4 ms·

Alien: Earth was the dumbest addition to the franchise. Hybrid synths that can “talk” to the aliens… pffft. Off the rails. The last few films were of similar i

Alien: Earth was the dumbest addition to the franchise. Hybrid synths that can “talk” to the aliens… pffft. Off the rails. The last few films were of similar ilk. Prometheus started it with their David narrative. Just terrible writing.

burnt-resistor 1y ago
Being a good fiction consumer requires offering the benefit of the doubt up to a reasonable/personal limit of suspension of disbelief. The missing piece with that show is inconsistent and shallow character development. Lost (prior to the later season/s) is probably one of the better examples. It's still watchable but it could be better. Maybe they'll sort it out.
- grues-dinner 1y ago
  That's the thing, though. Gigantic spaceships, alien panspermia, stasis pods, human-passing androids, underground alien bases, convenient maps in caves. All that disbelief can be suspended. A handpicked team of professional astronauts on an interstellar mission being a bunch of complete incompetents over and over again for plot convenience is the real headscratcher that eventually makes it feel like the plot is an afterthought and makes you disengage from the film as a story rather then just pretty pictures. It's a pattern you see a lot especially in sci-fi and action, and it's annoying because it's not like you couldn't have the glossy visuals or set-pieces if you also had coherent plots.
  - FrustratedMonky 1y ago
    Exactly. If human characters don't react like real humans would, then that is much harder to 'justify' or 'suspend belief' about. Lets take our helmets off in a unknown hostile enivroment? Lets play with giant worms with teeth, as if in real life those things wouldn't scare the crap out of you even if they weren't alien.
    - mbreese 1y ago
      Hubris is a tough drug to kick. If you were a biology officer on a spaceship with a bunch of fancy tech, why wouldn’t you think you could poke and prod a giant alien worm? Part of the story is that everyone thinks that they are in control until something happens, they realize their mistake, and then they probably die.
      - like_any_other 1y ago
        > why wouldn’t you think you could poke and prod a giant alien worm? Because 90% of the average moviegoing audience got it right. You can invent tortured reasoning for why a biology officer on a spaceship with a bunch of fancy tech would be dumber than the bottom 10% of humans, but the real explanation is just lazy/incompetent writers.
        toast0 1y ago
        They don't make a whole lot of movies where all the characters just follow the rules, cause it wouldn't be fun to watch. Xenobiologist is tired of eating with the rest of the crew and eats in the lab instead seems reasonable. We didn't see the leadup to see the deviance normalized, we just get to see the end of it. Alien:Earth isn't the best writing, obviously, but we're how far into the series, the writing just has to be enough plot to get to the xenomorph rampage scenes. It's like plot in a video game or an adult film; you have to have it, but it doesn't matter.
        reactordev 1y ago
        We’re at the end. The whole first season didn’t make sense after the first episode. It just nose dived. People above have already stated the obvious. It’s a popcorn series and a check box. That’s it. No staying power. No one wants to watch robot children who talk to xenomorphs make them pets. No. Just no. These creatures do not follow instructions from a tweenager. Get away from her you bitch. These are the same creatures that almost wiped out the predators… c’mon man!
        1y ago
  - scotty79 1y ago
    > handpicked team of professional astronauts on an interstellar mission being a bunch of complete incompetents over and over again It's set up in the future. Observing current trends it's quite realistic for everyone to be really, really dumb by then.
  - smcin 1y ago
    Agreed. Necessary suspension of belief vs unnecessary and contradictory. For an in-depth list for 'Prometheus': "Red Letter Media talks about Prometheus" [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-x1YuvUQFJ0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-x1YuvUQFJ0]. (To what extent were those due to Lindelof, not Scott?)
  - _DeadFred_ 1y ago
