Alien: Covenant

December 2104. The colony ship Covenant is on its way to Origae-VI to establish a new settlement. A neutrino burst damages the ship in interstellar space and kills several crewmembers in hypersleep. Awoken by the ship's synthetic, Walter, the crew effect repairs and discover a signal emanating from a nearby star system, from a planet that is a much closer match for colonisation. Arriving on the planet, the crew find signs of life...and an answer to a mystery from a decade earlier.

Alien: Covenant is Ridley Scott's sequel to his 2012 movie Prometheus, itself a semi-prequel/semi-spin-off from his 1979 horror masterpiece Alien. As the titles suggest, Prometheus was much more of a stand-alone movie sharing some DNA with the rest of the franchise but not focusing on the titular creature. Covenant instead brings back the traditional xenomorph and establishes how it was created, whilst resolving some of the questions left dangling from Prometheus.

The result is an interesting hybrid movie which feels like it's trying to do several things simultaneously. It's trying to be an action-horror movie in its own right, a sequel to the more weighty concerns in Prometheus and a prequel to the events of the original movie. Considering a prequel to the original movie, let alone two, was never narratively necessary, this was an controversial decision, but one that ultimately pays off.

Covenant has a familiar set-up: a starship picks up a distress call and diverts to investigate, finding a ruined alien ship harbouring something nasty, something which can infect humans and turn them into the incubators for monstrous creations. Things quickly go wrong and mayhem results. The film borrows its basic structure from Alien, although it does mix the ingredients up to keep things more unpredictable without descending into the sheer randomness of Prometheus.

What helps keep all of this intriguing is that Ridley Scott is, even at the tail end of his career, still a masterful director with a tremendous sense of visual power and a strong design aesthetic. The Covenant and the various locations in the film are all impressive pieces of design, if less striking than Prometheus. Scott can also build tension like few other directors. This time around he's helped by a script which doesn't rely on the characters being quite as monumentally stupid as the ones in Prometheus, based on the fact these guys are engineers and colonists having to work way out of their comfort zones, rather than the alleged first contact specialists and biologists of the previous movie.

The film is paced pretty well, with the action unfolding continuously from the landing on the planet to the final confrontation with the creature, and handles a distinct shift in storytelling when David, the android from Prometheus, shows up and effectively shoehorns a follow-up story from that movie into the middle of this more traditional Alien tale. Mostly propelled by Michael Fassbender's superb performance (as both David and the Covenant's synthetic of the same class, Walter), this actually works to the film's benefit, providing a shift of pace and perspective which changes things up and keeps things fresh even as we begin to move away from the focus of Prometheus (the Engineers and the black goo-ex-machina) and back towards the franchise's star creature.

The final part of the movie - the human crewmembers versus the xenomorph with the androids serving as wild cards - is a bit more standardand and you can feel Scott checking out a little bit in the final battle with the creature in the Covenant's hanger bay (which viewers familiar with both Alien and Aliens may find dully predictable), but it's all well-handled. Less forgivable is a blatant sequel hook which, given Covenant's modest box office performance, may have been a bit optimistic. As it stands there's still a lot of unanswered questions on how the events of Prometheus and Covenant lead into Alien, but some of the revelations in Covenant make this perhaps a more interesting question than it appeared from Prometheus alone.

Most of the cast are pretty good, with a surprisingly effective dramatic turn for Danny McBride and a strong leading performance with Katherine Waterston, with a good supporting turn by Billy Crudup. Fassbender with his dual roles steals the film, however, providing an icy new antagonist for a franchise that urgently needed one, having all but burned out the threat level of the xenomoph through over-exposure.

Alien: Covenant (****) is an effective action-horror movie which overcomes over-familiarity with some excellent performances and superb direction and design work, although the soundtrack is at best forgettable. Stronger than Prometheus, if not on the same level as Alien and Aliens, it shows there is some life left in this franchise. The film is available now on Blu-Ray (UK, USA).

ALIEN: COVENANT trailer analysis

20th Century Fox have dropped the first R-rated trailer for Alien: Covenant, Ridley Scott's upcoming new film in the Alien franchise. This movie acts as a sequel to Prometheus and a prequel to the original Alien.

Set in 2104, almost eleven years after the events of Prometheus and eighteen years before Alien, the film sees the starship Covenant sent to colonise a distant, habitable planet that the Weyland-Yutani Company has discovered. Upon arrival, the landing party is infected by some kind of spore and mayhem results. The Engineer starship from Prometheus is soon found on the planet and it is confirmed that the android David and Noomi Rapace's character of Elizabeth Shaw will both return from the earlier movie.

Hazarding a guess, I'd say that David and Shaw reached the Engineer homeworld and discovered it had been wiped out by the "black goo" genetic engineering experiments run amok. David and Shaw sent out a distress call that the Company received, resulting in them sending a rescue mission under the cover of being a colonisation expedition. I suspect the real mission will be known only to Walter, the David-type android on the Covenant, and maybe the captain.

The movie appears to have deviated from the original plan. Ridley Scott's original Prometheus II concept would have picked up shortly after the events of Prometheus and followed David and Shaw to the Engineer homeworld, with a later film more directly linking to the events of Alien. My guess is that 20th Century Fox decided to skip that movie and what we're seeing with Covenant is more the plot of the originally-planned third film. The fact that the familiar xenomorph is in this movie (along with a spine-shredding variant known as the "neomorph") adds to that possibility.

