I finally saw Alien: Covenant (spoilers) . . .

Life has been kind of hectic over the past couple of weeks and it's been difficult to find a couple of hours to sneak out to my local theater to catch the latest entry in the Alien franchise.

That changed today. I've now seen it, and my thoughts are below. It'll contain spoilers. You have been warned.

A bit like Prometheus, Covenant started out with some genre identity issues, but, unlike Prometheus, those were settled by the end of the first act. Yes, this is a horror movie, even though it started out as a straight action/adventure scifi flick.

Fans of the Alien and Aliens will spot many callbacks to the previous films, and there are several musical cues taken directly from Jerry Goldsmith's score for the first one. There are also quite a few callbacks to Prometheus in the score, which I thought were nicely done.

There isn't a sense of foreboding that the first movie evoked, a feeling that we are venturing into the unknown. Instead, it begins with a sense of optimism, then panic as the accident that begins the whole sequence of events occurs.

Covenant is a colonial vessel on its way to settle a world that is suspected to be habitable. She carries a crew of fifteen, as well as two thousand colonists asleep in stasis, and another fifteen hundred or so embryos frozen for the trip. A random stream of neutrinos from a nearby star hits the ship while the sails she uses to recharge her power supply are deployed, causing an overload in some of her systems. In the ensuing power surge forty-seven colonists are killed in their stasis pods, as well as the mission's captain, Branson (James Franco). He dies horribly, awake in his pod but unable to escape, as he's burned to death while his wife, Daniels (Katherine Waterson) watches.

I've heard a bit of stir about casting Franco in this role instead of a relatively unknown actor, since he's only actually in the movie for less than a minute. However, I disagree, and think it was a wise choice--using a recognizable actor gives his death more heft, making Daniels's grief more palpable and real.

As they make their repairs they intercept a signal from a nearby system--it's a woman singing John Denver's "Country Roads." When they pinpoint the source of the signal it turns out to be a world that is an even better candidate for colonization than their original destination. The new captain, Oram (Billy Cruddup), decides to change their mission to investigate.

A bit is made in the script that Oram is devoutly religious, though it doesn't go into details as to what his faith actually is. Not much more is made of his beliefs beyond the mention near the beginning, and at first I thought that was an oversight. Now that I've thought about it, though, I don't think so--I think the actual specifics of Oram's beliefs are not really necessary to the plot, it's only necessary that he has them. 

This ties into the themes the new series of movies has been exploring, of creation. This is brought into clear focus when Covenant arrives at the source of the transmission and discovers the sole survivor of the Prometheus mission there--the android David. David has been busy while he's been stuck on this world for the last ten years, experimenting with the black goo that first appeared in Prometheus. And what happened to Noomi Rapace's character, Shaw, who was with David on the Engineer's ship they used to escape at the end of the previous movie?

Shaw repaired David, reattaching his head to his body after it had been ripped apart in the earlier movie. For her pains David used her as source material in his black goo experiments, eventually creating the face huggers we all know so well.  With her DNA he was able to create an organism that was fully capable of infesting and gestating in human hosts.

A complaint with the movie has been the scientists and security people act, well, stupid, and I can't refute that. Landing on an alien world, even one with a breathable atmosphere and what appear to be earth-type flora, would still require one to wear a hazmat suit, at least initially. And exposure to alien spores--another way the goo works to infect a host--would result in immediate quarantine.

The gestation period for (what I'm calling) the prexenomorphs is out of whack, too--it'd take longer than a few minutes for something to grow from a collection of spores or even an implanted embryo to something large enough to emerge from the host body at the size of these creatures.  But I'm willing to let that one go, just so the story can move along.

I've also encountered many complaints about the ending being "predictable." Well, yes, it was. However, there's going to be at least one more of these movies. Think about that ending again, and remember that the next one is going to be called Alien: Awakening.

That promises, in light of where this one wound up, to be horrifying and epic and well worth the wait.

Overall, I'll give it a B+. The stupidity of the scientists was a little too convenient, and the editing was a little choppy in a couple of places, but overall I found it to be quite watchable and interesting. I'll be getting the DVD when it's available and I'm looking forward to the next one more than ever.

Here Be Monsters

Since I finished the pilot script for The Prince I've been looking around for something else to work on.

I've got a lot of projects in various stages of development, but none of them are speaking to me right now. None of them feel right. I was writing a screenplay for a film that I've been toying with for some time now but only half-heartedly--just because I feel the need to be working on something.

Then this idea hit me, as I was out on my walk earlier today. Just the title, really, which is the title for this entry.

But, as I was sitting and rewatching Arrival (and if you haven't seen it yet, you really need to--and if you have seen it, it's even better when you see it again) it occurred to me that the title I came up with will fit nicely with an idea for a TV show I've had for a while.

The idea I had came to me in a dream a couple of years ago. It was weird and kind of silly, actually, but it'll do for something like this. I won't go into details yet, except to say it sort of involves the work I'm doing now, but in a weird and ridiculous way.

