Alien 5: Blomkamp's New Concept Art

     Months after being Greenlit by 20th Century Fox for his new Alien movie pitch, Blomkamp has given us the first new look at the film he is working on with a pic via instagram.

     Blomkamp's previous films were both good (District 9) and merely ok (Elysium), but his take on Alien, through all the shared concept art that shows he knows what should be- or  what rightfully should have been- happening, will hopefully avoid pulling a Ridley Scott and crapping on his own saga with something like Prometheus.

     I have an odd faith that Blomkamp can pull this off.  He's got all the perfect ingredients- a reverence for the franchise, the iconic xenomorph aliens, Ellen "The biggest badass ever" Ripley (Sigourney Weaver), and Corp. Dwayne "The next biggest badass ever" Hicks (Michael Biehn).
     He also has a nice bit of continuity that the 3rd and 4th film lost through the magic of poor storytelling.  So really, if this goes anywhere near as well as it looks according to all the conceptual art, it could be the perfect rejuvenation for a listless franchise.

New "Alien" Confirmed with Neill Blomkamp Helming

     It's been about 2 months since Neill Blomkamp posted some extremely interesting Aliens images on his Instagram feed telling of a project that had fallen through.  The series of images showed a continuation of Ripley and Hicks after the nuked LV-426 and the infested Hadley's Hope terraforming colony.

     Two days ago, 20th Century Fox announced the news that they've closed a deal on an as yet untitled Alien film with Blomkamp in the large Engineer's Pilot seat.  This is good because all the disappointment I had after seeing Ridley Scott return to the series with Prometheus.  It should also be noted this will not be tied to the Prometheus sequel with Ridley Scott has going with Fox.

     Blomkamp has shown a wonderful talent for gritty science fiction with both District 9 and Elysium, then he may prove himself once again capable with the upcoming Chappie.  It'll be great to see him tackling an official Alien film.  This is a tremendous opportunity for him, and a great chance to really reinvigorate the franchise.
     It is currently unclear whether Sigourney Weaver, the badass extraordinaire Ellen Ripley herself, will return.  It is also unknown how they'd work in the previously deceased Corp. Dwayne Hicks (Michael Biehn) may return.  There are plenty of ways around story problems, and if Blomkamp handles them well enough, we might be able to forget some of the lesser films in the series.
     In any case, the images have sold me on this project.

     Oddly, no images of Newt have surfaced, which I find a little bit curious indeed.

     Source [ Variety ]

Alien: Isolation: Leaked Screenshots and More Thoughts

     As a fan of the Alien series I was not only shocked upon hearing that another Aliens game was on the way, but just a little bit excited.  My interest waned a bit when I then read it was to focus on Amanda Ripley, daughter of legendary Alien icon Ellen Ripley.  Can't we just let that family be?  Haven't the Ripleys suffered through enough xenomorphic horror?
     My worries are more to due with the coincidental occurrence of Ripley's daughter coming across something so similar.  Sure, the Weyland-Yutani Co. is not the most truthful of organizations to get one's information from, but why would they lie to Ripley?  If they lied to her daughter, which resulted in her death, it would actually make quite a cycle.  Ripley "dies" in the Nostromo explosion while attempting to obtain xenomorph specimen, W-Y agrees to let her daughter investigate with hopes of finding new specimen, she dies, then original Ripley is found and sent in with no friends or family to, once again, attempt to inadvertently retrieve a specimen.
     So we could hypothesize that Amanda joined a crew that went in search of the lost USS Nostromo, and wound up in a situation like her mother.  I mean Prometheus showed us that there were definitely more ships than the singular encounter on LV-426, so it isn't impossible.  She would be following some very dangerous footsteps.

     Anyway- my hopes have once again been restored by seeing the 4 "leaked" screenshots.  This looks to be heavily inspired by the first Ridley Scott film and that holds a fair amount of weight.  Development studio Creative Assembly has me so far with Isolation.  But then again, Aliens: Colonial Marines looked really great until you had the actual game...
     If they can make this FPS stealth-horror (and survival?) work, they'll have me as a fan for a long while.  It seems to be a tough genre to make work, even without using an IP that is so beloved.


     Source [ Kotaku ]

Where's Lindelof: Fake News About Damon Lindelof?

     It's only been a month since Mr. Lindelof broke up with the Twitterverse and I'm kind of curious as to where he's been.  To solve the mystery of the missing Damon- and what the meaning behind his last tweet is- I went searching in a Where's Waldo fashion...

“After much thought and deliberation, I’ve decided t...”

Come find me.

     You've decided to what?!?

