Archives for posts with tag: Ellen Ripley

Meredith: Son of a Bitch! They were right!

I’ve added two posters as I couldn’t decide which was better!

Director:

Ridley Scott

Producer:

Ridley Scott, David Giler & Walter Hill

Writer:

Jon Spaihts & Damon Lindelof

Cast:

Noomi Rapace as Elizabeth Shaw

Michael Fassbender as David

Guy Pearce as Peter Weyland

Charlize Theron as Meredith Vickers

Idris Elba as Janek

Logan Marshall-Green as Charlie Holloway

Rafe Spall as Milburn

Sean Harris as Fifield

Music:

Marc Streitenfeld

Story:

A team of explorers discover a clue to the origins of mankind on Earth, leading them on a journey to the darkest corners of the universe. There, they must fight a terrifying battle to save the future of the human race.

Review:

Ridley Scott, in 1979, changed the meaning of monster. In the dictionary, you’d see a picture of a Xenomorph against the word Scary. He took haunted house genre to a whole new dimension (and solar system). Here Ellen Ripley was hunted by an Alien. This movie spawned 3 sequels (Aliens, Alien 3 and Alien: Resurrection). And now, 33 years later, Ridley returns to sci-fi and to the Alien Universe with Prometheus.

Prometheus starts of with a prologue, showing us a scene of a beautiful landscape, which I think is ancient earth. A large humanoid thing drinks something from a cup and dives in to the waterfall. This, I feel, was an awesome start to the movie. We then flash forward to 2089, where Elizabeth Shaw and Charlie Hollaway are discovering the pictograms.

On Prometheus, we see the whole crew in hypersleep and David, the android, is watching Lawrence of Arabia. Then as we reach LV 223, Charlize Theron’s character has woken up and she instructs David to wake the others up. Then when we reach the planet, the fun starts. They see a large pyramid kind of structure. Its origins is unknown but it’s hollow on the inside. So, the team ventures into it, to find the makers of mankind.  But what they find could just be their end.

David finds a mysterious pane, which on activation shows a hologram of large aliens running and one getting decapitated. As they follow the hologram, they find the body of the alien, and when David opens the door, they find the head. Along with the head they find a large statue has features resembling that of Humans. They also find some canisters. Shaw then takes the head back to Prometheus. Where, they realize that the alien is wearing a helmet. Which on removing, reveals a human like face. And it is then that they realize that they have found their makers!

The whole pyramid thing, reminded me of the one in AVP, and this was so beautifully constructed. The canisters with the black liquid oozing out and the large head, was amazing. The later we see two crew members being attacked by what I’m assuming is a pre-face hugger, or what I’d like to cal finger hugger. The whole movie, gets interesting from there on out.

Charlize Theron acts so well. She carried out the role of Meredith. She was so cold and mean, that I actually thought she was a robot. But Fassbender does an AWESOME job as David the android. He and Meredith, have ulterior motives. We find out later in the movie that Peter Weyland is still alive and in hypersleep. He has actually come here to see mankind’s makers.

The large humanoid aliens, our makers, were so awesome. They were large and looked scary too. The SFX in the movie were too good. And Noomi Rapace acted nicely for her first lead role post-millennium series. The 3D effect just enhances your experience of the movie. And the insta-pregnancy of Elizabeth Shaw, and her removing the alien out was an awesome scene too. But then, the alien that she removes, turns out to be alive.

When David reveals that there is actually an Alien still alive, Peter is killed when they open it and then it turns out that they were standing in the ship of the alien, which is on a course to earth to destroy it. After crashing the aliens space craft, it still is alive and hunts Elizabeth Shaw. And in the end Elizabeths baby, which is now fully grown, crushes it.

Then David, whose head was ripped off by the alien, tells Shaw that there are other ships as well, which he can pilot. She then asks if he can pilot them to the planet of the makers. I found only one problem in this movie. This takes place before Alien right? So how does Prometheus have more advanced technology than the ship in Aliens?

The end of the movie where a baby Xenomorph, rips through the aliens chest, after it was planted by large Octopus-alien thing.

Other than that it is a very good movie!

 

Final Verdict:

8.5/10

Ripley: [voiceover] My mommy always said there were no monsters. No real ones. But there are.

Director:

Jean-Pierre Jeunet

Producer:

Gordon Carroll, David GilerWalter Hill & Bill Badalato

Cast:

Sigourney Weaver as Ellen Ripley

Dan Hedaya as General Perez

J. E. Freeman as Dr. Wren

Brad Dourif as Dr. Gediman

Raymond Cruz as DiStefano

Michael Wincott as Frank Elgyn

Kim Flowers as Sabra Hillard

Gary Dourdan as Christie

Ron Perlman as Johner

Dominique Pinon as Vriess

Leland Orser as Purvis

Tom Woodruff, Jr. as the lead Alien.

