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The Alien Quadrilogy


Driver
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Last year Amazon had a special of a blue ray boxed set of the Alien films for $25. I jumped on that, but never sat down to watch them since I'd seen them all 100 times. Decided this week to dive in for whatever reason, and had all sorts of thoughts and feels. Very curious to see what happens with Neil Blomkamp's fanboy dream pitch becoming a reality...

 

Anyway-- thoughts. Love to hear what others think/feel...

 

 

Alien:

 

- It took me years (when viewed when I was younger) to understand that the Nostromo was a tug. I never liked the giant weird looking spaceship and didn't get how something so big landed so easily and blah blah blah. I guess I was a not smart kid, because clearly the big thing is the space refinery, which is their haul, and the Nostromo itself detaches from it easily.

 

- I know some hardcore fans don't like how the Alien design was redfined slightly over the years, but it's such an obvious dude in the suit in a few shots. A lot of the original design was changed to facilitate a dude in a suit, so the puppetry work done in the later films is much more convincing in my opinion.

 

- I'm not a huge fan of "special editions" where narrative changes and over the top CG set pieces are added-- but this movie could use an FX clean up. The exterior space shots, the very 70s computer displays, the matte painting comps, the explosion at the end, and the previously mentioned dude-in-suit shots could use a modern touch up.

 

- I watched the extended cut which included the nest scene. Interesting that it was initially cut for time, but had it made it in it might have very much changed Aliens as it would have canonically established a queen-less life cycle for the creature.

 

- All that said, it's still the scariest and most tension filled movie of the franchise.

 

Aliens:

 

- Okay, I am THAT GUY, who, on this site especially, will always argue in favor of Alien being better than Aliens. People LOVE to argue about this. All things created equal, Aliens diverged from the idea of a scifi horror movie to becoming a dark scifi action movie. It had suspense and jump scares sure-- but no real actual terror. A sequel not honoring the basic tropes of the original rubs me the wrong way.

 

- THAT SAID, rewatching Aliens for the first time in years does make a few things clear: as a kid, I saw this movie first, and it is up there with Star Wars and Blade Runner as one of those movies that super-fueled my imagination by creating a rich, totally believable world. It's also a better crafted movie than the original that looks dynamic and has some pretty groundbreaking FX that hold up today. I like to poo poo it in arguments about the franchise, but the truth is, on a level playing field, this is an incredibly well-made movie, possibly Cameron's best.

 

- Speaking of FX work, a loader moving in the background of one shot and the drop ship crash are the only two effects that stand out as not-so-greatly-comped in miniature work (by today's standards). Both of them suffer from luminance issues-- which can easily be fixed. This movie looks great.

 

- Usually a movie with a huge cast suffers-- but somehow you get a story out of each of those marines. Their characterizations are great. I'm shocked that Vasquez didn't have a career similar to Bill Paxton.

 

- Bill Paxton holds the honor of being the only person to be killed by an Alien, a Terminator and a Predator.

 

- Question raised by this movie: do intelligent aliens exist or not in this universe, that humanity is aware of? We've never seen them-- but conversations seem to indicate the possibility. ("Apparently, she saw an alien once." "Well, whoopy ****ing doo.") The Nostromo crew don't seem to be crapping their pants THAT much about finding an alien ship, but Newt's parents sure do. When Ripley presents it to the Company they don't even entertain it as possible. This connects to my next two points--

 

- Xenomorphs are NOT what we should be calling the aliens in the movie. It's clear from both Ripley's meeting with the Company, and the squad's reaction to fighting the aliens, that they've never encountered anything like it before. So when Gorman says "a xenomorph" may be involved, he's guessing, and he's wrong.

 

- "Is this a stand up fight or a bug-hunt?" I don't know where I read/heard it... could have been the novelization I read when I was in middle school, or something online later, or a movie magazine... but somewhere I came into the information that Marines were usually used in "big hunts." These were missions to aid colonists by eradicating whatever aggressive alien animal life happened to be where they settled. So it's possible that humanoid intelligent alien life does not exist in this universe (that humans are aware of), but simpler alien animal life forms do-- and the Marines have experience dealing with them.

 

- As I said above-- the slight redesign of the aliens is something I think worked, and the combination of dudes in suits for close up work, and puppetry for longer shots is amazing. This is some of Stan Winston's best work.

 

Plan to watch 3 and 4 soon, will be back with those thoughts.

 

NOT planning to watch Prometheus or the two AVP movies.

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I have the Quadrilogy as well. (I get completest urges.) I only ever re-watch the first two so I kinda consider it a "duology," and the rest are supplemental material. I'll play along and check out the rest.

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Ditto. I have the blu ray quadrilogy and watch it probably once a year or once every two years. Its one of those box sets I will purchase on every new medium save digital. When they invent ultra-melt-your-face-off-hd-xtreme awesome HD resolution hardware Ill be buying it all over again.