     OK, maybe we'll never know, or maybe he's just working on Tomorrowland or The Leftovers.  Maybe he doesn't even know.  Maybe he's got some secret projects or new comics like Ultimate Hulk vs. Wolverine, which I actually enjoyed.  If he really hunkers down I hope he can produce some really remarkable things, not some senseless perpetual-mystery circle.

     Anyway- he does have plenty of ideas left so I'm sure he'll return with something worthwhile, including the answer to his last tweet.

Alien: Isolation - Ripley's Daughter's Game

     It looks as if Sega has more plans for the Aliens franchise.  After the almost universally terrible reviews of that space turd called Aliens: Colonial Marines (by Gearbox and TimeGate), they are taking some of that critically negative advice to heart.

Is this the face of a badass?  Possibly.

     The new Alien game for current and next gen consoles is called Alien: Isolation (being developed by the Creative Assembly) and is starring Ellen Ripley's daughter(mentioned in an Aliens deleted scene).  An odd choice of character to plunder.  I'm sure they want to retain the ultimate badass Ripley namesake while getting a bit of freedom in the storytelling department.  Presumably, it'll take place after the first movie, but before Ellen Ripley was awoken from her 57 years of hypersleep.  Although due to the inclusion of "hypersleep technology" one can't really tell.

"According to our source, the protagonist of Alien: Isolation is Amanda Ripley, daughter of Ellen Ripley, the character that made Sigourney Weaver famous and kicked off the ubiquitous sci-fi franchise over 30 years ago. Amanda, who is mentioned in the special edition of Aliens as having died while Ellen was frozen in space, has not yet been the focus of any books, movies, or games in the Alien extended universe.

You, as Amanda, spend most if not all of the game on a single space station, according to our source. There's only one alien for "most" of the game, our source said; you'll mostly be shooting through "clones and soldiers." Vents, lockers, and melee weapons are a big part of Isolation, our source said, and the game is heavily inspired by the first Alien movie."

     It's said to be a first person shooter combining stealth and horror.  They're aren't many details other than that, but at least they are listening to the fans about the horrible way the Aliens franchise has been handled in the past.

     What I'm wondering is if Burke lied to Ripley (Amanda died at age 66), which is something he would definitely do, what are the odds that her daughter would encounter something this similar?  Why not make a stand alone tale about some nobody in that time period?  Draw reference from games like Dead Space, and create an atmosphere of fear and desperation in space.  This should be survival horror, not a clone shoot-em-up.

Source [ Kotaku ]

Damon Lindelof Breaks up with Twitter

“After much thought and deliberation, I’ve decided t...”

    Is this the first line of a new project?  Is this a new mystery he's created?  A plot twist?  Or a much needed reprieve from all the hostile fans?  Regardless, it's the best ending he's written yet.

     Well, this was the last Tweet he posted before departing this social network.  He's now gone from the Twitterverse.  I don't blame him either- while I've not been a fan of many of his works- LOST, Prometheus, and the things he's done with the Star Trek films- I did enjoy his Tweets.  He was very good at matching wit with the internet trolls that painted him with a giant target.  More often than not I got a laugh out of his wonderful Tweetfests.

     There seems to be a problem with many of the trolls aiming their hate towards him and not his writing.  Really, I complain about his stuff all the damn time, but I don't take it out on him personally.  For example- his Ultimate Hulk vs Wolverine comic series- it started off AMAZINGLY in 2005...  and then disappeared for years until resurfacing to finish the last 4 issues in 2009.
     Yes- I was pissed about a four year delay, but I didn't blast him with hate mail.  I did not bombard him with degrading mail, no verbal attacks were thrown.  Sure the new Star Treks have a million problems, but it's the writing that is the issue, not the man.  Either get rid of the current Star Trek writers, or bring in better editors.  Listen to the fans of the series' you work on. (not necessarily the rabid/crazy fans)  There are reasons fans stay with the stuff so long, and if you keep ignoring those things you'll only incur more wrath*.

     One might suppose the inundation of hate mail led to this, and vanishing is a great way to distance from all that negativity.  Will Lindelof return better off than before?  If you would ask me, I hope he really hunkers down and focuses on writing, truly hone his craft.  He's got a ton of great ideas (See my post about the Lindelof Idea Generator), he just isn't implementing them properly.  He's lacking cohesion.  Learn to do it right, and we will genuinely look forward to your future work.  Even I'm eager to see what he'll be capable of with some improved skills.

     Perhaps we'll see his return under a pseudonym...  such as David Spindlebroth.



     *ZING!

