ALIEN RESURRECTION is really underrated. On Fan Conservatism...

[Admiral Buzzkill]

I believe that something has changed in sci-fi fan bases. SF fans used to be the people who championed odd, flawed, frustrating, but nevertheless interesting or resonant films. When Blade Runner came out, the mainstream press attacked it for being incoherent, a mess; it was SF who made a case for its brilliance and transformed it into a cult hit. Were that film to be released today (the theatrical cut), it is most likely SF fans who would be pouncing on its flaws and, most crucially, its deviations from Philip K. Dick. Actually, if Philip K. Dick wote graphic novels, that last scenario would be even likelier.

It seems to me that SF fans privilege literalism: a one-to-one adherence to source materials (movies must represent the novels and graphic novels they adapt faithfully, and no deviation can occur); an absolute consistency between one film in a series and the other...

I don't know what I think of Alien: Resurrection, but I do think that your analysis there absolutely nails what's going on in general.

A somewhat parallel situation was the abandonment of surreal and evocative cover imagery as an option for mass-market sf paperback covers a few decades ago (check out the brilliant work of Jack Gaughan, as one example) in favor of the most literal kind of illustration. It does have to do with reaching out commercially to a much larger - and less imaginative - chunk of the population, I think.

SF films are getting better looking, louder and less imaginative - less interesting.