Is Sigourney Weaver Back For More Aliens?

[Jim_Campbell]

Firefly should have been an obvious comics hit: fill in the gaps from the end of S01 to Serenity and then forge ahead. But almost every comic I’ve read in that universe has been utter shit.

The BOOM ones? They do exactly that. I know I'm biased, but as a Firefly fan I've really been enjoying what Greg Pak has done with the property.

[IndigoPrime]

Sorry, Jim, but I couldn’t stand the Boom stuff. It didn’t feel like Firefly at all to me. After reading a load of it, I later read that Pak wasn’t familiar with the show prior to starting.

Funt: I’ve not watched the show in a while. I’m a bit scared to revisit any Whedon stuff, TBH. I suspect I won’t like it as much as I did at the time. (It’s not like some of the dodgier elements weren’t evident at the time, but I’m not sure I could stomach them today. Although I do wonder whether Firefly would hold its own better than, say, Buffy.)

[pictsy]

Of the Whedon projects I've seen I'd say Buffy holds up best.  But I am going to say that's despite his involvement and because of other peoples contributions.  I should probably contextualise my opinion by also stating I don't get the high praise of Firefly.  That show really failed to leave a lasting impression on me.

[repoman]

Dark Fate worked for me.  As far as I'm concerned it's the third film in the Terminator trilogy.  But still, I agree, no more.

I hated it quite a lot.  Apart from Grace.  She was good.  Everything else though was either rubbish or boring.

T3 was a perfectly good Terminator movie.  Although none of them come close to the greatness of the first one.

[milstar]

I hated it quite a lot.  Apart from Grace.  She was good.  Everything else though was either rubbish or boring.

T3 was a perfectly good Terminator movie.  Although none of them come close to the greatness of the first one.

I hated it too. T3 wasn't good as T2 but I liked how well it round up the whole arc. Before they killed off John Connor. I hated Genesys as well.

[wedgeski]

Firefly still holds up amazingly well, even in this age of budget-smashing TV mega-sci-fi. It's wonderfully written and performed.

[Jim_Campbell]

Firefly still holds up amazingly well, even in this age of budget-smashing TV mega-sci-fi. It's wonderfully written and performed.

It is. It's a testament to how quickly and how well the characters 'take' that after only six episodes they can do a story like Jaynestown, which is hilarious for much of the episode but almost entirely because of Jayne's utter embarrassment, and then execute a precision turn for a surprisingly affecting finale.

(And I'm a sucker for a western. As my clothing choices might suggest…)

[IndigoPrime]

I do wonder what Whedon had planned for some of the characters, if anything. I’d hope something more interesting than the dreadful reveals in the Dark Horse comics. If not, perhaps it’s best we only got that half season and the movie—which was, what, the two-part finale to season 2?

[Jim_Campbell]

If not, perhaps it’s best we only got that half season and the movie—which was, what, the two-part finale to season 2?

Yeah. I've come to the conclusion that I'm (sort of) happier to have had the brief but wonderful stuff we got, rather than have ended up sitting around bitching about the lacklustre fourth season.

[Richmond Clements]

Funt: I’ve not watched the show in a while. I’m a bit scared to revisit any Whedon stuff, TBH. I suspect I won’t like it as much as I did at the time. (It’s not like some of the dodgier elements weren’t evident at the time, but I’m not sure I could stomach them today. Although I do wonder whether Firefly would hold its own better than, say, Buffy.)

I'm approaching the end of an Angel rewatch. Hadn't seen it since it was first broadcast, and I don't think I even watched the final season at the time. Now, maybe it's just with hindsight goggles and the knowledge of what a real shit Whedon really was, but some of the sexual politics are questionable. Pretty much every female character is ditzy, needing saved or just plain stupid. And the way Cordelia was effectively fridged is nothing short of disgraceful.

[IndigoPrime]

Yeah. In hindsight, a lot of what happens in Angel is nasty—and I mean that from a production standpoint. And we now know the Cordelia arc was in part ‘punishment’ because of the wrecked relationship between Charisma Carpenter and Joss Whedon, seemingly entirely due to Whedon being an arsehole.

You can see this threading through Buffy as well. For all its attempts to be progressive and promote feminism, in the cold light of day too much of it is very ‘white bloke feminism’, with female characters being treated in a manner that feels skeevy. It’s not at the level of a Skyfall, where the entire production itself had to have been blind/misogynist to end up where it did; but Whedon clearly had a lot of issues with women that ended up coming out on the screen.

[pictsy]

I never liked what happens with Cordelia in Angel.  I've watched the series twice and that's the total amount of times I probably will ever watch it and it's largely due to that particular season.  It always felt icky to me.

I think Buffy did benefit from having a number of women involved in production and writing, but it still manages to fall into the misogyny tropes a number of times.  Thankfully, Whedon's involvement did diminish as he went off to focus on Angel.

Whedon also killed off Tara because he had a thing for having an actor get an opening credit just to kill off the character in the same episode.  Also a friding, also a bury your gays.

[AlexF]

I don't play computer games so can't comment, but I feel like I've heard there's a very good and scary Alien-based game out there from recent years, written by one Daniel Abnett.

Also I don't hate Prometheus or Covenant (and have a big soft spot for Predators).

(runs for cover)

Which is all to say that I don't care if the big studios haven't the wit to try anything but franchise extensions, as long as they occasionally forget what they're doing and accidentially let someone try something weird with it.

[wedgeski]

I don't play computer games so can't comment, but I feel like I've heard there's a very good and scary Alien-based game out there from recent years, written by one Daniel Abnett.

Also I don't hate Prometheus or Covenant

Despite their obvious flaws, I love both those films. There's definitely an element of, having wished for thirty years for Ridley Scott to make another Alien film, he then goes and makes two, and they're so close to being amazing, that in my mind, they're amazing.

[sheridan]

I don't play computer games so can't comment, but I feel like I've heard there's a very good and scary Alien-based game out there from recent years, written by one Daniel Abnett.

I don't have any particular insight, but I believe a British software company released an Aliens Vs Predator game in 1994 which really helped them make their mark.  Whatever happened to that company?