I waited up until 1AM to watch this show the moment it
released, I was so excited for it. Yet now I sit here the next day after having
had a night’s rest on my feelings and I just feel so disappointed with it. This
is exact opposite feeling I had with Alien Romulus.
If I had to sum up my instant feelings after having watched the first two
episodes, the only two that are currently out, then I would say it’s bad.
The story is focused around two major events, the first ever
human-synthetic hybrid’s creation and the crash landing of the USCSS Maginot
within Prodigy City, formally New Siam in Thailand. I love the idea of the
human – synthetic hybrids, it builds off the idea that we saw within Alex
Whites novel The Cold Forge. This has potential to go somewhere, and I
hope it does. The USCSS Maginot has been collecting live specimens of the most
dangerous creatures within the known galaxy. They break out which causes the
ship to crash land on Earth, releasing the nasty buggers onto the people of
Prodigy city. I love this concept. But in the show, there is so much missing
from it. We focus on the XX121 Xenomorph over and above any of the other aliens
collected which feels like a missed opportunity. We also get no information on
where the Weyland-Yutani scientists found these monsters.
With the XX121 sample especially, where did it come from? Was Weyland-Yutani aware
of the downed Engineer ship on LV-426, was the sample provided to them by David
from his colony, or did it come from somewhere else we’re unaware of?
We just don’t know, and that’s annoying. I hope this question is answered but
it doesn’t feel like it will be as the show is moving in a different direction.
Then we have the visuals which are a real mixed bag.
The practical effects, on the XX121 Xenomorph especially are incredible! Give
me a guy in a suit any day over the awful looking CGI of some of the films. There
is also a lot of very clever moments where the monsters were hidden in the
background or foreground of a shot. Little touches like this are so good. To be
honest the whole set-design was on point, really feeling like it was right out
of the world that Alien started in 1979!
But then we have the possible use of AI within certain shots or maybe the whole
show and it’s so disappointing to see this in an Alien product. We have one
scene with messed up fingers, another showing a backward F instead of a number
on a gun’s ammo readout and lots of other little bits that just feel off.
That’s not the mention the over abundance of cross fades within this series. I
don’t mind a good crossfade, but they were so overused within this series that
I hope I never have to see another crossfade again in my life.
The music also just felt, off, like it didn’t belong in an Alien series. I mean
each episode ended with generic rock music, like WTF?
The last thing I’d like to mention is the setting. This is
set on Earth in 2120, 17 years after USCSS Covenant left Earth, 16 years after
the events of the Covenant film, 2 years before the 1979 Alien film. This means
that Amanda Ripley, and possibly Ellen depending on the month, are on Earth. The
United Americas (UA), the Three World Empire (3WE), and the Union of
Progressive Peoples (UPP) are the currently active governments on Earth.
Prodigy City would be part of the 3WE seeing as it’s in Asia. Corporations like
Seegson would be massive at this point in history, competing with WY. Do we see
any of this at all within the series?
Nope, nada. The USCSS crash was a 9/11 scale disaster, thousands dead after a spaceship
smashed into a residential skyscraper. Yet the 3WE’s government and emergency
services are not around to help clean this up. While the set-design and visuals
feel like they’re a part of this world, the plot and setting just feels off,
disconnected.
So yeah, my first impressions are not great.
We only have 2 episodes out right now, so it was the potential to get better,
and I hope it does!