So far I'm not even at the point where I can start making notes. It needs to ferment a little more, and some questions need to be answered, before I feel like I can even start coming up with characters and situations and creating the world the show would exist in. Worlds, actually, as there will turn out to be several.

I'm actually excited about this one. As soon as I think about it a bit more I'm going to start hammering out the pilot and creating the bible for the show.

So, my Muse gave me a nice surprise, after coming back from her extended vacation. She was missed, and maybe she's refreshed and recharged enough to stick around a while now.

In other news, I think I'm going to have a major life change coming up in the next few months. Can't go into details about it right now, but hopefully it'll turn out to be a Good Thing. Instead of, you know, the other thing.

And my dentist is telling me I need a crown on one of my teeth. And a crown that I already had needs to be redone. Oh, joy. I get to spend most of a day at the dentist's office with people's hands in my mouth. I can't describe how much I'm looking forward to that.

And I've been learning more and more about how to use my video editing software, thanks to videos created by Ripple Training. If you're into Final Cut Pro or Motion check them out on You Tube. Buy their training videos, too. Worth every penny. They have apps available in Apple's app store, if you want to check them out.

So, though I had gone quiet for a while, I'm still around, still trying to make something happen, still trying to get something on the big screen or on TV.

How are things with you?

What I say I'll never do is what I always wind up doing

I promised myself a while back that I'd never attempt a fantasy screenplay.

I'm just not all that interested in fantasy. Never really have been. As I've gotten older my interest has decreased even more, so that I rarely see a fantasy movie these days. I may pop over to the  theater if there's a horror film with elements of the supernatural in it that captures my interest, but that's about it.

Since I finished the pilot script for my TV show (The Prince), I've been trying and failing to come up with something else to work on. I started a couple of things but my interest died pretty quickly. I was getting worried that I was completely out of ideas, that my Muse had abandoned me, moving on to greener pastures.

So, of course, the idea that finally piques my interest, that gets me to want to sit here and start plotting it out and visualizing scenes and creating characters, is a fantasy.

This is the way it works for me. I don't care for time travel and found footage films that much, but I got really excited about my project In Search of Citizen Z. E. D., which is both a found footage and time travel story. (And the only reason that one is now on the shelf is because current events caught up with it a lot faster than I thought they would. Right now it would be redundant. Dammit.)

Anyways, I'm calling this one Child of the Moon. It'll be an Urban Fantasy. Beyond that I can't really say too much, because I'm not that far along with it. Got a lot of story details to work out--the biggest one being, what is the plot? I've gotten my central character in a bad situation but right now I have no idea how she'll get herself out of it.

Of course, that's what makes it fun. At this point I have almost god-like powers, creating a Universe, killing off or saving characters at my whim, making rules, figuring out what happens when. It's quite the feeling of power.

The challenge, though, is not forgetting when one is plotting and planning and cackling over one's immense power, that overall the story has to be entertaining and it had bloody well better make sense! In other words, don't elucidate a rule of magic or whatever and then ignore it when it's convenient for the story.

Anyways, when I'm not playing around with my video editing software or watching baseball on TV, that's what I'm going to be working on for the foreseeable future, it looks like.

Will I finish this one? Stay tuned.

Sorry I haven't been around in a while

If I have any readers left, sorry that it looks like I abandoned you for a while there. Life got kind of hectic all of the sudden.

Just a couple of updates:

• If I haven't mentioned it already, the script for the pilot of my TV show, The Prince, is far enough along that I can start having people look at it. Submitted it to a couple of contests, so far, and will probably send it to a few more over the next few months.

Speaking of The Prince, I shot a video pitch for it to send out to potential producers and studio execs.

• I'm now working on a horror movie project I'm calling Lamia Island. I've had some false starts on it over the past few weeks--this is not unusual for me. Hopefully now, though, I'm on a track that will lead to me getting all the way to the end.
• I bought myself an Apple iPad Pro yesterday, along with an accompanying keyboard and Apple pen. This thing is sweet. I've been without a laptop for a while now and this will, I think, be an adequate replacement. Plus, it just looks so cool.

I also got the movies Ex Machina and Moonlight on Blu Ray over the last week or so. I hadn't seen either of them but I'd heard so many good things I had to check them out. Of course I've now seen them both.

Ex Machina is fascinating from a philosophical point-of-view, and the masterful screenplay accomplished something that is rare, but wonderful--you start figuring out what's happening about a half-beat ahead of the central character. You have the same thoughts he does, just before he has them, and ask yourself the same questions he asks, just before he does. Brilliant. It's beautifully shot, too, and the visual effects--namely substituting parts of Ava's (Alicia Vikander) body with robotic looking parts, or rendering them as almost completely transparent--are believable and effective. This is not a thud-and-blunder, spaceships battling science fiction story. This is more of a drama than most films in the genre.

Moonlight was one of those movies that just sort of sucked me in. The pace is a bit languid, careful, sort of lazily building this world, drawing you into it. It's a beautiful story about change, growth, and self-acceptance, among other things. The cinematography is gorgeous--there are probably hundreds of shots that would make interesting paintings or still photos. The cast is excellent, and I'm developing a serious crush on Janelle Monae. I see why it won Best Picture at the Oscars this year. I haven't heard director Barry Jenkins' commentary track yet--I'll be doing that in the next day or so. It should be interesting.

