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The story that Ridley Scott, the director of the original Alien film, would be directing another Alien movie came out this past Friday. However, the announcement came with two developments that I wanted to talk about.

The first being that the new project was announced as a prequel to the first movie, Alien. I'm interested in finding out what the general consensus is on this, simply because the people I've spoken to about this expressed very mixed emotions. Some were happy just to see a pure Alien movie again as opposed to a shared Aliens vs. Predator film, while others were not at all happy with the idea of a prequel.

For the latter group, the continuity of the franchise was a big deal for them. They argued that prequels have the huge potential to try and take story lines and characters that have already been established in a "new direction", thus undermining the already existing movies. Especially in a franchise as well known and loved as Aliens.

This is somewhat of an odd concern to me, because isn't this a risk you run with all continuations and not just prequels? With any story that's continued if not done properly you run the risk of having the feel of two completely unrelated, disjointed segments as opposed to one continuous storyline. So why should prequels bear the brunt of this burden? Also, in this case, shouldn't the fact that the director of the original Alien movie is the one doing the prequel carry any weight?

Personally, although I'm always open to the idea of a prequel I find that I do not enjoy them as much. For me part of the enjoyment I get out of a movie experience is not knowing where the characters and story will take you. Watching a prequel for me is like reading a book when you already know how it ends.

The other piece of information to think about is the statement from Sigourney Weaver about Ripley's involvement in the new Alien movie. Or more specifically, the lack thereof. In an interview with MTV news Weaver expressed that although she is happy Scott is connecting with the series once again, she couldn't see how Ripley could be a part of the prequel. When I read that, I paused to think about it. An Aliens movie without Ripley. An Aliens movie without Ripley?? No way.

Maybe this concept is so weird to me because in all the previous Aliens movies she was the character that was indestructible, there was no way she could die. Hell, even when she did die, didn't we resurrect her just so we could have another movie? So now when presented with the idea that she won't be in the next movie, it's not a concept that goes down easily. Especially when thinking about the storyline choices this presents.

If the story is before Ripley and the Nostromo's fated run in with the face suckers, either the movie is about the Aliens themselves, or about some other group of humans that met them before and all got their faces vacuumed and melted also. Which doesn't hold a whole lot of appeal to me, but I realize I might be in the minority there. Call me sentimental, but if it had to be a prequel, I rather the movie include some familiar faces of the people who we know and love and got their faces melted onscreen first.

So let me know, what are your thoughts on some of this information?