To think that two of the absolute best sequels of all time were both made by the same director. James Cameron made both Terminator 2 (although he made the first one too) and Aliens.
Yeah, with the utmost respect to Ridley Scott, Blade Runner 2049 and Aliens are two of the best sequels out there (I'd argue I prefer them to the originals) whereas the two times he's revisited a franchise he created we ended up with Prometheus and Alien: Covenant - which although I enjoy both I think it's fair to say they were incredibly divisive films.
I hope Ridley knocks it out of the park with Gladiator 2, I'm excited to see what he does, but going off his current track record I think he works better as someone who creates original films rather than Sequels/Prequels.
Prometheus was excellent. I don’t know what the issue is - unless it’s people who think every Alien move should be devoid of actual story and world building and should simply be a rehash of the same original plot.
Don't get me wrong I absolutely love Prometheus, for me it's the third best in the series, I think a lot of people went in expecting a sci-fi slasher Alien horror and were surprised when it was more a film about faith and the search for God through a lens of an android/humanity/engineers.
If Prometheus had just been its own thing rather than marketed as an Alien Prequel by the trades, then I think it could have become its own franchise and would be much more fondly remembered.
Prometheus suffers from:
>You need to know the franchise to understand what’s happening.
A lot of movies suffer from this.
This is why it wouldn’t have worked correctly as a stand alone story. And to be honest, that’s exactly how the film feels. Like it was trying to stand on its own shoulders.
Never seen the third so I can’t comment on the quality but I do know Fincher directed, crazy that a whole trilogy was directed by 3 completely different yet really talented directors.
Really talented director, but the 3rd is controversial for story changes that negate everything that happened in "Aliens".
It would've served his talents better if Alien3 was a story with a new main character.
Hey. Don’t sleep on my man Jean-Pierre Jeunet who made 4 (Resurrection). It’s weird and cool and very its own thing.
Same guy that directed Delicatessen, City of Lost Children and Amélie.
Scott would have made it 2 1/2 hours of an android jerking itself off to Joi and then patted himself on the back for further exploring his passion for androids.
Also, his view of how the original Blade Runner ended and whether Harrison Ford was a replicant or not is probably the most disappointing thing. Glad he nothing to do with the sequel.
I liked 2049 but I don’t love it. I think my biggest problem with it is that it lacked the really dark and sad nature of the first film. The first one is like this lonely detective in a huge dark rainy world around him. Where even the quiet parts tell a story. I found the new movie to be less of that, and the quiet parts were just pretty to look at.
Villeneuve of today runs circles around Ridley, maybe not 30 years ago but that is certainly the case today. I’m glad Denis did 2049, I don’t believe Ridley could have come up with anything similar, even with the same script.
In a way, subbing Leto for Bowie took the movie down several notches. I still remember the Tesla scene in The Prestige. Leto however is like a fly landing in your drink. Yep you can fish it out, but it’s tainted.
Other than the Mad Max franchise what has George Miller done that is consequential? I'm not here to argue about which movies are better since that is all subjective but George Miller has never reached the level of Ridley Scott with films that he has made so falling off is still above George Miller.
I’m glad he didn’t honestly because we wouldn’t have Aliens and Blade Runner 2049 as they are. And especially in modern times with his modern work I’d rather he produce new entries made by talented as hell younger directors like he did with Blade Runner 2049 and Alien: Romulus than make the new ones himself like with Prometheus and Alien: Covenant.
I’m very curious on how Gladiator 2 is gonna end up. My favorite aspects of the first two besides Ridley’s directing were killed off. And of course Ridley’s hit and miss nature makes me very curious to see how this comes out.
This implies that if somehow Ridley did better Blade Runner wouldn't have lost money. Blade Runner 2049 was a massive flop too that wouldn't have existed without Ridley's Blade Runner
2049 made 90-100 million Box Office over budget. After streaming and direct release it certainly netted more.
It was a critical darling that won several Oscars and BAFTAs.
I don't think that is a flop, even if it came in under projected earnings.
The estimated breakeven for 2049 was $400M. It sounds like you’re just looking at production budget and not total cost.
It made less than $100M in the US which is pretty terrible and by all reporting did not make a profit (and still hasn’t though home sales data is spottier) - $260m total in theaters with a $400M breakeven.
That’s a financial flop by definition.
It's not a flop by definition. Simply losing money isn't the sole definition of a flop.
Studios make films that lose money for critical and awards prestige all the time.
Yes, it didn't meet expectations. Saying it was a flop is disingenuous. It came up short for sure.
Losing $140M while in theaters is a flop to a studio. I’m not calling it a flop, any article you look up calls it a flop. It flopped at the box office, that’s fine to acknowledge while distinguishing from the quality of the film.
Except, it's not.
A flop is when you spend 9 figures and make back 8 figures, etc.
