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[Starver]

Very nearly necroed the Star Wars thread, but that might be a bit niche[1]...

RIP James Earl Jones, 93.



[1] And voice-only. I think, movie-wise, his Admiral Greer does more for me. And two of his three times were alongside Harrison Ford.

[Il Palazzo]

Thulsa Doom, man.

[McTraveller]

Too bad he can't be a Jedi ghost.  Cheers, mate.

[Il Palazzo]

I've rewatched Alien, first time in many years. You know how the terribaddest thing in Prometheus was people acting unreasonably? I can kinda see it already present in the first one, just not amped so high. People splitting up when there's no good reason to, walking backwards through corridors, not using incinerators when they get a chance, leaving doors open. Like, some of it can be chalked up to panicking, but it is grating.

Also 1, why in the world the version on Disney+ is not the director's cut? I want my eggforming.
Also 2, holy shit did they make Ripley wear the most ridiculously tiniest of undies. I can almost picture some lecherous studio exec (or Scott) coming up with the idea. Or maybe it was simply in vogue at the time to wear a handkerchief and show off one's crack, what do I know.

[Ulfarr]

In their defense the crew of the Nostromo was basically just "disgruntled truck drivers, in space". Yeah..I wouldn't expect combat/tactical expertise in their skill set.

Meanwhile the merry crew of the Prometheus had people like that biologist who just had to boop the snoot of that clearly hostile, snakelike, alien who he had no idea about it's defense mechanisms...because we don't have any creature with poison, venom or fangs in good ol' Earth

[Il Palazzo]

You don't need combat experience to figure out that when there's three of you left, and there's no real time pressure, you maybe shouldn't split up. 'Go and bring some coolant while I prep the shuttle' No! Go together and then prep the shuttle together.

Still, not as bad as forgetting you can turn while running.

[King Zultan]

That kind of shit is pretty common in a lot of horror movies, it's like everyone in a horror movie is stupid.

[Kagus]

"Deus ex Moron" is a pretty common theme to be sure, but it's more egregious in some places than others


I was really hoping that maybe, just maybe, some filmmaking lessons had been learned by the time they made Covenant... ...they had not. Gorgeous scenery, everyone's a fuckin' idiot, nothing makes a goddamn lick of sense. As such, I really don't hold high hopes for Romulus

[Starver]

There might be a lot of that sort of thing going on, but there's also much of the opposite. Either can be smart or silly things for the characters to do. And the characters probably don't have enough information to realise which is which.

It's how it's written, and part of how it is written is whether there's an experience (direct character expertise or an "oh no... I've seen this kind of movie before" kind of awareness) to have them be genre-blind, genre-savvy or wrong-genre-savvy. And when it's something they might never have expected (that inconveniently shorted circuit was due to Snakes! On your Plane!), you can excuse characters wandering around on their own before they know they're going into danger. And even when they have the initial inklings because they still don't know enough to be Afraid, Be Very Afraid, or consider time-restraints the more vital pressure rather than needing to double[1][2][3]-up at all times.

Then, once it comes to "Ok, gang, we need a multi-part plan to get us to safety and/or negate the danger", there's not likely to be a sit-down meeting with flowcharts and full risk-analysis to cover each and every way in which the still somewhat mysterious nature of the antagonist(ic element) could derail individual or group survival. Military-trained practical awareness (or encyclopædic knowledge of the entire ventilation system) can only go so far.



[1] Not that doubling up totally works, as a pair watching each other's backs are still often enough picked off as essentially two singles due to inopportune separation or momentary inattention/misdirection by the first one to succumb.
[2] And if the danger isn't known/assumed to be one of the party, in which case Tripling-Up would be advisable, to prevent easy backstabbing then the rogue element fakes their death/their partner's complicity in order to then start to pick off other pairs at leisure.
[3] It's so easy to over-(/under-)think these things, and get the balance wrong for the situation. Character flaws might help, but the simple lack of omniscience might just be enough to make a few ultimately bad decisions from.

[Telgin]

I've wondered about them splitting up too.  I guess the only real explanation is that they were trying to leave as fast as humanly possible, but it doesn't really hold up well when you think about it.  It could have only saved a couple of minutes.

Something else I've wondered about is if the Narcissus could have even carried all three of them.  It's been a while since I've watched it, but I only remember there being a single hyper sleep chamber on it.  From what I remember they just stated it couldn't take four people.

Also 1, why in the world the version on Disney+ is not the director's cut? I want my eggforming.
Also 2, holy shit did they make Ripley wear the most ridiculously tiniest of undies. I can almost picture some lecherous studio exec (or Scott) coming up with the idea. Or maybe it was simply in vogue at the time to wear a handkerchief and show off one's crack, what do I know.

1. My guess is that the eggmorphing is probably considered noncanon.  Or does Disney+ have the ability to view deleted content like on a Director's Cut DVD?  Interestingly, I can't think of any Alien media except for that deleted scene that ever showed it.  It's probably in one of the books or comic books, but I don't know much about them.

2. I always thought the underwear was pretty dumb.  This sort of sexualization was in style when Alien was made or something, I think?  If I remember right the female crew basically had nipple tape in the hypersleep scene too.  Still looks ridiculous.

[Chaosegg]

Also 2, holy shit did they make Ripley wear the most ridiculously tiniest of undies. I can almost picture some lecherous studio exec (or Scott) coming up with the idea. Or maybe it was simply in vogue at the time to wear a handkerchief and show off one's crack, what do I know.

2. I always thought the underwear was pretty dumb.  This sort of sexualization was in style when Alien was made or something, I think?  If I remember right the female crew basically had nipple tape in the hypersleep scene too.  Still looks ridiculous.

Yes yes, it's all very exploitative, but sex sells etc, and the human body is just that. We can go 'round & 'round on that subject, and i could argue either side, or a 3rd, 4th or 5th side probably.

However what I would like to point out is:
I have noticed a general trend in show/movies over the years since i was born (around 1980), that far fewer breast/nipple-implied-shots are being shown but far more male nudity is added.  Dare I mention Aliens in which the Space Marines almost all come out of cryosleep shirtless?  And that was a long time ago, in the 20-teens+ we are seeing WAY more naked man parts in almost everything. I can't even begin to list them all, but i'm sure you all have seen some of it.

I get why they used to put attractive women in movies that were mostly aimed at male audiences, but these days? The last, i-dont-know, 15 years? It's like the script was flipped on that subject...
I don't know about yall but I am not especially interested in seeing other naked dudes (particularly in a "dude-oriented-movie").

[King Zultan]

I say that nudity of of any kind ruins the movies for the most part, I don't watch them for nudity I watch them to see people get killed in interesting ways.

[Yoink]

More boobies on screen, please. Letterboxd exists purely to track the amount of boobage in each film.
...Of course, then the owners of said boobies will ideally be killed in interesting ways, too. Best of both worlds!

[Il Palazzo]

Longlegs is pretty good, eh. It has Cage being Cage, but not Stupid-Cage, a nice unsettling atmosphere, and smart little visual flairs that let you appreciate the director's (Perkins) understanding of the genre. Kinda felt like it misses a beat in the final note to make it entirely satisfying. But it's time well spent, especially with the Halloween aura in the air.

Also, goddamn local movie translation goblins always end up with the darndest, blandest, cookie-cutter titles. This one was released as, literally, 'Code of evil'.