If this movie does well, there would appear to be scope for one more prequel movie (leading directly into the events of Alien, explaining what that Engineer ship was doing on LV-426) and then presumably we'd get Neil Blomkamp's Alien 5 project, which has been put on hold whilst Ridley Scott does his thing.

Promo images confirm date setting of ALIEN: COVENANT

In May 2017, Ridley Scott will release Alien: Covenant. This is a sequel of sorts to his 2012 movie Prometheus and will serve as a semi-prequel to the original Alien, apparently bridging the way between the bizarre creatures seen in Prometheus and the more familiar xenomorphs.

For the last few days 20th Century Fox have been unveiling promotional imagery for the new movie, accompanied by times and dates. These confirm that Alien: Covenant takes place (at least) between 7 and 8 December 2104. Prometheus took place in the final week of 2093, concluding on New Year's Day 2094. The original Alien began on 3 June 2122, with Aliens taking place 57 years later in 2179. So, if nothing else, it's good to see that someone is paying attention to the chronology of the series.

 

Alien: Covenant will be released on 19 May.

Teaser poster and release date for ALIEN: COVENANT unveiled

20th Century Fox has released a teaser poster for Alien: Covenant, as well as confirming a new release date. The new movie, which will bridge Prometheus with the original Alien, will be released on 19 May.

Ridley Scott has directed the new film, which started life as a direct sequel to Prometheus before metamorphosing in development into a "proper" Aliens movie.

Michael Fassbender reprises his role as android David, with Noomi Rapace returning as Elizabeth Shaw. Guy Pearce is also expected to reappear as Peter Weyland (presumably in flashbacks or recordings). New actors include Katherine Waterston, Billy Crudup and Danny McBride.

The new movie will involve a human colony ship arriving on a planet where the only inhabitant is the android David, from Prometheus. According to some reports, the planet may be the homeworld of the Engineers and will involve both the traditional xenomorph and a new type of alien creature, the neomorph, which may be what results when a facehugger impregnates an Engineer.

Ridley Scott confuses everyone with PROMETHEUS sequel

Ridley Scott has made a series of somewhat odd comments about the upcoming sequel to Prometheus, his 2012 quasi-prequel to Alien.

Prometheus 2 is still due to go into production in February 2016 and will see Noomi Rapace and Michael Fassbender reprise their roles as Elizabeth Shaw and the android David. At the end of Prometheus they stole an alien starship and set out to find the homeworld of the Engineers and somehow stop them from destroying Earth. In the meantime, a horrendous and almost-familiar alien creature had come into being on LV-223, although with no food around and no more people or Engineers, presumably its chances for long-term survival are bleak.

Scott had previously said there would be a trilogy of films in this series and the last film would tie in with the original Alien, presumably explaining why the Engineer starship carrying hundreds of facehugger eggs ended up crashed on LV-426, as we see it at the start of Alien. The middle film in the saga would have the fewest connections to the rest of the Aliens universe, focusing as it likely does on the Engineers and their backstory.

Scott doubled down on this last week, confirming that Prometheus 2 would not feature the traditional xenomorph at all (not even in the very brief and ambiguous way the original did in its closing moments) and we'd have to wait until Prometheus 3...or Prometheus 4, although knowing Scott's sense of humour he may have been taking the mickey out of fans with that last statement.

Today, just to confuse everyone further, Scott announced that Prometheus 2 will in fact now be called Alien: Paradise Lost. Erm.

There are several explanations here. The most likely is that Fox has decided it wants to use a brand name to "universify" the Alien franchise in the same way Marvel have with their films and Disney has with Star Wars, with lots of films in the same universe even if some are connected only tangentially. Fox are also developing a new core Alien film with Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) and Hicks (Michael Biehn), to be directed by Neill Blomkamp. Although it has the working title Alien 5, this other film seems likely to jettison Alien 3 and Alien: Resurrection from continuity and pick up instead twenty years or so after the events of Aliens. Some of Blomkamp's concept art for the film shows an Engineer starship being dissected by humans (possibly from the Weyland-Yutani Company), so it might be that Alien 5 and Paradise Lost will yet find a way of tying into one another. Or it might just be a bit of branding, and we may even see the first film retitled Alien: Prometheus for some future re-release.

Some thoughts on how Prometheus and Alien tie into one another can be found here.

PROMETHEUS II greenlit for 2017 release

Ridley Scott will start shooting the sequel to the 2012 SF movie Prometheus in January 2016, likely with a view to releasing the film in 2017.

The news came as a slight surprise. Scott had seemingly pushed the sequel onto the backburner in favour of other projects, such as the long-gestating Blade Runner II. The muted critical response to the original movie and its middling financial success were believed to have been disappointing to 20th Century Fox as well. More notably, the studio has also been developing an Alien 5 with director Neil Blomkamp, with Sigourney Weaver set to return as Ripley and Michael Biehn as Hicks in a movie that seemingly ignores the third and fourth films. There had been theories that Alien 5's existence made a sequel to Prometheus less likely.