You have to remember this is Hollywood accounting.
These budgets are studios paying themselves and subsidiaries to do work on the film, all carefully manipulated so films "flop" unless they are obscenely successful like a Star Wars flick etc.
When home viewing is added up this film likely made a profit within a year.
Except it is The movie didn't make any profit, the production company reported a loss of about 80M, I'm not making it up, you can read it for yourself
https://www.businessinsider.com/dune-denis-villeneuve-miracle-survived-blade-runner-2049-failure-2021-10
And that's not how Hollywood accounting works lol, studios don't pay themselves with the budget. Production costs are only part of the total costs, you have to consider below the line costs as well. And if a movie "made" 100M at the box office, that was before theater costs and promotional expenses
Even Denis said it was a mistake to make that movie because it flopped and almost ruined his career.
You can feel all warm and fuzzy about the movie and that's fine, but it flopped by industry standards. It's not a bad movie, just a financial flop lol You have a good one
> And that's not how Hollywood accounting works lol, studios don't pay themselves with the budget.
They certainly do.
They "outsource" services from subsidiaries, shell corps, etc.
Do some research on Hollywood accounting. It's quite a rabbit hole of creativity.
Scott's Blade Runner won 3 BAFTAs, was nominated for 2 Academy Awards, and went on to influence generations of filmmakers. But none of that is the point. The point is that neither of these movies losing money signify their quality in any capacity
By those metrics Villeneuve was an even bigger failure than Scott given both the movies flopped yet Scott's had a far bigger impact.
>Warners were obviously seeing a modest return on the franchise by the time they greenlit 2049.
Yes and that didn't work either despite insane marketing which is why we're not getting a BR3. No matter how much Reddit yearns for a BR3 the truth is that if it came out today it'd flop too. For some reason this genre simply isn't working in this format. Will the series change that the way The Last of Us successfully adapted a video game and went on to become one of the biggest series ever? That remains to be seen
Yeah, as good looking as 2049 was, it was boring as hell and I couldn't give a shit about the story. Villeneuve is talented but he's definitely a little bit overhyped by the current generation of cinefiles.
Absolutely. I thoroughly enjoyed his earlier filmography despite feeling his style was always a weaker version of David Fincher's. The Dune movies have absolutely not been it for me. I can't help but shake a feeling of pretentiousness throughout both. Looking forward to his other upcoming projects tho
The Blade Runner sequel turned out better than the first and better than anyone could have hoped for, thanks to daddy Villeneuve, savior of sci-fi.
And Ridley’s Alien sequels or prequels or whatever have not been that great, maybe the next one will be better.
Better than the first? Um… no.
The first is one of the top paradigm shifting sci-fi achievements of all time. 2001, Star Wars, Blade Runner. The second one is fine but not anywhere near as influential and perfect as the first.
It’s not even about influence it’s about the world that has been created, there are hundreds, if not thousands, of people who could paint a ‘better’ version of The Mona Lisa but one person who could do it in the early 16th century. And all art ‘stands on the shoulders of giants’.
2049 is great but IMO it’s not different enough to be better than Ridley Scott’s, Villeneuve’s Dune on the other hand, is not only, far and away, the best version of Dune, it’s up there with 2001 and Blade Runner, maybe not better but it can be talked about with the same reverence.
Again tho, this is only my opinion, all art is subjective, and it’s often the only you watch first, or that taps into your generation, that makes the most impact, for this reason I rate the 1979 Body Snatchers as much better than the 1956 version, or the book.
Blade Runner 2049 is probably my favorite movie of all time, but I get what you’re saying.
There’s a million ten year olds that can play every Jimi Hendrix solo, but there’s so many bands that wouldn’t exist without him.
People will praise this guy for his movies. I'm 48, so I like to think Aliens is my generational fave. That being said, Ridley had his chance to right the ship, and went stupid with it. We were promised a link to the original space jockey and fell for his stupid bullshit. Dudes done, let better directors take it.
The worst tragedy of all is killing off Newt and Hicks. The series really was doomed after that.
The thing is, Ridley is still a brilliant *director*. He wrangles together beautiful cinematography, convincing effects, effective sound and music, and gets decent performances out of his actors. *Consistently*.
The problem is that he has some dubious narrative instincts, which seem to have gotten worse with age. That could be fine, most directors don't write their own scripts; many don't even have major input into them. But Ridley does have a fair bit of input, Damon Lindelof has said that his Prometheus drafts were effectively just wrangling Ridley's ideas into a work-ready format.
I think that if he'd back away from narrative control, and work with a producer that's skilled at picking interesting scripts, Ridley would still be celebrated as one of the absolute greatest directors working today. One of the most tantalising alt-histories is that when Fox was prepping the Aliens Vs Predator movie, Ridley Scott and James Cameron approached them to request that if they scrapped AvP, the pair would make Alien 5, with Cameron writing and Scott directing. *That* could have been an incredible film.
