The Alien Franchise

I've been rewatching the Alien movies out of order.  I started with Prometheus, moved on to Alien: Covenant, and from there went back to 1979's Alien and its attendant sequels.  I skipped the Alien vs. Predator movies because I never liked them.  Also because they don't exist.

I swear, Prometheus and Alien: Covenant have to be two of the most frustrating movies ever made.  On the one hand both movies are full of great visuals, great scenes and moments of  stomach-churning violence, while on the other their respective stories just don't add up to satisfying films.  Both movies were a fantastic waste of Michael Fassbender, but at the same time I'm glad he elected to do them.

1979's Alien is classic.  I've seen this movie more times than I can remember.  It was the movie that launched Sigourney Weaver's career, H.R. Giger's contribution was groundbreaking, and I think those that haven't seen it will find that it's aged extremely well.  Yes, the monitors on the spaceship look extremely dated, but the performances in this movie are rock solid and the script is airtight.  Modern viewers might grow restless at its slow pace, but it builds an impressive amount of tension over its two hour runtime.

I always thought Veronica Cartwright deserved more credit for this movie's success.  All of the big fear reactions in Alien are hers, and it's her terror-stricken face that really sells the movie.  Alien minus her frantic screaming and flailing would have only been half as good.

In my opinion James Cameron's Aliens is almost, but not quite as good as Alien.  It's an inventive movie full of great action, wonderful set design, and spectacular camera work, but I don't know if it sets a mood as successfully as Ridley Scott's 1979 original.  Like any sequel it builds off of what came before, and I think saying that Aliens is as good as Alien overlooks the fact that creating the original was no mean feat.  There are also scenes in Aliens that seem to interrupt the flow of the movie, such as the scene in which Ripley confronts Burke over his underhanded dealings.  This scene was certainly necessary, but in the context of an action movie it's unnecessarily long.

Alien 3 (a.k.a. "Alien Cubed") was a disappointment.  We often speak of director David Fincher in reverent tones, often forgetting that yes, he also directed this exercise in depression.  The script for this movie underwent MANY revisions, by several teams of writers, and Fincher promptly disowned the final product.  I agree with James Cameron that killing several of the characters from Aliens off was like "a slap in the face," but my issues with this film run much deeper.

I haven't seen the Assembly Cut of Alien 3.  Many people say it's much better.  Science fiction legend William Gibson also wrote another version of the screenplay early on in the development process, and his screenplay was later turned into an audiobook.

Alien: Resurrection?  Definitely better than Alien 3, but not the slam dunk many of us were hoping for.  Alien: Resurrection is set 200 years after the events of Alien 3, and was directed -- confusingly enough -- by Frenchman Jean-Pierre Jeunet.  He did this one after The City of Lost Children and before Amelie.  I'm sure Sigourney Weaver was enthusiastic about his inclusion, but he was out of his depth in this franchise.

Weirdly enough, the script for Alien: Resurrection was penned by Joss Whedon, and involves a "reincarnated" Ripley confronting a new, mutant strain of xenomorph.  I love the scene in which Ripley discovers the failed experiments, but the rest of this movie is extremely forgettable.

Alien: Resurrection is the furthest into the future the series ever went.  Joss Whedon wrote a sequel set on Earth, but Sigourney Weaver's ambivalence killed that project.  By that point an "Alien vs. Predator" movie was already under discussion, but both Weaver and Cameron hated the idea.

It's a good thing they never made those Alien vs. Predator movies, right?

Instead of the Alien vs. Predator movies, which we must agree never, ever happened, we have Alien: Romulus, which should be arriving in theaters next summer.  This movie is set between Alien and Aliens, with very few details available at the time of writing.  Fede Alvarez, who directed the Evil Dead reboot, is behind this one.  I'll have more of an opinion about it when I see the trailer.

Is there still life in this franchise?  I'd have to say that yes, there is.  Disregarding the rich (if confounding) world Ridley Scott's Prometheus and Alien: Covenant introduced us to, I think the concepts from Alien, Aliens and their two sequels could still serve as inspiration for a good seventh installment.

Not counting Alien vs. Predator or Alien vs. Predator: Requiem of course.  It's a good thing those two movies were never made, right?

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"Land of Milk and Honey" by C. Pam Zhang (2023)

"We cackled with the hysteria of escapees.  She seized my hand.  So you get it.  The same systems and rationales that led us to this point, that have reduced global biodiversity by ninety-six percent in the last century -- we can't cave to shortsighted demands.  That's why we hide most of our animals and crops belowground.  We bribe the officials to stay away, and we lie.  They'd destroy our work if they found it.  Give this land over to humans and it would be gutted, stripped, in a week."

C. Pam Zhang is a Chinese American writer.  Aside from Land of Milk and Honey she's written one other book, How Much of These Hills is Gold.

In Land of Milk and Honey a mass of "smog" resulting from an unexplained agricultural experiment in the American Midwest covers the Earth, resulting in a widespread loss of biodiversity.  The protagonist, an American refugee living in Europe, gains employment at a high altitude scientific research facility, both refining her craft as a chef and learning firsthand to what lengths the rich will go in their simultaneous denial and acceptance of an end to the world order they rely upon.

More than that I will not say, mostly because this is a short book.  In Land of Milk and Honey we observe a writer at the height of her prowess, telling a story that is, as far as I could ascertain, airtight in every respect.  Has this book been optioned as a movie?  If not, someone at a studio really needs to get on that.

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"Chip War" by Chris Miller (2022)

"After initially accusing Mark Shepherd of being an imperialist, Minister Li quickly changed his tune.  He realized a relationship with Texas Instruments could transform Taiwan's economy, building industry and transferring technological know-how.  Electronics assembly, meanwhile, would catalyze other investments, helping Taiwan produce more higher-value goods.  As Americans grew skeptical of military commitments in Asia, Taiwan desperately needed to diversify its connections with the United States.  Americans who weren't interested in defending Taiwan might be willing to defend Texas Instruments.  The more semiconductor plants on the island, and the more economic ties with the United States, the safer Taiwan would be..."

Chris Miller is an Associate Professor of International History at Tufts University.  Besides Chip War he's written three other books, all of which explore Russian economic policies.

Chip War begins, predictably, with the birth of the semiconductor industry.  From there it moves on to the development of this technology in the United States and the export of semiconductor manufacturing processes into Asia.

But the technology, of course, is only half of the story.  There are also geopolitical factors at play, many of which go back to the Cold War, and some of which extend to increasing tensions between China and the United States.  Caught between the two superpowers is the tiny island nation of Taiwan, where most of the cutting edge semiconductor manufacturing technology happens to be located.

I think Chip War offers a good overview of why the world depends on the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corporation, and also why Taiwan is of such strategic importance.  It's not just Taiwan's presence along major shipping lanes, and it's not just a Western desire to encircle China.  It's also an industry centered around a very, very important fabrication facility in Taiwan, the existence of which both attracts and repels its much larger, communist neighbor.

If you're interested in the topic I think you'll find Chip War a rewarding read.  It's not as in-depth as it pretends to be, and the geopolitical ramifications of this "chip war" could have been explored in greater detail, but it's a good introduction to the topic, if not the summative work I hoped it would be.

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