I apologize for being such a negative S.O.B. this week, but at least it seems to help with other blogs‘ dry spells as far as comments go, so I’m going to continue my “concern trolling” today in order to announce my low expectation for this Alien prequel, for which Fox reportedly is now bringing Ridley Scott back to the franchise to direct. I have a general distaste for prequels, so I’m obviously biased. I admit this completely. But what could really be the benefit to this? So we can actually witness the back story of the xenomorphs? If this is to be like most villain origins, I anticipate finding out the aliens were all orphans and/or had lost a childhood love to disease.

Okay, fine, I’ll end on a positive, hopeful note: if Scott can make the prequel less an explanation for why the xenomorphs are so evil and instead make an Alien film that’s basically Black Hawk Down in space (or is that what Cameron’s Aliens was?), I will totally be on board for this. I do like both Alien³ and Alien: Resurrection, so I guess I’m pretty much obligated to give this a chance.

Check out the rest of the film blog reactions after the jump:

• Scott Weinberg at Horror Squad looks forward to a prequel to his favorite film:
  

  Right here is where you’d expect me to flip out like a geek and rant loudly because A L I E N is my all-time favorite film and how dare they make a prequel and yadda yadda … but frankly I’m pretty thrilled that Ridley Scott is attached. Mainly because I think he’s an excellent filmmaker, but also because his hectic schedule may prevent this prequel from arriving any time soon.

• Brad Brevet at RopeofSilicon is also eagerly awaiting the prequel:
  

  I, for one, am extremely excited about this as Scott’s Alien is my personal favorite in the franchise. Unfortunately there is no word on an anticipated production start.

• Uncle Creepy at Dread Central feels that this will make up for those AVP spin-offs:
  

  I’m sure I speak for fans everywhere when I say — FUCK YES! Take that, Strause Brothers and your ill-working lighting rig! In your ass, Paul Anderson with your paper-thin storylines and your non-existent directorial chops! Your contributions to the years of collectively raping our dreams have come to an end. Mark my words; the Xenomorphs will be back with a vengeance!

• Josh Tyler at Cinema Blend wishes even worse for one of the spin-off directors:
  

  Great news right? The only way things could possibly get better for the Alien franchise is if someone went back in time and shot Paul W.S. Anderson’s father. Since that’s not happening, be happy with this.

• Kevin Coll at Fused Film brings up two good reasons this could end up a huge let down:
  

  This could be really good or really bad. Having the original vision there isn’t necessarily positive just look at Lucas with Star Wars and Lucas/Spielberg with the 4th Indy film.

• Rob Hunter at Film School Rejects wants to know why this thing is happening:
  

  So what is there to be excited about here exactly?…By definition it will take place before Sigourney Weaver and the rest of the Nostromo’s crew unwittingly brought interstellar crabs on-board.  Since the crew (and mankind) had no previous knowledge of the aliens we can presume that either the two species had never before crossed paths, or if they did there were no human survivors from the encounter.  So doesn’t that mean the prequel would either not feature humans (unlikely) or feature humans that all end up dead (boring)?

• Krystal Clark at ScreenCrave believes an Alien movie can’t be good without Sigourney Weaver:
  

  How are they going to pull this off? Will it be a crew of newbies that no one cares about? You can’t have Alien without Ellen Ripley, that’s why they brought her back in the previous films under such outlandish circumstances. I have a strange feeling about this.

• Amos Barshad at Vulture suggests a title that would be consistent with the franchise, and it has us picturing Jane Curtin as the original alien queen:
  

  Ridley Scott will direct an as-yet-untitled Alien prequel…Okay, you know how the first one was just called Alien, and then the second one was Aliens? How about Alie for this one?

• Lauren Davis at i09 speculates about what the basic premise will be:
  

  So, what is this brilliant idea? The new film will allegedly be a direct prequel to the original Alien, which means we may get to see what occurred on the derelict ship that Ripley and her crew discover in the first film. Or perhaps we’ll see shades of William Gibson’s idea for Alien 3, and trace the xenomorphs to their origin.

• Louis Fowler at BloodyGoodHorror.com has seen the future and shares the prequel’s plot:
  

  I’ve used my crystal ball, nicknamed “common sense”, and read the screenplay already: spaceship encounters the alien, alien gets into the ducts, the lights go out, the spaceship’s inhabitants are offed one by one and a lone woman survivor takes him down. There, I saved you $10, two hours and countless wasted high hopes.

