Category: General Musings

(Be warned, this review is full of spoilers, intended for those who have seen the film or just don’t care!)

‘Alien: Covenant’ is Ridley Scott’s latest addition to the Alien franchise he began, back in 1979. The shame is that, after all this time, he appears to have difficulty returning to those heights.

First, a quick run-down for those who haven’t seen the film but don’t care about spoilers… (skip to the next paragraph if you’ve seen the film) The Covenant is a colonisation vessel that detects a mysterious yet human signal that leads them to a seemingly safe and habitable alternate world to colonise. The crew consists of your usual compliment of individuals, with small quirks to differentiate them. The replacement captain (after the original dies from an early accident) is religious and worries that the crew don’t respect him, there’s a pilot who wears a cowboy hat so we know he’s a little reckless, there’s an android crew member called Walter, who is identical to the ‘David’ android in Prometheus (the previous film), but with an American accent, so he’s less ‘evil English villain’ and a Ripley replacement who’s just suffered an emotional loss. The rest are disposable. They arrive on the planet, discover the crashed ship from Prometheus, and things quickly go bad. After a rescue by the only sentient inhabitant, the android David, the usual storyline kicks in, whittling down the crew with a variety of gruesome deaths until the last creature is blown out of an airlock. We are then treated to a stunningly poor ‘twist’ (which I’ll get to below).

Before Prometheus, the Alien franchise had somewhat run itself into the ground. The original film sets up both the mystery of the creature’s origin, and the slowly building terror of the creature itself, that tapped so successfully into our most basic primeval and sexual nightmares. Aliens took that set up and ran with it, creating an action movie. Alien 3 was a Gothic horror that became more of an introspective character piece for Ripley. Alien: Resurrection, whilst not perfect, was more about abomination and hubris.

What none of those sequels did, was expand on the mystery of the crashed derelict, the ‘space jockey’ (as the skeletal pilot became known) and the creature’s origins. They concentrated on the horror of the creature, forgetting the origin mystery and losing something in the process. It was an angle I, as a viewer and fan, always wanted to return to.

Ridley Scott bravely made the decision to do that. Where did they come from? What was the skeletal creature in the chair? What kind of culture created the twisted, nightmarish technology of the derelict?

Prometheus was an often beautiful yet stumbling and failed attempt to address some of those questions. It wasn’t just an ‘Alien’ movie, it had the body-shock horror, but it was wrapped in a deeper mystery. The general ideas within Prometheus were good. Ridley Scott’s direction and visuals were, as always, superb. Where it fell over was in the mind-numbingly stupid characters and contrived situations used to progress the story. There’s much to love in Prometheus, that is ruined by those characters and poor plot mechanics (rather than the overall story). Prometheus admirably tried to go in a new direction, which I appreciated.

Covenant is both an improvement in some ways, and, perhaps even more disappointingly, a dreadful step back. Ridley has made the mistake of listening to the crowds who merely want more of the same; creatures running around in the dark killing people. Yes, perhaps that is the core of the Alien movies, but at their best, they rise above that and mess with our expectations. The creatures and their threat are the framework around which other themes are built.

Alien had a deep sense of mystery and sub-conscious terror at how the creature propagates itself, Aliens was about action and the emotional mother/daughter bond, Alien 3 was about the psychological toll events had taken on Ripley, and the hellish nightmare of the beast. Prometheus, despite its flaws, dealt with personal faith and the origins of mankind. All of those films shared the running theme of a struggle to stop soulless human greed that cares nothing for individuals.

Covenant feels as though it wants to be a mere ‘monster’ movie that has to dismissively deal with the burden of the previous story. The best moment of Prometheus, for me, was the conclusion, when Elizabeth Shaw departs in one of those utterly alien vessels, whose design was spawned from the dark, twisted genius of H.R. Giger. She departs to find those ‘Engineers’ who triggered the birth of humanity and also planned to destroy it, to ask the big question: “Why?”