Music:

John Frizzell

Story:

200 years after the conclusion of Alien 3, the company is able to resurrect Ripley through the process of cloning and the scientists successfully take the Queen Alien out of her. But, Ripley’s DNA gets mixed up with the Queen’s and she begins to develop certain alien characteristics. The scientists begin breeding the aliens, but they later escape. Soon the Xeno-morphs are running amok on the ship, which is on course to earth. The Queen then gives birth to a deadly new breed of alien, which could spell disaster for the entire human race. It’s up to Ripley and a band of space pirates to stop the ship before it reaches earth.

Review:

The movie is a bit too cartoonish for my taste. But nevertheless its enjoyable. There are many factual errors in the movie: In the end when Ripley throws her blood at the glass in the space ship, the hole is too small to cause a suction effect.

The story is written by Joss Whedon, but not all of it is used. The acting was good too.

Final Verdict:

An enjoyable movie. 6.5/10..

My review for the other Alien movies: Alien, Aliens & Alien 3

 

Director:

David Fincher

Producer:

Gordon Carroll, David Giler & Walter Hill

Cast:

Sigourney Weaver as Ellen Ripley

Charles S. Dutton as Dillon

Charles Dance as Jonathan Clemens

Brian Glover as Harold Andrews

Ralph Brown as Aaron

Paul McGann as Golic

Danny Webb as Morse

Pete Postlethwaite as David

Lance Henriksen as Bishop II

Tom Woodruff, Jr. as the Alien.

Peter Guinness as Gregor

Music:

Elliot Goldenthal

Story:

Ripley continues to be stalked by a savage alien, after her escape pod crashes on a prison planet.

Review:

The movie is good, but not one of David Fincher’s best work. The Alien looked more….um….beautiful in this. There were certain discrepancies in the story: How did the alien egg get there? Did the Queen from Aliens plant them on the ship or was it Bishop? How does Ripley know that its a queen inside of her? How does she get impregnated in the first place?What happens to Golic? All these questions are unanswered for me.. It either ruins the movie or adds to the enigmatic feel of the movie. I can’t decide.

The movie otherwise is pretty good. As I said before, the Alien looks better, though its missing the pipe kind of things in its back. The acting was as usual good. The special effects in the movie was much better.

I saw the so-called ‘Assembly Cut’ which differs from the ‘Theatrical Cut’. The Alien develops and bursts out from an Ox in the Assembly Cut, while in the theatrical cut it burst out of a dog. The assembly cut was longer than the Theatrical Cut for it had a deleted scene where the Alien is trapped. And later it was released by Golic. In the Theatrical Cut  the prisoners aren’t able to capture the alien. These are few of the changes that are made in the Assembly Cut.

Final Verdict:

The movie is quite enjoyable. 7.5/10

Director:

James Cameron

Producer:

Gale Anne Hurd, Gordon Carroll, David Giler & Walter Hill

Cast:

Sigourney Weaver as Ellen Ripley

Carrie Henn as Rebecca ‘Newt’ Jorden

Michael Beihn as Cpl. Dwayne Hicks

Paul Reiser as Carter Burke

Lance Henriksen as Bishop

Bill Paxon as Pvt. Hudson

Jennette Goldstein as Pvt. Vasquez

William Hope as Lt. Gorman

Al Matthews as Sgt. Apone

Mark Rolston as Pvt. Drake

Rico Rost as Pvt. Frost

Collette Hiller as Cpl. Ferro

Music:

James Horner

Story:

The planet from Alien has been colonized, but contact is lost. This time, the rescue team has impressive firepower, but will it be enough?

Review:

This one is better than the previous one. As soon as I started seeing this movie, I saw my self drawing comparisons to James Cameron’s Avatar. For example, those mechanised things used to lift the loads is similar to those used in Avatar as battle suits.
There was one problem for me was that, the meeting at the start of the movie went on for three hours right? In that time, didn’t the colonisation of LV-426? I’m just asking. Shouldn’t that have come up in a three-hour long meeting??

It was an amazing movie otherwise. There was a change in the tone of the movie from Sci-fi Horror to Sci-Fi Action.
The acting was brilliant and the background score was good too.

This too is a must watch for Sci-fi lovers.

Now only Aliens 3 and Alien Resurrection left in my Alien Anthology.

Final Verdict:
9/10.