    By this point, 'professional astronauts' is just another term for 'space truckers'. The film makers put in a lot of effort to point that out. Switch that in your head and it makes more sense. They have done so many routine missions, and it's all so routine, that they aren't prepared for non-routine. The whole structure of missions leaves the non-routine handling to synthetics. These are like key components of this franchise what the story it's trying to tell. We reached the stars, but became alienated from both exploration and ethics. We lost the wonder and lost control of our fate. Life has become routine labor, corporate control, and synthetic oversight that isn't looking out for our best wishes even though we assume it is.
- reactordev 1y ago
  >Being a good fiction consumer requires offering the benefit of the doubt up to a reasonable/personal limit of suspension of disbelief. Yup, here for it. >The missing piece with that show is inconsistent and shallow character development. To say the least. The whole series reeks of a movie stretched out to a series for TV. And the ship landing in the city? Right, how convenient… it’s just terrible writing. Made for teens so they can #metoo when we talk about how utterly terrifying that universe is.
- HK-NC 1y ago
  Id argue that being a good fiction consumer is not letting a brand or franchise become your identity and know when to drop something. I saw the phantom menace when I was 12 and hated it. I was a massive Star Wars fan. I've seen nothing from Star Wars since and as far as I can tell I've missed nothing of value over 25 years. Terminator 3, Prometheus, Ghostbusters reboot, many more. We are not obliged to consume garbage.
  - lelanthran 1y ago
    > I saw the phantom menace when I was 12 and hated it. I was a massive Star Wars fan. I've seen nothing from Star Wars since Too bad; after seeing the recent Disney mary-sue-iffied, everyone-carries-the-stupid-ball, hey-look-new-big-bad-with-no-explanation-of-where-he-came-from movies, my estimation of the prequels went up by a considerable amount. In light of the newer movies, those prequels are actually very very good; a very mature take that approached mature themes ("So this is how liberty dies... with thunderous applause", and many more I can't think off right now). Maybe your 12yo mind was not sufficiently mature enough[1], but your middle-aged mind might be - you should seem them again. ======================== [1] Hell, I saw them in my mid-20s, and even then I was not mature enough to appreciate the subtext and themes. When I saw them again recently in my mid-40s, I was much more aware of things in the world, especially how impressionable Annakin was, because now that I am older I see how actual adults are easily impressionable at that age (mid-20s).
    - YeGoblynQueenne 1y ago
      What if the Prequels were movies with the same actors, acting in the same way, to the same script, but had nothing to do with Star Wars? Would you still think they were full of mature themes, or that it's all a bunch of half-arsed tropes that panders to the lowest common denominator[1]? _____________ [1] Swordfights! Intrigue! Romance! Cute robots! Cool races! Only You Can Save the World!
      - lelanthran 1y ago
        > What if the Prequels were movies with the same actors, acting in the same way, to the same script, but had nothing to do with Star Wars? Would you still think they were full of mature themes Well, yes. My initial viewing was colored by expecting the same sort of story that the original trilogy had. The prequels ended up being a very different sort of story. > or that it's all a bunch of half-arsed tropes that panders to the lowest common denominator[1]? Doesn't this apply to all the movies you like too? What's different in the movies you liked? Are the tropes all full-arsed?
hearsathought 1y ago
> Alien: Earth was the dumbest addition to the franchise. Hybrid synths that can “talk” to the aliens… pffft. Off the rails. It started off so well. The first few episodes were good/interesting/promising and the series seemed destined for greatness ( if they could stick the landing ). Unfortunately, it fizzled out in the latter half of the series as they turned the xenomorph into a silly pet.
kristianp 1y ago
I found some elements of Prometheus a little hard to swollow from a believability standpoint. The worst was having a major surgery and then getting up and minutes later running around. (Not going into too much detail here to avoid spoilers).