For all its flaws, Prometheus had returned to a deeper sense of a mystery, questions to be answered, terrible-yet-beautiful worlds yet to be seen. Covenant, in a brief flashback, quickly kills off the ‘Engineers’ on the planet to which Shaw arrives with the android David, and then, bit-by-bit, reveals that David has lost his marbles and turned into a mad recluse who wants to create ‘the perfect killing machine’. So you guessed it, Covenant reveals that we humans have ultimately created our own nightmare. David is our creation, who in turn created the Alien from the bio-mechanical technology created by the ‘Engineers’ that were in fact our own creators… Yes, it does become that convoluted. Oh, and he also killed and dissected Elizabeth Shaw in the process for no apparent reason.

In one swift movement, Covenant destroys the point of Prometheus and what it set up. It dismisses those larger questions, renders the establishment of the Shaw character pointless and removes any interesting mystery about the Alien’s origin. Yes, it was us… The most typical and rather boring plot solution you could imagine.

Covenant ends up being the inverse of Prometheus. It corrects many of the mistakes, establishing some of its main characters efficiently and well, it is (somewhat) less reliant on idiocy and contrived situations, and characters are sensibly motivated (if you exclude the stereotypical ‘lonely genius turned evil madman’ that is David).

On the flip side, Covenant seems content to be a monster movie, killing off its characters one by one without any greater questions or mysteries. Not only that, but it falls into the old horror movie traps that the original Alien movies avoided. Characters slip and fall when shooting, so that monsters don’t get killed too quickly, terrified characters close doors too soon, so that other characters can’t escape, people wander off alone to be killed, people conveniently hurt themselves so they can’t run…

Besides dismissing everything that Prometheus (and even Alien) set up, perhaps the two worst moments in Covenant are right at its conclusion. Firstly, Ridley once again goes for the ‘blow it out the airlock’ solution. This has become so tiresome, that I need say no more. Secondly, it has the most choreographed, eyeball-rolling ‘twist’. It is a twist that we, the audience, are clearly supposed to be in-on, but the lead character conveniently doesn’t think about it, until it’s too late.

The David android, and the identical Walter android fight as the human characters try to escape. Just as the final deciding blow is given, the camera cuts away. Yet again, you guessed it. Oh my, when we see Walter again, could it really be David in his uniform? Surely not! This conveniently never occurs to our Ripley replacement until it is too late, as she drifts into hyper-sleep. David is now free to carry on his evil-genius plan to destroy humanity with the Alien.

It may seem as though I hated Covenant, but I didn’t. The action is well staged and pulse-pounding. Ridley Scott can always be relied on to create stunning visuals and fantastic direction. Despite the clichés, up until the waste of Prometheus and the predictable turn of the David character, the build up is fun.

Having said that, the Alien is still poorly used when it is introduced. Alien worked because of the threat of a single deadly predator. Aliens works because they become a threat en masse, rather than individuals. Covenant undermines both of those situations by having two aliens (in addition to some earlier slimy creatures). If the ‘alien’ threat had been concluded with the first ‘proper’ creature, it would have been sufficient. Instead, we get a second that suffers from being too quickly established and killed, so we can have the usual ‘out of the airlock’ final scare/action sequence. It was also a big mistake to go all-CG for the aliens. They just don’t have that ‘reality’, or move correctly. It’s scarier to think that a movie made in 1979, by the same director, had more effective special effects.

Strangely, Ridley Scott even seems to be trying to emulate what James Cameron did in Aliens on occasion, which is all the more face-palm inducing since James Cameron was emulating Ridley’s own Alien with Aliens (just watch the Dropship sequence!)

There’s so much potential wasted… Much of Covenant is good, but like Prometheus it ultimately shoots itself in the foot (or, more correctly, crushes its foot in a powered door). In fact, the most interesting and mysterious scene was actually used as a ‘prequel short’, to bridge the gap between Prometheus and Covenant, and only (fully) seen as part of the promotion! (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XeMVrnYNwus)

Oddly, it’s a marginally superior film to Prometheus but with far less to make you want to revisit it, whilst also making Prometheus feel pointless. Yet another wasted opportunity.

