Ridley Scott to direct prequel to Alien!!!!!!....

[JBC]

I like how this movie seems to take on screen ideas that can be found in the Dark Horse comics, which in turn used rumours and hearsay about what Scott originally wanted to do with Alien(s). I may watch the movie to see if this is the case.

I'm a big fan of most of Dark Horse's Aliens pubs. Are you speaking about Aliens Apocalypse: The Destroying Angels? It's one of the few DH stories to actually feature the Space Jockeys (handled appropriately at least) and has GREAT artwork. I never try to consider the comics as part of the official movie canon (especially since Alien 3 prompted Dark Horse to restructure it's fiction and Resurrection subsequently shat all over it a second time) but the fiction of their expanded universe itself is really pretty good. The newest release, Fast Track To Heaven is shite though :/

My favorites:
Vol. II (Nightmare Asylum) - Great painted art and a story revolving around a Contra-esque mad general who thinks he can control the xenos for purposes of war
Earth War - Original printings, the reprints raped Sam Keith's art with really bad computer coloring. The way the story has segments that play out from the perspective of a shoulder cam belonging to one of the refugees on Earth during a global xeno infestation gives the story a real tragic aura. There's also scenes involving the derelict, and to see Sam Keith handle something of that design is a real treat.
Stronghold - This is a John Arcudi/Doug Mahnke story from back when they did awesome things like The Mask. It centers around a mad scientist who's been trying to create a virus that will wipe out the aliens. The guy is seriously nuts though, and regularly abuses his android staff.
Hive - Very organic, gothic Kelly Jones art mixed into an equally dreary script by Jerry Prosser about a doomed man who travels to an infested world in order to secure a supply of the Queen's royal jelly. He's created a synthetic alien equipped with pheromones to infiltrate the hive and bring back the juice in order to stave off his cancer. It's pretty epic and there's a nice companion piece to it called 'Cyberantics', which is the book published by the main character in-fiction.
Berserker - This is a really simple story that has endearing, colorful artwork. There's nothing very complex about it with the exception of the MAX armor's introduction. The MAX armor is a battle suit designed to wipe out a hive that slowly drains it's human pilot of their own health and sanity. Prisoners volunteer to 'do time' as a MAX pilot in order to chop years off their sentence.
Labyrinth - This is a very well written story about an insane scientist who's been doing experiments on the xenos aboard a space station. That's nothing new to the series, as it had been done before in Stronghold. However, it's the backstory of said scientist which makes the story interesting. I don't want to ruin too much but it turns out he had a VERY traumatic experience with the xenos during his adolescent years and the story walks you through every disturbing moment of it.

There's a few more out there that are damn fine reads and some smaller scattered stories collected in anthologies but these are some of the more notable entries for me. Hell, even some of the AvP stuff is pretty good. It's like I said earlier in the thread, AvP works fine as a comic or video game series but they should have never even tried to make a film adaptation.

[Ed Oscuro]

I still maintain that if you interpret that Deckard is a Replicant in Blade Runner, as Scott has, it makes Rachael's character redundant, it makes no sense how Deckard is no physical match for any of the replicants, even Pris, the contrast between the Replicants overflowing with passion while Deckard is sullen and withdrawn becomes pointless, and the final confrontation between Batty and Deckard becomes meaningless.

You are a sad man and that makes me envious....it makes me wanna dance!!

[BIL]

Labyrinth - This is a very well written story about an insane scientist who's been doing experiments on the xenos aboard a space station. That's nothing new to the series, as it had been done before in Stronghold. However, it's the backstory of said scientist which makes the story interesting. I don't want to ruin too much but it turns out he had a VERY traumatic experience with the xenos during his adolescent years and the story walks you through every disturbing moment of it.

I read quite a few of the DH comics a year or so ago, and although a lot of them have since blurred together, Labyrinth still stands out as memorably horrific. As you said, it's superficially familiar but the execution and content are strong horror stuff. I like that it maintained the original movie's unsettling quasi-sexual themes, where Aliens was a committed if atmospheric blaster about angry bees and their angry bee boss.