However, the sequel is now being fast-tracked. Michael Green and Jack Paglen have written the script (Damon Lindelof is not involved this time around) and Noomi Rapace and Michael Fassbender have already committed to reprising their roles as Shaw and David. The movie will presumably pick up on their adventures having seized an Engineer starship and taken off to find their homeworld at the end of the first movie. According to Scott, the traditional xenomorph alien will not appear in this film, despite hints to its origins in the previous one.

New ALIEN film confirmed

20th Century Fox have commissioned director Neill Blomkamp to work on a new Alien film. The director of District 9, Elysium and Chappie had hinted he was working on ideas for a new film in the franchise a few months ago.

The new project is proceeding simultaneously alongside Ridley Scott's Prometheus II. Scott had previously suggested that the sequel to Prometheus would move away from even the vague connections to the xenomorphs the original film had in favour of the mythology and backstory of the Engineers. Whilst Fox is okay with this - Prometheus grossed almost half a billion dollars at the box office - they also seem to want to continue the core Alien franchise at the same time.

Little is known about the new film, although in Blomkamp's concept art it appears he was considering a 'proper' Alien 5 with Sigourney Weaver and possibly even Michael Biehn reappearing in their roles as Ripley and Hicks. The fact that Hicks died (controversially off-screen) in Alien 3 has hinted that Biehn might be following Scott's idea that none of the films after Aliens should be considered canon. I can't see Fox entirely being happy with that (it would remove no less than four films from the canon) unless they thought it would make them a ton of cash.

If work is only starting now, it's unlikely we will see Alien 5 before late 2017 or early 2018 at the earliest. This would make for easily the longest gap in the main series since the franchise started in 1979. It remains to be seen if Blomkamp can breathe some new life into this increasingly tired foe.

The Wertzone Awards 2012

Once more unto the breach!

Best Novels

1. Existence by David Brin
David Brin returns after a long absence with a sweeping, state-of-the-nation take on what our lives may be like in the mid-21st Century. Strong characters and a thorough exploration of scientific and technological ideas combine for my strongest book of the year.

2. Dark Eden by Chris Beckett
Beckett's second novel is difficult to describe, being a piece built more around mood and atmosphere than plot. It's the story of the descendants of an ancient starship crash who discover more about the world around them and their true history, and thus about themselves.

3. Kings of Morning by Paul Kearney
Kearney conclude his exploration of Greek and Persian history through the lens of fantasy with aplomb, with flawed characters finding their destinies against the backdrop of war.

4. Railsea by China Mieville
A vast world consisting of oceans of rails, with immense trains ploughing across them. A crazed and whimsical echo of Moby Dick, but with awesome monsters and concepts straight from Mieville's weird imagination. Also incidental winner of the Biggest Mole Monster in SFF Award 2012.

5. Forge of Darkness by Steven Erikson
Erikson steps back from the immense complexity of his Malazan sequence to deliver a (relatively) straightforward prequel. Freed from the weight of backstory, Forge of Darkness is Erikson's finest fantasy novel in a decade.

6. 2312 by Kim Stanley Robinson
Like Brin, Robinson also undertakes a thorough exploration of what humanity may be like in the future, this time 300 years hence. His effort is larger-scaled, taking in the entire Solar system, but fails compared to Brin due to an undercooked political thriller subplot. Still, a visionary work.

7. Red Country by Joe Abercrombie
A bonkers mashup of Al Swearengen, Rockstar Games and Clint Eastwood, this is a fantasy war western on an epic scale. With Abercrombie's trademark black humour and cynical characters, the story is traditionally bloody, brutal and conspicuously lacking in banjos.

8. Sharps by K.J. Parker
Parker's latest novel veers away from her(?) recent novels in being based around an ensemble cast rather than a single individual. It's also hilarious, with the characters being in the middle of a traditional epic fantasy backdrop but without a clue what's going on.

9. The King's Blood by Daniel Abraham
After the good-but-underwhelming Dragon's Path, Abraham's Dagger and the Coin series explodes more readily into life with this second volume. It's a more coherent and focused work than the first novel, consolidating Abraham's position as one of our most promising (relatively) new fantasy writers.

10. The Killing Moon by N.K. Jemisin
Jemisin's epic fantasy by way of Egyptian history and mythology is a bit of a slow-burner, but a smart and intriguing book.

Bubbling under: Blood and Bone by Ian Cameron Esslemont, Great North Road by Peter F. Hamilton, The Dirty Streets of Heaven by Tad Williams, The Twelve by Justin Cronin, Blue Remembered Earth by Alastair Reynolds, Orb Sceptre Throne by Ian Cameron Esslemont, The Iron Wyrm Affair by Lilith Saintcrow, Caliban's War by James S.A. Corey, The Middle Kingdom by David Wingrove, Ice and Fire by David Wingrove, Crown of Embers by Rae Carson.

The Wertzone SFF Comeback Award 2012

After a decade being mildly snarky about the Star Wars prequels (among a few other things), Brin returns with his most epic and impressive novel to date. Nicely done.

The Wertzone Award for Best Book Read in 2012 Regardless of Release Date

A book that manages to pack more story, character and thematic exploration into its low page count than some authors manage in entire trilogies. Intelligent and thought-provoking. Next year for the hat-trick?

Best Games

1. XCOM
Firaxis's resurrection of a twenty-year-old classic is a resounding success. Eminently replayable with a fiendish, "Just one more go!" feel, XCOM is a fitting tribute to the original game and a thoroughly compelling game in its own right.

