Alien Convenant 2017 6 out of 10

Alien Covenant 2017   6 out of 10

Alien Covenant is the sequel to Prometheus and as such a prequel to Alien. The story picks up about 10 years after the events of Prometheus and follows a colony ship that is headed for a distant planet being woken up early after some ship damage and receiving a message from a nearby planet capable of supporting life. They decide to investigate, which turns out to be a bad idea as the planet is where David (the android) and Elizabeth from Prometheus have crash landed.  The crew encounters some Alien spores that infect several crew and turn into Aliens quicker than anything in the original film.   Their landing ship is destroyed and they are about to be annihilated until they are saved by David.

David has apparently been overcome by a serious god complex since we last saw him as a severed head in the first film.

The film makes the same mistake as Alien 3 and kills off the main character from Prometheus before the film even begins .  Apparently there was some deleted scenes that dealt with this that we don't get to see.   Instead we get a flashback to David arriving on the Engineers planet and unleashing some destructive disease that wipes them out.   Since then he has apparently has been experimenting with the Alien DNA.  Trying to make a better creature.   It is a decent Alien film as far as the battle with the creatures, but it is just too much rehashing of already covered material.   The ground crew gets destroyed while battling the creatures and the main ship swoops in to try and rescue them.  We get some scenes that rethread the same battles at the end of Aliens as they try to escape the planet.

To make things confusing David and an android that looks just like him from the Covenant  named Walter end up battling the climax of this battle is not shown.   (Surprise) at the end David replaces Walter as a couple of crew that haven't been killed off escape.  This not so surprising twist happens at the end of the film just as the two remaining crew members go back into hibernation.   And then David coughs up and places a couple of Alien eggs into a 

I really liked Prometheus-- but this sequel just continues to take the Franchise off in a weird direction.  This film makes the connection to the original Alien more convoluted.  If David is the one that creates the Aliens from the original film,  why are they found on an Engineer Spaceship with a Space Jockey Pilot?   I also don't like that the new films have basically wiped out the Alien Vs Predator films since they don't fit in with the new Timeline.  They kill the Alien Vs Predator shared universe concept which is a shame.  Sure the Aliens vs Predator films never lived up to their potential, but they were better than Alien 3 (One of the only movies I've ever walked out of a theater during).   Alien and Aliens still stand out as the gold standard of the franchise.  This film is pretty much a forgetable entire to the franchise.

Here is a Timeline Video that tries to explain the Alien Timeline from IGN.

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Flashback Friday Movie Review: Event Horizon 1997 9+ out of 10

Event Horizon 1997   9+ out of 10

I decided to take a look back at Event Horizon recently after watching several similarly themed films over the summer.

Event Horizon is an example of a horror movie in space.  Think of it as a Space Ship/Haunted House film.  It borrows elements from films like the Shining (in the journey to madness)  and Aliens (in the visual style of the film).   

I had recently seen films like Pandorum from 2009  in which a couple astronauts wake up early on a long range mission to find out they are not alone on the ship.   It is a great journey into space madness.  An interesting film worth checkin out.

Inifini  2015 was a surprisingly good  low budget Aussie film with of a similar story where a search a rescue team are transported to a facility to only to find madness as well.   And the movie Sunshine 2007  which also had a simliar story that just didn't work as well for me.

I'm glad I took a look back at Event Horizon --because on repeat viewing I actually enjoyed it a more than the first time around . Paul WS Anderson directed the film and the production of the film itself sounds like it was cluster f... .  There is a great article over on Den of Geek that gets more into detail of the film's production issues and factors that may have lead to how the film turned out.

Somehow a cool film came out of the process.

http://www.denofgeek.com/uk/movies/event-horizon/41976/event-horizon-from-doomed-ship-to-cult-gem

The strength of the film is the performances by its strong cast that includes Laurence Fishburne and Sam Neill.   The crew is sent to investigate a spaceship that disappeared into a black hole and has now surprisingly come back.   Sam Neill does an excellent job as the scientist that already knows more than the crew.  (Evil Scientists always ruin everything---they always have to study things --that shouldn't be studied).    Something came back with the spaceship when it returned from the black hole.   A Force, a dark energy,  maybe even Hell itself.    Instead of being just a movie about space madness---this film gets deeper into Clive Barker,  H.P Lovecraft territory.  The ship has apparently returned acrosss the black hole from another dimension --basically unlocked Pandora's box and unleashing a hell dimension into our universe.    The film is visually stunning.  The abandoned ship is super creepy with a strange gothic ship design that looks like something out of a torture chamber.   The movie sets up this haunted ship in space so well and then devolves into chaos.   I really enjoyed this film on repeat viewing after about 20 years and gave it a better rating than I had back in 1997.

If you like creepy Sci-Fi horror with a strange haunted house gothic vibe ---make the time to revisit Event Horizon

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Star Trek Beyond 2016 6 out of 10 (Maybe Trek should stick to TV)

Star Trek Beyond 2016   6 out of 10

I've seen every Star Trek movie.  

I no longer see them in the theaters , but I do eventually get around to seeing all of them.  

I'm to the point now where I think Trek should just stick to TV.  

I'm sure my comments will make some Trek fans.....but in reality a Trek show is better for Trek fans than occasional so-so movies.

The latest Star Trek movie had some great special effects and some cool action sequences that should have excited me more, but didn't.

The cast in this alternate Trek movie universe is solid, I can't fault any their performances.  I watched this latest Trek movie last weekend and I just wasn't that into it. (I actually feel asleep twice) It seems like it should be exciting, but it just wasn't. (From my comment on Facebook I believe my Podcast Co-Host Russell may disagree--which could make for a good discussion on the Podcast). My issue with the film is the screenplay.  It just seemed so random and not big screen worthy.  The twist of the film left me underwhelmed and the story as a whole was just ho-hum.

An hour into the film I was wishing it was Galaxy Quest 2 instead of Star Trek.   The screenplays for most of the Trek films just haven't been as good as some of the stories told on TV.    Despite the campy look the original Star Trek actually had some really good stories that the film versions of Trek have rarely lived up to.   

I would rather watch a couple of back to back episodes of the original TV Series than one of these movies. I'd rather even watch Next Generation Q episodes than these films.  I just think the TV shows lend themselves to more interesting storytelling that fits Trek better.

Star Trek Beyond was okay popcorn entertainment.... but it wasn't memorable.....just like so many of the Trek films.

                            

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