[Randorama]

I'm a big fan of most of Dark Horse's Aliens pubs. Are you speaking about Aliens Apocalypse: The Destroying Angels? It's one of the few DH stories to actually feature the Space Jockeys (handled appropriately at least) and has GREAT artwork.

Yes, it is by Mark Schultz, the Cadillacs and Dinosaurs author, both story and art. Dark Horse also used the Jockeys in some of their earlier Aliens specials, I recall.

I generally liked this line of Comics, as well as the Konami action game. Probably my favourite are also Hive and Labyrinth, the latter entirely produced by Jason Woodring, the genius behind Frank. I also liked a lot Kieth's work, and the Claremont/Guice-Barroso AvP maxi-series, even if in this series Claremont wrote some remarkably corny lines (...typical Claremont stuff).

I am actually hoping that Prometheus draws some inspiration from the comics, as I really preferred these to what came next, movie-wise. The apocalyptic set-up of the comics was way more interesting. I particularly liked the first three series, as they showed that the aliens on Earth were just the catalyst for the collapse of society, rather than the cause.

Early Dark Horse comics were really top-notch stuff.

[GaijinPunch]

Early Dark Horse comics were really top-notch stuff.

What are they like now? I read the first two Alien(s) series' on DH. Can't remember the first, I think the 2nd was Aliens II which was airbrushed, and the Konami Aliens game uses the cover of the first issue as the flyer. Pretty cool shit -- way higher quality than any normal publication Marvel or DC was putting out.

For shits & giggles I went through a price guide to check the cost of some of the rarer books I had. Holy shit -- not sure if they'd sell for that, but even after inflation, I could still probably have a good night with some D-list hookers.

[Randorama]

What are they like now? I read the first two Alien(s) series' on DH. Can't remember the first, I think the 2nd was Aliens II which was airbrushed, and the Konami Aliens game uses the cover of the first issue as the flyer. Pretty cool shit -- way higher quality than any normal publication Marvel or DC was putting out.

For shits & giggles I went through a price guide to check the cost of some of the rarer books I had. Holy shit -- not sure if they'd sell for that, but even after inflation, I could still probably have a good night with some D-list hookers.

If they're mint, probably a lot. Isn't there a magazine covering prices for comics? If anything goes awry, I might as well as sell mine, too.

The first series (Aliens: Outbreak) was by Mark Verheiden and Mark Nelson, in black and white, and duotone. It was possibly one of the most well-written pieces of sci-fi around, since it analyzed...no, it eviscerated how an invasion of Earth by aliens would have acted as a catalyst for the literal collapse of a deeply precarious society based off profit.

The aliens didn't destroy the Earth; it was us, JP Morgan (or something like that).

Now, Scott better work hard on the sfx, as I can't see how he could top those works.

I feel that the Aliens/Predator cinematographic works were in a sense doomed to be poorer than their comic counterparts, in terms of narrative. Comics are simply cheaper and easier to use, if one wants to explore plots and world development. I am going to see this movie anyway, I am still curious.

As for Dark Horse: I think that at some point they were BY FAR the best western company for comics, as they produced everything under the sun, at decent prices, and for top-notch quality. I adored the way they reprinted another favourite comic of mine, Grendel.

Now, they still do good stuff, but I guess that Julian/NTSC-J has a clearer idea of their output. He should buy some of their products, if memory serves well.

[Mischief Maker]

The first series (Aliens: Outbreak) was by Mark Verheiden and Mark Nelson, in black and white, and duotone. It was possibly one of the most well-written pieces of sci-fi around, since it analyzed...no, it eviscerated how an invasion of Earth by aliens would have acted as a catalyst for the literal collapse of a deeply precarious society based off profit.

The aliens didn't destroy the Earth; it was us, JP Morgan (or something like that).

I thought it was a bunch of bat-crap insane cultists who broke into the egg lab and intentionally got themselves impregnated, as plot-convenience characters tend to do.

[Randorama]

I thought it was a bunch of bat-crap insane cultists who broke into the egg lab and intentionally got themselves impregnated, as plot-convenience characters tend to do.

