Oh, Ridley Scott, it’s hard to root for you sometimes.
The director is responsible from some of the best sci-fi films of all time, with “Alien” perhaps being his greatest achievement. After handing the reins over to a variety of directors with the subsequent sequels and spin-offs, Ridley was supposed to make his triumphant return to the franchise with the oft-criticized “Prometheus.” After that film did moderately well at the box office, he was supposed to really hit big with the recent “Alien: Covenant.” Sadly, that didn’t go as planned, either. But fear not, if at first, or second, you don’t succeed, try, try again!
So, what’s Ridley’s new plan for recapturing the magic of the original “Alien”? Less aliens, obviously! In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Scott goes over whether or not he’d be willing to do a successor to ‘Covenant’ and which direction he’d like to go in.
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“We are [going to make another], we are,” Scott said. “I think what we have to do is gradually drift away from the alien stuff. People say, ‘You need more alien, you need more face pulling, need more chest bursting,’ so I put a lot of that in ‘Covenant’ and it fitted nicely. But I think if you go again you need to start finding another solution that’s more interesting. I think AI is becoming much more dangerous and therefore more interesting.”
Let’s just say, this sounds ill-advised. It’s clear that Scott might not completely understand the criticism about “Prometheus” and “Alien: Covenant.” It’s not the xenomorph scenes that people aren’t fully enjoying. Those were arguably the best parts of ‘Covenant.’ It’s all that existential nonsense that brings all the actual “Alien”-esque parts to a screeching halt. Many fans just want an “Alien” film that brings back the joy and, more importantly, the fear felt when watching the original.
Perhaps it’s time for Scott to maybe create something new outside of the “Alien” franchise? It was clear, after watching ‘Covenant,’ he’s more interested in following the adventures of David and exploring the origins of humanity than he is in creating another classic sci-fi horror film featuring scary aliens. Let’s see another “Blade Runner”-type of film instead of dragging the “Alien” name through the mud for a third time.
Guess that’s probably too much to ask from a director that is notorious for not letting things be.