Regarding the title, it certainly wasn't intended that way, or at least that's what it seems like to me. Alien was this movie put together by a director (Ridley Scott) that wanted to tell a story of people coming across an alien ship marooned on a desolate planet, only to become pawns in a greater plot from a company that wanted to harvest the xenomorph in order to weaponize it. As far as science-fiction goes, this stuff is "bread and butter" for the genre and Alien really did do a great job of giving us some on screen running and screaming that has been duplicated over and over by copycats.
Later on, when Ridley Scott decided that he was going to add to the mythology with Prometheus and Alien: Covenant, he gave us the doomed story of an advanced pre-human civilization dubbed "The Engineers" whose whole shtick was to mess with the genetic code in order to create weaponized life that they could do with as they choose. Of course we know that even advanced peoples apparently are not ready for this particular "Pandora's box" and what the movies show us to an exhausting degree is that no one is ready to deal with the monsters of genetically-engineered life.
Well the Jurassic Park franchise does exactly that too, and I want to point out that it also is based on the whole "people are running around and screaming." I would even go so far as to say that running from monsters and screaming the entire time is the backbone of the franchise. And back to my point...with Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, which I saw this weekend, the story of genetic engineering taken too far is unavoidable. It practically smacks you in the face. Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom is the same story line as Prometheus, only instead of Alien xenomorphs we have dinosaurs that eat your face. But the same result is that humanity has to deal with a kind of animal that was engineered to wholly wreck an ecosystem that is incapable of dealing with its power.
For what it's worth, I like both franchises, i.e., Jurassic Park and Aliens. But I felt it was worth pointing out that I see a lot of similarities in these movies. Only the setting and the kind of monster are different, but I think the moral is still the same. Having settled this in my head now, I want to ask true die-hard fans of the Alien movies (I know a couple) if they are also die-hard fans of The Jurassic Park movies. I'm wondering if they even on a subconscious level understand that the movies and the stories are the same thing. I'll have to get back to you on that.
Oh and question for those who wish to leave a comment: did you like the movie? It made a whopping $700 million this weekend, so you know it's going to have another sequel. As far as I can tell, the cash machine that is Jurassic Park is the goose that laid the golden egg.
They are similar because the last two of each have been way below the first ones in terms of decent story? That I'll buy.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if they'll explore the one part about genetic engineering in the next film? Will it be Jurassic Clonus Horror?
Good one, Alex. I don't think that any of the Jurassic Park movies beyond the first were any good. They feel a lot like the Jaws sequels to be honest. But both Jaws and Jurassic Park were kind of unique and "lightning in a bottle." The studios want/wanted to repeat that commercial success and it just falls short every time.
DeleteI'm a little surprised it made that much money; it looks really dumb.
ReplyDeleteI wasn't going to actually see it in the theaters, but I've made friends with a single woman with teens and the teens really wanted to see it. It's a whole other experience going to a film with them. It's almost like I have a real family, which actually feels kind of good. So yeah...movie wasn't all that great but the company more than made up for it. The thirteen year old makes sounds like a velociraptor. That's super cute.
DeleteI find the Jurassic movies more entertaining but the Alien movies are scary. As I get older, I prefer entertainment.
ReplyDeleteThere are a finite number of conflicts, really, and conflict is what a story is built on. So, I can see how these two franchises would be similar as they start from a similar place.
ReplyDeleteI only saw the first two Alien movies and they were so violent I couldn't ever re-watch them, even though I liked Sigorney's character. Maybe the Jurassic movies make more money because kids can see them. Anyway, I like the similar thematic threads between the two that you've pointed out, and unfortunately the direction humanity is going in makes that theme all too relevant.
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