Ah yes, some cultists who believe that rapture comes by being impregnated by some superior creature, such as aliens. They steal some xenomorph eggs, and cause the alien invasion, which spreads without control. Classy stuff, that should have been Alien:3.

[Mischief Maker]

I thought it was a bunch of bat-crap insane cultists who broke into the egg lab and intentionally got themselves impregnated, as plot-convenience characters tend to do.

Ah yes, some cultists who believe that rapture comes by being impregnated by some superior creature, such as aliens. They steal some xenomorph eggs, and cause the alien invasion, which spreads without control. Classy stuff, that should have been Alien:3.

Well I wouldn't exactly call that a scathing critique of our culture when the actual collapse is caused by literally insane people. Sounds like JP Morgan was blindsighted by circumstances no reasonable person could have foreseen, and were it not for such monumentally stupid characters intervening, their alien experiments would have gone off without a hitch. Greed was not the downfall of Earth.

Just saying for "one of the most well-written pieces of sci-fi around" its pivotal event relied on a pretty hacky plot convenience. Maybe you meant the best comic book sci-fi? Because "Dune" this ain't.

[JBC]

I thought it was a bunch of bat-crap insane cultists who broke into the egg lab and intentionally got themselves impregnated, as plot-convenience characters tend to do.

Ah yes, some cultists who believe that rapture comes by being impregnated by some superior creature, such as aliens. They steal some xenomorph eggs, and cause the alien invasion, which spreads without control. Classy stuff, that should have been Alien:3.

I believe that's what the crazies in Dead Space believe too. Probably just coincidence, but it is well known that the DS series was heavily influenced and inspired by the Alien universe. I think they meant moreso by the movies, but it would be kind of cool if they thought that highly of Dark Horse's comic series.

I didn't realize there were still so many fans of these left around, glad it got brought up ^_^

Also I'd like to add that I'm not a really big fan of Vol. 1 myself but it's not total shite. The art could be quite good at times, especially in the colorized versions. That same creative team returned for a short Aliens story in A Decade of Dark Horse issue 3 and I think Mark Nelson contributed a page to the double issue Aliens: Havoc mini series along with quite a few favorites of mine (including John Totleben of Swamp Thing fame).

EDIT - Anybody ever go through the excellent Colonial Marines Technical Manual?

[CMoon]

You folks have been talking up the comics a bit. I noticed the 'best of' have been collected into several omnibus(es), though they have also been edited in various ways by Dark Horse over the years. Do you guys recommend this, or am I best just imagining what it would have been like if I had collected the comics (actually thought about it at the time, but didn't.)

[JBC]

You folks have been talking up the comics a bit. I noticed the 'best of' have been collected into several omnibus(es), though they have also been edited in various ways by Dark Horse over the years. Do you guys recommend this, or am I best just imagining what it would have been like if I had collected the comics (actually thought about it at the time, but didn't.)

Those collections are great, but don't always contain the best version of each story. They have the recolored version of Earth War, redubbed Female War for some reason. It's okay with me that they changed things in an attempt to counter the events of Alien 3, showing that Dark Horse lovingly cared about continuity at the time, but the recoloring is just wretched over Sam Keith's artwork. I believe there are a few examples of this I spotted while flipping through each Omnibus at the book store. Some stories that were only available in B&W before have been colored well, and other's not so much. Still, you can get them on the cheap from Amazon so I say go for it. I'm planning on it myself, and this list should make building your own easy.

[Randorama]

Well I wouldn't exactly call that a scathing critique of our culture when the actual collapse is caused by literally insane people. Sounds like JP Morgan was blindsighted by circumstances no reasonable person could have foreseen, and were it not for such monumentally stupid characters intervening, their alien experiments would have gone off without a hitch. Greed was not the downfall of Earth.


Just saying for "one of the most well-written pieces of sci-fi around" its pivotal event relied on a pretty hacky plot convenience. Maybe you meant the best comic book sci-fi? Because "Dune" this ain't.

