The Cornell Daily Sun (https://cornellsun.com/tag/alien/)
There’s a specific kind of enjoyment we get from entertaining the possibility of aliens. It’s somewhere between the mystery and wonder that comes from looking out at space and asking “what if?” It’s exhilarating, and the thought that there might be something indescribable and completely unknown in the dark of space captures our imaginations.
Crafting a good prequel film can be tricky. While it is exciting to see backstories of fan-favorite characters or the genesis of a cinematic world, the audience usually knows the outcome of the film. No matter how ambitious, creative, or innovative directors attempt to be, prequels are doomed from the start and are always a slave to canon. As a result, most prequels (X-Men: First Class, Rise of the Planet of the Apes, and Rogue One aside) are merely “creative ways” to reach an assured end and can often feel only marginally connected to the original film that inspired it. This debacle is largely what plagues director Ridley Scott’s latest sci-fi horror film, Alien: Covenant.