Ridley Scott's original is a masterpiece, James Cameron's sequel is better. Alien 3 gets a lot of hate, but it launched David Fincher's career that he might not have had otherwise. The main problem was that it looked and felt exactly like Aliens, but didn't yet have Fincher's trademark stank on it so it looked like a poor copycat of Cameron's work. Plus it didnt make much sense to have a daring escape with Newt and Hicks from the second movie only to pointlessly kill them off-screen before the third one starts. Alien Resurrection and the Predator cross-overs are trash. I haven't seen Prometheus, but I know what happens. The whole Engineers concept is pretty interesting.
Going to have to disagree with this. Scott's is all atmosphere, and when appropriate, movement. It's like Jaws, with a much better shark. The story is simple, but the direction, dialogue, and performances make it work so well. Cameron's is essentially an action movie. It's a great action movie, it does the franchise justice, but it just is missing that atmosphere the first one had. Alien 3 is again an action flick, and it's barely ok at that. I don't think it's as awful unto itself, but in the comparison to the first two, it is found wanting. Yup, but in a way I blame Cameron, because he took Scott's Thriller/Suspense franchise and turned it into an action franchise. The retread of action flicks gets real boring, real quick. I like this one better than Aliens. To me, this is the direction artistically and suspense-wise that Cameron didn't take with Aliens. A really good film. I hope there's a sequel to this one, while still being a prequel to Alien.
This thread alone makes me want to go back and watch all the movies again. I can't remember if I saw the real versions of the TV versions when I was younger. Also, I know people wanted to shit on Prometheus for reaching for big ideas and not getting them, but at least it reached. The movie was visually stunning and I was in a sense of awe the entire time. Definitely liked where they were going with it.
I remember a Friend of mine describing "Alien" as just "scary, not even a good movie, just scary". I kept thinking "Isn't that the point" Scott just nailed the pace and atmosphere of the old haunted house and it scared the piss out of me in the theatre. Having Sigourney Weaver (an unknown) at the time be the only survivor and in underwear at that was a real game changer at the time. It had been since Psycho in 1962 that the known leads had died halfway through a movie. I remember Cameron quoting something like " The second film has to be a roller coaster, you cannot do the same thing." I think he succeeded, but I like the feel of the first film better. All the others in the franchise are just trying to make quick buck.
Am I the only one who enjoyed the hell out of Alien vs. Predator? I also enjoyed Alien 4 (Ressurection)... it had a slight comedic bent, but it really showed a new side of Ripley as a reincarnated Alien/Ripley hybrid. It also had some cool special effects (swimming Aliens, etc), and Ron Perlman. The whole concept of the Company/Military trying to keep Aliens in captivity and try and use them was quite interesting and I found it enjoyable. Alien 3 blew chunks in a big way, I thought.
HR Giger is the true star of this series. You know his art right away, it's unmistakably his: bio-mechanical night terrors come to life. The first film is a classic horror/sci-fi. It takes a 50's B-movie plot and adds extreme violence, slime and some of the most famous and expertly-devised shocks in movie history. Cameron's sequel is the best of the series. Once it begins to move its non-stop terror until the credits roll. A claustrophobic, adrenaline-pumping nightmare done to perfection. Alien 3 was okay, well-shot but ultimately a typical slasher-thriller with Giger's creation running amok and no badass weapons like the previous movies. Alien Resurrection brings in CGI, a ridonkulous "hybrid" and the most boring-looking setting ever. A bust, but Ron Perlman is awesome. As usual. Prometheus is a collection of good ideas done with poor execution. It's a sociopathic mix of Sci-Fi origin theory, Icky monster movie and space adventure. Giger's swan song really shows off his talents here.
Alien is one of my top 5 favorite movies of all time. Depending on the day, it's my #1. If you think about it, Alien-Aliens mirrors Terminator-T2. The first volume, in both series, are essentially slasher films followed by classic action pics. Alien's atmosphere is absolutely masterful. The Nostramo is basically a character in its own right. I will say that my favorite moment in the whole series occurs in Aliens when Ripley discovers the queen's nest just after she rescues Newt. She looks around surrounded by hundreds of eggs, slowly panning to the queen beautifully backlit with a single synthesizer bass note. Gives me the chills. I enjoyed Prometheus. I think a lot of people were hoping it would lead directly into the events of Alien or at least answered some questions, like who put those eggs on the abandoned ship and when? But if you're looking for good science fiction and similar atmosphere to Alien and you can view it as its own independent story, it's a strong film. There may be a sequel, apparently. It has a skeleton imdb page at least: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2316204/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1
Aliens was the first full length feature film I watched. I was 4 and hanging out with older cousins, and they enjoyed scaring the crap out of me. I rate the franchise as: AvP < Alien 3 < Prometheus < Aliens < Alien. Didn't enjoy AvP or Alien 3 much, Prometheus I enjoyed quite a bit, Alien and Aliens are two of my top movies of all time. Also, looking forward to the next Alien movie? http://screenrant.com/alien-5-neill-blomkamp-casting-michael-biehn-hicks/ EDIT: Beaten to it, but this article talks about Weaver and Biehn returning as Ripley and Hicks. Really looking forward to it.