Maybe you're reading too much into my posts, I just wanted to poke fun at real events

But I didn't notice I wrote only sci-fi, yes, I meant comics. The cliché lunatics were only a part of the plot, though. I am pretty sure that the author spent several pages chronicling how the presence of the aliens triggered massive forms of social unrest that were lingering about, for instance.

The comic itself had several interesting ideas, such as the explosion of dedicated tv channels, and several other ideas that were appearing only then in sci-fi literature (1988).

[Skykid]

Dealing w/ space is about the closest in real life you can get to safely invoking infinity. When infinity is invoked, everything is possible -- a random sequence of letters will eventually fall in the order of the bible. Of course, there are a finite number of stars. However, it is a fuck ton. Hence, I say probably life out there... at least I think probably.

Pass the bong dude.

[GaijinPunch]

Dealing w/ space is about the closest in real life you can get to safely invoking infinity. When infinity is invoked, everything is possible -- a random sequence of letters will eventually fall in the order of the bible. Of course, there are a finite number of stars. However, it is a fuck ton. Hence, I say probably life out there... at least I think probably.

Pass the bong dude.

Which part were you not smart enough to get?

Semi OT: I am pissing clean as a whistle. I'm thinking maybe a urine sample for your next package.

[Skykid]

Which part were you not smart enough to get?

I think humour is totally lost on you these days!

It was a witty stoner addendum to all that talk of space and infinity, not an insinuation your views were incorrect because you can't kick the crack habit (hope that's going well btw.)

[GaijinPunch]

I know... I just can't miss the opportunity to offer you a urine sample.

[Randorama]

I know... I just can't miss the opportunity to offer you a urine sample.

Is it mint, and in perfect conditions? I'd take two, then.

[PC Engine Fan X!]

Went to my local movie theater today and inquired about if Prometheus was supposed to be out tomorrow...the gal at the box office said that it doesn't officially come out until June 7th, 2012. I thanked her for that golden nugget of info and am passing it along to my fellow shmuppers. Despite the latest Prometheus trailer hawking a June 1st, 2012 release date, it's been officially pushed back to it's original June 7 opening date stateside. Damn you, 20th Century Fox for delaying the release of it -- there's gotta be a proper sneak peek to check it before the official release date. At the very least, it won't go head-to-head with the upcoming Pirahana 3DD sequel when it hits the big screen.

It surely will be worth the wait of an extra week...am certainly awaiting to see how it's going to turn out, plot-wise.

I do recall that some junior colleges and universities that offer "film apperciation" classes do offer students the chance to watch first run flicks before they're offered to the general public. Other than that, unless you have a media pass, there ain't any way to view Prometheus properly until then.

Sure, the TCF studio could have it's Prometheus movie not screened in advance to film critics...but ultimately, it's up to them to do so or not as they call the shots. I don't give two shits about what the film critics have to say about "X" film but with Mr. Scott at the helm, it's gonna be something alrighty (especially with the Alien movie franchise/mythos).

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[emphatic]

I'm going tomorrow night!

[PC Engine Fan X!]

It'd be cool to read your thoughts and opinions about it, emphatic. You lucky dog, you. ^_~

I do recall Battleship being released in other countries before it debuted stateside, it hasn't done well at the U.S. box office with a mere 47+ million USD earned in it's initial two week run (when it had an overall $210 million dollar budget to make) making it a U.S. film flop (but it did quite well overseas). Seems with TCF studio, playing favorites with releasing Prometheus internationally slightly ahead of it's official USA film debut. In the end, it's all about trying to milk a film for all it's worth.

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[GaijinPunch]

I will be in the America next week, so will check it out w/ an old friend. Got everything sorted out.

[Skykid]

I do recall Battleship being released in other countries before it debuted stateside, it hasn't done well at the U.S. box office with a mere 47+ million USD earned in it's initial two week run (when it had an overall $210 million dollar budget to make) making it a U.S. film flop

Music to my ears.

Rewinding several pages:

Watch the Prometheus trailer and you don't give a fuck about who anyone is, they all just blend into one bland entity. The script (at least in the trailer) is shite too.

In your uneducated opinion.

