Will there ever be an Alien 5?

[PrayforMojo]

I can understand the attraction of doing an origin story, after all the whole Alien coming to Earth thing was done in the last AvP so there really isn't anywhere left for them to go, other than full circle, but let's be honest, it's a ****ing terrible idea. On a par with making a film about Darth Vader as a little boy.

Nah, I say scrap the prequel idea. Everything that happened post-Aliens was a bad dream while Ripley was in hypersleep, or something. Or they should do a Star Trek and bring in a time travel device. Either way Ripley, Hicks and Newt never died, and they all lived happily ever after. Hooray! The end.

[Darwock]

I just watched Alien 3 for the umpteenth time (a download of the quadrilogy disc apparently) and didn't notice any differences this time from any of the previous viewings.. I thought the quadrilogy one was an extended cut? What got added in?

Oh and I have to say it gets better every time too, this one is a damn good movie and doesn't deserve to be so hated

[PrayforMojo]

I just watched Alien 3 for the umpteenth time (a download of the quadrilogy disc apparently) and didn't notice any differences this time from any of the previous viewings.. I thought the quadrilogy one was an extended cut? What got added in?

Oh and I have to say it gets better every time too, this one is a damn good movie and doesn't deserve to be so hated

Yeah, it's a pretty decent film, probably the last good Alien film, but man, it's ****ing dark. So dark in fact, that even seventeen years later I still have trouble accepting it as canon. It's not necessary for Ridley Scott to bring back those characters in a new film, though, because I've already made that film, in my head, and that's enough for me.

As for the differences between cuts, the only one two I really recall is the Alien bursts from an ox, not a dog, and the prisoners do successfully capture the Alien, only for one of them to release it again later on.

[PeteJ]

I'm also a big fan of alien3, though it is worse than the first two.

I like the idea of the new film, so many cool things in the first (the huge dead alien). Helps that the man himself is on board!

[Dogg Thang]

I just watched Alien 3 for the umpteenth time (a download of the quadrilogy disc apparently) and didn't notice any differences this time from any of the previous viewings.. I thought the quadrilogy one was an extended cut? What got added in?

Both cuts were included in the Quadrilogy set so you could have just watched the original version from that set. The extended one is really extended, very rough around the edges with barely any editing and some quite different scenes. I'm sure you would have noticed the difference if that's the one you were watching.

[Darwock]

There weren't any cattle in it, that's for sure. Cheers guys.

[dvdmike]

The idea of Scott going back is a stunning one, no matter what he does with it.
It is after all his universe and his vision

[PrayforMojo]

Prequels worry me. You can count the successful ones on one finger, perhaps two, as I haven't seen the new Star Trek yet. Explaining things that were meant to be kept a mystery is rarely a good thing. Midi-chlorians. *cough*

[cutmymilk]

I haven't seen Cube Zero but thats meant to be decent. Saying that I thought Cube was awful and people like that.

[PrayforMojo]

Does Batman Begins count as a prequel? If so that was pretty good, except I can't think of it as a prequel. Nolan's Batman has characters which inhabit a universe that we're all familiar with, but it doesn't have anything to do with the previous Batman films.

Edit: just thought of another. Zombie Flesh-Eaters has always felt like a great unofficial prequel to Dawn of the Dead to me.

I have no idea what point I'm trying to make. I guess, if there is a point, it's that for a prequel to be a success it has to work as a standalone film. Whether Ridley Scott can pull it off, well, time will tell, but it seems to me by setting events before the first film he has confined himself to a box with very little room to manoeuvre.

[Dogg Thang]

Personally, I wouldn't count either Batman Begins or Zombie Flesh Eaters as prequels. Or even Star Trek (

->Open Spoiler<-

I'd call that a sequel

). Leaving me struggling to think of even one prequel I liked.

Does Godfather 2 count, which was sort of both a prequel and a sequel?

[PrayforMojo]

Hmmn. Not sure about Godfather Part II. For no particularly reason, it just doesn't fit into my theory. Lol.

But yes, I agree, it is one of the better origin stories. It's unusual because it does demystify the Vito Corleone character somewhat but it doesn't do any damage with revisionism either.

Here's a mind-bending one - Terminator Salvation - a sequel or a prequel?

[abigsmurf]

Sequel, the future of 1 and 2 didn't happen.

[PrayforMojo]

I wish Terminator Salvation never happened.

[rmoxon]

Prequels worry me. You can count the successful ones on one finger, perhaps two, as I haven't seen the new Star Trek yet. Explaining things that were meant to be kept a mystery is rarely a good thing. Midi-chlorians. *cough*

The new Star Trek isnt a prequel exactly, it isnt even a reboot, its actualy somthing else entirely, but you have to watch it to find out what and why.

As for an Alien prequel, well, there arent really any mysteries to tell us about, or at least none I can think of off the top of my head. Making it a prequel is simply a way of making the humans in the movie unaware of the enemy they are facing, making it much more like the original movie than any of the others, but probabaly with more than one alien.

Also, I always thought that Zombie Flesh Eaters is an unofficial sequel to Dawn of the Dead, not a prequel. In Italy Dawn is known as "Zombie" and Zombie Flesh Eaters is known as "Zombie 2"