2. Dishonored
Darkly atmospheric with an unusual setting and a laudable focus on stealth and intelligence over mindless slaughter, playing Dishonored is a rich (but often stressful) experience with a strong element of replayability to it as you attempt to get that perfect 'undetected' pass of a level.

3. Far Cry 3
As bonkers freeform shooters go, they don't get much more bonkers or more successfully freeform than Far Cry 3. A fantastic sense of setting and place with sublime combat overcomes some early makework problems in the early game. Plus the only game on this list where you can blow up a crocodile with a landmine, and is that not what humanity has striven for since first we looked at the stars?

4. The Walking Dead
A zombie game where the zombies are incidental, serving only as the vehicle which fleshes out character and plot. And with this game (based on being halfway through), Telltale have delivered their best characters and most compelling plot so far, not to mention the finest take on The Walking Dead franchise in any medium to date. Full review forthcoming.

5. Alan Wake (PC Edition)
An older, under-appreciated game on console is brought back to life on PC with jaw-dropping graphics and a sense of atmosphere that is staggering, not to mention some hilarious observations on the life of a 'struggling writer'. The PC version includes the two expansions and is an absorbing game.

6. Black Mesa
A bunch of unpaid fans spend eight years updating the greatest first-person shooter of all time (Half-Life) with modern graphics and production values. Frankly better than almost all of the actual original first-person shooters professionally released this year. Worth it just for the Chuckle Brothers reference.

7. Mass Effect 3
It's been a surprisingly thin year for roleplaying games, but Mass Effect 3 nearly makes up for it by itself. With a thorough exploration of consequence and hopelessness, set against a backdrop of smart characterisation and a soundtrack to die for, this could have been a contender for game of the year...at least before a series of titanic logic failures leads to the single most controversial ending of any popular franchise in the last ten years. The Leviathan and 'Extended Cut' DLCs help repair the damage somewhat, but it's not quite enough to overcome the disbelief. Still, the other 95% of the game is awesome.

8. Max Payne 3
Rockstar were always going to have to work hard to convince fans of one of the finest action games of all time that they were suited to take over the franchise, and in isolated, brilliant moments Max Payne 3 succeeds. In others it disappoints, particularly the game's reluctance to actually let you play it (with frequent, unskippable and tedious five-minute cut scenes). The breathless action sequences and stunning soundtrack go some way to repairing the damage, however.

9. Game of Thrones: The RPG
Awful graphics and dubious combat do not for a good RPG make. However, the awesome characters and a series of plot twists that even GRRM may have considered too shocking elevate this game above its problems to become something really interesting. And, based on the dozen hours I've pumped into it so far, frankly better than Dragon Age: Origins.

10. Alan Wake's American Nightmare
Remedy's quasi-sequel to the excellent Alan Wake has some terrific ideas floating below the surface, but ultimately proves too repetitive to withstand comparison with its older, more impressive sibling.

Best TV Series

1. Game of Thrones
The second season may have been more disappointing than the first, but it was still the television highlight of the year. Peter Dinklage's performance is even stronger this year than in the first, and more screen time for Charles Dance is always a good thing (though skirting the edges of being too much of a good thing). Some of the more tedious aspects ("Ships! Dragons! Ships! Dragons!") are more than outweighed by the outstanding episode Blackwater.

2. The Walking Dead
The second season of this show was probably best first-experienced on Blu-Ray, with the endless wanderings through the forest looking for missing characters getting a bit old by mid-season. But a renewed focus on character relationships and the deteriorating mental state of the redoubtable Shane (along with the occasional zombie massacre scene) do prove ultimately worthwhile.

3. Merlin
The final season of what started as a light-hearted kid's show proves to be unexpectedly dark, with multiple character deaths and a surprising adherence to the original legend's brutal conclusion. Well-acted and thoroughly enjoyable. If only the whole series had been like this.

4. Doctor Who
A switch to more stand-alone episodes after last year's over-convoluted arc proves to be a success, allowing the show to return to its roots as an enjoyable slice of SF hokum. The arrival of mysterious new companion Clara 'Kenny' Oswald, played with infectious enthusiasm by Jenna-Louise Coleman, has also helped revive the show following the exhaustion of Rory and Amy's storylines.

5. Red Dwarf
Given the damage wreaked on the Red Dwarf name by its seventh and eighth seasons (and the horrendous Back to Earth special of a few years ago, now retconned as the ninth season), expectations were accordingly low for this new season. The cast overcome the issues of age to continue to deliver fine performances with some of the best scripts the show has had in twenty years. Whilst there's still lots of misfires, this latest return for the show is worthwhile.


6. Battlestar Galactica: Blood and Chrome
This pilot for an aborted Battlestar Galactica spin-off tries to make up for the problems of Caprica - being too talky and lacking action - but goes way too far in the opposite direction. Dubious characters and workmanlike performances are held up by some remarkable CGI, but ultimately it's for the best the show wasn't picked up.

Best Film

1. Ted
The touching and beautiful story of a young boy and his magical bear who comes to life. Later they take drugs together and meet Sam Jones from the 1980s Flash Gordon movie whilst Patrick Stewart berates Brandon Routh for making Superman Returns in narrative voiceover. Frankly, no other film this year was as much fun.