All work is the © copyright of W.D.Lee and/or the respective companies, individuals or organisations to which the work is related. No infringement is intentional. No reproduction or copying is permitted without express permission.

Flight Suit Concept

It’s been a while since I had time to post, but I’ve finally got some time and thought I would show you some more concept art.

I don’t want to give away too much of the story, but this young lady has to fly a starship at one point, and needed a uniform. At this point we’re not talking rank insignia or anything like that, but she and her companions need something functional that can be worn aboard ship. I had a pretty good idea in my head, so I created the initial dark-brown leather style costume.

I realised, however, that it was a little too reminiscent of The Rocketeer (admittedly, something I had in the back of my mind when I wrote the original description in the book).

As you can see, I tried a few colour variations and settled on the aquamarine jacket, but keeping the tan trousers and leather boots. On the right hip is a holster for a comm. device rather than a weapon, and a general utility pouch on the left leg. The trousers are meant to imply that the under-suit is lined for temperature control, ready for use with spacesuits, or other circumstances with potentially extreme temperatures.

After finishing, I thought I would see what the character looked like in context, so inserted her into this corridor painting.

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All work is the © copyright of W.D.Lee and/or the respective companies, individuals or organisations to which the work is related. No infringement is intentional. No reproduction or copying is permitted without express permission.

An Introduction

As a sci-fi nut, it probably comes as no surprise that I like Science Fiction B-Movies, so today I thought I would talk a little about them. Not necessarily specific movies (though I’ll take a look at a few examples), but what makes a B-Movie, and what is the attraction? If you have a love of Science Fiction B-Movies yourself, you’ll understand a lot of this, but some of you may just come away scratching your head…

I won’t go into any depth about where the term ‘B-Movie’ came from, instead I will explore what it means to me, and possibly other sci-fi fans (if they agree!). As a quick description:

“A B movie is a low-budget commercial motion picture that is not an arthouse film. In its original usage, during the Golden Age of Hollywood, the term more precisely identified a film intended for distribution as the less-publicized, bottom half of a double feature.”

Just check out the Wikipedia entry if you want more detail. The term is most commonly associated with low-budget 50’s movies (usually horror and/or science fiction). Although I love a lot of 50’s B-movies, almost all early science fiction movies fall into the ‘B’ camp, due to the disregard most studios held for science fiction. They were almost always made on a shoestring. I want to talk more about late 70’s, 80’s and 90’s B-movies, and what constitutes a B-Movie these days.

For me, you can divide them, into three main categories:

Type-1) Movies that have an interesting idea, made with passion and creativity, that simply lack the budget (and often the skill) to make it big.

Type-2) Movies made directly to cash in on big Hollywood releases.

Type-3) Movies with mid-to-large budgets that effectively echo the sentiment and style of a Type-1 B-Movie.

Let’s go in reverse order, so we can leave the best till last…

Type-3 B-Movies

Examples of Type-3 B-Movies are ‘Waterworld’, ‘Lifeforce’, ‘Independence Day’ or even ‘Battlefield Earth’. They’re big (or at least medium) budget films, but their core stories are not pretentious or high-brow. They usually have an interesting premise, but they’re essentially all-out fun made with a lot of passion and creativity.

You could describe a lot of modern blockbusters as just explosive fun, but I would argue they don’t necessarily fall into the Type-3 camp, because all-too-often they are specifically produced to be money-making, soulless effects extravaganzas that are visually well made and well acted (Too many superhero movies would match this description). There’s nothing ‘B’ about such movies.

Technically speaking, Type-3 movies aren’t truly B-Movies, but there is enough in their DNA to give them honourary B-Movie status.

Type-2 B-Movies

I’d say there are more of these now than there have ever been, with CGI effects becoming so accessible to even low-budget films, but that doesn’t mean they’re getting better. You only need to look at the awful, mindless stuff churned out by the Syfy channel and studios like Asylum Films (Megashark Versus Giant Octopus, Snakes on a Train, Abraham Lincoln Vs Zombies, A Princess of Mars, the list goes on).