burnt-resistor 1y ago

Being a good fiction consumer requires offering the benefit of the doubt up to a reasonable/personal limit of suspension of disbelief. The missing piece with that show is inconsistent and shallow character development. Lost (prior to the later season/s) is probably one of the better examples. It's still watchable but it could be better. Maybe they'll sort it out.

grues-dinner 1y ago
That's the thing, though. Gigantic spaceships, alien panspermia, stasis pods, human-passing androids, underground alien bases, convenient maps in caves. All that disbelief can be suspended. A handpicked team of professional astronauts on an interstellar mission being a bunch of complete incompetents over and over again for plot convenience is the real headscratcher that eventually makes it feel like the plot is an afterthought and makes you disengage from the film as a story rather then just pretty pictures. It's a pattern you see a lot especially in sci-fi and action, and it's annoying because it's not like you couldn't have the glossy visuals or set-pieces if you also had coherent plots.
- FrustratedMonky 1y ago
  Exactly. If human characters don't react like real humans would, then that is much harder to 'justify' or 'suspend belief' about. Lets take our helmets off in a unknown hostile enivroment? Lets play with giant worms with teeth, as if in real life those things wouldn't scare the crap out of you even if they weren't alien.
  - mbreese 1y ago
    Hubris is a tough drug to kick. If you were a biology officer on a spaceship with a bunch of fancy tech, why wouldn’t you think you could poke and prod a giant alien worm? Part of the story is that everyone thinks that they are in control until something happens, they realize their mistake, and then they probably die.
    - like_any_other 1y ago
      > why wouldn’t you think you could poke and prod a giant alien worm? Because 90% of the average moviegoing audience got it right. You can invent tortured reasoning for why a biology officer on a spaceship with a bunch of fancy tech would be dumber than the bottom 10% of humans, but the real explanation is just lazy/incompetent writers.
      - toast0 1y ago
        They don't make a whole lot of movies where all the characters just follow the rules, cause it wouldn't be fun to watch. Xenobiologist is tired of eating with the rest of the crew and eats in the lab instead seems reasonable. We didn't see the leadup to see the deviance normalized, we just get to see the end of it. Alien:Earth isn't the best writing, obviously, but we're how far into the series, the writing just has to be enough plot to get to the xenomorph rampage scenes. It's like plot in a video game or an adult film; you have to have it, but it doesn't matter.
        reactordev 1y ago
        We’re at the end. The whole first season didn’t make sense after the first episode. It just nose dived. People above have already stated the obvious. It’s a popcorn series and a check box. That’s it. No staying power. No one wants to watch robot children who talk to xenomorphs make them pets. No. Just no. These creatures do not follow instructions from a tweenager. Get away from her you bitch. These are the same creatures that almost wiped out the predators… c’mon man!
        1y ago
- scotty79 1y ago
  > handpicked team of professional astronauts on an interstellar mission being a bunch of complete incompetents over and over again It's set up in the future. Observing current trends it's quite realistic for everyone to be really, really dumb by then.
- smcin 1y ago
  Agreed. Necessary suspension of belief vs unnecessary and contradictory. For an in-depth list for 'Prometheus': "Red Letter Media talks about Prometheus" [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-x1YuvUQFJ0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-x1YuvUQFJ0]. (To what extent were those due to Lindelof, not Scott?)
- _DeadFred_ 1y ago
  By this point, 'professional astronauts' is just another term for 'space truckers'. The film makers put in a lot of effort to point that out. Switch that in your head and it makes more sense. They have done so many routine missions, and it's all so routine, that they aren't prepared for non-routine. The whole structure of missions leaves the non-routine handling to synthetics. These are like key components of this franchise what the story it's trying to tell. We reached the stars, but became alienated from both exploration and ethics. We lost the wonder and lost control of our fate. Life has become routine labor, corporate control, and synthetic oversight that isn't looking out for our best wishes even though we assume it is.
reactordev 1y ago
>Being a good fiction consumer requires offering the benefit of the doubt up to a reasonable/personal limit of suspension of disbelief. Yup, here for it. >The missing piece with that show is inconsistent and shallow character development. To say the least. The whole series reeks of a movie stretched out to a series for TV. And the ship landing in the city? Right, how convenient… it’s just terrible writing. Made for teens so they can #metoo when we talk about how utterly terrifying that universe is.
HK-NC 1y ago
Id argue that being a good fiction consumer is not letting a brand or franchise become your identity and know when to drop something. I saw the phantom menace when I was 12 and hated it. I was a massive Star Wars fan. I've seen nothing from Star Wars since and as far as I can tell I've missed nothing of value over 25 years. Terminator 3, Prometheus, Ghostbusters reboot, many more. We are not obliged to consume garbage.
- lelanthran 1y ago
  > I saw the phantom menace when I was 12 and hated it. I was a massive Star Wars fan. I've seen nothing from Star Wars since Too bad; after seeing the recent Disney mary-sue-iffied, everyone-carries-the-stupid-ball, hey-look-new-big-bad-with-no-explanation-of-where-he-came-from movies, my estimation of the prequels went up by a considerable amount. In light of the newer movies, those prequels are actually very very good; a very mature take that approached mature themes ("So this is how liberty dies... with thunderous applause", and many more I can't think off right now). Maybe your 12yo mind was not sufficiently mature enough[1], but your middle-aged mind might be - you should seem them again. ======================== [1] Hell, I saw them in my mid-20s, and even then I was not mature enough to appreciate the subtext and themes. When I saw them again recently in my mid-40s, I was much more aware of things in the world, especially how impressionable Annakin was, because now that I am older I see how actual adults are easily impressionable at that age (mid-20s).
  - YeGoblynQueenne 1y ago
    What if the Prequels were movies with the same actors, acting in the same way, to the same script, but had nothing to do with Star Wars? Would you still think they were full of mature themes, or that it's all a bunch of half-arsed tropes that panders to the lowest common denominator[1]? _____________ [1] Swordfights! Intrigue! Romance! Cute robots! Cool races! Only You Can Save the World!
    - lelanthran 1y ago
      > What if the Prequels were movies with the same actors, acting in the same way, to the same script, but had nothing to do with Star Wars? Would you still think they were full of mature themes Well, yes. My initial viewing was colored by expecting the same sort of story that the original trilogy had. The prequels ended up being a very different sort of story. > or that it's all a bunch of half-arsed tropes that panders to the lowest common denominator[1]? Doesn't this apply to all the movies you like too? What's different in the movies you liked? Are the tropes all full-arsed?

hearsathought 1y ago

> Alien: Earth was the dumbest addition to the franchise. Hybrid synths that can “talk” to the aliens… pffft. Off the rails. It started off so well. The first few episodes were good/interesting/promising and the series seemed destined for greatness ( if they could stick the landing ). Unfortunately, it fizzled out in the latter half of the series as they turned the xenomorph into a silly pet.

kristianp 1y ago

I found some elements of Prometheus a little hard to swollow from a believability standpoint. The worst was having a major surgery and then getting up and minutes later running around. (Not going into too much detail here to avoid spoilers).