Yesterday I sat down to watch Alien Earth episode two and Im honestly feeling pretty mixed about this whole thing, first one was ok and very similar to a lot of other movies on the franchise, the show has some decent stuff going for it but man there are so many moments that just dont make any sense that it gets really frustrating to watch, its a lot of copy pasting scenes like they had the story written but them film it on multiple scenes that then put together, I know this is how suppose to work but like they film them in an order that doesnt make much sense making the story telling a bit hard. The world building looks pretty solid with all these mega corporations running everything, the visual effects are decent enough and the cinematography has that dark sci fi vibe that works for the franchise, but when you start paying attention to the actual plot and character decisions you realize sometimes you feel dishoriented. Noah Hawley might have done great work on Fargo but this feels like he bit off way more than he could chew with the Alien universe, the writing feels sloppy and characters make decisions that are not so clever and go against basic logic or common sense which kills the immersion real quick, like for example why the hell would Cavalier let Wendy and the other kids go to the crash site, he knows he cant control them and Wendy is so experimental, that desicions is just madness.
- IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt13623632/
- Platform: HULU
[Source](https://tinyurl.com/5d2f67es)
As I mention thats the biggest problem have with this episode is how Boy Kavaliear just sends these kids on what is basically a suicide mission without any real training or preparation, these are supposed to be hybrids with supercomputer brains but they act like regular children who have never seen danger before in their lives. We are told repeatedly that these kids are smarter than regular humans because of their synthetic upgrades but then they make the dumbest possible decisions, you even see them playing and fighting like children of their age 10 to 12 years old, like when Nibs struggles to handle that little eyeball creature even though she supposedly has superhuman strength and speed, it just doesnt add up at all. Then you have Hermit using an elevator to escape the Xenomorph which somehow still works perfectly even though a massive spaceship just crashed into the building, like how does that make any physical sense, the infrastructure would be completely destroyed but apparently elevators are immune to spaceship crashes now. Wendy suddenly develops super hearing abilities out of nowhere and can hear alien chatter that nobody else can detect, there is no explanation for why she has this ability or why the other kids dont have it too, it just happens because the plot needs it to happen which is lazy writing, its a similar problem in Thunderbolts when it comes to Void powers, none are explain, he is just super powerful and there is nobody who can beat him, all out of thin air. The security camera thing is another joke where Wendy can somehow access and control cameras that have been working fine for hours while the actual rescue teams cant use them, that remind me of the movie Lucy that was heavily cretinism for this matter, she finds her brother in seconds while trained professionals have been searching for ages without any luck.
That dinner party scene with the rich British people felt completely out of place and tonally inconsistent with everything else happening in the episode, it was supposed to be funny I think it was hilarious but it just came across as awkward and forced, how they hell they didnt felt the SPACE SHIP crashing into the building??. The Xenomorph shows up and kills everyone at the party which goes against some of the movies because Im use to watch Xenomorphs capture humans alive for reproduction purposes but this one is on a speed run trying to kill everything that walks, Xenomorphs dont just go on killing sprees for no reason. But then after massacring all these people in seconds the creature suddenly decides to take its sweet time with Hermit instead of just killing him immediately, if you pay attention it goes slow with him instead of just reaping his head off or break him in half, one can argue because he didnt attack it directly but still, this inconsistent behavior feels driven by writers rather than character driven which breaks the immersion. The trained soldiers watching the Xenomorph crawl out of Morrows bag without doing anything about it was another one that had me thinking but I let this one slide, the show is also suppose to be horror sci fi so lets stay they just froze but these are supposed to be elite military soldiers but they look more like rescue soldiers. Wendy choosing to run back into the building instead of jumping down to follow the Xenomorph makes no sense either, we already saw her jump off a massive cliff without getting hurt so why not do the same thing here, it feels like the writers forgot about her abilities when it was convenient for the story, men this already feels like a rant but after a good episode one they just killing what could be great encounters between the hybrids and the Xenomorph or they just holding up for latter.
I also found from time to time accent issue with some of the kids that slightly bother me, its like some of the actor keeps switching between Indian and American pronunciations that was a bit distracting although not the end of the world. So far whats holding up the episode together is that it does feel like an Alien movie and expanding with other type of species and enhanced humans, things that they could have expand more and give more context about but we dont know any of ther abilities so far, not from cyborgs like what do we know about Morrows powers?? he can turn his arm into a welding machine, a fire arm and a machete, TF with that? they are adding great things to the Alien universe like the characters, the factions at Earth and potentially other types of Aliens but everything happens so fast that it lacks context. The whole story of sending untrained children into a dangerous rescue mission falls apart when you really think about it, even if they have enhanced physical abilities they still lack the experience and knowledge needed for this kind of operation, its basically child endangerment disguised as heroism.
Looking at the bigger picture this episode feels like it was written and film by a group of people with different people handling different scenes without communicating with each other about continuity or character consistency. There are quick peeks of what could be a really interesting show buried under all these script problems, the corporate politics angle has potential and seeing Earth get invaded by Aliens instead of everything happening in space is a fresh take on the franchise, but when characters make decisions that go against basic human nature or established rules just to move the plot forward it becomes really hard to stay focus in what happens next. The practical effects work is solid and Timothy Oliphant does his best with the material he is given but good acting and decent visuals cant save a script that treats its audience like they wont notice obvious plot holes and logical inconsistencies. Im hoping future episodes will tighten up the writing and give these characters more believable motivations because right now it feels like watching a expensive fan fiction project rather than a professional television production worthy of the Alien name, Im so disappointed on Episode 2 and at most would give it a 7/10 because the potential is there but the execution needs serious work before this show can live up to its source material.
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