A Total Land of Confusion

Rating: 3/10 (17 May 2014)

In my humble view, just another way to make more money out of a classic. Just as Peter Jackson makes three movies out of a single book less than 300 pages thick.
Why do I think this was a completely unnecessary installment? Where do I even begin... First off, I think the Alien franchise never needed a prequel. The franchise was about the abandoned moon, LV-223, that harbored a hostile species which actually killed other aliens who somehow managed to transmit the warning signal for future passer-byes, as far as I remember. How come the prequel deals with our emo musings about our origins, and how come those aliens are suddenly our ancestors and why in all hells would they want to kill us? Doesn't matter, as the cast says in the movie. In the movie Alien, the crew finds one of the 'good' aliens fused to the chair, dead, his chest torn open because of the xenomorph that had come out, whereas this is never presented in the prequel. Just this fancy chair, and David playing in it like a kid.
The old man reminds me of the dying old man from Alien vs. Predator, yet another butchery of two wonderful franchises, made just for the sake of expensive and 'impressive' visual effects. He wants to know, for God's sake, he NEEDS to know, and dies in the process quickly after, quite pointlessly.
If the Corporation in the original franchise wanted to make the spaceship crew hosts for the xenomorphs, and in this movie that is obviously not the case, why is David acting stupidly awkwardly, carrying in the contaminated 'vase' and poisoning poor Charlie? I find it quite pointless nevertheless. Isn't he, then, supposed to be a villainous android like Ash? And since when do the...vases ooze that, and are not the usual xenomorph eggs? I gather these are going to evolve sometime in the future, but what of the alien in the chair? People in Alien won't find it then. And most importantly, what was that...a giant face-hugger? How come this one Engineer's capsule remained intact for such a long period of time, when all the others died?
Charlize and the old man--an unnecessary awkward family situation. And what kind of authority does she actually represent aboard the ship? I just find her character a bossy cowardly amateur.
This sudden fertilization of Ellie's egg, making her the Ripley-like mockery of a main protagonist. No one can match Ellen Ripley and Sigorney playing her, despite all the heavy breathing, twitching and running around.
Once again...The Engineers...the fight...what for? And the list expands. I can't even remember what else I wanted to write.
I hope the sequel explains it all, but the way I see it...I better pretend this never happened.
Nice visual effects, though.