Alien: Covenant

(spoilers!)

We need to stop giving the benefit of a doubt to Ridley Scott.

While the man deserves respect for his two masterpieces - Alien and Blade Runner Scott has now taken the turn that makes it very clear his Alien prequels aren't a thing of passion and certainly not necessity. Why is Scott at 79 years of age set on damaging his masterpiece? (Alien is forever tainted by the existence of the Covenant now). I'm saying this because there is no way anyone can tell me this rehashed, mangled product is the intended movie. This is reactionary.

The Counselor

Imagine that you are a cook. In fact, you are an excellent cook. You've spent the whole day cooking delicious meals of many different cuisines. By the end of the day you are left with various ingredients. They are all superb individually, but they don't make sense together. You could come up with some new sort of meal and make it delicious, you have a talent for it. But instead you go the easy way - you put them in a shit-stainted shaky bowl, you say it's great and you serve it to your customers.

10 reasons why I'm looking forward to The Counselor

Ridley Scott's The Counselor is one of my most anticipated movies of the year. I read the script for this one, written by well known author Cormac McCarthy, a while back and recently I re-read it after seeing the film's latest, terrific trailer. The film definitely has potential to be among the best movies of the year and here are few reasons why I can't wait to see it:

Michael Fassbender is in BIG trouble in new, dynamic trailer for The Counselor

The Counselor is one of my most anticipated movies this year. Having read the script I can tell you that it will either be amazing or it will be absolutely awful. The latest trailer doesn't really help me with determining which one of those it will be, but it looks like they kept some of the best parts of the script in the film.

Visual Parallels: Alien + Prometheus

Alien and Prometheus, though set years apart in movie-making and storytelling terms, share many similarities. Both directed by Ridley Scott and taking place in the same universe, they have strong women as the protagonists - Ellen Ripley and Elizabeth Shaw - first one fierce to begin with and forced to fight for her own survival on board of Nostromo, where xenomorph is determined to kill every single passenger, second - a little naive and too trusting changes in the course of the story when she has to find the inner strength and courage to stay alive.

Scene of the Week: Prometheus

  Hello Mommy

directed by Ridley Scott

The scene: After Dr Elizabeth Shaw (Noomi Rapace) learns that she is pregnant with her boyfriend, who just died after being infected with something, she is horrified - not only the place she believed to be a beautiful miracle is a hideous nightmare - something strange and unnatural (the fetus is growing very fast) is growing inside her. She manages to escape and go to Meredith Vickers's room where she finds the machine that is capable of performing surgery. Shaw is trying to tell the machine that she needs a caesarean but since it's mysteriously programmed for a man all she manages to do is to program it to remove foreign object from her body. She gets into the machine, with the syringe packed with painkillers, as her stomach starts rising. The machine manages to cut her open and remove the fetus. Upon seeing it, Shaw looks at it with astonishment until it comes to life trying to attack her. She escapes and leaves her offspring behind, locked in the machine.

Prometheus - symbols, theories and observations.

95/100  (124 min, 2012)
Plot: 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. Director: Ridley Scott
Writers: Jon Spaihts, Damon Lindelof
Stars: Noomi Rapace, Logan Marshall-Green and Michael Fassbender
(spoilers in the article and the images)

Paradise Lost

“This man is here because he does not want to die. 

He believes you can give him more life.” 

- David, speaking to the Engineer.

Why are we here? Who created us? Why did they create us? Why do we die? Why do we live? These are all the questions people were asking themselves for as long as there was human life. If you think Ridley Scott's Prometheus, movie set in the same universe as Alien but with the events preceding those shown in classic science fiction.horror will answer these questions you will be wrong. Nobody can answer them, can they? But Prometheus offers some theories and ideas that are very thought provoking and not necessarily completely impossible.

The film opens in 2089 when Dr Elizabeth Show and her boyfriend Charlie Holloway discover curious cave paintings. Soon they are part of the mission sponsored by powerful Weyland Industries to the distant planet - they know how to get there because Shaw and Holloway found several of such cave paintings, each containing pictograms which put together create a star map. They are going there, because as the paintings are from many centuries set apart, spread through the history of human existence they believe they are being led to the beings that created us. They call them Engineers.

Brand new featurette for "Prometheus"

New featurette for 'Prometheus" has just been released featuring the look at the making of the movie and few new shots. We also get a brief commentaries by Ridley Scott and the cast. It's only a little more than month away!

Alien

98/100 (117 min, 1979)
Plot: A mining ship, investigating a suspected SOS, lands on a distant planet. The crew discovers some strange creatures and investigates.
Director: Ridley Scott
Writers: Dan O'Bannon (story), Ronald Shusett (story)
Stars: Sigourney Weaver, Tom Skerritt and John Hurt

In space no one can hear you scream

With the fast approaching "Prometheus" Ridley Scott's return to the world of "Alien" for the first time in 33 years now it's the perfect time to revisit his masterpiece of space horror, one that's yet to be beaten as the scariest movie ever taking place in space. We follow the events concerning the crew of Nostromo and the mysterious monster whose only agenda seems to be slaughtering them with excitement and with true horror. I wasn't yet born when the movie premiered in 1979 and I was too young to see it when it was re-released in theatres in 2003. But I remember the first time I saw "Alien" as if it was yesterday, in broad daylight, in a house filled with people, the movie still managed to scare me, turning my blood cold many times and sustaining the almost unbearable tension from the opening scene to the very end.

