The mainland release version of "Alien: Covenant" (also affectionately called "Sikai: Big Spoon" by friends) is probably the least thrilling one in the entire series. In the experience of being frightened by watching movies in my youth, the "Alien" series contributed two scenes: first, the female scientist jumped into the magma, and the alien burst out during the fall; The meat stuffing is scattered in the universe. There is also the "face-hugging bug" that debuted for the first time in the whole series, which should be fully ranked in the top three of "the most impressive alien creatures in movie history".
In the absence of a grading system, such a deletion is understandable. It is rare that even if the violent scenes are deleted to the point of blood, "Alien: Covenant" is still the best commercial film in my heart in the past two years. Yes, I'm sure there will be a lot of objections, and I know how stupid the human characters are in the prequels "Prometheus" and "Covenant", and I feel the same way from "Pharaoh and the Gods" to From "Prometheus" to "Contract", the director sometimes wants to say too much and is too metaphysical. But with superb rhythm and atmosphere control, with the "biochemical" character of David 8, and with his thoughts on creation and the meaning of life, "Contract" should also be the most worthy of discussion this summer.
【Same formula, upgraded flavor】
It is not wrong to say that "Contract" is new wine in old bottles. This series is "full of routines". Throughout the four main series and one prequel, it is nothing more than a group of scientists and crew members who came to an unfamiliar planet, encountered alien life intentionally or unintentionally, and then began to escape from the secret room. ——Most of the endings are to kick the alien friends back into space, and send them back to where they came from.
The same goes for the Covenant's story shell. Ten years after "Prometheus", a spacecraft named "Covenant" carried another group of astronauts to a new galaxy to find colonies. On the way, they intercepted an audio signal left by Dr. Shaw, so Decided to go and find out. It looks like an uncontaminated earth, but there are dangerous creatures in the dark. When they met the only survivor of the "Prometheus", they learned that Dr. Shaw, who sent the message, had already died. The two generations of biochemical people, Walter and David, meet each other. They are both created beings, but they hold completely different attitudes towards the creator and the act of creation itself. Aliens attacked, the members of the spacecraft died one after another, and female scientist Daniels finally threw them into space, but the real danger followed.
"Alien" four is the true story, the director is bigger than the other. Ridley Scott got off to a good start, Cameron and David Fincher went on and on, and Frenchman Jean-Pierre Genet joined in for the fun. Each director's style is different, but Scott is the one who can use the rhythm to create the atmosphere. I was surprised to review "Alien 1", a sci-fi film made in 1979, the shock, horror and viewing experience are in no way inferior to or even better than many "blockbusters" today. The silence in the opening minutes, and the "movement and motion" of the alien hunt in the middle makes you think that Scott is filming with the audience's EKG.
"Contract" deleted six minutes of paragraphs, the most regrettable thing is not the lack of bloody and exciting scenes, but the destruction of the film's perfect rhythm. Following a story is like getting on a train. On the harmonious version of the "Contract", the audience will not miss the scenery along the way, but they are forced to bypass the most dangerous but the most exciting and the most interesting, the director prepared for us. A few roller coasters. In an interview with The Guardian, Scott also emphasized that commerciality is the key to the film: "I just want to scare the audience, that's my job. If I'm a comedian, I have to make the audience pee. Laughing wildly. My job is in the entertainment industry, and there's going to be some artistry in it, but I don't forget that it's to entertain people."
Over the past three decades, new technology has given directors more space. Fortunately, Ridley Scott did not get lost in the fancy special effects, but used technology to complete the expression more poetically and magnificently. There are two scenes in the film "Contract" that left a deep impression on me. One is that the contract spaceship unfolds its golden charging board in space, like a huge sail in the starry sky. For a moment, people feel that this is the era of interstellar sailing His temperament is rigorous and mechanical, but also poetic and romantic. Another scene is "throwing black water bombs" that many people will feel the same way (thanks to Fa Shark for his top performance). ——Let you lean on the back of the chair, take a deep breath, but think silently: Damn, it’s so cool.
[Everyone is mortal but I don't]
When David appeared in "Prometheus," he felt like any other cyborg from Wieland: humanoid, intelligent, and loyal. In "Alien 1", the role of the cyborg is not revealed until the middle part as a plot reversal - the cyborg tries to attack the scientist who knows the mission of the spacecraft, and he unabashedly expresses his love for and dislike for the alien before being destroyed. Human disdain: they (aliens) are pure, they are not swayed by conscience, remorse, so-called morality. You (humans) are sure to die, and all I can offer is my sympathy.
Of all the cyborgs, David was designed to be the most human-like, and his core characteristic is real emotion. Wieland also quickly realized the danger of giving biochemical human emotions, so in the "Contract" ten years later, Walter, who accompanied the team, was redesigned as a pure "service talent". But David, ten years later, has already completed his awakening: first, he destroyed the creator of mankind, and then used his own creator, mankind, as the experimental object - the opposite of everyone, but he wanted to create it himself. !
This is the character that should be included in the history of film, David 8, he took the awakening road to the last step, not just defeating human beings, replacing human beings, but creating like human beings. David's motives can be understood from many perspectives. If it is interpreted in a human way, he loves Dr. Xiao with human emotions, but both of them are infertile (David is a biochemical person, and Dr. Xiao revealed in the edited version that she cannot bear children.) pregnancy), so David chose an extreme way to create new life, using Dr. Xiao as the mother for incubation. If explained by evolutionary theory, David believes that humans and engineers are all vulnerable, and should be eliminated as backward life forms, and should be used as stepping stones to achieve greater organic life. In "Prometheus", after witnessing the engineer's head explode, David said without emotion: It's mortal after all. (Mortal after all.)
Every man is mortal, but he does not die. David, who has long understood this, wants to convince Walter to let him fight alongside him. It can be said that the ideological core of the whole film lies in the dialogue between David and Walter, the two characters played by the French Shark. Walter's machine sets off David's "creation" dream, and Walter's machine also reflects David's "creation" delusion. David solves Walter, but not the problem he will have sooner or later: If having Shelley- and Wagner-like creativity means having conscience, remorse, and morality at the same time, is the search progressive or degenerate?
However, as of "Contract", David has also completed the counterattack and revenge of the creatures under Scott's lens. Those familiar with Ridley Scott will not forget his other classic "Blade Runner" and the android's classic line: "I've seen things you humans can't believe, the battleship caught on fire on the edge of the constellation Orion. Burning, C-rays shining in the darkness near the stargate, all these moments will be lost in the torrent of time, like tears in the rain." Don't know what will happen to David in the next movie, so charming Protagonist, please let him live well.
From the fire of "Prometheus" to God's "Covenant" (Covenant refers to the covenant between God and man in the "Bible"), the title can see the director's reference to myth and religious imagery. In Prometheus, the engineer sacrificed himself to bring life to earth, and in the Covenant, David destroyed the engineers like the biblical flood, intending to recreate the world. But behind all this creation/destruction, what is the purpose of the creator/destroyer?
David asked: Why did man create me? The answer is: because we can. Dr. Xiao asked: Why did engineers create humans? She didn't get an answer, but she chose to believe in the Creator and believe that it all made sense. David just asked casually, but this question is the only question of mankind.
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