Rodent's Reviews

Ridley Scott's follow up, or at least his lead up to, his original masterpiece Alien, is a bit of a hit and miss affair. Mainly hit though.
It fails at the first hurdle... a story that is conceivable.
A bunch of cave drawings that they decide to follow... it's all very unoriginal and bland really. It works well, but isn't anything groundbreaking in terms of story really.
Another thing is compared to the used future of the original movies, Prometheus, not just the ship but parts of the film too... just feel and look too modern. Especially with the Holographic tech on board the human ship.This movie is set near 30 years before Alien but yet feels more futuristic...

I get the point that it's a science ship on a voyage but the filmmaking is kinda like the Star Wars Prequels... it suffers with the advances in filmmaking technology. It's all just too clean and clinical.


The rest of the story however is pretty inventive and has really been thought through by the filmmakers quite well.

The overall direction Scott has taken the story, i.e.; a side story to The Weyland Company's involvement with other world life forms... is very cleverly pieced together and hits the nail on the head when it comes to adding more depth to something that is relatively mysterious throughout the franchise.

The writing/rewriting of the creature background and the DNA and genetics side of things is also thought provokingly clever. It smashes the preconceptions about the Alien and its background completely and opens the whole thing up for another franchise.
Quite an exciting prospect really.
They've even managed to give to creatures a history in terms of Species too. The various creatures seen throughout bare a resemblence in one way or another to the original Alien, giving the whole notion of our beloved Xenomorph a genuinely real and organic world in which it came from.
Kinda like Tigers, Housecats and Lions having similarities... or varying Primates from Gorillas to Chimps to Humans having some sort of resemblance, Scott has given the notion that there is a real genetic and organic background to the creature that we all know.

Another thing that stands out in the story is the filmmaker's's ideas in the history of where human life came from, and the lead character's faith in God.

The character writing of some of the characters seen adds more depth to The Weyland Company too.
What stands out though is the air of paranoia that builds up at the beginning, the audience is never really sure who to trust. Kind of a throwback to the first two Alien films but still done with enough secretive writing that it works fantastically.
There are a few scenes about half way through too with a number of characters that make the audience question their judgement of said characters as well. You think you knew the character, but then you're thrown onto the backfoot.
So the character writing on all levels is top notch.


The acting good too.
Noomi Rapace as Elizabeth is on form. Many have compared her to Ripley, but she really isn’t anything like Ripley. Rapace really shows her worth as a relatively tough but kindly lead role. She’s also incredibly likeable.
Logan Marshall-Green also makes an impression. He’s very likeable and has great chemistry with love interest Elizabeth.
Charlize Theron is also a great piece of acting. Her character is a bit of an enigma throughout and is really the one people should compare to Ripley. Saying that however, Theron’s role is another unique take on a character and she plays it icily cold… but in a good way.

The stand out role though is Michael Fassbender as David. He is exceptionally good. He’s another one you’re never really sure about and his character develops throughout the running time. He’s also pretty likeable as well.

Back up comes from Idris Elba, Raif Spall and relatively unknown actor Sean Harris makes another engaging and memorable character.


The action and effects… well, as I said, are just a little too modern and automated in style.
They’re very, very well rendered… close to being the best CG effects I’ve seen in modern film, but that, like I said, is part of the problem.

There’s no dirt or grime, no snot or gore with exception to only a handful of scenes. Although, the scenes outside the ship on the planet, and on the other ship, the effects and CGI really work well. They just needed to knock it back a bit in a couple of scenes.
The action is top notch though and is exciting too, especially a couple of the scenes at the end. One thing that works with the action, is that Scott has utilised it sparingly rather than just being an action up for the sake of it which is what most movie tend to be these days.





All in all, not a patch on the original film, not a patch on the sequels either (with exception to Resurrection, which really is rubbish)… it’s still a decent movie though and has an incredibly clever twist that runs throughout the running time.
It does however crap all over the AvP backstory, which I do like, rather muchly.
It’s exciting too, especially in the storyline stakes and is really quite a talking point when it comes to the creatures and direction that Scott has taken the whole idea of their existence.

