We conclude our Alien retrospective with a look at the more controversial films in the series and we even get a contender for worst film ever covered on the podcast.
At the Movies with William Fletcher
Episode 157: Alien Franchise: Part 2
(upbeat music) Hello everybody and welcome back to another episode of Out of the Movies with William Fletcher, as a visual item, your host, William Fletcher. And I'm joined by my usual partner in crime Mr. Harry Jobson. - I'm here, sorry. I'm eating an Oreo. That was full timing on my own. - I don't have an apple, but yeah. - And we're here to conclude our alien retrospective with a look at the Alien versus Predator films at the Alien prequel film, Alien Prequel films, which was an alien, which was a Prometheus and Alien Covenant as of time to this week's release of Alien, Romulus. So yeah, I had seen, so yeah, Alien versus Predator will just get right into it 'cause I've got some feelings. It's, it's, you all right, Harry Jobson. - Yeah, no, sorry. It's just awful film, but continue. - So I mean, this is quite common where a franchise sort of runs out of ideas. And so yeah, because it was called Freddy versus Jason. - Yeah. - They wanted to do at one point, Freddy versus Jason versus Ash from Evil Dead was an idea they wanted to do. And then Sam Raimi said, no, you're not doing that 'cause he has respect for his character. And so they decided to do an Alien versus Predator film and a crossover to Fox Studio yet franchises and to put them together and to create a film that, you know, a crossover. And you know, crossovers, we see them now. I mean, Marvel, I think that's what Marvel is. That's just what the MCU has been from the beginning. It's just a massive crossover, but they were, of course, planned to cross over at some point. Whereas Alien versus Predator, it was very much. - Yeah, it's not as where the two IPs is like you find out they're in the same world and you're like, why? And it makes no sense. And yeah. - I mean, to talk about the first Alien versus Predator, I mean, I, okay, I don't like either of these films. These two films I've got to talk about straight up. - They sound, they're awful. - Yeah, I was going in to these films, to Alien versus Predator, expecting it to be bad. And like, it's bad, but it's not like completely bad. Like there's a few moments that I was like, okay, that's actually not too bad. I was like some decent ideas that are just executed very, very poorly, but... - How does that woman like that? Yeah, okay, sorry. - But, but I will also say it's not good. Like the first Alien versus Predator is not good. It's... - That's awful, that's awful. - And the thing is, at their base level, I think the Alien versus Predator films should have simply, like they shouldn't have been worse than just dumb, fine. Like, in theory, watching the Alien and Predator fight isn't like, it should be fun, if nothing else. It might be, the film might have a terrible plot, the characters might be completely nothing, and all that. Like, that's like, I kind of expect that. But at least when you get to Alien versus Predator, the actual fight, they should be good, and they're not, they're really... - Or so. - Quite terribly, and... - I'm not, I don't even know if we're gonna spend time talking about character in this film, because like, is Predator a good guy? Kind of, but not really, but kind of the good guy in the situation, and how are you gonna make Predator a good guy if you've seen the Predator film? Dude, I feel like the two IPs, so if you all get Alien, and you look at Predator, amazing, Alien, great film. Predator, I love Predator, great film. - Yeah, it's a great film. - Such cool, like visual display using the infrared camera, you've got Arnie being a badass, and it's quite isolated within the jungle, right? - Yeah. - Where Predator would work best. - Alien, isolated within the spaceship, badass Sigourney Weaver, cool Alien that's picking them off one by one. - Yeah. - Or Xenomorph or whatever. I'm just gonna keep saying Alien. - Yeah. - This is like, if someone took the idea for an epic rap battle of history, and made it a film, and it sucks, it won, it looks awful. Like, it looks like it was made for director TV, like the CGI and the effects in this film. - Oh, that was one of the things I noticed, is we complained about the CGI in Alien cubed, but that also has the excuse of, that was from the early '90s, when CGI wasn't like, like this was made early 2000s, like most to mid 2000s. And obviously CGI was like amazing then, but it's like, you do have-- - But you have like spiking stories today. - But you have like 10 years worth of, I mean, Spider-Man 2 came out that same year, and Spider-Man 2 looks fantastic, like, like-- - Oh, this is far from a-- - This is a, let's throw 20 million at it, and see what they can do, and make like a cool action movie out of it, 'cause we have two really strong IPs. But if you get someone like Ridley Scott, who has the passion for filmmaking, and we'll get to him when it comes to the prequels, which the only redeeming quality of those films is how they look. This film, one, it looks