“Alien” has evolved more than anyone could have imagined when Ridley Scott first introduced the xenomorph in 1979, from sequels and comic books to video games and high-school plays. Its latest mutation comes as part of the sci-fi classic’s 40th anniversary, which 20th Century Fox — a scrappy, up-and-coming studio that recently hit it big when it was acquired by Disney — is celebrating with the release of six short films: “Containment,” “Specimen,” “Night Shift,” “Ore,” “Harvest,” and “Alone.”
These works range in quality and scope, as all such projects do, but have in common a reverence to their otherworldly source material that both helps and hinders their collective effort to expand the “Alien” mythos. Without knowing what, if any, restrictions were placed on the filmmakers by Fox (who selected these six stories from more than 550 pitches), it’s difficult not to be disappointed that more of them don’t endeavor to truly forge new territory.
These works range in quality and scope, as all such projects do, but have in common a reverence to their otherworldly source material that both helps and hinders their collective effort to expand the “Alien” mythos. Without knowing what, if any, restrictions were placed on the filmmakers by Fox (who selected these six stories from more than 550 pitches), it’s difficult not to be disappointed that more of them don’t endeavor to truly forge new territory.
- 4/6/2019
- by Michael Nordine
- Indiewire
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