens in films (and often in books) regarding the actions and dialogue of characters in stories. In most cases, what they do is particular to fiction, and would never happen in 'real life'. But then again I watch movies/read books for escapism.

My criteria for 'is a film enjoyable?' usually boils down to if I'll watch it in one sitting, if I'll rewatch it and (often) if I'll buy the media to keep. Prometheus and Covenant both tick all those boxes, and (as has been mentioned) are beautifully filmed, epic in scale and have fascinating stories to tell; these two things (imho) make up for any other deficiencies that they may have.

 

[svalbard]

I actually re-watched both movies the other week. Had some spare time. For me they work best when you forget about what comes after. They definitely do not work as prequels. However as standard Sc-Fi fare they are a cut above. Once I made the decision to watch them as separate to the Alien canon, I found them immensely entertaining.

 

[paranoid marvin]

I actually re-watched both movies the other week. Had some spare time. For me they work best when you forget about what comes after. They definitely do not work as prequels. However as standard Sc-Fi fare they are a cut above. Once I made the decision to watch them as separate to the Alien canon, I found them immensely entertaining.

This pretty much sums it up for me. As parts of the Alien franchise they're a non-starter, but as individual sci-fi movies, in comparison with other sci-fi movies, they are towards the upper end of the scale.

 

[Swank]

This pretty much sums it up for me. As parts of the Alien franchise they're a non-starter, but as individual sci-fi movies, in comparison with other sci-fi movies, they are towards the upper end of the scale.

I guess the problem I have with them as individual films is that they were the newest and greatest by a former master of the form, and they weren't better than something like 2010, Predator, Looper, Annihilation or World War Z. The huge effects budget just seems sad when the basics are lacking.

They aren't terrible, just disappointing.

 

[paeng]

I think the first one was an attempt to create a cosmic context for the franchise and grafted with a rehash of the storyline of Alien, while the second was an attempt to graft elements from Alien and Aliens. They're like the latest Mad Max which essentially repeats the second movie and with a compression of the first as a prologue.

My guess is that they did this because they figured that most viewers had never seen or barely know about the first movies. In short, it's essentially a reboot of the franchise.

 

[BAYLOR]

There is no reason that Weyland would presume that terraforming + colonists are the best way of investigating an incredibly valuable spacecraft.

Aliens was written separate from any connection to Alien, and the studio had Cameron re-write it as a sequel. So the logic of it is thin.

The presentation in the films makes it appear that Ash has a standing order to recognize alien stuff that is more valuable than the crew or mission and act accordingly, and the Nostromo stumbles across the derelict. Then Ripley takes so long getting home that the colony is already in existence by the time she's debriefed. And maybe the derelict is missed due to the violent nature of the terraforming initiation.

All of which goes out the window if Weyland had already sent a mission decades earlier.

In terms of story logic when they set up to terraform operations that world ,they would have mapped out the place to find the best location to set up the colony and the atmosphere reprocessor so, how , how is it that they wouldn’t have found the alien ship. It’s a big thing to miss.

 

[Swank]

In terms of story logic when they set up to terraform operations that world ,they would have mapped out the place to find the best location to set up the colony and the atmosphere reprocessor so, how , how is it that they wouldn’t have found the alien ship. It’s a big thing to miss.

Especially when the alien ship was still transmitting a distress call.

 

[BAYLOR]

Especially when the alien ship was still transmitting a distress call.

Makes for a much bigger plot hole.

 

[Mon0Zer0]

The original film looked like no Science fiction film before it. The crew were essential ly a bunch of space trucker working stiffs only one of which Ash, was a actual scientist who knew far more about what was going on then the rest of the crew . The look of the ship intent of being clean and antiseptic was grungy dirty, like and drippy with water like a derelict factory.

I think it owes a huge debt, in almost every way - story, the idea of space truckers / grungy spaceships to O'Bannon's previous movie - Dark Star. If anything Alien is Dark Star but done with an awful lot more technical accomplishment.

The Alien Ship looked like no alien ship before it, Dark, organic, what control surfaces there were had no shiny blinky bulb lights or anything else that looked like ti might be products of a movie prop department.

Giger most definitely brought something new to the screen both with the Alien and the look of the space jockey's ship.

 

[Mon0Zer0]

Prometheus isn't awful, but it was deffo a case of Scott being less interested in Alien and more interested in telling his Bladerunner story combined with writing something around his private religious beliefs. Apparently the original script was better than what we got.

There are great bits in it - David was a wonderful character until the end. I could watch him being creepy and doing TE Lawrence impressions all day. But some of the creative choices in the film - the flute, making the space jockey's giant blue humans in suits, the biologist character, the old man makeup, the forced tension between scientists, running and jumping after having stitches etc... were groan inducingly bad.

It did look beautiful in iMax, though.

The biggest crime, imho, is that Guillermo del Toro didn't get to do Mountains of Madness because of Prometheus.