fucking awful. Like, if you've ever seen it, sorry for swearing, but if you look at like a Disney director TV like "Hascal Musical," or like "Shark Boy" in "Lavigo," it's given me those vibes. And obviously, like, it is better than that, but there are parts where you catch it, and you're like, that is the goofiest animation I've ever seen. And outside of that, you're gonna deal especially, and specifically with the Alien franchise, you're gonna deal with a crew cast of people that are just dumb, that are just dumb as all fuck, and they're dumb, like, oh no, the Alien movie, guess what, the crew is dumb, and they get double crossed, and like it's this, and it's that, and it's like, oh well, the premise of the film is that Predator has always been there, and it's trial ritual to fight the aliens, but then there were too many aliens, so Predator killed him all. - Yeah, that's the driving plot factor. It is definitely Alien versus Predator. But Alien, the film Alien, sets up none of that, neither does the prequels. The film Predator sets up none of that. So we're just being, given all this exposition, where they're trying to figure out like these mummy ruins, sacrifice things, I just think that there was such a, and it's so easy for me to sit here and critique, but this is a film podcast I'm going to. I could write a bit of Alien versus Predator film than that. That was horrific. I don't think they had writers watch the original source material. - Actually done. - Yeah, so this was directed by Paul, W.S. Anderson. - Who, I'm not sure how familiar. He has directed the Resident Evil films, the live action ones, from like the-- - Okay, well, I'm not super into-- - He directed the Mortal Kombat film from the '90s, the 1985 Mortal Kombat event horizon he did. - Monster Hunter? - Monster Hunter. - Monster Hunter's his recent film, yeah, he's there. - Is that the first of the video game franchise? - Well, it's down the world and-- - I've never put that together. That actually-- - 'Cause Resident Evil is also a game. - Yeah, it is based off the video game. So yeah, he clearly likes taking IPs and making his own versions and ruining them, yeah. He apparently did make the Pompey film, yeah, he did. Yeah, so he's, yeah. He's not a good filmmaker, not at all. And it's, he's a big fan of the Alien films though, I can, which is weird because this film is so terrible. But from my understanding of the Resident Evil films, they're all ripping off the Alien films, like one is ripping off the first Alien, one is ripping off the second one, so on, so. Yeah, I, this, it's-- - Which ones do you get to the third? Surely you stop ripping them off, right? - Well, yeah, I guess I, yeah, this film, this is not, this is not a good film. It's, it's the fight sequences kind of, I just want to talk about the fight sequences. They're in this terrible slow motion, right? - Well, there's like one bit that sticks out to me is the Predator has the Alien, and he swings the Alien through like a pillar. And it's so weird, it's like in slow motion, but it just doesn't look slow motion. Like it just looks like they're just moving really slow. And it's, it's so weird. It's, it's, it's a, I can't, man. It is, this is a look. And when we talked about this in last week's episode about how the characters in the Alien films aren't that amazing, like in the first Alien film, I don't really think the characters are that great, but like the characters in this film, I don't even, I can't even remember any of the characters. Like I at least remember characters from the first couple Alien films. Like I remember, I mean, Ripley obviously, but I remember Ian Holmes character, Ash, who's the android. I remember Bishop, who's the other android. Like I remember those characters, even if I don't think they're amazing, but I don't remember any. And I watched this film like two days ago, like I, I, I watch. I literally watched it on Sunday. I don't even, I just, I think I watched it Sunday as well. And I, and I was so depressed while watching it that I was like, oh, this is just the, the 11th, yeah, two days. Yeah, Sunday. I just felt so depressed about it. I was like, this is terrible. This shouldn't be bad. Like this should be like good, but it's not like, man, I cannot overstate how terrible it is. There's like the visual effects look really bad. It's just not a well made film. And what's crazy about it is that, I mean, not only is the, sorry, is the first, like the first films bad. The second films are somehow even worse. I'm not going to, look, Paul W.S. Anderson, you've made more films than I will ever make, bigger films than I will ever make, and probably better films than I could. I'm still going to say their shit about it. Yeah, you could still credit us. If we look at your track record, it, like, is there one film here that you think would have over a, like a 60 on Rotten Tomatoes? And I understand that it's not a. That's not, are you, are you checking the films on Rotten Tomatoes? Is that why you've been kind of silent? You've just been like a whole film film. Well, no, no, no, I'm checking the films. I'm, I'm checking the use of filmography on Go. So I'm literally, because, you know, when you just go search and tell us, what is going on, Rotten Tomatoes? