Impressive production design is not enough to keep this sci-fi load

For years I firmly believed that there are There are no bad “alien” films (I am, of course, except for the terrible movie “Alien against Predator”, which just doesn’t count). Ridley Scott’s original “Alien” is a sci-fi horror masterpiece that followed so many films. James Cameron’s “aliens” are horror, sci-fi and outstanding action propulsive. David Finker “Alien 3” suffered from production troubles But it is still a gloomy, exciting movie. Jean -Pierre Jeunet’s “Alien Resurrection” often gets a bad wrap, but I believe it is stylish, strange and pleasant. Then you have Scott’s two prequel movies – “Prometheus” and “Alien: Derant”. They also have no best reputations, but I believe they are both brilliant – especially “betting”, which has the horror vibe of murderers.

Thing that all these movies made valuable different They were. None of the two “alien” films were the same – even “Prometheus” and “Derance”, which tells the story of a permanent story and demonstrates the same director, feels greatly different from each other. Hollywood is full of franchises trying to do the same over and over again, and yet the series “Alien” continued to try to find new ways to keep things fresh. Then it all changed with Fede álvarez 2024 “Alien: Romulus”. This movie was a cashier’s hit and was praised among some fans, but it left me cold. Honestly, “Romulus” is not really a bad movie – But there is nothing new to offerIn the area, like so many modern reboot and rebirth, “Romulus” was not interested in introducing new ideas, it simply wanted to refer to the many things that happened in previous films. There are many scenes in the film where the heroes repeat the lines expressed in other “strangers” films, as if they quoted the films they saw.

Now comes Noah Hawley’s film “Alien: Earth,” the first “Alien” franchise series, which is proud of the impressive production design and not much more. Like Romulus, “Alien: Earth” seems to be Hellbent in terms of references that happened in the films. The opening scene of the show is only more or less renewed by Scott’s first film frames with low results. I’ve seen the first six “Alien: Earth” episodes, and while I fully recognize the show appearance Great (and expensive!), It also feels like a lifeless burst, which is a trifle to sit through. Maybe it’s time to place the “Alien” series for a few decades.

Set two years before the first “alien” films, “Alien: Earth” gets one main detail: it understands that while terrible xenomorphs are scary, real Any “alien” story villain is capitalism. In the future, the show exists, governments no longer exist – they have all replaced with greedy companies. At the start of “Alien: Earth”, a ship owned by Maintay Weyland-Yutani returns home to Earth after 65 years of mission to return the alien species of a girl, including you guessed it-the unpleasant xenomorphs.

As usual, it is with a “alien” story, something goes wrong and the ship crashes on the ground. The crash attracts the attention of the extremely annoying boy Kavalier (Samuela Blenkina), the new Corporation’s new CEO Samuela Blenkina, a new company, who is about to make a great scientific breakthrough: hybrids, robots that have uploaded human consciousness. Prodigy is already a test for test subjects: a group of sick and dying children who have moved to adult humanoid bodies. The head of this package (all of whom has accepted characters’ words from “Peter Pan”) is Wendy (Sydney Chandler), who runs a rescue mission to investigate the crash site.

Immediately “Alien: Earth” is on the trembling ground. Although I am convinced that someone thought somewhere that the idea of “baby brains in adult bodies” could be fun, it becomes real old, real fast. Watching how an adult actor group behaves like children who encounter as worrying and distracting, and while I would not say that the performers are doing poor work (especially Chandler’s real star quality), I found that the heroes grate. Honestly, “alien” has always been a bit of a misanthropic franchise in which people (or humanoids) tend to make bad decisions, but that does not mean that I want to watch the whole show about it.

To balance childish adults, “Alien: Earth” also throws in a character like Kirsh, a robot (or synthesize as they are called) played by Timothy Olyfants. Olyphant is one of always addicted, always trusted performers, but he has very little to do in the first six episodes. We get a number of scenes where he quietly observes the stuff using TV monitors and preserves what he learns secret. I am convinced that it is doing something, but I’m not sure I am very interested. The only other character who has a great deal of influence is tomorrow (Babou Ceesay), a morally gray cyborg who wants to do whatever is needed to preserve these alien samples. Ceesay creates his character a real tragic threat, and I wanted more about him and less for almost everyone else.

Havley and his team are trying to expand the overall series mythology by introducing some new alien species in addition to the famous xenomorphs, and while the new creatures are properly and slimy (serious, this show mucus budget must be through the roof)

Without helping the issues, there is the fact that “alien: land”, for example, “Romulus” seems so damn determined to remind us of things from previous films in a way that feels lifeless and unexplored. “Remember how everyone was 70’s haircuts in” alien “? What if we put the same haircuts for the crew of the ship?” It becomes tiring.

Maybe “Alien: Earth” would be better if it was a new, original sci-fi story that had nothing to do with the franchise “Alien”. When the episodes expand, the series seems almost unwilling to give us a lot of xenomorf material, instead choosing to focus on literally everything and everything else. From time to time, Xenomorph will appear to remind you that, yes, this is a “alien” show, but it feels almost arbitrary.

After all, the biggest sin “Alien: Earth” pledges that it is ultimately boring. Regardless of the disadvantages of some of the “alien” sequels, I do not think someone could ever accuse them of “boring”. Even the “Romulus”, a movie I didn’t really love, kept things interesting. “Alien: Earth”, on the contrary, has a strange rhythm and overcook editing, which ultimately interferes with distracting. Honestly, this is a series for weekly viewing, not all at once, but the energy here is so flat that I imagine that viewers could bother and leave the ship early, not to hold on to the mission.

/Movie Rating: 5 out of 10

“Alien: Earth” arrives at FX and Hulu 2025 on August 12.