There are so many things that worked brilliantly in the movie - first the setting. We are always with the crew, whether they are on Nostromo or on a bizarre planet. We know as much as they do - we have no idea what the strange eggs on the planet are, what is the facehugger creature that attaches itself to Kane's face and finally we have no idea what is Alien, where does it come from or what does it want. It's almost like it's punishing the crew with its brutality and viciousness, for whatever reason. Or it's much more simple - it simply needs a host to reproduce.

"How far would you go to get your answers?" International trailer for "Prometheus"

What a great treat - extended trailer for Prometheus with more scenes and more dialogue than the one we got yesterday. Does anyone know the music that plays in the background? It is absolutely gorgeous. Also I really do hope Noomi's performance will be as amazing as what we saw so far from the trailers - that scene where she composes herself is amazing. Also there is something chasing her as she is struggling to escape, which I only noticed now.

First full trailer for Prometheus

I love the trailer. It has so much new great footage, a lot of Fassbender and Rapace and we still know absolutely nothing about the plot. Also I'm pretty sure that if you go frame by frame near the end of the promo there is a lot of hidden footage there, including Space Jockey and something weird attacking Noomi's character. I really can't wait for the movie.

2nd teaser for Ridley Scott's Prometheus

(I'm still looking for info whether it's the full trailer that was announced to appear this weekend, or just another teaser. Some sources say the full trailer is 2:30 minutes long, so this may be just another teaser, regardless of what it is it is freaking awesome).
We have Space Jockey, something freaking happening to eyes, Charlize Theron being bad ass and Noomi Rapace being even more bad ass. I can't wait to see this film and from the looks of it, let's just hope there is no way this will be PG-13.

The secrets of "Prometheus"

What happened to Elizabeth Shaw? Who is that in the wheelchair?

Recently released, in the form of heavily Alien inspired, teaser trailer for "Prometheus" is perhaps one of the most intriguing promos ever released. I have been watching it for some time now, on repeat, and it is driving me crazy. The whole cast and Ridley Scott have been teasing all of us cruelly for the last few months - apparently changing their minds whether it is a prequel of "Alien" or it is not. The teaser pretty much proves that in fact, "Prometheus" has very strong links to the iconic movie - here is a wonderful breakdown of the trailer, frame by frame.

What we know for sure is that Charlize Theron is playing a villain - how hot is that - and Noomi Rapace is the heroine of the story - Elizabeth Shaw, whom we see screaming in the trailer. Michael Fassbender stars as an android, who may or may not start becoming - literally - human in the progress of the story.

Charlize Theron, possibly doing push ups after sleeping during space travel?

First teaser for Ridley Scott's Prometheus

'

This is going to be so amazing.

Robin Hood

(140 min, 2010)
Director: Ridley Scott
Writers: Brian Helgeland (screenplay), Brian Helgeland (story)
Stars: Russell Crowe, Cate Blanchett and Matthew Macfadyen

Gladiator in the kingdom of mediocrity.

Following King Richard's death in France, archer Robin Longstride (Russell Crowe), along with Will Scarlett, Alan-a-Dale and Little John, returns to England. They encounter the dying Robert of Locksley, whose party was ambushed by treacherous Godfrey (Mark Strong), who hopes to facilitate a French invasion of England. Robin promises the dying knight he will return his sword to his father Walter in Nottingham (Max von Sydow). Here Walter encourages him to impersonate the dead man to prevent his land being confiscated by the crown, and he finds himself with lady Marion (Cate Blanchett), a ready-made wife.

Ridley Scott has found a formula how to made a mediocre historical movie when he was shooting “Kingdom of Heaven” and apparently, he plans to stick to it. The amount of similarities between two movies is overwhelming – ordinary men turned knights (Bloom, Crowe), fierce, unhappy beautiful women who at one point of the movie will look through the window so that only their piercing eyes are visible (Green, Blanchett), wise older and righteous man (Irons, Hurt), big battles about which you couldn't care less and good actors who are underused (Norton, Strong). I saw extended version of “Robin Hood” and I have to say, even without seeing theatrical one, those 16 minutes made a difference. If I saw the normal version of the film I'd rate it 4,5 and I would be very generous. Scott has to stop doing mediocre movies, which later on he will promise will turn out to be better, once you see director's cut. And in both cases (“Kingdom of Heaven” and “Robin Hood”) the difference in rating is slight, but big when it comes to labeling the movie – no longer “terrible” just “average”.