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I know. I've seen a lot of 30s and 20s. Monster Hunter had a 44 event horizon, had a 35. Resident Evil apocalypse had 19. Yeah, actually, like, we're not going to dive into the director too deeply, but can you guess what Ailey West Predator had on Rotten Tomatoes? Oh, OK, I'm a go. There are better films with what sports in there. Oh, I'm going to go like a 49, maybe 50. No, dude, 22. Oh, OK, that's OK. I was just the way you were phrasing it. I'm like, is this going to be like? No, I just genuinely think some of those really shitty Adam Sandler Netflix comedies are better than this film. Because at least they're only like an hour and you can just get over them and there's like a laugh or two in this. Yeah, I'm just looking up his films on IMDB. Like, pretty much every film here has a five point something average. Like, mostly these are five points something. It's a couple that go beyond the six, but nothing beyond the six. Like, nothing goes to like seven. That is ridiculous to me. And then, OK, look, Ailey West Predator. It's a fun concept, fun, epic rapadels of history, like Darth Vader versus Hitler. But I don't think it doesn't. It never warranted a feature film, and it never warrants. It just feels like it downgrades the IP. It's fun. I will give it this, the PS and Xbox games of this film were fun. They were fun video games. Like, but make it a video game series. This works so much better as a video game series in a Mortal Kombat-style-esque, whether you can choose to play as the protagonist of Ailey and or Predator, and you play on either side of the core story and arc, that would be awesome. So this film's like a four. I'll give it a four. Because it kind of was fun. The action, like, with an Ailey inverse predator film, you are going to have at least a minute or two of, like, I'll call they're using their powers and they're funny each other, that's fun. Like-- No, yeah, definitely. There are moments where-- Everyone wants to see big monkey versus big lizard. Everyone wants to see Ailey inverse predator. It is quite cool, and it'd be awesome. It's like a 10-minute YouTube video. Yeah, this does not warrant a 90-minute runtime. Like, this does not warrant a 50-minute-- yeah, an hour, hour and a half runtime. It really doesn't. I'm just reading here. It was inspired by a comic book, which does make a lot of sense. But it's not good. I give it a three out of 10. I don't really know what four, but it's not. Yeah, I will say this, though. It looks like a masterpiece compared to the second Ailey inverse predator, which is, I think, this second Ailey inverse predator film is a genuine contender for worst film I've ever covered on this podcast. Like, I know I percolate to that state. I hated the film so much. Like, even more that I hated the first Ailey inverse predator. First of all, I just want to talk about the name of this film. This film is called A-V-P-R colon. Aliens versus predator. I found Requiem. And I think that might be the worst film title I have ever seen in my life. Like, it's-- first of all, it's way too clunky. Like, that's too many. There's too many syllables in the title. Like, a film title should not be that long, OK? Like, I don't-- like, that's a really long title. But it doesn't-- well, Requiem is like a religious thing. Like, it's like a-- like, I don't know how to-- it's like a-- it's sort of a mass for dead people, basically. I don't know what it has to do with Ailey inverse predator because it doesn't. They should have just called it aliens versus predators. Like, that would have been a better title. That would have made sense at the time. But yeah, I hated this film. I feel like you sounded like you disagree with me. No, no, I completely agree. This is one of the worst films I've ever seen in my life. I was just sort of getting all geeked out about how fucking dumb one, all the high school stuff is. Two, the way the film ends. Three, the way the film begins. Four, the hunters and the child. Five, the-- that was sort of a monster. Let me check the window, dad. The fucking-- like, I just-- and like, he's fine. And I just-- I-- I'm like, in-- it also seems like they're both nerfed as fuck in this film. Like, like, the Xenomorph seems a lot weaker than in the Ailey and franchise, which seems weak. And it's-- to make a predator a good guy. But his name is literally predator. Like, are we gonna-- oh, man. I also like the whole high school bullies. Yeah, let's put them in a pool. Like-- oh, my god. And they all seem-- This is so-- So fine with like, their best friends just getting nerfed. Like, I'm not super into the pool, but it just means-- that's why I don't love it. Like, I have a small-- I just-- I have a distaste for that sort of heavy girl, especially when it's like-- which is more of a prequel's thing. Yeah. Because the gore in this-- it's so disconnecting that it's not a problem to me. Yeah. Like, Deadpool, like Deadpool or Wolverine or