So here's the educated one, from Empire Magazine:

"Buffeted by a lack of suspense, threadbare characters, and a very poor script, the stunning visuals, gloopy madness, and sterling Fassbenderiness can't prevent Prometheus feeling like Alien's poor relation."

[replayme]

Visually spectacular, but hollow and soulless as an experience, Prometheus is a disappointing film. 3.5/5.

[PC Engine Fan X!]

How are the 3D effects when viewing Prometheus on the big screen?

So this prequel can't match the overall pacing set by the first Alien flick? Such a dissapointment if that's the truth.

I still plan on watching it properly when June 7th rolls around.

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[replayme]

As I said, Prometheus is visually stunning. The 3D really adds to the visuals, but alas, the film itself just feels really barren. Reminds me of the Transformers movies, in that you have a capable director at the helm, and there is a lot of scope and potential for the project, but alas something doesn't quite stick. It doesn't really flow, and at times you feel as if the film has come off an assembly line.

[Skykid]

It doesn't really flow, and at times you feel as if the film has come off an assembly line.

Er... it has.

I'm surprised folks aren't more acutely aware that every single blockbuster release these days tends to be a product of the studio/producer system, not the director. The days of genuine directorial ingenuity in Hollywood is dead as a doornail, hence you have disappointments coming from even the most reliable sources: Cameron, Spielberg, and now Scott.

So this prequel can't match the overall pacing set by the first Alien flick?

Surely no-one sincerely believed, after what's happened to Die Hard, Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Predator and the Alien franchises, that you were going to get a film to match the quality of Alien? In 2012?! You must be mad!

[PC Engine Fan X!]

I hold the Alien flicks in high regard but it would seem the screenwriter for Prometheus would be the one held accountable for the plot and pacing (sure, there were some changes in the inital screewriting script to the final one used for the film). I knew there was going to be some nit-picking with this film once it hit the international scene. And it still hasn't been shown in the USA yet.

Back in the old days, it used to be the Hollywood movie studio system would release their big budget movies right here in the USA firsthand and release it internationally, afterwards. Lately, it's been the reverse of that particular situation of releasing big-budget Hollywood films internationally first then for the USA market, second.

What's interesting about the TCF studio is that they're adding the finishing touches to both the Blu-Ray & DVD versions of Prometheus right now while it's playing on the big screen. It used to be about six months after the debut of a movie on the big screen that the major studios would sell the home video versions but lately, that time has been shortened to about three or four months tops (for the USA home video market).

Smokin' Aces Factoid:

It was just a mere two months from it's big screen debut to the home video release of both DVD and HD-DVD formats for the Smokin' Aces flick in the USA, the quickest release that I've personally seen. Eventually, it would be re-released on Blu-Ray format down the road.

That reminds me, the sequel to 300 titled "300: The Battle of Artemesia" is currently in production.

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[JBC]

Got my IMAX 3D tickets reserved today (opening midnight show). I usually have the opposite opinion of critics, so Prometheus must be totally awesome

[PROMETHEUS]

I just had to see this movie since I'm quite a fan of the first Alien (and Blade Runner) and this one has my freaking nickname as a title !! eheh

It doesn't really flow, and at times you feel as if the film has come off an assembly line.

Er... it has.

I'm surprised folks aren't more acutely aware that every single blockbuster release these days tends to be a product of the studio/producer system, not the director. The days of genuine directorial ingenuity in Hollywood is dead as a doornail, hence you have disappointments coming from even the most reliable sources: Cameron, Spielberg, and now Scott.

So this prequel can't match the overall pacing set by the first Alien flick?

Surely no-one sincerely believed, after what's happened to Die Hard, Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Predator and the Alien franchises, that you were going to get a film to match the quality of Alien? In 2012?! You must be mad! :P

So I just came back from seeing "Prometheus", and it's like you said Skykid.
Too bad. There are still a bunch of powerful images and moments that make this movie worth watching, but I'd give it a 6/10 at best. I think Alien did have flaws in its second half but it was much more powerful and real, with a masterful first half. I would rate Alien a 8/10.