 

I have to disagree with the thoughts you shared on the matte painting however, Driver. Some of those exterior shots of the alien ship are beautiful. And its dripping with atmosphere. Something kind of necro about it. I'm not sure if a touch of modernity would do it any good.. though it has been a year since I last watched it.. And I also like the clunky 70's computer screens with the green text. It holds up in my view. In that we are not existing in our own future when we watch Alien.. but an alternate future.. and the antiquated computers serve as a reminder of how useless our technology is against an alien. Moreso now that our own real world technology and computing is more advanced than all the stuff at Ripleys disposal. Dunno.. just thoughts off the top of my head..

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What I meant about the mattes-- I agree they are gorgeous. I was only referring to live action elements composed into them. The old school rear-proejection shots. Like when Dallas is sitting in the Narcissus, the rear projected elements for the shuttle interior is sketchy (by today's standards). I wouldn't propose replacing them with big sweeping CG shots ala Star Wars-- just cleaning the shot up.

 

Same for when the drop ship crashes-- the miniature work is great and the foreground action matches it perfectly-- the green screen composing is just a little shakey, again by today's standards. Adjusting the lighting and contrast of the background would be a pretty easy fix. It's akin to the Star Wars SE removing matte boxes from elements.

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Alien is one of my all time fave movies. Scared the shit outta me when I was a kid. Hell it still creeps me out and I love it. That extended scene with Dallas in the nest is just weird!

Aliens I also love but its not up there like the original. I dont mind that it was a shoot em up movie basically, its a fun watch. Alien 3 was ok to me, Ive heard of a different version but never seen it. The 4th one was ok as well until the end with the hybrid. Didnt like that too much.

Hey Driver, does this alternate Alien 3 exist?

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Yes! There's a 2003 version that restored a lot of cut scenes. It was basically the workprint version, which is kind of like the first draft edit. It's technically a director's cut cause it's what Fincher initially put together on his first pass before they took him away-- but it was just that-- his first pass, not his final version.

From what I recall it adds a lot more in terms of character work, but at the end of the day, it still isn't Aliens 2 so people aren't going to not like it. I haven't seen it in awhile, so I'll be seeing it with fresh eyes. I do plan to watch that version as it is in the set.

Too bad it was Fincher's first film and the studio didn't trust him. Knowing what he went on to do, it kills me to imagine what he'd have been able to do if he'd been able to approach it auteur style like Scott and Cameron were able to.

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Yeah I hear you there. It couldve been an entirely different film huh?

I remembed I was pissed with what happened to Hicks and Newt. All they went thru and they go out like that lol. I did like Charles Dutton cuz I liked the show he was in at the time. I saw a commercial when it first released and it was Roc vs an Alien? Im there! I liked Charles Dance in it as well. We had Roc, Sardo Noompsey and an alien. How can they fuck that up?!

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What I meant about the mattes-- I agree they are gorgeous. I was only referring to live action elements composed into them. The old school rear-proejection shots. Like when Dallas is sitting in the Narcissus, the rear projected elements for the shuttle interior is sketchy (by today's standards). I wouldn't propose replacing them with big sweeping CG shots ala Star Wars-- just cleaning the shot up.

 

Same for when the drop ship crashes-- the miniature work is great and the foreground action matches it perfectly-- the green screen composing is just a little shakey, again by today's standards. Adjusting the lighting and contrast of the background would be a pretty easy fix. It's akin to the Star Wars SE removing matte boxes from elements.

ahh yup Im with you now

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For the me Alien just hasn't aged well because of pacing. It's a good movie but if it was released today the pacing would be very different and we all know it. The original Halloween suffers from the same problem in that the first victim takes so long to die (minus the opening scene in Halloween) and you have so much foreplay before that happens. Today you'd have people being ripped apart like stale dinner rolls well before the one hour mark of the movie rolls around. It's just what we're used to these days.

 

I actually like that the Aliens franchise is only one of two franchises I can think of (Riddick being the other) where the sequel of a movie is actually a different genre than the original movie. I know why that rubs you the wrong way and that's valid but it appeals to me on a base level because life is like that. My childhood was a horror movie. My 20s were a romantic comedy. My 30s were a traveling buddy movie. And so on. It works when you have a signature character you're riding along with. I'll probably never get to this but I love the idea of a doing 5 movies with the same character and each movie being a different genre. I just like it. Which is why I like that Aliens and Riddick sort of do this.

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That's a great point about pacing SD.

 

Aliens on it's day was a state of the art action movie. But the way Action Horror is filmed nowadays it would get left behind.