Of course, these types of films have always been around, and a lot of the worst B-Movies from earlier decades are not much better. Sometimes they can have cheesy comedy value, occasionally they can be good (even great), if a director and/or writer who wants to make something of themselves ends up trying to do the best they can with a dubious foundation.

Probably the most infamous producer of these kinds of B-Movies is Roger Corman. What I would argue, however, is that in his early days, Roger Corman pictures often tried to be their own thing, whilst only somewhat echoing the movies they were created to cash in on.

One of the best Roger Corman examples is ‘Battle Beyond the Stars’, a charming space-western created to capitalise on the success of ‘Star Wars’, but taking its inspiration from another Akira Kurosawa film (‘Star Wars’ was somewhat inspired by Kurosawa’s ‘The Hidden Fortress’. ‘Battle Beyond the Stars’ took its lead from ‘Seven Samurai’ which itself was effectively remade as the classic western ‘The Magnificent Seven’). As such, ‘Battle Beyond the Stars’ is still its own film and, by luck, many of the people involved were using it as a way to get into bigger and better things, so there’s a lot of quality work involved. A number of the effects artists are now top people in Hollywood, from the Skotak brothers to James Cameron (who designed the notorious ‘spaceship with breasts’). Even the wonderful and adventure-filled soundtrack was effectively the breakthrough piece for James Horner (If you don’t know some of these names, honestly, where have you been? If you need to, slap your own wrist for not knowing, then go and check them out on IMDB).

To a lesser extent, Corman’s ‘Death Race 2000’ is a good example of a cult B-Movie with some interesting ideas, that was made to capitalise on the big budget flop, ‘Rollerball’ (Both films received modern remakes which amusingly echoed their progenitors. ‘Rollerball’ turned out to be another flop whilst ‘Death Race’, by Paul Anderson and starring Jason Statham, proved enough of a success to spawn several direct-to-DVD sequels).

Another 80’s example would be something like ‘Critters’, made to cash in on ‘Gremlins’, but actually turning out to be a great fun sci-fi movie that spawned a pretty good sequel, and two ultra-low-budget direct-to-DVD sequels (‘Critters 3’ even starred a very young Leonardo DiCaprio! I’ll bet he doesn’t like being reminded of that, even though it probably includes some of his best acting…).

Some of you may point out that there have been a lot of movies that were only green-lit due to the success of, and similarity to, big budget hits. But I’m only including direct cash-ins. For example, I wouldn’t put ‘Saturn 3’ in here because of its surface similarities to ‘Alien’, or the many, many films influenced by ‘Blade Runner’ and ‘Alien/Aliens’, that are still very different films.

Unfortunately, the examples above are more the exceptions that prove the rule, and modern ‘cash-in’ movies are more likely to be awful and mindless. Perhaps it’s just me, but very, very few of the modern low-budget B-Movies seem to be made with any heart and soul. They’re just there to fill a gap in the schedule, or gain notorious success through sheer absurdity.

Type-1 B-Movies

Now this is where things get really interesting. These are the films that tend to cause heated debate, because they’re often so easy to criticise and dislike but, for some, contain just the right ingredients to create loveable classics despite the flaws.

For me, a Type-1 B-Movie is something that has a few really interesting sci-fi ideas (sometimes verging on the absurd), and has its heart in the right place. I try to look past the lack of surface polish, the occasional (sometimes frequent!) bad acting and ropey effects, to the weird and wonderful core. There’s a magic to these kinds of B-Movies, because you can feel the individuals behind them, doing their best to bring their dreams to life, even if they stumble in the process.

The budget and quality of Type-1 B-Movies can vary wildly. From shoestring budgets to those nearing mid-range. From directors who went on to bigger and better things, to those who were never seen or heard of again. It’s difficult to describe why they’re so enjoyable sometimes. With the best, it’s because there’s a charm to them, a soul, that big-budget blockbusters can often lack. I’ll fire off a few examples to give you an idea what I mean.

