Frank Longo Member since Nov 18th 2003 86917 posts
Thu Mar-21-24 02:05 AM
1. "I'll say this for the director:" In response to Reply # 0
He's mean spirited and has a pretty good eye. I kinda think those two things combine well for this franchise.
11/13: Hot Frosty (on Netflix) 11/23: Three Wiser Men & A Boy (on Hallmark) 11/27: Christmas Under the Lights (on Hallmark Mysteries) 12/14: The Santa Class (on Hallmark)
2. "I love the premise…if this is set in between" In response to Reply # 0
Alien and Aliens then we must be seeing the colony where Newt’s family were lost…we’d know exactly where it’s going with Newt as the only survivor, but a ton of terror along with some mystery in terms of how much the Corporation knew before sending those colonists to that planet.
4. "Fede Alverz finally made a movie I don't hate." In response to Reply # 0
Like all of Disney's shit nowadays, this is strictly for the fans. Lot's of callbacks to the previous films. Shit this even uses story beats from the first two as this is basically a hybrid of ALIEN and ALIENS.
Like Longo said it is mean-spirtied and the third act has a terrifying new creature.
I will say this does have the best Facehugger action of the franchise.
But yeah, it's fine. I don't need to see it again (again, it's for the fans).
There's a lot here I don't like. And I'll leave it at that.
Wild how this was originally meant for Hulu and this goes to theaters and PREY doesn't.
Frank Longo Member since Nov 18th 2003 86917 posts
Tue Aug-13-24 01:59 PM
6. "Is the story being told for everybody?" In response to Reply # 5
Or is the story simply a means to deliver Easter eggs, cameos, and bursts of nostalgia to a very specific audience steeped in the lore of the source material? When people use the criticism "fan service," they mean the latter.
There are plenty of great superhero movies, sci-fi movies, etc. that contain Easter eggs and so on, but the primary focus is to tell a great story. I just rewatched Spider-Man 2 the other day-- I forgot it has Curt Connors, John Jameson, even a Doctor Strange reference. But those are just passing things for fans that have no impact on the story being told-- the story and the filmmaking are what make that movie exceptional.
Whereas a number of movies these days primarily exist to create nostalgia-based pleasure, to reference old things fans might remember. (Say what you will about South Park, but that "member berries" season is one of the most on-the-money cultural commentaries I've seen from a TV show or movie in the last decade.) The Deadpool Wolverine movie is a prime example of this.
11/13: Hot Frosty (on Netflix) 11/23: Three Wiser Men & A Boy (on Hallmark) 11/27: Christmas Under the Lights (on Hallmark Mysteries) 12/14: The Santa Class (on Hallmark)
8. "Random aside, is some of this motivated by smaller theatre crowds?" In response to Reply # 6
Hear me out as I'm not sure this makes sense outside of my mind.
Do you think trusting audience enthusiasm data that studios track before production and release is a reason why? I would think it skews toward die-hard stans. In this case, the stories production companies write to cater to a known audience rather than better, more fulfilling stories that also may wrinkle stans. Those higher-quality stories may be more likely to fail since the opening week attendance by casuals is more unpredictable.
9. "The problem with that is if fan service is done poorly then even the " In response to Reply # 8 Fri Aug-16-24 11:58 AM by soulfunk
die-hards won’t like it, because they still want a good story and poor fan service breaks the immersion of whatever that universe is.
Using a Star Wars example, specifically Rogue One, Darth Vader in the hallway going ham was fan service done WELL. Definitely something that all fans want to see and even non-fans likely enjoyed.
“Medium level” fan service would be 3PO and R2’s cameo. Clearly fan service, but makes sense and fits in terms of the universe that they would be at that base. They were on Leia’s ship at the beginning of A New Hope so them being at the rebel base definitely makes sense. For some folks though (fans included) it was too much of a wink to the camera.
Bad fan service in Star Wars would be something like Palpatine’s return in Rise of Skywalker. They didn’t have the story planned out, realized they didn’t have a villain for the last movie, and decided to play the hits with “Somehow Palpatine Returned.” Fans hated that as it took away from his death and Anakin/Luke’s victory in Jedi. And there was zero setup of this I. The first two sequels. A less clear example might be some of the wink moments in the Mandalorian.
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