 

The closest comparison I can think of is Doom. I watched this on a whim only the other week just out of curiosity. I was expecting to switch off part way through but I actually found it to be a decent movie. It wasn't very "Doom" if you ask me. It was more closely related to Aliens in the narrative and plot. But you can tell filming that sort of movie has moved on a lot. Things just move a lot faster. There's no room really for the pouting xenomorph anymore. We haven't got time for it to show seven sets of teeth. They'd need to be fast killing machines that drive the action more to stand up for today's audiences.

 

Similarly the Resident Evil Franchise has that sense of immediate and pressing danger that forces the action. It's no surprise that it's set to a hard beat kind of dance music in the action sequences. The action dictates the pace of everything these days.

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See, again I don't think contemporary cinema's pacing is necessarily one of its strengths. It just is how it is. Peoples attention spans are a lot less, we're fickle and cant concentrate too hard on anything for too great a length of time. Thats not a good thing in my view. The slow pacing of Alien is a welcome change in my view and one of its strengths. It builds the atmosphere and draws you into world of the protagonists. If the modern attention span cant slow itself down for such art then I guess so be it... a movie that moves fast is not by definition a superior movie.

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Yeah but if you're a "slasher movie" and Alien is, then you don't have time to draw people in. That's not your job as that kind of movie.

 

The Others is an example of the kind of movie that is supposed to ... and does ... draw you in. And it stands the test of time. Alien isn't that kind of movie. People just want to make it that kind of movie because by today's standards the pacing is about the same.

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Not all movies are fast paced. Last year's best horror movies were all slow burns.

We like to blame MTV and crappy attention spans for more movies being so fast paced but the truth is, it's money. 20 years ago the average movie length was 2 hours, this is what most productions aimed for. Most movies now are 3/4 of that because time=money. Movies are now generally 88-95 minutes long (unless the have an a list director) so story beats have to happen a lot faster.

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Yeah but if you're a "slasher movie" and Alien is, then you don't have time to draw people in. That's not your job as that kind of movie.

 

The Others is an example of the kind of movie that is supposed to ... and does ... draw you in. And it stands the test of time. Alien isn't that kind of movie. People just want to make it that kind of movie because by today's standards the pacing is about the same.

I sort of disagree on that too... I mean, unless you have evidence to the contrary.. I was not aware that it was Ridley Scott's intention to make a slasher horror when he began the Alien project. So as to the genre, aesthetic, and pacing I can only speculate based on what the film provides us. For example going by his decision to employ HR Giger as the brains behind the whole look of the alien and the environments I can safely assume that atmosphere was of chief importance to Ridley Scott. All of Giger's artwork is hugely atmospheric and highly emotive.. most of his work is claustrophobic, surreal and dense. A slow pace of film adds to those feelings. And I don't believe that it is only retrospect, or by todays standards that Alien is considered slow... (forgive me if Im wrong I wasn't born in the 70s) sure films were generally a little slower back then.. Taxi Driver, Blade Runner etc... but the Directers Cut of Alien is something like 3 and bit hours long!! I can only assume it was meant to be super slow, atmospheric and scary. A slow build of dread, stalking you at every turn.

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Ridley set out to make a dark house with a monster movie, contemporary with movies like The Excorsist, The Changeling, The Shining, etc. All slow burns. It's a pretty classically beat out horror film-- he just hid it inside a scifi setting.

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That's true but if it the trope of culling a group of people down to one survivor is classic slasher movie so that's why I called it that. It's debatable, I admit.

 

The point is, though, if you ask me which movie I favor more I say Aliens simply because in this day and age, right now, Alien hasn't aged well when compared to current movies of it's ilk. That's all. It's a masterpiece of its time, and still a good movie. In it's day and age it was the best we had. But we're in now, not then. So that's why my answer is what it is.

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I've said this elsewhere but I actually like the 4th movie quite a lot. I love the way Ripley was written and acted and Wionna Ryder's character also interesting and not just the obligatory cyborg these movies insist on having in every incarnation. This movie worked for me despite most people hating it.

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Guest El Chalupacabra

Agreed SD. 3 and 4 aren't as good as the first 2, sure, but I enjoy them both; 3 was one I hated when I first saw it, but now appreciate. In fact I think it IS a worthy sequel to 2, and I think the subtle differences with the directors cut make a HUGE difference. I dare say its a good movie. Resurrection is just downright cool, with some of a proto-Firefly vibe to it. The last 20 minutes could have been better, but I've rewatched it enough times now, that I am fine with the ending.

 

Prometheus is OK but mostly meh, but kept my interest enough to want to see a sequel. AVP was unnecessary, but a popcorn flick. Something best watched when you are bored. I have no use for AVP2.

 

But none of those movies touch Alien and Aliens.

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Alien 3 got on my bad side killing the girl and dude off screen to start the movie. So the girl grew up a bit. Either recast her or explain she woke a few years early. Don't negate the climax of the last movie, douchebags. It would have taken a perfect movie to come back from this ill will and this wasn't it.

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