The greatest significance of Alien: Contract lies in filling a 38-year-old shocking crater.

This film review contains a lot of spoilers! A lot of spoilers! A lot of spoilers! Please be careful if you haven't seen the movie.

If we want to evaluate the significance of Alien: Contract in one sentence, it is that after 38 years, ridley scott finally filled in the shocking crater dug by Alien 1. How did Xenomorph come from?

Since alien 1, alien is an established species. It seems that it has no origin, but a horrible alien creature that everyone has acquiesced in for a long time. But everything can be described in detail from the beginning, and if you like horror movies, you should find that many horror protagonists not only trace their roots, but often become more horrible because of their achievements. Ridley scott, the director, obviously knew this, so when he restarted the Alien series, he insisted on shooting the prequel series. After the foreshadowing of Prometheus, he finally made everyone really understand why aliens appeared in the universe in Alien: Contract.

You may not believe that although aliens originated from biological weapons made by advanced alien races, it was biochemical robots made by humans who studied them, perfected them and finally gave birth to them.

Of course, the biochemical robot David was not so anti-human when he was first created. If you have seen Prometheus, the first prequel to Alien, you should remember that when David first appeared, he would watch a movie and imitate the shape of the protagonist in the movie to arrange his hair. But at the end of Prometheus, David witnessed his creator being easily wiped out by their creator engineer, which completely changed his world view, so in Alien: Contract, he became the big BOSS who gave birth to aliens.

So, although you don't need to know about alien series or watch the movie "Four Aliens in Ancient Times" before watching Alien: Contract, you'd better make up Prometheus first. Although it is the lowest degree of terror in the whole series, it is the most informative, complex and in-depth one. From Prometheus, you can see ridley scott's ambition for the "alien universe" and how an atheist made a profound exploration of faith and religion in his films, and made the concepts of "creator" and "founder" completely scientific, which made the films very easy to be accepted by domestic audiences despite their strong religious and mythical colors.

Returning to its sequel Alien: Contract, although 80-year-old Ridley still insisted on shooting what he wanted, such as further allusions and connotations, and the solid foundation of English literature hidden in it, he finally made some compromises to the market and the audience, from the attitude that "you don't think it's good because you are too stupid to understand" to "since you can't understand what I really want to express, then add some.

From the perspective of personal viewing effect, Alien: Contract is more like the combination of Prometheus and Alien 1, which takes into account a series of symbolic closed-door thrillers and bloody killings (if you look at the abridged version of domestic cinemas, the experience may be almost worse), as well as ridley's philosophical speculation and profound English literature in the popular context. At the end, the heroine Daniels' various means of destroying aliens are inevitably reminiscent of Alien 2. Ridley obviously wants to pay tribute to some classics of the past. This design, which is convenient for old bottles and new wines, will definitely make the loyal fans of the alien series more enthusiastic.

Of course, die-hard fans may have some opinions about the heroine Daniels this time. After all, compared with those heroines in the past, she really didn't show the characteristics of "strength" and "female warrior", but in fact, ridley scott no longer paid attention to these characteristics in the script stage. The reason is not that ridley is "old and has lost his initial intention of feminism", but that he has once again proved his avant-garde.

1979, when Alien 1 was born, the concept of heroine almost did not exist. A female warrior like Ripley can be said to be an eccentric and unexpected woman. In fact, Alien 1 originally wanted to be the hero of the script stage, but Lei Daoli's strong avant-garde gender consciousness endowed the Alien series. It is this practice that makes Alien not simply classified as a B-rated film or a space horror film.

Thirty-eight years later, in Alien: Contract, except for the heroine Daniels, who was no longer branded as a "female warrior", Director Lei even added a pair of homosexuals to the crew and made them play the same function as other crew members in the film in a very understated way-being killed by aliens.

Director Lei seems to tell us through movies: "This is no longer an era when women need to rely on images that are tougher, stronger and fiercer than men to express feminism. This is not even an era when homosexuals need to be treated specially to have the right to speak. " So he no longer deliberately takes it seriously, not because he no longer cares about women's rights and gay rights, but because he feels that the world has reached an era and no longer needs to be treated differently in order to make a sound.

In the brand-new Alien Prequel series, Director Lei is not even familiar with the sci-fi thrillers in Alien series. His ultimate concern for the origin of life and the continuation of life creation turned the prequel into a literary film wrapped in a commercial film, which perfectly blended two completely different cognitions. This is also the reason why Alien: Contract is still wonderful after being deleted for more than seven minutes.

Finally, let's talk about the real protagonists of this film, David and Walter.

Michael Fassbender's performance in Alien: Contract is absolutely worthy of worship. David and Walter he plays are both biochemical robots. He has achieved a completely different accent and personality performance under the same appearance, so that you will never admit your mistake or be confused. However, no matter David or Walter, there are always a few muscles that are uncoordinated and hesitate for 0. 1 sec. This is not the rigidity and dullness of the robot, but it can be understood that it is definitely not a natural person. Such a wonderful performance not only adds a lot of color to the movie Alien: Contract, but also shows the profound meaning hidden between the lines of Lei Dao.

For example, David and Walter's argument about Shelley and Byron, for example, their dialogue about creativity, such as the meaning of pun when playing (please believe that I am not talking about the yellow pun about fingering), when the cooperation between the starring and the director reaches such a tacit understanding, the quality of the film will be further improved.

As for why I think Walter should be the protagonist besides the villain's big boss David. It's not that Director Lei is obviously using him to form a strong ideological collision and contrast with David, but at the end of the film, David pretended to be Walter and boarded the spaceship so smoothly, and it was not until Daniels asked about his lakeside cabin before going to bed that he was discovered. Actually, it's because David used Walter's body-if you look closely, you will find that the hole where Daniels pierced David is gone-and Walter's ultimate role in the film is to provide David with an opportunity to evolve (Walter's is a new model, more advanced than David's).

In addition, if you are an old fan of Alien series, you can also find another egg about them-David and Walter. They actually correspond to the biochemical robots in Alien 1 and Alien 2, Ashe, who can spare the life of the crew for Alien, even if only half of his body is left, he will save the little girl's bishop.

In addition to so many highlights above, the favorite thing about Alien: Contract is that this big BOSS successfully lived to the end and achieved all his goals without bloodshed. David, whose IQ crushed all the crews, naturally planned the ending. From beginning to end, no one can influence his villain spirit, and no one can stop his romantic revolutionary feelings. When he harvested 2000 colonists from the whole ship to continue his experiment (and a sister who met his appetite), it was really unbearable to stand up and applaud.

As for the alien who was thrown out of the spaceship by the heroine again and again and became a member of space junk … Oh, it has always been just a tool, not the protagonist.