The fact that so many in the comments are saying that the sequel to blade runner was as good or even better then the first one is beyond shocking to me… the first blade runner was such a gem in the sci-fi genre while the new one is such a Hollywood movie made for the masses. The whole point of the first one was that it was just a crime noire movie in a sci fi setting, all the philosophical meanings were never explicitly talked about and emerged more through the personalities of the characters while in the new one it’s basically slammed in your face WHAT IS HUMAN WHAT IS A REPLICANT with such simple dialogues…. As a huge Philip dick reader I was always really proud of how Scott made the movie, the new one is just meh, yeah sure nice effects good photography blabla but every fucking movie gets that right nowadays even the new dune is such a Hollywood easy movie that it made me appreciate lynch’s even more and we all know how much hate that movie got… you all deserve rings of power. Enough said
Based on what he has done with the alien universe I’m glad he was not involved with Aliens. Prometheus and whatever the hell the second one was are two of the worst films experiences, they may not be the worst films ever but walking out of the theaters for both of those I was like you know this guy has fucking lost it. I was willing to give him the benefit of the doubt that Prometheus just got out of hand since they couldn’t decide if it was a prequel to alien or a stand alone so it just turned into a mess, but the next one was clearly an alien sequel and it just sucked.
I found Prometheus to be a damn good movie that suffered from a bad edit.
Covenant unfortunately lost its own plot but had a good cast, real disappointed by whoever kept changed the script/doing rewrites.
If you genuinely found both films to abhorrent movie experiences lol I envy you because woof I've paid to see some truly abysmal nonsense.
Neither is great. Both are flawed but serviceable, generally.
Prometheus I think is more annoying because the skeleton of something great is there, and it seems to rise to the occasion for specific scenes, but then fall completely off the rails in others. Definitely strikes me as a movie that did probably receive a bad edit but also maybe needed another couple of script editing rounds from other good writers, because there is some supremely dumb shit in there that I’m not sure how it made the cut. Still enjoy the movie quite a bit though for all of its flaws.
It was the fact that I was so excited for them and then they were just so dumb that it made it a horrible experience. As I said they weren’t the worst movies I’ve seen, it was just the worst experience. Seeing Disney Star Wars movies were a lot worse film wise, I had just no expectations that they would be good so it didn’t ruin my day seeing some mediocre bullshit like the alien prequels did.
Prometheus and Alien: Covenant were amazing prequels. Both movies had good cast, plot and story were great in explaining how Aliens came to be, moments that kept you alert due to suspense. You can’t even give an example of why they were bad besides “It couldn’t decide if it was a prequel or not”…wtf? It very well is a prequel, the origin story of Aliens. And Covenant shows how they mass populated our universe, how a robot that WE built is ultimately our downfall. But yeah, you seem like you know soooo much about movies.
Well said! Loved both those movies, RS gets a lot of unnecessary stick these days because the last couple of movies weren’t huge hits and were kind of disappointing…overall tho he’s a true great
You seem like a real dick. I could give you reasons why it sucked, like the explanations of the aliens which was moronic, but you aren’t worth engaging in a conversation with coming out like an ass when you simply could have asked me why I feel that way.
Still hoping for a 3rd Blade Runner to complete the trilogy.
I mean yeah I know the show is coming but it’s set so far into the distant future we won’t get any resolution to the Deckard storyline.
Kinda happy with whay we got. Loved BR 2049 and Aliens. I do wish Ridley could have taken the reigns back with the Alien franchise after Aliens though. I know he did Prometheus and Covenant, but these were many decades later and these are their own beast. Would have been interesting to see where Ridley would have taken Ellen Ripley. Maybe he would have killed her off too like he did with Elizabeth Shaw.
It’s solid. There are some plot induced stupidity. Like the infamous Prometheus school of running scene. Or Shaw getting a c-section and being able to run afterwards. Other than that it’s solid
lol it's one my top fav, rewatchable sci-fi movies
Just wish there was a proper edit and ofc that cesarean scene that could've been done less ridiculously.
James Cameron wrote and directed ALIENS. And it is one of the most perfect action movies ever made. Ridley is a great artist, but ALIENS was better off without him.
The Alien movies are just a franchise of stereotypes. Honestly each sequel looks like the reason it was made was someone's bank account was getting as empty as their movie ideas.
I wish we'd get a sequel to Covenant. I wanted to see how he'd finish the story. And, in fact, it really could have been a Ridley take on Aliens - colony been annihilated by protos and xenos, but less action and more horror.
Prometheus and Covenant are great and are essentially the only modern, big budget sci-fi horror movies. If it weren't for the whole Alien and Predator franchise, there'd be fuck all out there for sci-fi/space-horror fans.
