I think for me it’s alien: covenant. I was really interested in the ideas explored in prometheus and covenant just expanded on them. I don’t get much into the details of why it is or isn’t a good movie.

Luckily, though, HBO ran raised by wolves which really delved into ideals about AI and planet seeding etc. So that itch got way scratched even if the run was cut short.

  • 𝕽𝖚𝖆𝖎𝖉𝖍𝖗𝖎𝖌𝖍
    1•6 days ago

    Shit, I forgot about Legend! I didn’t consider it because I thought it did OK, critically.

    Shot entirely inside of a huge bag of cocaine.

    I’m saving that one; it’s funny, because it’s true. You can also say that about Caddyshack, except that the latter was literally fueled by cocaine - I think it’s been confirmed that almost everyone involved was high during filming.

    I’ve seen two versions of the film; one I don’t like as much only because small differences cause cognitive dissonance - I have the first version I saw mostly memorized line-by-line, and the other version is just enough off to feel awkward. I thought they were just different cuts for different media - film vs VHS, for instance - but now I wonder which is “my” original. Probably not the director’s cut, since I’m pretty sure I first saw it in the theater, and then repeatedly on cable which was probably just the theatrical release.

    Are you sure no Tangerine Dream is in the theatrical release?

    • @GraniteM
      1•5 days ago

      Post-production

      Scott’s first cut of Legend ran 125 minutes long. He then believed there were minor plot points that could be trimmed and cut the film down to 113 minutes, so he tested this version for an audience in Orange County. However, it was decided that the audience had to work too much to be entertained, and another 20 minutes was cut. The 95-minute version was shown in Great Britain and then the film was cut down even further to 89 minutes for North America.

      At the time, Scott said, “European audiences are more sophisticated. They accepted preambles and subtleties whereas the U.S. goes for a much broader stroke.” He and Universal delayed the North American theatrical release until 1986 so that they could replace Jerry Goldsmith’s score with music by Tangerine Dream, Yes lead singer Jon Anderson, and Bryan Ferry.

      Scott allowed Goldsmith’s score to remain on European prints and the composer said, “that this dreamy, bucolic setting is suddenly to be scored by a techno-pop group seems sort of strange to me”. Normally, Goldsmith would spend 6–10 weeks on a film score, but for Legend, he spent six months writing songs and dance sequences ahead of time.

      The Goldsmith score is… fine, I guess, but it doesn’t convey the intense 80s-ness of the movie as well as Tangerine Dream. It’s like Flash Gordon or Highlander without the Queen songs.