Krishna
The movie has its moments, I will grant you that. The special effects are good, and the tie ins on how Alien became Alien (ie how it came to take the dreaded shape in the series) is well told.
But there is a lot that jars in the movie. First, a synopsis of the story. An old man Peter funds the research into an alien race, and this funding is started by a holographic presentation where Peter informs the group that he recorded this when he was alive and that he is dead many years if they are watching this. Thus starts an expedition into an alien planet in a space ship. Joining the scientific crew is Peter’s own daughter, Meredith Wickers (Charlize Theron) who is the mission director and therefore is in command of the operation.
When they land on a planet called Achelon, they go into a cave and are startled to discover that there are many drums sealed – thousands and thousands, which they are not used to. There is an android called David (just as in Aliens or was it Aliens 3?) who keeps awake during the travel while the travellers are frozen since the travel takes very many years, just to be unfrozen close to the end of the journey.
What follows is an adventure of a lifetime, where the alien race’s history is discovered, and finally, most of the crew meets its end.
The Aliens are created by a kind of a creature that absorbs the DNA of their victims and slowly changes form as it gets more and more victims…. until….
Anyway, the movie feels like it was written by a fifth grader. The dialogues are childish and the behaviour is bizzare. An example: Remember that these are trained scientists, grouped together because they are the best? They have to be repeatedly warned not to touch a gunky ooze that comes out of the sealed camps when they “disturb something in the atmosphere” and start a transformation. What?
You think that is crazy? How about this? The air in the new planet is highly toxic (as indicated by some kind of spectrometer thingie attached to their space suit). But inside the cave, there is 25% Oxygen and 75% Nitrogen, again as indicated by the machine. What do these professional scientists do? Take their headgear off and breath the air! No thought about the strangeness of the land and even any microbes that may be there with unknown effects. No… Just try breathing air, that would solve the problem. And since this person who did this survived for 10 seconds, every one else decide it is safe to remove their breathing apparatus. Brilliant.
The history of the place is recorded in some kind of weird, static filled 3D film, where people who flicker run along and repeat what they have done.
Want more? When a snake like thing comes out of water and looks at one person in the face, he goes near it at once and decides it is cute enough to try and touch it. Trained scientists, people! And of course it kills him instantly.
Or the scientists just running for their lives but go back to retrieve a “head” they collected in spite of the surety of their dying in a storm. It is not even as if they had to leave the planet. They just want to stay in the space ship until morning, when the storm has hopefully passed. Can anyone tell me why the head, sealed in a bag could not be left out in an uninhabited planet until morning?
Charlize Theron has a very minor role, and is almost insignificant in the movie, which is a surprise. While she is not heroic, hers (Meredith) seems to be the only character which has any sense. When she finds a dead man become undead and approach the space ship, she just fries him with fire. Finally, you say, someone with some semblance of sense.
All in all, despite references to the earlier movies of Aliens, this is a damp squib.
Not more than a 3/10
— Krishna