Let’s start with a really low budget film, ‘Moontrap’. This stars Walter Koenig (‘Star Trek’ and ‘Babylon 5’) alongside Bruce Campbell (The ‘Evil Dead’ movies). There’s no denying its budget constraints and occasionally dodgy acting (from co-stars, not the leads), but I love it. There are some great ideas that always spark my imagination, from an ancient astronaut discovered in stasis on the moon, to robots that use human body and machine parts to build larger bodies with which to attack. What more can you ask from a movie? Given the budget, it also has some great effects (for the time) as the creators owned their own effects company.

Then there’s ‘Millenium’, with Kris Kristoferson (Blade) and Cheryl Ladd (Charlie’s Angels). Ever wondered what would happen, if pollution made future generations sterile, and they had to use time travel to steal fertile people from the past just before they ‘died’ in tragic disasters? It’s silly, it’s cheesy, but add mutant-cyborg future rulers, sympathetic robot helpers, 80’s effects, and you get a wonderful, charming romp that is surprisingly quite thoughtful.

Or how about ‘Cyborg’, with Jean-Claude Van Damme (‘Timecop’, ‘Bloodsport’), battling villains (all named after guitars) who want to control the cure to a deadly plague, in a post apocalyptic future?

Or ‘Fortress’, where population control has made breeding without a license illegal, so our hero and heroine get sent to an underground prison. There, the android warden censures their dreams and uses inmates to create killer cyborg guards, whilst the prisoners have explosives in their intestines that will be triggered if they try to escape…

How about ‘Moon 44’ (oddly enough, from the director and writer combo who went on to create ‘Universal Soldier’, ‘Stargate’ and ‘Independence Day’) with a future in which corporations are strip-mining moons and using prisoners, due to their expendability, to pilot defence helicopters against rival company drones, with young navigators who hate them? (It also has an awesome soundtrack by the late Joel Goldsmith, son of Jerry)

Or maybe ‘Robot Jox’, set in a future where wars have stopped, and countries do battle for land by pitching their best warriors against each other in giant mech-suits.

In ‘They Live’, you might even run into a drifter who discovers sunglasses that allow him to see our alien masters, who use hypnotic mind control to live secretly amongst us as the ruling elite, and hide their subliminal controlling words on every billboard, in every magazine, even on your money…

But What About…

There are some movies that are definitely approaching B-Movie status, but I don’t think they quite qualify. For example, apart from his more low-budget films like ‘They Live’, I would find it hard to include John Carpenter’s ‘Escape from New York’ on the list. It certainly wasn’t a big budget film, but for the time it wasn’t low budget either, and is still quite highly regarded. ‘They Live’, on the other hand, was lower budget and although it has cult status and is loved by fans, is certainly not as widely regarded (though one of my personal all-time favourites). On the other hand, John Carpenter’s more recent ‘Ghosts of Mars’ possibly just edges into the region of being a more contemporary B-Movie.

Then there are films that are on a knife edge. Where, for example, would you classify ‘Solar Warriors’ (‘Solar Babies’ in U.S.), or ‘Saturn 3’? Both films with good actors, reasonable budgets (for their time) and quality production, but very close to being B-Movies. I don’t think I would class them as such, as their quality just edges them out of that categorisation, but they’re so close I could change my mind based on the time of day or direction the wind is blowing. Honestly, I’m changing my mind on ‘Solar Warriors’ as I write this.

There are other grey areas, too. How do you classify low budget but extremely well made, serious science fiction movies? I don’t believe they can be classed as B-Movies, because there is one main feature that defines a B-Movie. You have to be able to look at it, and know that it’s not high art. You know, in your gut, that the vast majority of people will never see it as a ‘great’ movie, even in the cases where it’s a success. The only ones who will see that ‘greatness’ are you and your fellow B-Movie fans… Think of ‘Moon’ or the more recent ‘Midnight Special’ (which was effectively a good but not great remake of John Carpenter’s Starman). Those films, and a few like them, despite being low-budget, are far too slickly made, well acted and critically rated to consider B-Movies. If you disagree, let me know!

