There were a few improbable things (I won't spoil it though) in the story but nonetheless, Ridley Scott does it again, IMHO. The special effects and backdrops are simply jaw dropping. [video=youtube;iIJeQNyZ6VE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iIJeQNyZ6VE&feature=related[/video] And something for the eye candy addicts: [video=youtube;-LqA1rHtapo]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-LqA1rHtapo&feature=related[/video]
I enjoyed it too, from the start I started wondering how it ties in with the original Alien. And now I kinda want them to make a spinoff off of Dr. Shaw
Some people are saying that the ending did leave room for a sequel, that is another "prequel" after this one, LOL... WARNING: SPOILERS That said, Spoiler: I noticed that... in the ending, the alien from the sleep pod that they woke up wasn't anywhere near the size the of the one from the original Alien (space jockey sitting in the chair). I mean, that guy was huge (ie like about 20 feet). The guy in this movie, while big, only seems about 8 feet tall. [video=youtube;eDRLtgr2T9E]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eDRLtgr2T9E[/video] Of course, it may have been 'another' ship altogether, that the Nostromo eventually finds... :laugh:
Well, if one looked carefully at the... WARNING: SPOILERS Spoiler: creatures... one begins to realize that they're not even close to the creatures one remembers from the Alien series. The original Face Hugger had articulated limbs (like a spider) with a snake like whip tail, and was slightly bigger but about the size of a human adult's face. The creature in this movie was more like a gigantic octopus. As for how it got so big? I don't know, maybe it had something to do with what was already in the lab, or one might say that it really wasn't a true face hugger per se. There are several possibilities for this. Remember that the seed was delivered not by the usual - giant egg > face hugging > chest burster - scenario, but by Shaw being impregnated after having sex with her infected boyfriend. So this may be an entirely new process not yet seen in Alien(s). Additionally, if one can consider that the ship there was really a military storage facility with a variety of biological weapons, these may be different types of ordnance from an large arsenal of weapons. Much like how a modern military may have iron bombs, explosive bombs, fuel air bombs, deep penetration bunker buster, et cetera; the civilization of those weapon designers may have a variety of different weapons suited for different needs. Ergo, this creature was designed to be large like an octopus, in order to impregnate large humanoid hosts. The end also had Shaw saying (to David, the droid) that, she "...deserved to know" and that she is "...still searching" as they lifted off the planet. Obviously, she didn't fly this newly discovered alien ship back to earth, or else we would have known about it before the first Alien movie. So where did she go? Like she said, still searching, or else maybe had been killed by either xenomorphs or their designers. At any rate, I'm sure that they can make some sort of sequel to this if they really put their mind to it. Another issue that this whole movie obviously raises is how does this all fit into the Alien Versus Predator universe. The Predator line of movies seems to suggests that their kind had sport hunted Alien xenomorphs for thousands of years. If so, then who are the designers vis a vis the predator civilization? Spoiler: And Some Goofs From IMDB Character error When Vickers asks David how long they've been in hyper sleep, he replies, "2 years, 4 months, 18 days, 36 hours, 15 minutes." It is unclear why a day would be longer than the standard 24 hours, or why he wouldn't have said, "19 days, 12 hours." Continuity When Shaw leaves the rescue pod she has her helmet on but is not wearing gloves. She is wearing gloves in the next shot. Charlie Holloways helmet is sprayed with the alien's blood which causes the plastic to melt, dripping onto his face and leaving a giant impression of his face. Later when the rest of the crew go outside to rescue him he only has what appears to be a medium sized jagged smash in the helmet. Dr. Shaw's grip on the axe instantly shifts when the shot goes from behind her to in front of her. Numerous times during the initial exploration of the planet when various character's helmets are shown to be steamed up, then in the next shot, are completely clear again. The alien spaceship crashes with a series of flips, but we see later that David's head remains in the same spot as when it was initially torn off, before the spaceship launched. David rescues Elizabeth and Charlie from a "space-suit shredding" sandstorm and in the very next scene in the airlock we can see that the suits are without a scratch. Factual errors Shaw carbon dates the alien to be about 2,000 years old. However, it would be impossible to carbon date a life form on an alien planet, as that would require a baseline carbon-14 level, which none of them would have obtained yet. Plot holes The distance to the exo-planet they are visiting is stated to be on the order of 10^14km. Since it took them a little more than 2 years to get there, they must have been traveling at more than 10 times the speed of light. Spoilers The goofs below may give away important plot points. Continuity When Vickers is standing and facing Weyland while she talks to him about why he made the journey, her hands change position several times. In one shot, they are in front of her while in the next shot, they are behind her. Incorrectly regarded as goofs Elizabeth Shaw is seen able to walk, run, jump and perform hard physical tasks soon after her Cesarean, with abdominal muscles and the wide cut in her belly stapled together crudely. However, she has been shooting herself up with drugs many times (potentially very sophisticated, future drugs), which could account for her not feeling pain and gaining strength. Revealing mistakes When Shaw enters the rescue pod that has crash landed on the planet's surface after the collision, Vickers' bottle of Vodka is still standing upright on the bar, unbroken. Source: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1446714/trivia?tab=gf