that. It's like so outly disconnecting it's not too big of a deal. Mm. Yeah. Oh, my god, dude, we need to-- Like, just from a narrative perspective, I know we speak about filmmaking more so from a physical. And we usually just give a bit of an overview of the film and what we think about. But if we're gonna talk about the actual, like, one, this one has zero structure, like none. It's just like a series of events where Predator and Alien are fighting across different scenes, but it's just not real structures to the film. And two, I love how they're just like, oh, we escaped. And then America's like, yep, kill everyone in the town instantly with a nook. Just make it. [LAUGHS] Yeah, it's-- Yeah, it's-- Make the town. Kill everyone. Yeah, I mean, that's not my-- that's part of my problem. One of the problems I had early on is the main character is a terrible character to follow. Because he's not a likeable character. He's like-- He's at his-- he works like a pizza place. And he's delivering a pizza, which by the way, I did not know that cricket from always sunny was in this film. Like, I did not know that cricket was-- Yeah, it's dry. I thought I was like, is that? It looks like him. And it is. It's bloody cricket. But anyway, yeah, he's at his-- the main kid, if you haven't seen it, which please don't, I'm just-- there's a scene very early on where he's at. He's working at his job. He's working at pizza place. And we've all worked shit first jobs. OK, we've all worked jobs that worked in fast food or retail, like just crap jobs that we don't like. Yeah. It's not embarrassing, though. And the main character is throwing a fucking hissy fit, because he doesn't want to deliver a pizza. He doesn't want to do his job. And then he delivers-- --your job beneath you as a human being. Like, what's work, everyone's got to eat. Like, what are you talking about? Yeah, it's like working at a pizza-- like, at a pizza place, it's actually quite a respectable job. Like, you were helping feed other people. But also, like, everyone's got to work, like-- Yeah, exactly. You've got to earn money, you know? Like, you've got to have a job. And it's just-- it's like, you can't just go into your job and be like, nah, I don't want to do that deliver. It's like, it's your fucking job. You're a delivery boy. Anyway, so he delivers this pizza to his-- to these people's habits. And they start, you know, making fun of him. And then he says, well, I know who ordered the sausage lovers. And I'm like, oh, that's just really quite immature. Yeah, it's just really immature. It's like, come on, man. Like, it's just weirdly-- It's just like awful. It's just like, yeah, it's first of all-- And it doesn't endear us to this character, because this is our main character. And this isn't a film where you can really write an unlikable protagonist. Like, we have to like this character so we want to see them live, you know? Like, writing them to be a dick is like, well, I just want to see them get killed then, you know? Like, it's like, you can't do that in this kind of film, because it's just like, well, I want to see them die. But yeah, on the whole, this film is just, it's terrible. It's terribly structured. It's terribly written. It's terribly acted. The fights aren't even good. Like, it's just like, man, I can't-- I don't understand what happened here. I genuinely do not understand what happened here. But this is terrible. This is one of the worst films I've watched. I've seen worst. Like, I've watched Spider-Man Far From Home. I've watched Spider-Man Far From Home. No, but like-- It is one of the worst films I have ever seen. It'd be three positives about the film right now, William. Look, I want to hear from the conservatives. The novelty of seeing alien versus predator. The fact that they thought it was funny and that it was good enough to make a sequel, which I think is funny within itself. I give the film, it's one of those one movies that you watch, because it's so bad that it's funny. I don't know if it is that. Like, it's bad. I just-- I think it forms in that part. It's not-- Well, no hard to watch. I think the room is-- Yeah, the room is like-- it's a bad film, but it's fun to watch the room. Like, the room is a terrible film, but it's a hilarious watch. Whereas this is just like-- Oh, you're the light. Follow-rotto town. I don't-- I can-- I will never watch this film again. That's probably the best-- that's probably the most succinct point I can make. I will never watch this film again, which, you know, there's lots of films that I probably won't watch again, but like, this is legitimately amongst the very worst films I have ever seen. And that's, you know, that's really saying a lot. That was like, yeah, yeah, I give it a one out of 10, which would put this-- sorry, what did you give this film, sorry, Harry? A one. This would put this as the lowest rated film I've ever done, except we did the second 50 Shades of Grey film, and we had three of us on it, and I think we all gave it one out of 10. That's slightly worse, but this is like the worst-- the worst film, basically. Like, this is