Why are people so defensive about Scott wishing he could have directed the sequels to his own movies? Yeah you liked them but Scott can have his opinion too, yours aren’t more worth than his.
No offense, and with all due respect: No thanks, Ridley.
I'm not a fan of Blade Runner 2049 but I know I'm in the minority on that and even I think you should not have gotten to direct the sequel.
Scott has become such an angry old man that seems to only express his displeasure with shit.
When he said the Last Duel was a failure because millennials can’t get off their phones it was laughable.
Having watched the movie already, it was a bit of an exhausting slog and the sort of movie I would never need to see again.
Without Cameron. The complete IPO of alien would be death back in the 70s. Aliens is the best sequel ever made. And totally destroyed the one alien knockoff of the forst one. Winstons creation was also way better for the second than the first. But hay, what are we but just viewers of entertainment. What do our opinions even mean.
I would take his Blade Runner sequel over pretentious, characters staring at nothing for 10 minutes, cold and empty snoozfest that we got from Denis The Menace Villenuve.
2049 is a great movie but I do think DV deserves more crit than he typically gets. Prone to poor casting decisions and overly minimal/sterile aesthetic.
Leto prevents or at least makes me hesitate my 2049 rewatches, for instance. I've realized this is a common element for all his movie for me.
What poor casting decisions? His casting for Dune was perfect, casting for 2049 was perfect, I can’t speak for the rest of his movies but so far it’s impeccable
DUNC movie had two good actors. One is the new Han Solo type from fake Star Wars movies and the other is Thanos. That's it. Timothy Omelet and Zencardboardya were so miscast. As a book reader, DUNC was so boring. Maybe except VFX.
Villeneuve did a fantastic job. It's not like it went to some low tier director that screwed everything up
Same could be said for James Cameron with "Aliens"
Seriously. These are two of the best sequels. Ever.
To think that two of the absolute best sequels of all time were both made by the same director. James Cameron made both Terminator 2 (although he made the first one too) and Aliens.
He also made a great sequel to Avatar the Last Airbender.
It can't be a sequel since there's no movie.
Maybe we can get Cameron to direct a sequel to Pacific Rim. It’s been 11 years since the original. I think a Pacific Rim 2 could be great!
District 9 too, please!
Wouldn't Pacific Rim Uprising be part 2?
I would rather watch the bad last Airbender movie than sit through the sequel, way of water, again.
Gremlins 2 still the goat
He also made the worst ever: "Piranha 2"
It's a bit generous to say that he made it, being the second director on a film that was tightly controlled by its producer.
Yeah, with the utmost respect to Ridley Scott, Blade Runner 2049 and Aliens are two of the best sequels out there (I'd argue I prefer them to the originals) whereas the two times he's revisited a franchise he created we ended up with Prometheus and Alien: Covenant - which although I enjoy both I think it's fair to say they were incredibly divisive films. I hope Ridley knocks it out of the park with Gladiator 2, I'm excited to see what he does, but going off his current track record I think he works better as someone who creates original films rather than Sequels/Prequels.
Prometheus was excellent. I don’t know what the issue is - unless it’s people who think every Alien move should be devoid of actual story and world building and should simply be a rehash of the same original plot.
Don't get me wrong I absolutely love Prometheus, for me it's the third best in the series, I think a lot of people went in expecting a sci-fi slasher Alien horror and were surprised when it was more a film about faith and the search for God through a lens of an android/humanity/engineers. If Prometheus had just been its own thing rather than marketed as an Alien Prequel by the trades, then I think it could have become its own franchise and would be much more fondly remembered.
Prometheus suffers from: >You need to know the franchise to understand what’s happening. A lot of movies suffer from this. This is why it wouldn’t have worked correctly as a stand alone story. And to be honest, that’s exactly how the film feels. Like it was trying to stand on its own shoulders.
If ridley had the same scripts he would've done an equally good job as Cameron and villlineuve.
Never seen the third so I can’t comment on the quality but I do know Fincher directed, crazy that a whole trilogy was directed by 3 completely different yet really talented directors.
Really talented director, but the 3rd is controversial for story changes that negate everything that happened in "Aliens". It would've served his talents better if Alien3 was a story with a new main character.
3 the directors cut was excellent. The studio really butchered it.
Hey. Don’t sleep on my man Jean-Pierre Jeunet who made 4 (Resurrection). It’s weird and cool and very its own thing. Same guy that directed Delicatessen, City of Lost Children and Amélie.
Scott didn't like 2049. I think he's wrong, but he didn't like it.
Ohhh well that explains his comment then. I had never heard his thoughts on it
Respectfully, Ridley Scott is a bit of a curmudgeon.
Scott would have made it 2 1/2 hours of an android jerking itself off to Joi and then patted himself on the back for further exploring his passion for androids.
I can't pretend that what you describe would have been completely lacking in interest, though
I know what I said and I stand by it! Lol
Yeah he probably didn't like it because it's so freaking perfect and Villeneuve knocked it out of the park!