Ridley Scott's follow up, or at least his lead up to, his original masterpiece Alien, is a bit of a hit and miss affair. Mainly hit though.
It fails at the first hurdle... a story that is conceivable.
A bunch of cave drawings that they decide to follow... it's all very unoriginal and bland really. It works well, but isn't anything groundbreaking in terms of story really.
Another thing is compared to the used future of the original movies, Prometheus, not just the ship but parts of the film too... just feel and look too modern. Especially with the Holographic tech on board the human ship.This movie is set near 30 years before Alien but yet feels more futuristic...

I get the point that it's a science ship on a voyage but the filmmaking is kinda like the Star Wars Prequels... it suffers with the advances in filmmaking technology. It's all just too clean and clinical.


The rest of the story however is pretty inventive and has really been thought through by the filmmakers quite well.

The overall direction Scott has taken the story, i.e.; a side story to The Weyland Company's involvement with other world life forms... is very cleverly pieced together and hits the nail on the head when it comes to adding more depth to something that is relatively mysterious throughout the franchise.

The writing/rewriting of the creature background and the DNA and genetics side of things is also thought provokingly clever. It smashes the preconceptions about the Alien and its background completely and opens the whole thing up for another franchise.
Quite an exciting prospect really.
They've even managed to give to creatures a history in terms of Species too. The various creatures seen throughout bare a resemblence in one way or another to the original Alien, giving the whole notion of our beloved Xenomorph a genuinely real and organic world in which it came from.
Kinda like Tigers, Housecats and Lions having similarities... or varying Primates from Gorillas to Chimps to Humans having some sort of resemblance, Scott has given the notion that there is a real genetic and organic background to the creature that we all know.

Another thing that stands out in the story is the filmmaker's's ideas in the history of where human life came from, and the lead character's faith in God.

The character writing of some of the characters seen adds more depth to The Weyland Company too.
What stands out though is the air of paranoia that builds up at the beginning, the audience is never really sure who to trust. Kind of a throwback to the first two Alien films but still done with enough secretive writing that it works fantastically.
There are a few scenes about half way through too with a number of characters that make the audience question their judgement of said characters as well. You think you knew the character, but then you're thrown onto the backfoot.
So the character writing on all levels is top notch.


The acting good too.
Noomi Rapace as Elizabeth is on form. Many have compared her to Ripley, but she really isn’t anything like Ripley. Rapace really shows her worth as a relatively tough but kindly lead role. She’s also incredibly likeable.
Logan Marshall-Green also makes an impression. He’s very likeable and has great chemistry with love interest Elizabeth.
Charlize Theron is also a great piece of acting. Her character is a bit of an enigma throughout and is really the one people should compare to Ripley. Saying that however, Theron’s role is another unique take on a character and she plays it icily cold… but in a good way.

The stand out role though is Michael Fassbender as David. He is exceptionally good. He’s another one you’re never really sure about and his character develops throughout the running time. He’s also pretty likeable as well.

Back up comes from Idris Elba, Raif Spall and relatively unknown actor Sean Harris makes another engaging and memorable character.


The action and effects… well, as I said, are just a little too modern and automated in style.
They’re very, very well rendered… close to being the best CG effects I’ve seen in modern film, but that, like I said, is part of the problem.

There’s no dirt or grime, no snot or gore with exception to only a handful of scenes. Although, the scenes outside the ship on the planet, and on the other ship, the effects and CGI really work well. They just needed to knock it back a bit in a couple of scenes.
The action is top notch though and is exciting too, especially a couple of the scenes at the end. One thing that works with the action, is that Scott has utilised it sparingly rather than just being an action up for the sake of it which is what most movie tend to be these days.





All in all, not a patch on the original film, not a patch on the sequels either (with exception to Resurrection, which really is rubbish)… it’s still a decent movie though and has an incredibly clever twist that runs throughout the running time.
It does however crap all over the AvP backstory, which I do like, rather muchly.
It’s exciting too, especially in the storyline stakes and is really quite a talking point when it comes to the creatures and direction that Scott has taken the whole idea of their existence.