The space ship and the alien world are portrayed beautifully in this movie. In that sense it's a beautiful movie. I wish Ridley would explore this further outside of the Aliens franchise.
The "aliens bursting out of the body" theme -- the hallmark of this franchise, I suppose -- was done well in one spectacular scene. If you enjoy that kind of visceral, Cronenburg-esque horror, you won't be disappointed.
Let me list the obvious problems....
One problem is that the visuals are not that different from Prometheus. This movie is quite similar to Prometheus.
A second problem is that there is no real intellectually interesting premise behind it all. No new story really.
No character development at all this time, which is a huge problem.
I don't like this special historical connection the aliens somehow have now with the human race via the Engineers. These Engineers. Who are they again?
"Alien bursts out of body. Alien becomes scary and evil. Woman fights alien." This is the plot of every movie. I'm tired of these aliens.
A third, very annoying problem is that all the crew seem to be paired off with each other. This movie is proof that partnered people should not be in a military unit together, because if this movie is any indication, the minute one's partner is endangered or gets killed the screaming and blubbering and unprofessionalism begins. "Oh my god, my wife might be in trouble, I will risk this huge space ship, and all 2000 colonists, just to save her. She's so important."
My response was: WTF is your wife/husband/partner doing on the ship with you if you're such an emotional mess? At one point, I yelled "stop screaming" aloud at the screen. This is why there are (or should be) rules about this kind of thing. Somehow the edginess of the marines in the first movie has morphed into this. I don't like it.
A fourth problem, perhaps the most annoying problem of all, is that these people seem to have no understanding of the biological dangers of alien planets. I mean, a 10-year-old would know about this from watching cartoons. Why don't they? Why would you get so close to a man who was clearly suffering from some serious alien trauma? Why would you look into an alien pod knowing that the alien planet had somehow infected your mates? How can I rate a movie highly when I was spending much of it rolling my eyes?
A fifth problem is that the David/Walter mix up was so frigging obvious. I saw it immediately. How could the crew not have checked this more carefully? It was just unbelievable that they didn't do this. And how did David learn Walter's codes?
A sixth problem: the movie was confusing. I googled it afterwards to try to sort it out, but I still don't know how the alien got onto the colonist ship after all that effort to keep it out. I suppose David brought it in, but how? In his mouth? And what happened exactly when David brought the ship to this alien world. Where did he get those spores? What were they? Confusing.
The "aliens bursting out of the body" theme -- the hallmark of this franchise, I suppose -- was done well in one spectacular scene. If you enjoy that kind of visceral, Cronenburg-esque horror, you won't be disappointed.
Let me list the obvious problems....
One problem is that the visuals are not that different from Prometheus. This movie is quite similar to Prometheus.
A second problem is that there is no real intellectually interesting premise behind it all. No new story really.
No character development at all this time, which is a huge problem.
I don't like this special historical connection the aliens somehow have now with the human race via the Engineers. These Engineers. Who are they again?
"Alien bursts out of body. Alien becomes scary and evil. Woman fights alien." This is the plot of every movie. I'm tired of these aliens.
A third, very annoying problem is that all the crew seem to be paired off with each other. This movie is proof that partnered people should not be in a military unit together, because if this movie is any indication, the minute one's partner is endangered or gets killed the screaming and blubbering and unprofessionalism begins. "Oh my god, my wife might be in trouble, I will risk this huge space ship, and all 2000 colonists, just to save her. She's so important."
My response was: WTF is your wife/husband/partner doing on the ship with you if you're such an emotional mess? At one point, I yelled "stop screaming" aloud at the screen. This is why there are (or should be) rules about this kind of thing. Somehow the edginess of the marines in the first movie has morphed into this. I don't like it.
A fourth problem, perhaps the most annoying problem of all, is that these people seem to have no understanding of the biological dangers of alien planets. I mean, a 10-year-old would know about this from watching cartoons. Why don't they? Why would you get so close to a man who was clearly suffering from some serious alien trauma? Why would you look into an alien pod knowing that the alien planet had somehow infected your mates? How can I rate a movie highly when I was spending much of it rolling my eyes?
A fifth problem is that the David/Walter mix up was so frigging obvious. I saw it immediately. How could the crew not have checked this more carefully? It was just unbelievable that they didn't do this. And how did David learn Walter's codes?
A sixth problem: the movie was confusing. I googled it afterwards to try to sort it out, but I still don't know how the alien got onto the colonist ship after all that effort to keep it out. I suppose David brought it in, but how? In his mouth? And what happened exactly when David brought the ship to this alien world. Where did he get those spores? What were they? Confusing.