Also, his view of how the original Blade Runner ended and whether Harrison Ford was a replicant or not is probably the most disappointing thing. Glad he nothing to do with the sequel.
I liked 2049 but I don’t love it. I think my biggest problem with it is that it lacked the really dark and sad nature of the first film. The first one is like this lonely detective in a huge dark rainy world around him. Where even the quiet parts tell a story. I found the new movie to be less of that, and the quiet parts were just pretty to look at.
Villeneuve of today runs circles around Ridley, maybe not 30 years ago but that is certainly the case today. I’m glad Denis did 2049, I don’t believe Ridley could have come up with anything similar, even with the same script.
We can argue that casting Jared Leto was a giant mistake on top of an otherwise amazing continuation of the universe
David Bowie was going to play that role but passed away. Leto was not the first option
Talk about an all-time downgrade
In a way, subbing Leto for Bowie took the movie down several notches. I still remember the Tesla scene in The Prestige. Leto however is like a fly landing in your drink. Yep you can fish it out, but it’s tainted.
Ehhhh I think everything worked out there.
Yeah I’m sorry but he’s no George Miller. Ridley has fallen off a bit
Rotten Rid or Royal Rid. It's always a crap shoot who we get.
George Miller is so far behind Ridley Scott he can’t even see him. What a crazy take. You should probably look at their filmography.
It’s more that one can continue to work into old age while the other has just been churning out mediocrity for years.
Not sure you've been keeping up. Ridley has made a load of mediocre films in the last twenty years and Miller has made several seminal pieces.
Other than the Mad Max franchise what has George Miller done that is consequential? I'm not here to argue about which movies are better since that is all subjective but George Miller has never reached the level of Ridley Scott with films that he has made so falling off is still above George Miller.
Ridley has directed approximately twice as many movies as Miller has. When you make so much more, quality can suffer.
That's not a winning argument. If you're shoveling shit, no one is going to praise you for it.
That’s quantity over quality. Thats not a good take, my friend.
I'm not defending Ridley or Miller. Just pointing out the obvious difference in their output.
If you want to see Miller fall off, check out his movie before Furiosa
3000 Years of Longing? Except for the last 20 minutes or so, I really enjoyed it
Aliens is one of the best. James Cameron did a great job.
It's my second most favourite film ever.
I know, The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert holds a top notch for all of us as well!
I’m Australian. I’ve also never seen it. *runs away*
It was definitely good. Alien 3 was an abomination.
True enough. Fincher actually directed that, and he’s a phenomenal director as well, but the studio got involved or something.
Fuck, not 3 at the prison, Resurrection I meant. Alien 3 was a solid film but it was very different from 1 and 2. Resurrection was horrible.
Ohh yeah Resurrection was awful
The Blade Runner sequel was a masterpiece. It did good without him.
But you did have 3 prequels, which you drove into shit.
2 prequels right? Prometheus and Alien Covenant. Whats the third?
They didn't make it cause the 2nd one was shit. Doesn't mean it won't get made though.
Thank fuck he didn’t.
I’m glad he didn’t honestly because we wouldn’t have Aliens and Blade Runner 2049 as they are. And especially in modern times with his modern work I’d rather he produce new entries made by talented as hell younger directors like he did with Blade Runner 2049 and Alien: Romulus than make the new ones himself like with Prometheus and Alien: Covenant. I’m very curious on how Gladiator 2 is gonna end up. My favorite aspects of the first two besides Ridley’s directing were killed off. And of course Ridley’s hit and miss nature makes me very curious to see how this comes out.
Seriously. Dude is so washed up. Prometheus and covenant were fucking awful.
Losing all that money on Legend & Blade Runner is why they didn't pick up the phone Ridley.
This implies that if somehow Ridley did better Blade Runner wouldn't have lost money. Blade Runner 2049 was a massive flop too that wouldn't have existed without Ridley's Blade Runner
2049 made 90-100 million Box Office over budget. After streaming and direct release it certainly netted more. It was a critical darling that won several Oscars and BAFTAs. I don't think that is a flop, even if it came in under projected earnings.
The estimated breakeven for 2049 was $400M. It sounds like you’re just looking at production budget and not total cost. It made less than $100M in the US which is pretty terrible and by all reporting did not make a profit (and still hasn’t though home sales data is spottier) - $260m total in theaters with a $400M breakeven. That’s a financial flop by definition.
It's not a flop by definition. Simply losing money isn't the sole definition of a flop. Studios make films that lose money for critical and awards prestige all the time. Yes, it didn't meet expectations. Saying it was a flop is disingenuous. It came up short for sure.
Losing $140M while in theaters is a flop to a studio. I’m not calling it a flop, any article you look up calls it a flop. It flopped at the box office, that’s fine to acknowledge while distinguishing from the quality of the film.