In Conclusion

By listing just a few films, I’m trying to give you an idea that, despite the budgets, acting and direction, science fiction B-Movies often have more imagination and ideas than any number of big budget movies, be they special effects blockbuster, ‘gritty’ thrillers or ‘hard-hitting’ dramas.

The beauty of B-Movies, is that every fan will have their own take on what is and isn’t good. Some would look at my list and groan, whilst having favourites for which I would return the favour. More often than not, however, I would bet that the common trend throughout B-Movie fans, is that the films they enjoy are the ones that speak to them with ideas that intrigue, unusual characters that they empathise with, and a passion to put dreams into reality. They’re never soulless, and there’s often a sense of fun that overly-serious films lack.

The amusing thing for B-Movie fans, is that we know the films we enjoy are often terrible (or are at least seen that way by others), but we love them anyway…

Do you agree or disagree? What are your favourite Science Fiction B-Movies?

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All work is the © copyright of W.D.Lee and/or the respective companies, individuals or organisations to which the work is related. No infringement is intentional. No reproduction or copying is permitted without express permission.

(Don’t know what the Christopher Tyson Adventures are? Click here before continuing, if you want to know more…)

The heroes’ spaceship, the Hypatia, is an aged derelict. Here’s a glimpse of what it looks like inside, before they get it refurbished at the Stelguls shipyards on Khani Prime (What do you mean you don’t know of that place or planet? You’ll just have to read the book when it comes out!).

For those interested, below you can see the initial design sketches, along with some more detailed design for the door, ceiling and floor elements.

The designs were initially done with pro-marker and fine liner pens. Then, using the rough concept art as a guide, the painting was completed digitally.

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All work is the © copyright of W.D.Lee and/or the respective companies, individuals or organisations to which the work is related. No infringement is intentional. No reproduction or copying is permitted without express permission.

I have decided that it’s about time I started a new blog. “Oh gawd…” I hear you say. “Every one and his dog has one of those! And this is disturbingly similar to the home page…”

Yes, just be thankful I’m not Vlogging. You’ll just have to decide for yourselves if what I say is interesting enough to read (or even comment on).

Some of you may note that I used to have a blog years ago. If you’re interested, you can see it here:

http://duncansguide.blogspot.co.uk/

However, it’s been a long while since I updated it, so I think it’s time for something new and fresh (though bit by bit, I may shift over the old content, such as movie reviews).

So, you ask yourself, what can we expect from this exciting new must-read blog? The answer is… All sorts! (Contain yourselves)

• The Christopher Tyson Adventures – A science fiction adventure series for children. Book one is nearing publication before the end of this year (2016), and shall be accompanied by the release of an ‘art of’ book, which I shall post excerpts from.
• My thoughts and experiences on writing.
• The occasional short story.
• Movie reviews (I’m a big movie fan, so expect plenty, including the occasional soundtrack review).
• Book reviews (when I have the time to read instead of write).
• Artistic endeavours (most likely to do with Christopher Tyson, at present).
• Computer Programming (Yes, I program for a living… So I may occasionally moan talk about software development).
• Retro gaming and stuff about my old computer that really doesn’t interest you.
• Last but not least, general rambling about whatever topics cross my mind (it could be anything from politics to UFOs! Oooh the excitement!).

Please note, that for sheer excitement (and because no blog post is complete without an image to grab your attention), I have included some concept art from my book. At the top of the page you can see General Ohmzigg Devlannagor, of House Lannagor. He’s about a foot tall, very smart, and likes the occasional cuddle (He’s just a big softy, when he’s not hunting down killer robots and blowing up enemy star cruisers).

So keep watch, you crazy humans. You don’t know what’s around the corner…

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All work is the © copyright of W.D.Lee and/or the respective companies, individuals or organisations to which the work is related. No infringement is intentional. No reproduction or copying is permitted without express permission.