delightful. Yeah, like, did you share the Grey's heart? I think just predators not even that hot, like predators-- It's hotter, yes, but not that hot. No, I'm good at it. But-- But, yeah, so let's move on to the next film, Prometheus, which is a prequel. And we talked about this a bit last week, just sort of what the Alien franchise was going to be after Alien Resurrection. Because they didn't, you know. So this film went over in development for a long time, and it's a-- well, it's a prequel. It's not a reboot, it's a prequel to the other Alien films. Which I think is the Alien in the name, which is quite-- Yeah, it's not even called Alien Prometheus, or what I mean, it's just Prometheus. Which-- [LAUGHS] [INTERPOSING VOICES] But-- [INTERPOSING VOICES] OK, I was about to say, it's not massively on board with it. Not super, no. I feel like prequels tend to never land like they should. I'm trying to think of the films that are prequels. I mean, there's a recent plan of the Apes films that, ethnically prequels, although that's debatable, because I mean, they weren't prequels, so they're also kind of a reboot. At least with Prometheus, the film looks great. The shot for the shot, like if you look at shots of the film, the weight shot, the different editing styles, different, I'd say, sort of principles of, like, well, principles of shooting a scene, like a dynamic round, like different ranges and stuff. A very weirdly, Scott, especially if you-- William, if you have-- did you watch The Martian since we last spoke? I have not seen. No, I should. So the sequence of the screen-- I'll try and watch it. It will shot the shot with The Martian. Like, it-- things like using camera feed from the helmets and like, using those wide scoping. No one does that, like really that. Like, we're really Scott creating a dystopic future. We're at least a world in a fictional sort of-- like, he works so well with space and limbless space. And the really Scott wide shot is iconic. Like, it's-- it's almost his trademark. It's his produce attack. It's-- that really Scott wide shot. You know, the-- like the extra wide shot. Do you know what I'm talking about? The actual wide shot, yeah. I-- oh, yeah. It really Scott came back to direct this and alien covenant. I mean, I think we said this last episode. But really, Scott is a very good filmmaker. It's just that his films are-- And a lot of it, he returns to the franchise as well. Like, something that he sort of-- That being said, I feel like this film premiered-- it falls really flat. It adds, at least from a storytelling perspective and a screenwriter perspective, a bunch of lore that alien just doesn't mean. And we talked about this on pretty much every sequel. Since we've spoken about the first one that we've covered, none of these who needed to be made. That being said, I didn't think it was unwatchable. I didn't hate it. It is incredibly gory. The body gory is quite full-on with really Scott. And I don't like it. But I like that it's returning to-- Yeah, it's going to fall down the horror route, then the more shit route that life-- Like, fly, starlessy, look at all this. Yeah. I mean, there is a bunch of lore that no one gives a shit about. Like, respectfully, I don't care about the engineers. Like, it's just not a-- Yeah, I mean, I don't care about the characters, yeah. That's mostly my piece on it. I feel like it looks amazing. Yeah, I'll say that it's very well directed and put together. It's just that, as from a writing point, yeah, it doesn't work. There's, like, some problems with it. Yeah, there's some-- there's some issues with it. The characters make inexplicably stupid decisions, which is, I guess, a bit of a running theme for the Alien films, but also, like, that doesn't mean it's not a critique. Like, I can't criticize the film for doing that, because it's-- you've still got characters who make really quite bad decisions who, you know, end up like, you know, there's a lot of, there's a lot of, you know, good actors and stuff. Oh, this is one of the dumbest-- this is the dumbest crew to date. Actually, I think the second film's crew is "Dama." But this is the dumb crew. Idris Elbera, like, it does have some alarmingly high, genuinely, like, A-list celebrity cast. I mean, you've got Guy Pearce, Idris Elber. Michael Fassbender. Michael Fassbender. Yeah, sure, this is the wrong one. Yeah, it's a really big cast, and, you know, the-- but, yeah, I thought that there's some, yeah, very weird bits, like, the bit, because Michael Fassbender, he plays the-- he plays David, who's the android in this film. And he, for some reason, is wearing a suit on the planet, even though he doesn't need to wear a suit, because he's, you know, an android. So he's just, for some reason, wearing a suit. Like, it's a weird-- yeah, it's genuinely really bizarre to me. Like, it doesn't-- yeah, it's really weird. And I'll say this, I think, Michael Fassbender. Gives a very good performance, I'll say this. Like, Michael Fassbender is very good in this film. It is just a case of, like, the character-- I don't know, it's just, yeah, it's a very weirdly structured film. Like, it