2. The Dark Knight Rises
Better than The Dark Knight (note: I am well aware that I am the only person on Earth who thinks this), this third movie in the series is a satisfying conclusion to Christopher Nolan's grimdark interpretation of the Dark Knight. As usual, Michael Caine is the best thing in it but is given a run for his money by Anne Hathaway's unexpectedly excellent Catwoman and Tom Hardy's evil Bane (despite sounding like he's sucking in helium whilst at the bottom of well).

3. The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
Whilst the overall wisdom of extending a very short novel into a nine-hour trilogy remains to be seen, this first installment works thanks to excellent performances by Martin Freeman, Ian McKellan, Andy Serkis and Richard Armitage and the decision to flesh out the dwarves and their backstory much more than Tolkien did. Also the winner of the Best Hedgehog Scene of 2012 Award.

4. Cabin in the Woods
Joss Whedon and Drew Goddard's metatextual examination of the horror movie genre risks tremendous smugness in its own cleverness but just about gets away with it with a darkly effective premise. Jet-black humour and a ruthlessness in dispatching major characters combine with inventive methods of murder and misdirection to create something very interesting.

5. The Avengers
Joss Whedon almost loses control of this vast behemoth of a movie several times, but just about reigns it in. The movie risks overwhelming the audience with explosions and action, but an undercurrent of humour and some great character moments (mostly involving Mark Ruffalo and Scarlett Johansson) save the film from total Baydom and instead render it nosily enjoyable.

7. The Hunger Games
Suzanne Collins's slightly underwhelming novel is transformed into an enjoyable film, even if it adheres too much to the books in not giving the characters real moral issues to address. Still, great performances from Jennifer Lawrence and Donald Sutherland bode well for the sequels.
7. The Woman in Black
Daniel Radcliffe shakes off the Ghost of Potter to deliver a fine performance in this adaptation of Suzanne Hill's novel. Some standard horror techniques are over-used, but the film delivers an atmospheric experience.

8. Prometheus
Ridley Scott's Alien quasi-prequel features some superb acting, stunning set design and phenomenal set-pieces, but sacrifices too much logic and intelligence to achieve it. A visually impressive cinematic experience, but ultimately a hollow one. However, it does confirm the long-held belief that Everything is Better With Idris Elba.

The Wertzone Missing in Action 2012 Award

At the start of the year it seemed very possibly - even likely - that Valve was on the cusp of officially announcing Half-Life 3. That didn't happen, though head of Valve Gabe Newell did confirm that they are at least working on it, and we can expect it to appear some time between now and the heat death of the universe.

The Wertzone Award for Special Achievements in Seriously, Dude, What the Hell?

Tie.

Game of Prometheus

WARNING: SPOILERS FOR THE MOVIE PROMETHEUS

Sharp-eyed viewers will have spotted a few familiar faces shared by Ridley Scott's  movie Prometheus and the HBO series Game of Thrones. This should not be a surprise as both projects shared a casting director, Nina Gold.

Present and correct in both projects is actor Emun Elliott, who played the role of troubadour Marillion in Season 1 of Thrones. He was last seen in the Season 1 finale being punished by Joffrey for singing a rude song about his parents. In Prometheus he plays the role of Chance, the starship's pilot.

More immediately recognisable (Chance only having a major appearance very close to the end of the movie) should be Scottish actress Kate Dickie. Dickie appeared as Lady Lysa Arryn in the first season of Thrones, where for her first scene she memorably needed to sport a prosthetic breast for breast-feeding purposes. In Prometheus she plays the role of the ship's medic, Ford, whose medical decisions are frankly a bit head-scratching. Or indeed, head-exploding.

Both actors had the honour of being killed (indirectly and directly, respectively) by Ian Whyte, who in Prometheus plays the Last Engineer (aka that big white guy they really shouldn't have woken up). In Thrones Whyte has two different roles. In the pilot and one episode of Season 2 he played a White Walker but, presumably after complaining of being typecast as really tall, pale dudes who kill humans for no discernible reason, he then pulled double duty as Gregor Clegane Mk. II, replacing Conan Stevens.

As well as actors, both projects filmed in Iceland. Prometheus filmed in the area around the Hekla volcano for the 'birth of life' prologue sequence, whilst exterior plates for LV-233 were also filmed in the area. The Dettifoss waterfell in the north-east of Iceland was also used as a filming location. All-told, Prometheus filmed in Iceland for two weeks in July 2011. Thrones filmed on the huge Vatnajökull glacier for the sequences set beyond the Wall, most notably at the Fist of the First Men and for Jon Snow's meeting with Ygritte. HBO filmed there for four weeks in October-November 2011.

Filling the blanks: tying PROMETHEUS to ALIEN

Ridley Scott's new movie Prometheus has won a fair amount of critical acclaim (though a more mixed general reception) and an impressive opening week's worth of money, but it's also left a lot of people pondering over the precise relationship between the movie and Alien, to which it acts as a sort-of prequel. Through careful research (i.e. googling interviews) the following clarifications can be made:

NOTE: MASSIVE SPOILERS FOR PROMETHEUS, ALIEN AND ALIENS.

An Engineer ship crash-landing on the surface of LV-223 in 2093.

Time and Date
Prometheus opens in 2089 with the discovery of a cave painting in Scotland which points the way to the Engineer base. The ship arrives at this location in the final week of 2093, with the final moments of the film taking place on New Year's Day, 2094.

