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March 29, 2024, 07:39:08 AM

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Alien - Six Offical Short Films to Celebrate the 40th Anniversary

Started by St_Eddie, March 14, 2019, 12:14:13 AM

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St_Eddie

Quote from: NoSleep on March 31, 2019, 06:54:49 PM
How would she stop it without causing damage to the organism? Without recourse to killing it the only option is to let it chomp. The only choice is quicker or slower.

That doesn't ring true, psychologically speaking.  Die a horrendous death, as the creature eats your face off, or take your chances, no matter how remote, with the acidic blood and attempt to damage it in self-defense.  The short establishes that she's a self-serving person, out for number one.  I'm pretty sure that she would do whatever it takes to increase her chances of survival.

Quote from: NoSleep on March 31, 2019, 06:56:53 PM
I suspect the other girl was an android and broke down for some reason.

Androids aren't known for their screaming.  When the crew of the Nostromo reactivated Ash's disembodied head, he wasn't screaming in agony.  When Walter lost his hand in Alien: Covenant, he looked at the stump in a matter of fact manner.  The closest an android comes to screaming in the series is in Aliens, when Bishop is speared by the Queen's tail but that's not so much a scream, as it is a prolonged gurgle.  Once he was split in two, he was acting and talking like it wasn't a big deal.

thraxx


I suspect that 'harsh editing' answers most of your questions.  Maybe there is a fight and android reveal that has been cut out.

It is what it is, just nice to have some new Alien, I enjoyed it.

However the reveal that the escapees were on Starbug was astonishing.

St_Eddie

Quote from: thraxx on March 31, 2019, 08:39:57 PM
Maybe there is a fight and android reveal that has been cut out.

Over on the AVPGalaxy forum, a person who worked as a storyboard artist for this specific short has talked about the very minor differences between what was scripted and what was shot.  They've made no mention of a cut fight or android reveal.  It's also worth noting that the budgets for these shorts were very low ($30,000 a piece), so it would be absolutely essential to ensure that you get everything down pat in the script and therefore are only filming sequences which are destined to end up in the final short.  I doubt that they had the budget to dilly dally with experimentation and uncertainty.

thraxx


This short inspired me to rewatch Covenant.  Fuck I had forgotten what a terrible diseased bollock of a film that is.

St_Eddie

Quote from: thraxx on March 31, 2019, 10:50:40 PM
This short inspired me to rewatch Covenant.  Fuck I had forgotten what a terrible diseased bollock of a film that is.

I really like the first two thirds of the film, for the most part at least - all of the scenes between Walter and David are fantastic.  The creepy homoerotic incestuous kiss between them being a standout moment.  However, I found the last act (everything with the traditional xeno onward) to be eye-rollingly awful.

St_Eddie


This one was like a check list of horror genre tropes and what with the slow pace, it's difficult to feel much tension when we already know what the monster lurking in the dark is and what it looks like.  I was prepared to dismiss this episode as a cliché riddled bore but the ending made it for me.

6/10

McFlymo

There was an odd bit in Specimen where she approaches a plant that shakes dramatically (and looks a little silly), then instead of carefully approaching it, attacking it, or running away, she just turns around and continues exploring elsewhere, seemingly not bothered by the shaking plant.

It might have made more sense if there had been a sound cue to suggest that whatever it was behind the plant had now ran off in the other direction, but it's not there.

Wasn't fussed on that one. I thought Containment was pretty good, aside from the andriod(?) getting stuck in the door and yeah, that ending, while I thought it was a nice touch to cut back to him, was he just trying to knock himself out again with the mask? Like a jokey "oh no, I don't want to deal with this. Back to sleep for me!"?

St_Eddie


This is by far the worst of the bunch so far.  Like episode 1, it's another chestburster story (yawn); I don't know why we, as the audience, should be on edge of our seats when we know exactly how things are going to play out, in terms of the alien lifecycle.  There are ways to stick with the established lore/lifecycle, whilst putting an interesting twist on things (to an extent, episode 1 did this by way of trapping the characters in an enclosed space and becoming paranoid about which of them is infected).

Rote premise aside, here's why I didn't care for this short at all...

* I really liked the silhouetted facehugger in the opening shot; subtle and effective, but then the ship passes overhead and shows it in full light.  Why?  Has this director never heard of nuance?  Do we, as an audience, who are already well acquainted with what a facehugger is and what it looks like, need to see it in detail to understand the story?  It demonstrates a lack of faith in your audience's intelligence.

* The chestburster rips through its hosts stomach, as opposed to the chest.  That's a common misconception among casual audiences in regards to the Alien series.  I do not expect that kind of elementary mistake to be made by an aspiring filmmaker who's been loaned the keys to the franchise.

* How did the bloke manage to shoot the older man by accident?  Also, why did he shoot the ceiling (knocking out the lights), when his target was approximately 7 inches tall and at ground level?  Did he have his gun set to the 'plot convenience' setting?

* The shot of the cheststomachburster smoothly moving across the floor, towards the camera is downright comical.  It's looks ridiculous.

* The final sound that you hear is a Predator.  For fuck's sake.  One of the rules of submission for the filmmakers pitches for these shorts was that they must be solely based on the established lore of original '79 film (as way of celebrating the 40th anniversary), with no elements from subsequent sequels, prequels and spin-offs allowed.  20th Century Fox really didn't give a crap about properly vetting this and maintaining quality control, did they?  There's no way that they did because some stupid little AVP fanboy has wormed his way into the process.  I do not care to celebrate the 40th anniversary of Ridley Scott's seminal masterpiece by way of being reminded that the moronic AVP movies are a thing.

2/10

Norton Canes


St_Eddie

Quote from: Norton Canes on April 15, 2019, 05:00:08 PM
Has Steven Moffat done one?

Considering that he's professional and established writer, no.  These are six short films made by aspiring filmmakers, who submitted their scripts via a competition.  They are not being made by people who already have a foothold within the industry.