just-- yeah, there's some great ideas at play. And it's-- the film was written by Damon Lindeloff, which is probably best known for "Lost," which I've never seen "Lost," but people seem to like him. His cultural impact can't be understanding, yeah. Yeah, even if a lot of people-- even if a lot of people-- I've never seen it either, but I know a lot of people don't like the ending, or at least certainly they didn't like the ending. Maybe they like it slightly. Maybe they like it now. But it's-- yeah, it's very much-- yeah, so they're basically-- that was a script written by-- it's called Rod-- ah, I've got to look up at his name again, because I've forgotten what it was, because he's not like a well-known writer or anything. It was written by a writer called John Spates, who he is-- I'm just looking at what else he's done. He-- he's a credited writer on Dr.-- he wrote "Dr. Strange," the first one. Probably he's one of the credited writers on that anyway. He-- but he's most recently wrote "The Dune Movies," which I'm not a fan of. But when they were making Prometheus, they noticed that like, oh, he's never actually written a-- like, a film that's come out. So they got Damon Lindell off on board to write a bunch of stuff. So it's like-- so they're both credited for it. And I think-- yeah, the film's very-- yeah, it's not like a bad-- like, it's not-- it's not-- I don't think it's a bad film person. It's just like, the script is like the main thing that's letting it down. Yeah. And like, it's a very-- yeah, like, it's a well-made movie. And I also think that the cast does a great-- like, they do what they can with the material, obviously. I-- every-- because I actually saw this film before. I don't know when. But I know it because I was in the middle of watching it. And I'm like, oh my god, I've seen Prometheus before. And I think it was with Matt. It was like a sleepover to friends' houses. And it was like one of those things that was just on. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. But I watch this now. And I watched it recently. And Michael Fassbender looks so much like Anthony Star in this film. It's in-- like, I'm like a homelander, cool. Like, it-- an incredible comparison. I also feel like Anthony Star would just add the perfect level of just unhinged just a fuckery to that role. I've just looked him up and he kind of does, yeah. Like, when he's holding the orb in that scene? Yeah. Yeah, no, I'm just looking. Yeah, he does have that Anthony Star. Whoa. Like, that look in his eyes. Yeah, and I think being, like, blonde in the film helps. Yeah, I-- But it's-- you've really got to care about the source material of-- or, like, any of the deeper lore when it comes to things like the engineers. Because if you don't, you will find yourself just going, oh, this film is beautifully shot, that I don't do a shit about the story. The performances are what they're going to be in an alien film. I feel like the second film's performances are better. But I feel as if the second film is a worse film. And we're talking about the second prequel. So I think comparatively, if I'm thinking of this film in the scope of the other alien films that we've ranked, say it's on par with the second or the third, I don't feel like it's distinctly better than aliens. I still feel the aliens, at least. It's a hard one, because I don't really don't hate it. But I just don't care. I don't care about any of the lore that Alien and the Alien IP presents me, which is maybe a hold up with myself. But it stops me from getting involved in the film, because once he's talking about engineers and all this, and I still feel like the premise of, like, leaving longer and asking them how is a great motivator, to be honest, that fear of death, the-- I mean, look at the Harry Potter series. And I know this is a really weird avenue to go down. But Voldemort's whole thing is creating whole cruxes, because of his fear of death. Like, the hunt fit immortality is such a great antagonistic motivator. And I feel like that was done well, the score on the second film I quite like. But it does its job. I get six, six and a half, seven, maybe? Six. This film, my biggest issue with it is it does nothing. If you watch the second prequel, it matters literally if I pull, they build off none of it. Like, this film exists almost as a standalone, because, like, yeah, they reference the engineers in the second film, and it's kind of about that. But they don't really take any of, like, they're called principles. Or you know how, like, there's the xenomorph at the end of the film? And, like, it's supposed to be, like, the birth of alien, but it's not really the birth of alien. Like, all these red ruins and it kind of plot twists itself and gets itself stuck with its own canon. Yeah. But, yeah. So that's why I give it a six. Yeah, I mean, I give it a six, as well, actually. Yeah, I, um, yeah, it's very close to being great. It's just it doesn't fully work as a cohesive whole. It lives as a compelling narrative, yeah. Yeah, yeah. And then, yeah, we move on to the final film of our retrospective with Alien