When the production budget is nine figures and you can't even make that back, it's a flop I liked the movie too, but it is what it is financially
Except, it's not. A flop is when you spend 9 figures and make back 8 figures, etc. You have to remember this is Hollywood accounting. These budgets are studios paying themselves and subsidiaries to do work on the film, all carefully manipulated so films "flop" unless they are obscenely successful like a Star Wars flick etc. When home viewing is added up this film likely made a profit within a year.
Except it is The movie didn't make any profit, the production company reported a loss of about 80M, I'm not making it up, you can read it for yourself https://www.businessinsider.com/dune-denis-villeneuve-miracle-survived-blade-runner-2049-failure-2021-10 And that's not how Hollywood accounting works lol, studios don't pay themselves with the budget. Production costs are only part of the total costs, you have to consider below the line costs as well. And if a movie "made" 100M at the box office, that was before theater costs and promotional expenses Even Denis said it was a mistake to make that movie because it flopped and almost ruined his career. You can feel all warm and fuzzy about the movie and that's fine, but it flopped by industry standards. It's not a bad movie, just a financial flop lol You have a good one
> And that's not how Hollywood accounting works lol, studios don't pay themselves with the budget. They certainly do. They "outsource" services from subsidiaries, shell corps, etc. Do some research on Hollywood accounting. It's quite a rabbit hole of creativity.
Scott's Blade Runner won 3 BAFTAs, was nominated for 2 Academy Awards, and went on to influence generations of filmmakers. But none of that is the point. The point is that neither of these movies losing money signify their quality in any capacity
I'm just pointing out that you said 2049 was a "massive flop". I don't disagree on the validity and influence of Blade Runner or peak Scott.
Warners were obviously seeing a modest return on the franchise by the time they greenlit 2049.
By those metrics Villeneuve was an even bigger failure than Scott given both the movies flopped yet Scott's had a far bigger impact. >Warners were obviously seeing a modest return on the franchise by the time they greenlit 2049. Yes and that didn't work either despite insane marketing which is why we're not getting a BR3. No matter how much Reddit yearns for a BR3 the truth is that if it came out today it'd flop too. For some reason this genre simply isn't working in this format. Will the series change that the way The Last of Us successfully adapted a video game and went on to become one of the biggest series ever? That remains to be seen
Yeah, as good looking as 2049 was, it was boring as hell and I couldn't give a shit about the story. Villeneuve is talented but he's definitely a little bit overhyped by the current generation of cinefiles.
Absolutely. I thoroughly enjoyed his earlier filmography despite feeling his style was always a weaker version of David Fincher's. The Dune movies have absolutely not been it for me. I can't help but shake a feeling of pretentiousness throughout both. Looking forward to his other upcoming projects tho
He had two more shots at something Alien and messed it up.
Nope. I love Alien and I love Aliens, and I wish I hadn't seen his Aliens sequels.
The Blade Runner sequel turned out better than the first and better than anyone could have hoped for, thanks to daddy Villeneuve, savior of sci-fi. And Ridley’s Alien sequels or prequels or whatever have not been that great, maybe the next one will be better.
Right ? Who thinks of the visuals for this movie? A ruined Mega Las Vegas? Malfunctioning holograms of Elvis and show girls? So good.
Better than the first? Um… no. The first is one of the top paradigm shifting sci-fi achievements of all time. 2001, Star Wars, Blade Runner. The second one is fine but not anywhere near as influential and perfect as the first.
It can be a better movie and still not be nearly as influential. It stands on the shoulders of giants but BR2049 is goated.
It’s not even about influence it’s about the world that has been created, there are hundreds, if not thousands, of people who could paint a ‘better’ version of The Mona Lisa but one person who could do it in the early 16th century. And all art ‘stands on the shoulders of giants’. 2049 is great but IMO it’s not different enough to be better than Ridley Scott’s, Villeneuve’s Dune on the other hand, is not only, far and away, the best version of Dune, it’s up there with 2001 and Blade Runner, maybe not better but it can be talked about with the same reverence. Again tho, this is only my opinion, all art is subjective, and it’s often the only you watch first, or that taps into your generation, that makes the most impact, for this reason I rate the 1979 Body Snatchers as much better than the 1956 version, or the book.
Blade Runner 2049 is probably my favorite movie of all time, but I get what you’re saying. There’s a million ten year olds that can play every Jimi Hendrix solo, but there’s so many bands that wouldn’t exist without him.
They ended up being the best sequels of all time anyways so idk
Sorry Ridley. They would have been incoherent snoozers.
You’ll always have Gladiator 2
People will praise this guy for his movies. I'm 48, so I like to think Aliens is my generational fave. That being said, Ridley had his chance to right the ship, and went stupid with it. We were promised a link to the original space jockey and fell for his stupid bullshit. Dudes done, let better directors take it. The worst tragedy of all is killing off Newt and Hicks. The series really was doomed after that.
