The Alien franchise has always been centred on building suspense in the vast dark galaxy we call space. Most of the time, humans and cyborgs are trapped in a spaceship with a Xenomorph or other strange alien creatures.
Throughout the franchise, each filmmaker has left their mark in choosing which new creatures to develop with practical effects. As technology advances, it’s interesting to see where the Alien franchise takes the artificial intelligence and cyborgs. However, the creatures they introduce will always return to the original foundation and keep the practicality of it all.
In the new series Alien: Earth, Noah Hawley gives audiences and fans of the franchise an epic sci-fi/horror that combines everything from its predecessors perfectly. Hawley presents a unique visual approach when creating the intensity in atmosphere on the spaceship with the crew on their way back to Earth.
Similar to Ridley Scott’s steady pacing in the first film, the pilot episode operates similarly as Hawley lays the groundwork for the world being explored. It is not necessarily exposition-heavy as the conversations are integrated naturally, describing the five major corporations (Wyland-Yutani, Lynch, Dynamic, Threshold, and Prodigy) that control Earth. These corporations are competing to be the first to develop synthetic humans.
The year is 2120, the distant future, and the world has been taken over by artificial intelligence. With the growing use of AI, Hawley’s Alien: Earth is timely because even though this is fiction, there is a reality to what’s being explored, especially placing the consciousness of a human in a robot’s body.
Hawley takes a deep dive into the hybrids, specifically Wendy (Sydney Chandler), who is one of the first to transition. Many things can be said about an individual's agency and whether they can adapt to the life of a synthetic human. The Prodigy corporation can believe in doing the right thing, but naturally, like every technological decision, it comes with a price.
Wendy is a child who is placed in a woman’s body, and Chandler gives a strong performance as the young girl adapts to life as a synthetic human. There’s strength in being in another body for her, and she plans to utilize her new skills to defend the planet.
Once the spaceship crashes on Earth because of a disturbance with the creatures (and Xenomorphs) on the vessel, Wendy and the rest of the soldiers make their way towards it, and find that they’re not alone in this universe.
The series produced on FX with a TV-MA rating was the best possible outcome to showcase the horror. There’s more room to play with the bloody horror aspects, and Hawley created a bone-chilling atmosphere for when the creatures were about to attack anyone who dared cross paths.
Alien: Earth has the best combination of the first two Alien movies as of recent, while crafting a narrative with depth for its characters. Hawley made a great choice, incorporating the use of artificial intelligence with human bodies through corporations overtaking Earth.
The action sequences give the same corniness as Cameron, which makes them fun and engaging. What worked well was Hawley’s ability to be playful with the camera in building the suspense of the attacks. The score wasn’t overbearing to accompany those moments, but similar to Ridley Scott’s work, it was scattered throughout and would bleed through at the opportune moment.
Alien: Earth is a wonderful addition to the franchise. It expands upon what audiences love about the world Scott created. Hawley’s visual style and attention to detail open a different part of the mind for audiences.
The use of objective filmmaking, as a fly on the wall in some instances, makes the viewer feel as if they’re part of the moment, which adds to the anxiety-inducing nature of certain sequences. Hawley pays homage to the past while crafting a distinctive sci-fi/horror series for new audiences.
4/5
Review by: Amanda Guarragi
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