HBO Wants Damon Lindelof's Leftovers. (And Where Lindelof Gets His Ideas)

     HBO has officially picked up Lindelof's The Leftovers.  After a streak of films meant to ruin our cinema going experience- Prometheus, World War Z, and Star Trek Into Darkness- Lindelof is returning to television to confound our minds with a senseless and contrived mess I'd now refer to as the Gordian Plot.  A reference to the tangled Gordian Knot of lore- sure it looks intricate and well-planned, but in reality it was probably just a cord that got snarled up by accident.

     And if I'm not mistaken, all his ideas are actually pumped out of that DHARMA pneumatic tube dispenser from the Lost episode, "Live Together, Die Alone. Part 1"



I'm reasonably certain this is where Lindelof gets his ideas.

     The first season is 10 episodes about the people after the Rapture that "didn't make the cut."  So in my mind, it'll be Lost, except everyone is stuck in Purgatory and surrounded by dangling plot threads and unanswered questions.  The Leftovers might even refer to all the ideas he couldn't fit into any of the other projects his name has been pasted on.

     As you may have guessed my hopes for this are slim.  Although the other names attached are keeping me slightly, very slightly, intrigued.  Peter Berg is an executive producer that also directed the pilot.  That's the good news.  Justin Theroux, Amy Brenneman, Christopher Eccleston, and Liv Tyler star in it.  That is the other somewhat good news- a decent cast.

Aliens: Colonial Marines: DISCLAIMER!

In space, no one can hear you complain.

     Here's a bit of an interesting item concerning the travesty known as Aliens: Colonial Marines.  It has been widely known that the game we were delivered had been NOTHING like what was advertised.  The demo and trailers showed things far exceeding the graphics and play that gamers received, despite the fact we were led to believe we'd receive after the hype.

     A redditor actually did something about it.  Reddit user Subpardave sent a complaint to the Advertising Standards Agency (UK)- http://redd.it/1bjtot 

     ...and he actually got a reply.  A very disappointing one, but something at least.  Sadly, that reply is only the fact that a disclaimer will be added to the footage stating things we now already know to be true:

  "They agreed to add a disclaimer, both on their website and in all relevant YouTube videos, which explains that the trailers depict footage of the demo versions of the game. The disclaimer will be visible when each online trailer is played."

     ...uuhhh...


     ... so after almost 2 months after the game released, Sega Europe will put a disclaimer on something we all already know to be EXTREMELY MISLEADING on their official videos.  Not all of Sega (or other developer names attached to the game), but one part of a company will be acknowledging this train wreck.
     Aren't demos usually parts of games that are currently in production, parts of a product we will be getting?  Disturbing that we can't get more out of this.

     One small step I suppose.

Aliens: Colonial Marines

     Even after reading the horrendous reviews, I kept my preorder with hopes that maybe I would be thoroughly enjoying this game.  It's happened with other games- Warriors: Legends of Troy, Green Lantern, and Thor for example.  They aren't good games, by any means, but I enjoyed them anyway. 
     Gearbox's Aliens is only half meeting that expectation.  I've only made it through a couple levels, but the frustration is already setting in.  I'll continue to play through the whole game, and then try out the multiplayer.  I don't think I'll be as cruel as the reviewers, and have actually found myself enjoying a couple parts.  The sound for instance- the Pulse Rifle firing and the Motion Trackers are SPOT ON and I absolutely love that.

     Within the last few months of Gearbox's Borderlands 2 DLC's being only decent, seriously lacking in length and quality- I've been consistently losing faith in this company.  Sure, the Borderlands stuff is decent- I love Torgue's Campaign of Carnage, but Scarlett's Pirate's Booty and Hammerlock's Hunt are both lacking.  No REALLY new weapons and shields, short quest lines, and all right stories. 
     Really, what's going on with them.  Where's the Borderlands 1 Gearbox team quality gone to???
     Here's a decent link to a Jim Sterling article that may shed a bit of light: http://www.destructoid.com/developer-gearbox-lied-to-sega-2k-over-colonial-marines-245986.phtml

     I'm only moderately liking this game so far.  It's playable, but as ALL the reviewers have noted there are numerous problems with it.  Too linear, bland writing, clunky character movements (both marines and alien NPCs) and blatantly ignoring previously canon story in the "Aliens" franchise.  Really, I can see ignoring Alien 3 and beyond, as well as that beautiful mess of a film Prometheus, but what the EFF Gearbox?!?  There are a bazillion fans that can be put to use as proofreaders.  Hello beta testers...  how much of this game could've been prevented with proper acknowledgement of fans?
     And just as many others have said, I feel lied to.  I feel cheated.  The game is nothing like the demo.  There seems very little about the game we got that is actually like what was advertised.  With Borderlands 2 we were promised a bunch of stuff still hasn't been provided- a worry free bank size, when will we get that?  How about that Armory of General Knoxx sized DLC?  Still nowhere in sight.  For Aliens, we are lacking both the wonderful atmosphere and feel of being in that world. 

