#t ocellus

All shot practically using real lighting, figures, miniature sets and a homemade hand sculpted and painted T. Ocellus I made.

All shot practically using real figures a homemade hand sculpted T. Ocellus, smoke and lighting

Supplies: Santa Hat, Scissors, Hot Glue or Fabric Glue, Pipe Cleaners, Googly Eyes

*Please be safe with using hot glue and scissors!

Step 1: Cut the bottom off the Santa Hat. Rip the seam up to the white ball, laying it flat.

Step 2: Cut the red part of the hat into evenly sized strips. Take a pipe cleaner (chenille stem) and cut it to the length of the strip.

Step 3: Hot glue or fabric glue the stem to the center of each strip, also gluing and folding the edge of the strips over the stem, forming the leg (or tentacle?). I used black fabric hot glue.

Step 4: Once all the legs are glued, you can either leave the bottom flat or glue the bottom together.

The show starts strong but kind of meanders a bit after episode 4. Those first 4 episodes of the hybrids and the soldiers trying to retrieve the xenomorphs are very intense. I wonder if they could have done a scenario where a xenomorph or one of the other alien creatures escapes into the city. It would spiral out of control. It would be a cool concept to explore but I don't think the show has the money for something like that.

The show also does this fade thing to transition between scenes to highlight how a character feels. Basically, it will show a character in the foreground while the image fades to some other environmental backdrop. But the character is still in the shot with the environmental background, they just happened to be faded. While interesting at first it goes on for too long. I gave it a chance because it's a technique that is not used often in film these days, but they overused it here. It feels like a film student experimenting with this fade. You can see what they were trying to do but I think it needs more refinement.

One thing that is interesting is Marcy losing her humanity when she gets her new robot body. You begin to even wonder if it even is Marcy still in there. I am kind of torn about Marcy being able to speak with the xenomorph and this new misanthropic world view she adopts towards the end of the show.

The misanthropy with Marcy begins when she says that at least the xenomorphs don't betray each other for greed. Obviously, this is a call back to Aliens where Ripley says that line. But it also shows here misanthropic view beginning to set in. I am torn because I don't know if the direction the show will go in is that Marcy is right to be misanthropic and humanity deserves to die. Or if she will be proven wrong and it's her new mind that becomes warped. I don't like when misanthropy is portrayed as good. It kind of concerns me since she becomes a bit more dismissive of her older brother as being powerless. Especially, when the majority of people in their world are trying to get by to survive at the hands of the megacorps. That misanthropic view just feels like you are kicking people when they are already down. That's why I have always hated that. I guess I will have to wait and see how they handle her misanthropy.

Marcy can control the xenomorph by talking to it. I'm unsure if I like this because Xenomorphs are wild animals and it can easily backfire on her. Hell, Weyland Yutani would want her ability given how much they have tried to weaponize the xenomorphs in the past. So, the situation Marcy is in is even more dangerous now. I hope they don't go the route where Marcy is best friend with the Xenomorph like a Disney princess. Mainly because they are essentially wild animals and they will turn on people for no reason at all. Overall, Marcy as a character starts out innocent but loses that innocence by the end of the show. She has the potential to go to very dark places. So, I guess we will see how that goes.

The other "Lost Boys" are okay. The ones that I find the most realistic are Chris and Arrush. The way they act given the situations they are put in feels like how a child would act. Especially, when Morrow forces Arrush to do his dirty work by threatening to kill his family. Arrush tries to hide it from everyone else but winds up dragging Chris into it. You really do feel for him since he is basically a kid in an adult body. It felt very believable.

Morrow is an interesting antagonist. He's a cyborg who is cold, ruthless and practical. But it's not because of his machine part but rather because his job requires him to be so ruthless. It's an interesting take on a character who is more machine than man. Especially, when it's not the machinery that erodes his humanity but his service to Weyland Yutani.

There is a synth that Morrow has a rivalry with named Kirsh. Kirsh is genuinely fascinating to watch. He is kind of snarky, but he knows more than he lets on. He is very strategic and cunning. Despite being occasionally snarky he never comes off as cartoonish like an MCU character. He is a fun antagonist to watch.

Then we have Boy Cavalier who runs the Prodigy corporation and is in possession of the xenomorphs. He is a 17-year-old boy genius who is charismatic and psychotic. He can charm people, but he gets very pissy when things don't go his way. I do like the insults he and Ms. Yutani trade back and forth during their arbitration meeting. It's very funny and almost delves into flirting. Despite Boy Cavaliers brilliance in technology, he is not a very good strategist and is emotionally immature. Also, he has ADHD apparently which explains his character a lot.

I relate to Marcy's brother Hermit tbh. Hermit seems like one of the few sane people there. He is not trusting of Boy Cavalier or his company. He wants to keep his head down to survive. He also is concerned about his sister's humanity in her new robot body. Especially, when they kill some soldiers in self-defense. I am curious to see how his character progresses in the show.

The new alien creatures they made for this show are very interesting. Especially, T. Ocellus. T. Ocellus is basically an eyeball with tentacles it uses to move. It can also possess any organism by replacing the organism's eye and inserting itself into that organism's eye socket. It can puppeteer the organism to move around and make noises. I guess it uses it's tentacles to take control of the organism's brain from its eye socket. It's shown that T. Ocellus is highly intelligent so when it possesses the corpse of a human, I am curious on what it would say.

The other aliens are pretty good too albeit kind of mundane. Most of them are insects or plants and mirror some life forms we have on earth. But they feel believable when you see them in action. Especially, the fly that eats metal and minerals. Overall, they are pretty serviceable.