In spite of a lukewarm reception to the third film, the studio wanted to take another try at the Alien Franchise. Although they managed to pump this one out in just three years, it is a bigger mess than the last one.
This film is set around two hundred years after the last one. It establishes a new wrinkle in the xenomorph mythology. Not only do they borrow from their host, they seem to share DNA. Scientists clone Ripley and the clone has an alien queen in her chest.
A ship of space pirates arrives at the military base that has cloned Ripley with top secret cargo. The scientists are trying to control the aliens as possible weapons. You know how that will work out. The aliens break free and take over the installation, leaving Ripley (along with the Space Pirates) to try and escape.
The film tries to explore the ethics and horrors of genetic experimentation. There is a nicely played moment where they discover a lab full of less successful Ripley clones. One is still alive, causing Ripley true horror. The film has Ripley’s humanity in question (her blood has acidic qualities like the xenomorph) which is punctuated by a late reveal of a synthetic person. The film also tries to add a new breed of alien, but it looks absolutely hideous. Giving the alien beady eyes, white skin and a pot belly is not frightening, just an awful design.
The practical effects are, as they have been throughout the franchise, strong and effective. However, the digital aliens do not stand up well twenty years later.
In spite of a strong cast (not to mention script doctor work by Joss Whedon) the story feels rather pedestrian. Nothing quite gels into a cohesive narrative, and seems like it was built on a series of “wouldn’t it be cool if…” meetings.
The success of Aliens had the studio rushing to try and get an Alien 3 going. There were a lot of false starts and bad ideas that led to what we got. Good scripts got tossed aside for weird ideas. There were questions on whether Weaver wanted to return. While she did finally return, she pushed for this to be the end of Ripley’s journey.
About seven years after Alien, hotshot director James Cameron brought the franchise roaring back to life. Rather than make a generic sequel, Cameron made a bold choice. The first film was a haunted house movie, Cameron opted to make a war movie.
Alien begins rather quietly. We see the interiors of a ship that is floating through space. It comes to life and we meet a crew…space truckers, so to speak. We do not know much about what they are hauling, though it does not matter much. We get that these are working class joes. This is not Star Trek. The ship has awakened the crew due to a distress message.
Mike and Dave are brothers who party hard…so hard that their family is frustrated at how they ruin every even. To be allowed at their sister’s wedding, they are required to bring respectable dates. Mike and Dave get the idea to go on TV and put the call out to get some classy ladies. Alice and Tatiana are lazy who cannot hold a job, in part because they would rather lay around smoking weed. They see Mike and Dave and decide to con their way into a free Hawaiian vacation on Mike and Dave’s dime. Crazy adventures follow.
I confess, for several years I was pretty lukewarm on Andy Samberg. I recall not finding Hot Rod all that funny. Over the years, I have been convinced I was wrong about Samberg. Especially with his hilarious performance as Detective Jake Peralta on Brooklyn 9-9 (easily one of my favorite comedies from the past few years). In fact, I am thinking of revisiting Hot Rod to see if my feelings on that film have changed.
When I first saw announcements for the Amy Schumer and Goldie Hawn vehicle Snatched…I cringed. Kidnapping for laughs is kind of a weird one. And one that has been pretty done to death. Kidnapping for comedy films are, of course, very divorced from the realities of the crime of kidnapping. And some are better than others.
Written and Directed by Josh Hamburg (most notably the writer of all three Meet the Parents films) addresses a discussion a friend and I were having recently. We were talking about films having familiar plots. My take on this is that I do not generally care if a film has a plot point we “have seen before”. If it does it well? I am not going to be annoyed by it. There are only so many plots, and I cannot think of many films that told a tale that has previously unseen elements. But there is a flip side to this. A story that follows all the familiar points like a rigid map? Rarely is it done well.
Guardians of the Galaxy was a bit of a risk for Marvel Studios. It was really their first film that had little name recognition. It also was their first film not closely tied to the Avengers. And yet, under the guidance of James Gunn, Guardians of the Galaxy succeeded with a healthy dose of humor and action. Towards the end of the film, Yondu mentions knowing who Starlord’s father is. In this sequel, we meet dear old dad.
Tripping Through Gateways 