No date is given in Alien for the action, save that it happens in the 22nd Century (due to the presence of a crew uniform patch that says, 'Flag of the United Americas 2104 to present'). In Aliens Carter Burke orders the colonists to investigate the crashed Engineer ship on 12 June '79. Assuming Aliens happens in 2179, then Alien takes place 57 years earlier, in 2122 (and this was later confirmed in featurettes in the Alien Legacy boxed set). From a computer display at the start of Alien, the movie starts on 3 June.

Thus, Prometheus concludes 28 years, 5 months and 2 days before the start of Alien.

The planet LV-426 orbits, along with several of its moons, in 2122.

Location
The planetary body that Prometheus flies to is called LV-223. The planetoid that the Nostromo crew land on in Alien (and is later colonised by the Weyland-Yutani Corporation prior to the events of Aliens) is called LV-426, informally known as 'Acheron'. The different designations seemingly confirm that these are different planetoids.

Both planetoids are depicted as moons circling larger gas giants. LV-426 is one of at least four moons orbiting a red-hued gas giant. LV-223 is one of two moons orbiting a blue-coloured gas giant. Given that we physically see four moons in Alien (three moons and the gas giant are seen in LV-426's sky) and a comprehensive 3D starmap in Prometheus only shows two, the conclusion is that these are different gas giants (otherwise the gas giant changes colour and acquires two additional moons in thirty years, which seems implausible).

In Alien, LV-426 is identified as being located in the Zeta II Reticuli star system. Zeta Reticuli is a real star system located 39.16 light-years from Earth in the constellation Reticulum, consisting of two stars in a binary orbit. However, the two stars are extremely far apart (dozens of times the distance between the Sun and Pluto), meaning that each star could hold an extensive solar system of its own without gravitationally interfering with the other.

LV-223, along with its mother planet and another moon, as shown on the Prometheus's scanners in 2093.

In Prometheus, the destination star system is not identified. A distance of 327,000,000,000,000 km is given, which translates as 34.56 light-years. Given that Zeta Reticuli's distance has been estimated with a strong degree of accuracy (the error margin is only 0.1 light-years), this would seem to confirm that LV-422 is not only a different planetoid to the one in Alien and Aliens, but is located in a totally different star system altogether. Some fans have postulated that LV-422 is located at Gliese 86, a star just under 35 light-years away in the constellation of Eridanus. This is especially popular as an extrasolar gas giant was discovered circling Gliese 86 in 2000. Gliese 86 and Zeta Reticuli are located in the same general neighbourhood, only being separated from one another by 10 light-years.

This splendid theorising has been torpedoed by Ridley Scott saying straight-out that Prometheus takes place in the Zeta Reticuli II star system as well, however.

Thus, the two planetoids in Prometheus and Alien - LV-223 and LV-426 - are different planetoids but they are located in the same star system. Based on the evidence above, I'd still suggest they are orbiting different gas giants.

The USS Sulaco approaching LV-426 in 2179.

Engineer bases and ships
According to Prometheus, the Engineers built an extensive military installation on LV-223 more than two thousand years ago. This installation consists of approximately five large domed buildings, each huge in size. At least two of the buildings had large, horseshoe-shaped spacecraft located adjacent to them. The installation appeared to be a base for the creation of a biological weapon of mass destruction, apparently for use against Earth. This facility was overrun and its population almost completely wiped out by unknown forces (but likely a bioweapon they lost control of) approximately 2,000 years before the events of Alien.

In Alien and Aliens, an Engineer starship of similar design to those seen in Prometheus is found on the surface of LV-426. Initial assumptions were that it had crashed, but more recent interviews (at the 18-minute mark) have suggested it landed or was parked deliberately there. According to Ridley Scott, this ship originated at the LV-223 facility and was on its way somewhere else (presumably not Earth) with its cargo of facehuggers when its cargo got out of control. The pilot landed on LV-426 and was killed, within a couple of hundred years of the destruction of the LV-223 facility (so between 1,800 and 2,200 years before the events of Alien). The fact that the facehugger eggs could survive and remain viable for that time period is impressive.

A mural in the Engineer base on LV-223, suggesting that the xenomorphs were extant more than 2,000 years ago.

The bioweapons and the xenomorph
On LV-223 a black liquid stored in vase-like containers serves as a destructive bioweapon. It can animate corpses, turning them into monstrous killers, and transform little worms into large, snake-like monsters. Rather more bizarrely, it can convert human sperm into a parasite-like creature that, when given a female human body to gestate in, transforms into a squid-like creature which can grow to colossal (some might indeed say, totally fricking preposterous) size and then impregnate another type of creature into another host, a creature which more closely resembles the traditional xenomorphs.

On LV-426, the cargo of the crashed Engineer ship consisted of eggs which, when hatched, produced parasitic 'facehuggers'. These creatures would attach themselves to a human or animal host and place an embryo in their chest. After a period of gestation (typically several hours, or several days for a queen creature capable of laying further eggs en masse) this 'chestburster' erupts through the host's ribcage and grows to large size within a matter of hours. This creature is the traditional xenomorph. Unlike the black goo things on LV-223, the xenomorph's life cycle appears fairly stable and predictable.