I hear Fincher still shits on his experience while making Alien 3. It had some touches of Fincher eventual brilliant visual style. It went back to horror basics stripping out the action packed endless ammo clips of the second. A bunch of lackwit criminals and Ripley have to outwit the monster only their minds. I guess it didn't have any super memorable set pieces or classic scenes like the first two (though I remember Sigourney Weaver shaving her head for the role was news at the time). Since it was the first of the films I saw when I was young I never had the connection to Newt or Hicks when they died which most fans hated. Hazards of long distance space travel I say, this is a science fiction franchise isn't it? I always felt Resurrection was a quick, early CGI, attempt at rebooting the series. It just didm't feel like an Alien movie, it was like Sudds the bar from Always Sunny, too bright, too much Hollywood blockbuster sheen. Hybrid human/aliens was an alright concept but the movie didn't execute it very well. It would have taken a hell of a script and director's vision to turn the insect like killing machine of the originals into something human. Prometheus was alright. I wasn't down with how little they explained of like half the character's motivations. Plus the Chariot of the Gods thing had already kind of been played out in movies by the time Scott made this. They really really didn't need the end credit Alien birth scene either. Felt like an Alien Vs Predator schlock moment to me.
Does anybody in movie history have a greater death scene than Bill Paxton as Hudson? "Oh, you want some of this too?! FUCK YOU!!!" I think not.
Alien was an awesome horror film, because it was an allegory for something horrible (rape). Lots of really good horror films have that (the 2013 Evil Dead was an awesome allegory for drug addiction, Predator was an allegory for man vs. nature, etc.). It was so well-executed and it sticks out because it could be horror or sci-fi. Aliens was an awesome action flick for several reasons. One, James Cameron excels at world-building and Aliens happens in a fascinating world. Two, it turned the action trope of the 1980s on it's head: instead of JCVD, Ahnuld or Stallone bashing a monster in the face, it's this tiny woman who makes a bunch of space marines look like pansies. I do think it's interesting that Weaver doesn't look or sound particularly feminine, especially not compared to other women in action or horror movies at the time. Three, it was kind of about motherhood, in a weird way. Fourth, it took the special effect game to another level (one more thing Cameron is awesome at). I liked the Aliens vs. Predator movies, because I will watch a Predator film that features sandwich-making or knitting. Aliens 3 just simply didn't have enough "new" in the tank. The premise was good enough, but after the fantastic imagery and world-building in the first two, this was bound to be a letdown. Aliens 4 was just too many of the same themes to be interesting. Plus why the fuck was Wynona Ryder in this movie?
Glad you mentioned that. It's been said that Aliens was an allegory for the Vietnam War. An overconfident, technically superior military force wiped out by guerrilla tactics once they're on the enemy's turf.
I look at Aliens as the greatest Boo Movie ever made. A Boo Movie largely consists of human characters creeping lonely through dark places. That's when the monster, in this case an Alien, jumps out of the dark and says "Boo!!!" and it either tears the character apart or it gets shot to pieces by the character. Repeat. Cameron made it stand head and shoulders above the other films with still-terrific special effects, a non-stop pace and a thundering music score that creates a sense of dread from the moment the movie begins. I remember being about 9 the first time I watched it. That scene locked in the med centre with the two "face-hugger" aliens... Jesus Christ everybody wet 'em watching that scene. That's why Cameron is so great, he can make the most huge-scale action scenes but he can also do something uber-claustrophic and make it even MORE thrilling.
Cameron's has said that his development of Sarah Connor in T2 was directly based on how he portrayed Ripley in Aliens. Those characters mirror each other quite a bit in each movie. Also one of his first choices for a Terminator in T1 was Lance Henriksen, who ended up playing one of the cops that interrogates Kyle Reese. It's interesting how he cast him as a robot anyway in Aliens.