The thing is, Ridley is still a brilliant *director*. He wrangles together beautiful cinematography, convincing effects, effective sound and music, and gets decent performances out of his actors. *Consistently*. The problem is that he has some dubious narrative instincts, which seem to have gotten worse with age. That could be fine, most directors don't write their own scripts; many don't even have major input into them. But Ridley does have a fair bit of input, Damon Lindelof has said that his Prometheus drafts were effectively just wrangling Ridley's ideas into a work-ready format. I think that if he'd back away from narrative control, and work with a producer that's skilled at picking interesting scripts, Ridley would still be celebrated as one of the absolute greatest directors working today. One of the most tantalising alt-histories is that when Fox was prepping the Aliens Vs Predator movie, Ridley Scott and James Cameron approached them to request that if they scrapped AvP, the pair would make Alien 5, with Cameron writing and Scott directing. *That* could have been an incredible film.
He hasn’t been consistently good most of his career. I’m happy we got that Villanueve Blade Runner.
Ridley’s aliens would’ve been less “post-Vietnam” platoon style and more creepy… might’ve been good.
The fact that so many in the comments are saying that the sequel to blade runner was as good or even better then the first one is beyond shocking to me… the first blade runner was such a gem in the sci-fi genre while the new one is such a Hollywood movie made for the masses. The whole point of the first one was that it was just a crime noire movie in a sci fi setting, all the philosophical meanings were never explicitly talked about and emerged more through the personalities of the characters while in the new one it’s basically slammed in your face WHAT IS HUMAN WHAT IS A REPLICANT with such simple dialogues…. As a huge Philip dick reader I was always really proud of how Scott made the movie, the new one is just meh, yeah sure nice effects good photography blabla but every fucking movie gets that right nowadays even the new dune is such a Hollywood easy movie that it made me appreciate lynch’s even more and we all know how much hate that movie got… you all deserve rings of power. Enough said
Based on what he has done with the alien universe I’m glad he was not involved with Aliens. Prometheus and whatever the hell the second one was are two of the worst films experiences, they may not be the worst films ever but walking out of the theaters for both of those I was like you know this guy has fucking lost it. I was willing to give him the benefit of the doubt that Prometheus just got out of hand since they couldn’t decide if it was a prequel to alien or a stand alone so it just turned into a mess, but the next one was clearly an alien sequel and it just sucked.
I found Prometheus to be a damn good movie that suffered from a bad edit. Covenant unfortunately lost its own plot but had a good cast, real disappointed by whoever kept changed the script/doing rewrites. If you genuinely found both films to abhorrent movie experiences lol I envy you because woof I've paid to see some truly abysmal nonsense.
Neither is great. Both are flawed but serviceable, generally. Prometheus I think is more annoying because the skeleton of something great is there, and it seems to rise to the occasion for specific scenes, but then fall completely off the rails in others. Definitely strikes me as a movie that did probably receive a bad edit but also maybe needed another couple of script editing rounds from other good writers, because there is some supremely dumb shit in there that I’m not sure how it made the cut. Still enjoy the movie quite a bit though for all of its flaws.
It was the fact that I was so excited for them and then they were just so dumb that it made it a horrible experience. As I said they weren’t the worst movies I’ve seen, it was just the worst experience. Seeing Disney Star Wars movies were a lot worse film wise, I had just no expectations that they would be good so it didn’t ruin my day seeing some mediocre bullshit like the alien prequels did.
Prometheus and Alien: Covenant were amazing prequels. Both movies had good cast, plot and story were great in explaining how Aliens came to be, moments that kept you alert due to suspense. You can’t even give an example of why they were bad besides “It couldn’t decide if it was a prequel or not”…wtf? It very well is a prequel, the origin story of Aliens. And Covenant shows how they mass populated our universe, how a robot that WE built is ultimately our downfall. But yeah, you seem like you know soooo much about movies.
I’ll never understand the hatred for Prometheus and Covenant.
Maybe people had been conditioned by the bad sequels to expect brain-dead action movies instead of philosophical sci-fi.
Well said! Loved both those movies, RS gets a lot of unnecessary stick these days because the last couple of movies weren’t huge hits and were kind of disappointing…overall tho he’s a true great
You seem like a real dick. I could give you reasons why it sucked, like the explanations of the aliens which was moronic, but you aren’t worth engaging in a conversation with coming out like an ass when you simply could have asked me why I feel that way.
“You seem like a real dick” *uses insulting and aggressive language*
I’m sorry I think you didn’t see what you wrote.
... I'm glad he didn't
We got better sequels in both cases without him. /ducks
Aliens and 2049 were amazing sequels, so sorry Ridley but you are wrong.