Covenant, which is, on the whole, seen as quite poor, like the general consensus says that alien covenant is not good. I'm just looking for a 73% on rotten tomatoes. For comparisons, like, alien has 65%. So not that big a difference, but a lot of people do not like alien covenant. I think I like it. I don't like it more than Prometheus. I can understand it is objectively a worse film. That being said, and the alien, like, the xenomorphs, I think look fucking awesome. Ridley Scott does, again, another amazing job. If you watch, when you watch The Martian, after having watched this film, you will go, OK, so this is 2012 to like 2019. Ridley Scott have this very specific style, especially with dealing with spaceman, helm, it's in large scoping space areas. The Martian is so such a beautifully, I think, shot and composed film with the soundtrack that it uses. And I feel like the score in "Alien Covenant" can really grow on you. It almost feels like an interpolation of the first alien film score, all the good things. The rest of it is the dumbest group we've ever had. Danny McBride is incredibly jarring in an alien film. So is James Pranko that just seems like some crazy, crazy. The cast that they've put together, like-- Michael Fassbender returns, Danny Marie Pace returns. But again, Danny McBride, a guy P.S. returns. But Danny McBride, James Pranko, two notably jarring people in this film. I don't know about you, but it really took me out of it. Yeah, no, it's very strange to see Danny. Because I'm aware of Danny McBride of who he is, everything. And he doesn't fit in this film. Danny McBride is the weird uncle with fireworks. You know what I mean? Like-- Yeah, he just doesn't fit in this film. It's important in terms of he's not alien. And I hate to pigeonhole one after, but if he's not alien, he has range. If you look at the writers' gemstones, like-- Yeah, sorry, I just have a focus on Danny McBride there. Yeah, I mean, I'm going to say something controversial. I think this is probably my second favorite alien film behind the first alien film. And I understand the complaints I get that the crew are inexplicably really stupid. They make some really terrible mistakes. But I also think that simultaneously, there's some great ideas at play. First of all, the poster, in terms of the poster, of the film, but it's a really-- just something about the visuals on that poster. I really like-- I mean, just in general, the visual-- it's a very-- this film is very well made from a technical level, as is Prometheus. It's a very well-directed film. Oh, you talk about the xenomorph that's on the jet? Is it like-- No, there's one which is like the zenomorph. There's like a bunch of different-- let me just find-- it's one where there's like a zenomorph and there's a bunch of people in a wall of people. There's like a zenomorph in it. Yeah, yeah, there's like sort of climbing over each other. Like that's visually, I think, that's really looking. I think Michael Fassbender gives an excellent performance in this. I think he's genuinely really great in this film. There is a scene that sort of occurs at the same-- there's Michael Fassbender. There's two versions of him in this. He's David and Walter. And there's a bit where one of them's teaching them how to play the flute, which is like a very like-- a strangely homoerotic scene. Like it's a very weird scene in the sense of like-- it's an interesting-- but I didn't have any real problems with it. I like-- I thought that was a-- like it's odd, it feels slightly out of place, but I don't have any massive problems with it. I thought there's one of the best scenes in the film actually is there's a guy who has like-- there's like a white xenomorph in this film, which I quite liked. And there's like a bit where one of the characters he gets the xenomorph, he gets-- yeah, he gets like a xenomorph in him. And there's this bit where this character locks another character in like a room to like quarantine them, like, which is-- and like there's just a sense of panic from that scene that is like genuinely really well conveyed. You know, like it's a-- like it's a-- like the characters make really terrible decisions, but yet simultaneously there is going like-- but yet simultaneously, despite the use of its distance, I did really enjoy the film. Like I had no-- like I could have acknowledged that, but-- yeah, it didn't really bother me. Just visually, it's really great. I mean, really Scott. We've said this before, but he's a great visual director, just in terms of what he does. And it-- yeah, there's just some great ideas that play. There's this-- we find out that David has like essentially killed a bunch of-- like there's a bit he had started the entire race of beings, which I thought was really just like-- yeah, I thought that was really great. And then there's the sort of the ending sort of reveal that-- because there's two-- Michael Fastbackness, as I said previously. And the sort of this big reveal of like, is this David, or is this the other one you know? Yeah, I really like this film. I know you are not-- yeah, I mean, yeah. I mean, I just really