So, both of those are recommended. Check them out.

Over the next few weeks I'll be trying to hammer out a first draft for Lamia Island, and look around for more opportunities to get eyes on my script for the pilot script for The Prince.

And baseball season will be starting soon. I'm sure that will take up a lot of my time, as well.

Why Arrival may be more important than you realize . . .

. . . if you have an interest in movies, that is.

The Blu Ray edition  of Arrival just came out and of course, since this film blew me away when I saw it in the theater, I preordered it, and just saw it again.

I'm still in awe of it. Seeing it the second time around makes it even more profound. I'm watching the special features now, and when I'm done with that I'll probably watch the whole thing again.

Some people I know who are familiar with the tropes and conventions of science fiction did not care for this movie, and I think I understand why, and this is why I think it'll be so important down the road.

When you think "science fiction," or that abominable term "scifi," you probably think of Star Wars and/ or Star Trek--pointed eared aliens, space ships zipping through space shooting beams at each other, planets exploding, that sort of thing. When you hear "aliens arriving on earth" you probably think Independence Day.

I'm not saying there's anything wrong with any of that, and there is a time and place for those movies, and I absolutely loved Independence Day when it first came out--it was a rocking good time. Arrival, though, doesn't really have any of that. It's most definitely not an action/adventure film.

Instead, it's a character study that at first does not appear to be a character study. The concept it's based on, neurolinguistics, is not something that's easy to explain or understand. One of the few faults with the movie is it sort of makes it a bit too much like magic in the end, though that was essential to tell the story it wanted to tell. It's a complicated but fascinating concept introduced in a way that would probably correspond pretty closely to how something like that would happen in real life. There's not a great deal of action, no battles in space, nothing like that. Instead, it's people talking to each other, and attempting to figure out how to talk to an alien life form that has appeared in our midst with no explanation and no clue as to what they want.

Here's the important part: the film made money. People went to see it. It's getting buzz from the Academy for Oscar nominations--though Amy Adams not getting nominated for her role is a travesty, I think. In short, I'm expecting to see more movies like this one--intellectually interesting, with a lot of heart, a lot of soul, but not a lot of action.

That excites me tremendously. That's what I want to see. More like this, please, Hollywood. Apparently I'm not the only person who feels this way.

If you haven't seen it yet I urge you to do so.

Post Super Bowl thoughts and randomocity

Let me answer the burning question first:

Yes, I was disappointed that the Falcons lost the Super Bowl, in a record-breaking second-half collapse. That game magnified the issues they've had all season--inconsistent defense, second-half let-downs, and bone-headed offensive play calling.

However, as I said earlier, I wasn't expecting them to get that far. I would have been happy with a playoff appearance. Not even a playoff win, just an appearance. I can't go back now and say that I'm angry at them for losing, since them even being in the game meant they wildly exceeded my expectations for this season.

So, let's address the issues the game underscored, and come out next year, get back there, and win it next time. Got me? That's my expectations for next season. Next season, Falcons win it all.

I've finished the pilot script for my TV show project, The Prince. I copyrighted it and submitted it to a screenplay writing contest, and paid extra to get the judge's notes on it. I should know something in a couple of months. Hopefully, whoever the first reader is will figure out what I'm trying to do with it.

My next project, I think, is going to be a feature film. I got a basic idea for one Friday but I haven't had time to develop it yet--I'm giving myself a couple days off from creative endeavors as a reward for getting the pilot script in good enough shape to start sending out.

I think this one is going to be science fiction, maybe with some horror undertones. I won't reveal the title here because I haven't decided on it yet--that'll come when more of the story emerges. Oddly enough, the thought process that lead to the initial idea was inspired by a review I read of the movie version of Fifty Shades Darker. Though my project will have very little to do with that one. Just a random sentence in what I read got me to thinking . . .

Anyway, that'll be something to occupy me later this week.

So, no sports for me to watch over the next couple of months, until baseball gets started in April. Nothing much to distract me from getting some serious work done over the next month or so! I'll barf out this feature film screenplay in no time flat!

Hopefully.

Broken World

There is a grayness before me

as far as my mind can tell

Sky and ground merge in the distance

no difference between them now

An ancient tree before me

branches bare like skeletal hands reaching

I find the water from the wood

I drink it now and wait to die

This is what happened when we remade the world

When we ignored her agony

No place for us here, amid the death throes

Not even our pain for company

There is a city I see before me

empty parks and deserted streets

Concrete fingers prod the sky

No souls inside them

I see it now, how it happened

like an artist making art

remaking the world in our image

dead, desolate, and forgotten

This is what happened when we remade the world

when we ignored her agony

no place for us here, at the end

not even ghosts for company

An ancient tree before of me

branches bare like skeletal hands reaching

I find the water from the wood

I drink it now and want to die

(c) 2017 by J. Franklin Evans