• Jeffrey Wells at Hollywood Elsewhere thinks this is a “greed move-slash-brand reboot” but offers one good idea for the premise based on what little we know from the beginning of Alien:
  

  Honestly? I would love to see a subtitled film about a crew of 30-foot-tall life forms with elephant trunks dealing with an alien invasion. No humans, I mean. That would be very cool, very avant-garde. Joe Popcorn wouldn’t like it, of course, but a studio chief who looks to Joe’s wants and needs for movie inspiration needs to go on a sabbatical.

• Devin Faraci at CHUD.com is somewhat positive but doesn’t want to see what happened to the elephant-like creatures:
  

  With Scott directing and Spaight writing Fox may very well have earned the benefit of my doubt. I still think we don’t need to see a prequel, and I hope (against all reason) that the Space Jockey won’t appear or be explained. But at least there’s real talent on this one, and not just a hack who Tom Rothman can push around.

• Elisabeth Rappe at MTV Movies Blog wants some of that origin to remain a mystery:
  

  Naturally, no one knows what an “Alien” prequel will entail. The most popular theory holds that it’ll be the origin of the mysterious “Space Jockey” whose distress signal was so fatally answered by the crew of the Nostromo in the first film. Though I agree with the current fan consensus that Scott and Spaihts should go in a completely different direction, and leave the doomed pilot purely to our imaginations.

• Rob Bricken at Topless Robot thinks this will be the least interesting Alien film yet, and it may even ruin the original for us:
  

  Let me tell you what this movie will be — an alien stalking that first spaceship, or, basically, a remake of the original Alien except everybody dies and it’ll saddled with an incredibly lame origin story that makes the whole franchise less interesting. No thank you, Ridley. Why don’t you just go ahead and work on a prequel to your Monopoly film instead. Tell us how Uncle Moneybags met the dog and thimble.

• S.T. VanAirsdale at Movieline would rather see Scott revisit another of his films for a prequel:
  

  …it’s probably safe to presume it will unfold aboard the crashed ship that sent the Nostromo crew its “Beware! Aliens!” distress signal in the first place. And then they die. I mean, wouldn’t you much rather have a Blade Runner prequel, with Rutger Hauer’s fox fur, Elton John glasses and all that?

• Alex Billington at First Showing offers the speculative idea that maybe this will actually be a Ripley origin story:
  

  I find it very interesting that instead of continuing on the Alien franchise with more sequels or spin-offs (like Alien vs Predator), Fox is simply just flipping sides, and going the opposite direction with a prequel next instead. However, it is exceptional news to know that Ridley Scott is on-board…As long as Scott can do the same thing all over again some 30 years later, I’m all for it. Let’s not forget that Scott and Sigourney Weaver have some interesting ideas for Ellen Ripley.

• Vince Mancini at FilmDrunk thinks origin stories are stupid and wonders what happened to Scott:
  

  To put that in perspective, it’s basically like if Robert Plant agreed to sing for a Led Zeppelin cover band.  Somehow Ridley Scott went from being the guy who turned down both Alien sequels to the guy who’ll make prequels, movies about Monopoly - whatever studio execs want. (*whispers*) I think he might be a replicant.

• Dustin Rowles at Pajiba also thinks something’s wrong with Scott:
  

  There’s no way he can top the original; he’s just kind of lowering himself down to the level of Paul W.S. Anderson and Jean-Pierre Jeunet and wallowing in their sloppy fourths…A few bad years behind the camera, and Ridley Scott has apparently lost his self-esteem. And his mind.

• Mark at I Watch Stuff wonders if Scott will even be able to keep the gig after his upcoming cash-grab:
  

  Of course, this assumes he’ll still have a career after Monopoly: The Movie. Because Ridley Scott is making a Monopoly movie, and you’d think that would be enough of an indicator of dementia people would stop letting him use film cameras.

• John at The Movie Blog agrees that prequels aren’t cool, but he’s more optimistic now that Scott’s at the helm:
  

  In general I do not like prequels… and it’s not just because the Star Wars
  ones were let downs. With prequels, you already know certain things will happen… and certain things won’t happen… which takes a lot out of a story for me…

  So will the heroes in this new movie kill the Alien race??? Well obviously no, so there goes any real mystery.

  Still… if you’re going to do an Alien prequel… this is the right guy to do it. I just don’t think they should be doing it at all.

• Craig Kennedy at Living in Cinema is hopeful that Scott can do a better prequel than sequel:
  

  I’ve never wondered where the aliens came from or why they are the way they are or what they did before the Nostromo responded to what its crew thought was a distress signal, but I’ll give Scott the benefit of a doubt. Maybe he’s honestly reinvigorated by the idea of exploring what happened before the events of the original film.

  Besides, it could be worse. It could be another Hannibal.