My first and strongest love is science fiction. It saddens me then that the last few years have been a bereft of high caliber science fiction movies. I suppose all the big bucks are in comic book adaptations like the Dark Knight franchise or the ever expanding Marvel universe When I first heard that Ridley Scott was returning to the Alien universe I was cautiously excited. Ridley Scott is a master of his art and he has made some of the greatest science fiction movies of all time (Blade Runner and the original Alien) however I feel like he has been treading water stylistically in recent years with films ranging from the average (Body of Lies) to the downright terrible (Robin Hood). The Alien franchise itself has let me down pretty badly over the last few years as well by becoming a watered down parody of itself in those bloody awful AVP movies. Then, on Dec 22nd, I saw the official teaser trailer and I almost wet myself.
This movie looks amazing. Scott has assembled a stellar cast including Noomi Rapace, Michael Fassbender and Guy Pierce. The design looks gobsmacking. The tone looks dark, scary and above all serious. Writer Damon Lindelof has stated that while the story is set in the same universe as the Alien franchise it is not a true prequel. Perhaps we should not be expecting to see any chest bursters on this one then. However with the fleeting appearance of the space jockey and the title animation echoing Alien's title sequence it is clear that the connections are there. Scott is working hard on this, presenting Fox with a PG-13 cut as well as an R Rated one. Fingers crossed, this summer I could get the high caliber, high concept science fiction flick that I have been yearning for.
Very much looking forward to it. However, I noticed that Jon Spaihts (the writer of the Darkest Hour - one of the most mind bogglingly bad screenplays I've seen put to practice in recent years) shares a writing credit. Needless to say, that's got me extremely worried.
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