     When it comes down to it, a whole game cannot be patched, and soon we consumers will find out if Gearbox can "patch" their credibility.  I'm eagerly waiting to hear what Mr. Randy Pitchford will be saying about this Aliens controversy, as I'm still hopeful something good may come out of it.  Then again, maybe not. 

Prometheus: Alien could've been a lot different...

     Hey people-  I was just thinking that Alien would've turned out a LOT different if John Hurt's character Kane did this in the Derelict Ship. 

     All he had to do was yell, "LEEROY JENKINS!" and run like hell through the ship's egg chamber.  Set off all the eggs and facehuggers come springing out galore- maybe the astronauts get away, maybe they don't.  And I have no clue how resilient the facehuggers are without food or water.  Perhaps they could survive the hostile LV-426 atmosphere? 
     I just thought this potential story could be humorous.

Prometheus: A Beautiful Mess

     Before wasting your time with a long, jumbled, and blabbery post on the movie, here's what I think David said to the Engineer.  It would explain why it got so pissed and went on a rampage.

 

     Just to start, I'll say I enjoyed the movie.  At least the visuals.  The reason I posted this with the subtitle of a beautiful mess is because I believe that's what the movie amounts to.  A wonderful visual buffet with a very poor, perhaps rushed, script.  Maybe a few editors could've fixed the Jon Spaihts and Damon Lindelof story. 
     Well, at least try to make the script into a story.  It's like the writers had a bunch of unconnected visual ideas they scribbled on to blank pages and then pasted them in random intervals into a script for an android's story of rebellion and struggle for independance against It's creator/father.  I mean most of the time people set out to write scripts/stories they know the answers to, to fulfill the questions raised- or at least lead viewers towards an answer.  This particular movie has too many problems. It probably could've been fixed if it had been postponed a year before filming.  Companies are in too much of a hurry to make a buck.

*SPOILERS AHEAD*
*RANDOM THOUGHTS ALSO AHEAD*

     The movie starts with one of the race of Engineers on a planet, assumed by many to be Earth.  This indivuidual seems to be seeding the planet by drinking some black goop out of a small container.  This wonderful black substance starts to break down the Engineer's being and spreads his DNA into the waterfall. 

     What I would like to understand is why this individual would do that?!?  Seriously, a baker doesn't bake themselves into their cakes.  What if something wasn't right, or the process didn't go as planned?  Well the the magical black goop apparently does whatever the hell it wants. (More on this later)  After it breaks down the Engineer DNA and then switches it's function to building life.  Now, I'm no scientist, but one would think that when starting to seed a planet, one would seed it with tons of varint species, all over.  Not with one type of magical DNA that will evolve over thousands of years into a smaller, weaker, and just generally lesser version of yourself... as well as all manner of plants and animals. 
     I suppose that many animals have quite similar DNA to humans.  (I've read somewhere about fruit flies and chickens being 60 % correspondant to human, cats around 90%, and chimpanzees about 97%.)
     Why wouldn't they just make smaller versions of themselves and plop them down on the planet?  Doesn't make much sense.  Which leads me to say- this is the start of a movie about poor science.  Perhaps this particular Engineer was a lone worker or maybe the equivalent of a suicide bomber.
What baker bakes himself into their cakes?  Do architects build themselves into their buildings?  NO!  Why?  Because it's stupid.  You can't fix a building when you're dead in the walls, and you can't bake any replacement cakes when you're a dead ingredient.

     Ok, with this odd beginning out of the way, I want to say that I'm super disappointed that they didn't keep the Elephantine "Space Jockey" a non-human.  It seemed so much more amazing to have a large creature that isn't a human in a technological marvel.  In fact it always reminded me of Robert E. Howard's story "Tower of the Elephant" about Conan the Barbarian's encounter with the elephantine alien Yag-Kosha.

     So the story cuts to the 2 main characters, Dr.'s/Scientists "Girl with an Alien Tattoo" Shaw and "Not Tom Hardy" Holloway, finding some old cave paintings even older than the other 10 carvings and paintings by ancient cultures that have previously been found.  Why they would get super excited about something they ALREADY know is beyond me.  These 2, Shaw and Holloway, have already found all these unconnected cultures had pictures of the same thing- people essentially worshipping a giant humanoid gesturing to a group of planets/stars.  Which to me would mean we've been visited A BUNCH OF TIMES and if we waited a while longer they would come back again.

