5 Ways Ridley Scott Is The New George Lucas

This is the one case where Scott actually proves worse, trumping Lucas’ political allegory in place of a fun space adventure.

With the two Alien prequels, there was certainly a determined effort to form something much larger and grandiose than any of the previous films, both in terms of world building and thematic content. Ridley Scott attempted to create a rich and viable mythology for his films, despite having no sufficient narrative ground to support it.

Effectively a high-class slasher movie, the first Alien is a nice, simple story that leaves almost zero space for expansion. Dramatically, the series’ universe was never important and the point of interest came from Ripley’s rivalry with the aliens.

A major criticism for the recent films was that they lacked anything like that. Covenant in particular, highlighted Scott’s unwarranted desire to bring more substance to the franchise, doubling down on the literary references and philosophical speeches, as well as letting the story spill over for future sequels to take advantage of.

It’s quite amazing that this all sprung from what initiated as a B-movie. The simple idea of a monster running around a spaceship now feels needlessly inflated by quasi-existential ideas and convoluted backstory.

Unless Ridley can miraculously reel us back with those sequels he’s planning, it’ll be an exhaustive journey from here on out.

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