liked this film. I genuinely didn't hate it. I had a lot of fun watching it, to be honest. I, again, the gore, especially the body gore. And it's hard for me to-- it makes me uncomfortable. Like, I just don't like-- I'm just not a person for it. Some people ask, I'm like, yeah. That being said, I don't think that it-- and that pulls me out of it. It makes-- especially with alien films, it makes it really hard for me to sort of speak on, because it's what they're built off. But I still don't believe that this film was-- I think that you-- at least for the second one, because one, the crew is dumb to the viruses, like, airborne or something, I just feel like they really gave the narrative. They also didn't build off anything in the first film. And you go, OK, well, maybe it's in a director, and they went with a different direction. No, they're both really sculpt. Ridley was just like, let's go with the stronger parts of the alien franchise, and just focus on that. She'll win another narrative that means nothing, because they mean nothing. And make a great-looking film that's engaging, but also just look like-- I think I'd appreciate it more because it's not alien versus predator. Mm. In the most disrespectful world, alien versus predator possible, I enjoy it, like, comparatively. But I still don't like-- yeah, I'd probably give it a six. I'd probably say it's on par with Prometheus. I'd say that both the prequels, they do a pretty shit job of building on the world, but they would call-- and they don't put their recall. Yeah. I mean, they ditched that prequel trilogy. It's a good reason. Yeah, they had planned, I think. They talked about doing another prequel film, which I kind of wish we would still get, but I think it's probably dead now, especially if alien Romulus does well, because they just kind of set up another one. I'd give this an eight out of 10, which I think is very high, but I'm really-- it's maybe a bit generous, but I genuinely-- I really, really liked it. Yeah, so before we wrap up, do you want to hear my ranking of the alien films? I would love to hear your ranking. I've got-- I am. So from-- OK, so from worst to best. So at the bottom, AVPR, aliens versus predator, requiem, it can't-- Rather. That's pretty reasonable. Then I think it's AVP, alien versus predator, again, pretty valid. Then alien resurrection, alien cubed, Prometheus, aliens, alien covenant, and alien at the top. And yeah, so we did this two part at the time to the release of alien Romulus, which will be out this week. So we'll discuss this more in the review of the year episode. I think I'm agreeing with you, by the way. I think I completely agree with your writing. I just had to think about it for a second. Yeah. Yeah, no, that's all right. Anyone who doesn't have alien at number one is in the same. Well, yeah, no. Alien is the best one very easily. Yeah, so yeah, we're tying this into two alien Romulus, which is out this week. Do you know of anything about what this film is, Harry? Oh, I've looked at the cast, and I looked at the poster, which I thought was awesome. But I'm not going to really expose myself to this film. I might watch it in cinemas. I might not, but I'm not going to-- I'm not going to watch a trailer, I'll be honest. I will say, don't watch the trailers. They show a lot that they show in the trailers. And I'm not going to be keeping up with the sort of news on this film much at all, if it comes across my desk. It comes across my desk. But especially that one red poster with the face hugger. I feel like-- Yeah, I was just about asking which was the poster you had seen. It is a great poster. Yeah, I really like that one. Yeah, I've seen the trailers. They show a lot of stuff in the trailers. So try to avoid the trailers, if you can, because they do show a lot of things in it. Yeah, and I, you know, Fede Alvarez, who I'm a big fan of his work. I love his evil dead film. Don't breathe. I really like this way also. I'm really-- I'm looking forward to this. This is probably one of my most-- this is one of the few films that could end up-- this is one of the films that could end up being like, yeah, anticipated. And this, as a very good chance of possibly being my favorite film of the year, possibly. If it's done well, it could end up being my favorite of the year. I don't know yet, because-- I mean, there aren't any reviews out for it yet. And that doesn't mean I always agree with the reviews, but there's no real take on it. But yeah, so that is the end of this week's episode. I hope you enjoyed our Alien retrospective. Thank you, Harry, for joining me for this week's episode. Thank you for having me. And yeah, I look forward to seeing you guys all in the next one. I've got something-- I've got a bit-- another big retrospective planned for the next couple weeks as well. So I hope you look forward to that, because it's got me a big retrospective. I mean, this was already big, what, eight films in two episodes. So the next is going to be a bit bigger than that. But anyway, thank you all for listening to this week's episode. And I will see you all in the next one. Goodbye.