demagogue on 27/2/2017 at 12:23
Promethius wasn't doing that either for what it's worth.
I wish there were more authentic explorations of really foreign cultures though, including past and future ones. It's not written in stone they have to be a mirror, and I usually take a movie alienating its audience as a positive sign that it's really breaking into new territory and consciousness expanding.
Kolya on 1/3/2017 at 00:44
Quote Posted by Thirith
Why is this necessarily a bad thing, though? What you've written there fits Shakespeare's plays as well - he *always* looked at other cultures in order to say something about his own - and they're pretty okay, all in all.
Shakespeare's approach to other cultures is understandable in its historical and social context but it's actually (
https://blog.oup.com/2016/09/is-shakespeare-racist/) not okay by today's standards.
Given an authentic account from a different culture I can usually make the connection to my life myself. I dislike the idea that it should be a message by the director.
Quote Posted by Vivian
Good Scifi is always a mirror. That's basically its function.
That's a bit simplified. It's usually an extrapolation that uses current events as a start and creates a warning where they may lead. And if you went and made a film about an alien civilisation that lost its social cohesion because its biological evolution cannot keep up with its technical advancement - please do that!
But an advanced civilisation is by definition impossible to portray for us, so the pretence that it's about anything but ourselves (and the director's message) will wear very thin and the chance for preachy kitsch extremely high. Like Avatar but worse. I have no curiosity for that.
Sulphur on 1/3/2017 at 06:42
I'm not sure how advanced civilisations are impossible by definition to portray. Arthur C. Clarke tried to do that with the Rama sequels; I can't say that he succeeded exactly, but the fact that we don't know of any advanced civilisations through experience doesn't mean we can't extrapolate what they may appear to be like. Everything we define and shape is going to be from humanity's experiential perspective, obviously -- we're self-aware to various faults, and that's where the mirror comes in. Do you mean that we can't do truly alien perspectives because we're not alien ourselves?
henke on 1/3/2017 at 06:51
New trailer!
[video=youtube;svnAD0TApb8]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=svnAD0TApb8&feature=youtu.be[/video]
It looks pretty.
Sulphur on 1/3/2017 at 07:06
Looks like they ditched almost all of Prometheus for a straight-on Alien story, which is actually a very decent way to move forward if done right.
N'Al on 1/3/2017 at 07:30
Hrm. Still not convinced.
It wasn't scary in the slightest. Not sure whether that is because the Alien has now become so ubiquitous in pop culture you need to do something really different - not sure Aliens in a Wheat Field is that.
Ridley, prove me wrong!
Sulphur on 1/3/2017 at 08:07
True, I doubt it's going to be a good straight horror movie, not least because there's no haunted house in space vibe going on. But a decent sci-fi/horror genre entry -- well, we'll see.
Vivian on 1/3/2017 at 11:23
How bad is that for spoilers? Is it the film in miniature, like the prometheus trailer?
<Username> on 1/3/2017 at 12:16
"Aliens in a Wheat Field" reminds me of the finale of the scrapped Vincent Ward script of Alien 3. Wonder if they took inspiration from that when making this new film.
Nicker on 1/3/2017 at 14:27
We have arrived at our new home which apparently hasn't had any remote surveying done on it. Everybody off the ship without any environment suits. Let's see of there are any toxic or infectious agents the good old fashion way. But let's bring the tiny-wheeled Fisher-Price solar powered wagon along, just in case we need to transport any infected people back to our secure refuge. Should we close the door behind us? Naw!...
The procedurals.... they hurt my head.