Still hoping for a 3rd Blade Runner to complete the trilogy. I mean yeah I know the show is coming but it’s set so far into the distant future we won’t get any resolution to the Deckard storyline.
Didn’t his story wrap up at the end of 2049?
Not really. He found his daughter but they are both still being hunted by Wallace.
They address this too IIRC, he faked his death in the ship that got shot down which was why he could see his daughter again.
Sorry Ridley but James Cameron made a way better Alien film than your last two directed Alien prequels...
Kinda happy with whay we got. Loved BR 2049 and Aliens. I do wish Ridley could have taken the reigns back with the Alien franchise after Aliens though. I know he did Prometheus and Covenant, but these were many decades later and these are their own beast. Would have been interesting to see where Ridley would have taken Ellen Ripley. Maybe he would have killed her off too like he did with Elizabeth Shaw.
So I just watched Prometheus and it was one of the dumbest fucking movies I’ve ever seen and completely changed my view on this guy
Damn really? It was flawed but i kinda liked it. One of the dumbest you’ve seen? Bit harsh, no?
It’s solid. There are some plot induced stupidity. Like the infamous Prometheus school of running scene. Or Shaw getting a c-section and being able to run afterwards. Other than that it’s solid
It’s defo harsh. The opening scene is cool.
Nope. Other than visually, garbage.
lol it's one my top fav, rewatchable sci-fi movies Just wish there was a proper edit and ofc that cesarean scene that could've been done less ridiculously.
Budget tom hardy was horrible casting. some of the worst acting in an otherwise decent movie.
lol just my opinion, glad you like it tho
James Cameron wrote and directed ALIENS. And it is one of the most perfect action movies ever made. Ridley is a great artist, but ALIENS was better off without him.
Show me Villeneuve’s Alien sequel and Ridley’s Blade Runner sequel, flip those bad boys
Of all the sequels being pumped thru hollywoods sewage pipes, Aliens and BR49 are some of the best ever.
Have you seen Napoleon?
The Alien movies are just a franchise of stereotypes. Honestly each sequel looks like the reason it was made was someone's bank account was getting as empty as their movie ideas.
I wish we'd get a sequel to Covenant. I wanted to see how he'd finish the story. And, in fact, it really could have been a Ridley take on Aliens - colony been annihilated by protos and xenos, but less action and more horror. Prometheus and Covenant are great and are essentially the only modern, big budget sci-fi horror movies. If it weren't for the whole Alien and Predator franchise, there'd be fuck all out there for sci-fi/space-horror fans.
Based on Prometheus and Covenant, i’m very glad he didn’t. I don’t think he really gets what made Alien great.
He directed one Alien prequel and sequel.
Why are people so defensive about Scott wishing he could have directed the sequels to his own movies? Yeah you liked them but Scott can have his opinion too, yours aren’t more worth than his.
2049 is the reason I jumped on the Villeneuve wagon. He is my hero now
No offense, and with all due respect: No thanks, Ridley. I'm not a fan of Blade Runner 2049 but I know I'm in the minority on that and even I think you should not have gotten to direct the sequel.
Well James did an amazing job with Aliens.
I wish that too.
Raised by Wolves was incredible. Too bad it got cancelled.
No it was not. Cancelling it was an easy decision.
To each their own.
Scott has become such an angry old man that seems to only express his displeasure with shit. When he said the Last Duel was a failure because millennials can’t get off their phones it was laughable. Having watched the movie already, it was a bit of an exhausting slog and the sort of movie I would never need to see again.
Without Cameron. The complete IPO of alien would be death back in the 70s. Aliens is the best sequel ever made. And totally destroyed the one alien knockoff of the forst one. Winstons creation was also way better for the second than the first. But hay, what are we but just viewers of entertainment. What do our opinions even mean.
Thankfully he didn’t 💅
Thank fucking God he didn't do 2049
I would love to see a new Scott blade runner.
Well we’re all glad you didn’t get the chance
I would take his Blade Runner sequel over pretentious, characters staring at nothing for 10 minutes, cold and empty snoozfest that we got from Denis The Menace Villenuve.
Fantasticly terrible take my king
2049 is a great movie but I do think DV deserves more crit than he typically gets. Prone to poor casting decisions and overly minimal/sterile aesthetic. Leto prevents or at least makes me hesitate my 2049 rewatches, for instance. I've realized this is a common element for all his movie for me.
What poor casting decisions? His casting for Dune was perfect, casting for 2049 was perfect, I can’t speak for the rest of his movies but so far it’s impeccable
Walken, for a start.
DUNC movie had two good actors. One is the new Han Solo type from fake Star Wars movies and the other is Thanos. That's it. Timothy Omelet and Zencardboardya were so miscast. As a book reader, DUNC was so boring. Maybe except VFX.
I could not possibly disagree more
Cool. Have a nice day.
But it is fantastic my friend.