Note that, based on both the information provided by Scott in interviews and the mural in the LV-223 facility depicting the traditional xenomorph, the traditional xeno appears to have already been in existence for some time when the base on LV-223 was wiped out. This would then seem to contradict the popular (and perhaps obvious) theory that the black goo stuff in Prometheus is some type of prototype that would lead to the familiar xeno in future films (though the appearance of a proto-xeno in the final seconds of Prometheus would seem to suggest that this was the direction things were heading in).

Based on all of this I would argue that the standard xenomorph was already in existence and the Prometheus bioweapon was an attempt to replicate it. Given the inefficency of the Prometheus creatures, with a confusing and bizarre life-cycle, it can be concluded that the Prometheus bioweapon was a miserable failure. Perhaps all of their 'normal' xenomorph eggs had been put on the LV-426 ship and they were forced to develop a secondary weapon when their main one was put beyond their reach (which seems extremely unlikely, but there doesn't seem to be too many other conclusions that can be reached)?


Conclusion (speculation)
The Engineers are an intelligent alien race who may have had a hand in the appearance of life on Earth. If not, they certainly visited our stone age ancestors around 35,000 years ago. 2,000 years ago a group of Engineers, possibly military in origin, established a base on LV-223, a moon in the Zeta II Reticuli system, 39 light-years from Earth. They created a bioweapon, apparently taking inspiration from an already-existing alien lifeform known as the xenomorph. They apparently decided to wipe out life on Earth for reasons unknown (possibly ranging from fear that their creations were getting out of control to one of their emissaries being nailed to a cross - this latter idea is extremely idiotic, so hopefully that's not the direction they are going in).

A ship took of from the LV-223 base carrying a cargo hold full of xenomorph eggs. The pilot ended up getting infected. He made an emergency landing on LV-426, a moon circling a neighbouring gas giant in the same system, but was killed. He activated a warning beacon telling his fellows to stay away. They respected that and did not go after him. Instead, they decided to use their own bioweapon (perhaps thinking they could control it better than the xenos themselves, or perhaps they had put all of their xeno eggs on the ship and lost them in the crash) against Earth, but it got out of control and wiped out most of the facility. The last surviving Engineer managed to seal himself in stasis in a ship away from the threat of the bioweapon but ended up oversleeping by 2,000 years, until he was awoken by the crew of the Prometheus and was then infected by the bioweapon and killed.

There are still plot holes you can drive a power loader through in this scenario, but this does seem to be a fairly likely chain of events given the information we have so far.

Prometheus

2089. During an archaeological dig on the Isle of Skye, scientists Elizabeth Shaw and Charlie Holloway discover cave paintings from tens of thousands of years ago, prominently showing a star pattern in the sky. This same pattern can be found in cave paintings, stone carvings and other artifacts from ancient civilisations that never had any connection with one another. Shaw and Holloway, who believe that humanity was created by another species, convince Peter Weyland, one of the richest people in the world, to fund an expedition to the star system indicated by the pattern.

Christmas, 2093. The interstellar exploration vessel Prometheus arrives at LV-223, a moon circling a giant ringed planet. The crew discover a series of vast, artificial structures and begin an exploration, hoping to find evidence of humanity's creators. Initial findings suggest that the inhabitants of the planet are long dead...until the deaths begin.

Prometheus is a quasi-prequel to Ridley Scott's 1979 classic, Alien. It's set in the same universe and concerns itself with one element from the other films, most notably the origin and identity of the dead 'space jockey' creature found in the first movie. However, contrary to expectations, it's not a direct prequel. There's still a fairly substantial gap (of almost thirty years and several star systems) between the way things are left at the end of Prometheus and where they are at the start of Alien, to be filled in by sequels (if Prometheus is a financial success) or by the viewer's imagination (if it isn't). The distancing of Prometheus from the rest of the franchise allows it to be fully enjoyed without any foreknowledge of Alien, which is a good thing.

Prometheus is Ridley Scott's first foray into SF since 1982's Blade Runner and is also, easily, his best movie since Gladiator. Visually, the film is stunning, rich in detail and thoroughly impressive. Scott's directorial powers have not been diminished by age, with some brilliance evocations of landscape and atmosphere. Nor have his abilities with terror dimmed: there are some moments in the film which are genuinely stomach-clenching, including at least one moment which made the audience I was with react with audible horror (and caused several to walk out). It's also rare in being a movie where the 3D element is successfully integrated with the rest of the picture rather than being an ill-considered afterthought. The effects are, of course, awesome as well, all the more effective for so much being achieved practically rather than CGI. The use of actual, massive sets rather than CGI backdrops also immensely enriches the visual style of the film.

In terms of performances, clearly this was always going to work well: Noomi Rapace, Michael Fassbender, Guy Pearce, Idris Elba and Charlize Theron are all on top form, delivering convincing and impressive performances. Especially noteworthy are Rapace, our convincing main character, and Fassbender, whose portrayal of an android with ambiguous motivations provides much food for thought.

In terms of pacing, the first half or so of the film works well. We're rushed through early scene-setting scenes and get to LV-223 almost ridiculously fast, with lots of backstory being filled in through a mission briefing sequence. This works well and gets us to the action quickly. Lots of odd elements are established early on (what is David doing in that secret chamber on the ship?) and developed in an interesting manner, with some intelligent foreshadowing of a later plot twist. Initial explorations of the alien planet are hampered by an awesome sequence in which the characters are caught up in a silica dust storm, which may be the film's most impressive visual moment (a later 3D holomap sequence is also up there in quality).