    Shaw has an immense faith because her father told her something as a child and she CHOOSES what to believe.  Sounds like science to me.  I'm going to CHOOSE to believe in what I want and not bother to ask any questions, and subsequently screw everything over in the end.  IDIOT! 
Let's just CHOOSE to ignore all the evidence that looks negative and assume we got an invite to a party!  Yay! 
     Fifield, the only outright Nay sayer in the whole Prometheus' crew asks why, and niether Shaw nor Holloway can answer.  They just resort to the "because" mentality.  Not very scientific.  Not very mature either.
     In all reality, the picture could be a reprimand or warning.  Something along the lines of, "Hey humanity, this is daddy's dangerous stuff, KEEP OUT!" 
     So, really choosing to believe one thing with something akin to children's drawings makes me wonder, what the hell kind of Dr.s are these main characters anyway???  Do they just hand out PH.D.s to anyone that graduated high school in the future?  I'd say that "No Child Left Behind" really held back future intellect.
     BALH BLAH BLAH  this is getting too long, so I'll shorten the rest.

     It also strikes me as highly preposterous that of the two people that get lost in the cave complex, one of them is a geologist.  He also has a 3 dimensional map of the place.  How many cameras do we have nowadays that just send pictures to be printed without having them on a viewscreen?

     Problems with the Black Goo Substance.  1) It disintegrates the Engineer at the beginning after being ingested, but takes forever to have an effect on  Holloway.  2) After an infected Holloway impregnates Shaw, she C-section birthes a squid baby.  3) Fifield is splattered with it and turns into a contortionist/acrobatic/zombie/gymnast/killer.  4)Etc.  Seriously, where's the continuity?  Have it do one thing, not a bunch of random crap "that looks cool."  That's dumb.
     If it broke down the Engineer to eventually evolve into people, shouldn't it be doing that to everything living it contacts?  Especially since we all come from the same source according to the opener of the movie.

     After Shaw C-sections herself and loads up on drugs she becomes an olympian champ.  Nonstop sprinting for the rest of the film.  Must've been some good stuff in those syringes.

    When David brings Weyland to visit the Engineer I had to ask a quetion that bugged me a LOT.  If Weyland is so sure his creation had no soul, and his subsequent contemptuous treatment of David, what would make him think the Engineers would think any better of us?  From the film all I could gather is they made humans(at least 1, but maybe a few more Engineers.  Maybe "Prometheus" stole the black goo and made us, I don't know) Then they spent a considerable amount of effort to create an unstable product(Black goo), and mass produce it in a secret military installation, send out invites, then seek to destroy their creations.  Are humans that dangerous?  Were we a by product?  A failed military bioweapon?
     If Weyland can put people into a hypersleep, why couldn't he just wait out the time until we've designed a youth drug, replacement bodies, or mind transferance? 
     Also, with all the technological might of the Engineer empire, why would they start their ships with a damn flute?  I could see a whistled tune or sound/vocal commands, but a FLUTE?!?!?!?

     At the end after the Squidbaby magically grew, locked in a room without any sustenance and going 100% undetected, into a Squid giant and impregnated the Engineer.  It sprouted a chest bursting alien-esque creature.  A part that many of my friends were anticipating.  My reply to this is at least 1 of the Engineers had to know what was going to happen.  Which means the Black goo should have predictable qualities.  How would they know?  Glad you asked- when they room with the ridiculous giant Engineer head was opened the mural had a GIANT ALIEN QUEEN PAINTED ON IT!
     Shaw and David after hijacking another Engineer ship decide to go on a wonderful quest: Engineer homeworld!  Are you friggin' serious?  A single Engineer ripped one of their heads off and almost killed the other.  How well do they expect to fare against a vast number of them?  Absurd.  They should at least head back to Earth for some kind of reinforcements, reverse engineer some of the tech, maybe get some smarter crew members that CHOOSE not be be complete idiots, and then head out.
     Ugh.  I'm sure I've missed a bunch of things, and forgotten even more.  It's been like a month since I saw and discussed it with friends.  So if you've managed to read this far, thank you.

Well at least the movie sparked a ton of conversation.  Makes me wonder how long it will take James Cameron to make a better sequel.  It'll be called Epimetheus.  Which is more appropriate because there wasn't a lot of Prometheus(forethought) in this film.