Then, of course, the movie starts to falter. The film's biggest problem is that it is forced to resort to 'movie logic' to keep the story on track. Having the alien planet reconnoitred by probes before Prometheus lands, or having the robotic sphere-things zipping around inside whilst the humans watch from a distance, would be far more logical and convincing than everyone just bundling inside the structure and running around like headless chickens, getting separated, disappearing, killed etc. For a bunch of scientists these guys are pretty inept. Shaw and Holloway's theories about humans being the result of alien genetic engineering are never backed up by evidence (when asked about how her theory is disproved by evolution, Shaw's answer is a moronic, "I choose to believe,") and no-one in the movie has ever heard of quarantine or slow, methodical investigations. There's too much reliance on short decontamination sequences which, predictably, end up not working, allowing mayhem to erupt.

Major characters are also apparently capable of running around and engaging in severe physical exertion minutes after undergoing major and traumatic surgery of the sort that most people would take months to recover from. The less said about the final 'confrontation' in the alien vessel's control centre (in which quite a few of our characters appear to have had full lobotomies) the better, and the musical score is also severely annoying. In some moments, it's okay, but in too many others the overwhelming bombast of the music is tonally inappropriate (I had to double-check to make sure it wasn't the guy who does Doctor Who's music).

There is much to enjoy about Prometheus. It's the best film in the Aliens universe to be released for more than twenty-five years, which is in itself an impressive achievement. It's visually stunning. The performances are excellent. The humanoid alien species (aka 'space jockeys' in the franchise's parlance) are an interesting creation and you definitely end up wanting to know more about them. There's a great deal of backstory that's left undeveloped and it'll definitely be interesting to find out more about why these 'engineers' created humanity and then decided it was a mistake. It's also great to see an adult-oriented, adult-rated film with a big budget which genuinely unsettles and scares the audience. The ingredients are certainly present for something that could have been brilliant.

Instead, the film is sold short by lazy contrivance, dubious movie logic and some poor plotting. Little in the final quarter or so of the film makes sense, the result of it trying to do too much with too many characters in too short a running time (Idris Elba gets sold rather short, despite some excellent lines and moments).

Ultimately, Prometheus (***½) is an overwhelmingly impressive visual spectacle and an effective horror experience, definitely worthy of being seen on the big screen, which is undercut by some severe logic and scripting problems which disrupt the viewer's sense of disbelief. The movie is on general release right now.

Full trailer for PROMETHEUS

Here's the new, full trailer for Ridley Scott's Alien quasi-prequel Prometheus.

Looks impressive. The film launches on 8 June.

Full trailer for Ridley Scott's PROMETHEUS

A new full-length trailer has been unveiled for Ridley Scott's Alien quasi-prequel Prometheus:

The movie hits cinemas on 8 June.

Trailer for PROMETHEUS, Ridley Scott's ALIEN quasi-prequel

Since it's that time of year when we are inundated with new movie trailers, here's another one. This is the trailer for Ridley Scott's Prometheus. Due for release on 8 June 2012, there's been a great deal of confusion over the relationship between Prometheus and Alien. Originally it was a straight-up prequel, but Scott and co-writer Damon Lindelof (of Lost fame) have tried to put some distance between the two projects, suggesting they take place in the same universe but little more than that.

From the trailer, that's obviously 'a mild understatement'. Much of the film appears to involve the crashed alien spaceship from LV-426 (and we may even see that crash in the trailer), the 'space jockey' aliens play a role, the Prometheus logo is pretty much identical to the Alien one and, most tellingly, the trailer bears an uncanny resemblance to the original Alien teaser, even using some of the same sound effects. So yeah, Alien prequel, totally. And there's nowt wrong with that, since the trailer looks impressive. Ridley Scott returning to SF (get this, his last SF movie was Blade Runner) is an enticing prospect, and the film looks solid enough at this stage.

io9 have a very interesting shot-by-shot analysis of the trailer here. And who the hell is that guy in the space jockey's control room?

Ridley Scott's ALIEN prequel apparently back on.

In a twist no-one was expecting, it appears that Ridley Scott's new SF movie is actually an Aliens piece after all.

"Am I in this thing or not, Ridley? My agent's got a lot of other work lined up and I can't keep turning down RSC roles forever."

Scott originally developed a two-movie 3D prequel concept. The project seemed to collapse down into one film when former Lost showrunner Damon Lindelof came on board to do a rewrite, and this then inspired Scott to transform the movie into an 'original' SF feature called Prometheus. The assumption was that it was now a whole-new, original setting and film.

However, recent comments by actor Michael Fassbender and inside sources at Pinewood (where set construction is already underway, apparently including the crashed spaceship from LV-426) suggest that Scott was misunderstood. Prometheus is apparently still set in the Aliens universe and the original notion of it being a prequel to Alien seems to be intact, with the 'space jockeys' and the Giger-designed xenomorphs both still slated to appear.

Exactly what Scott meant by his comments is unclear. Possibly he wanted people to focus on the film as its own beast rather than 'yet another Aliens flick'. Interesting to see if this is clarified in the near future.