This so much! Thank you. And so, whatever happened to the Sulaco? Was it attacked/infested while everyone was in stasis? So Ripley was already asleep in a pod on the lifeboat? I can dig that last one (since the pod room at the end of Aliens is not like the one in the beginning), but just too many other questions...
Ranking the Alien films
This so much! Thank you. And so, whatever happened to the Sulaco? Was it attacked/infested while everyone was in stasis? So Ripley was already asleep in a pod on the lifeboat? I can dig that last one (since the pod room at the end of Aliens is not like the one in the beginning), but just too many other questions...
Erekose
Eternal Champion
I voted for Alien with Aliens second for the reasons others have given - I think it's fair to say it's a slam dunk for those two as the best Ines of the franchise. I'm more interested in reading why anyone feels one of the other films is better - not to argue a point but just so that I might see something new in those films that I haven't seen so far!
Gladius Legis
Legend
1) Aliens
2) Alien (close second)
The others don't exist, AFAIC.
2) Alien (close second)
The others don't exist, AFAIC.
I rewatch Aliens more than Alien, but Alien is the better film.
The cast is amazing (is there anything with Ian Holm that isn't awesome?) and, importantly, the action is unexpected: Tom Skerritt gets top billing, which is a serious fake-out. Art, design, dialogue, suspense, sf awesomeness, and a truly horrific alien.
The cast is amazing (is there anything with Ian Holm that isn't awesome?) and, importantly, the action is unexpected: Tom Skerritt gets top billing, which is a serious fake-out. Art, design, dialogue, suspense, sf awesomeness, and a truly horrific alien.
I went with Alien, but it's actually a tie with Aliens. Then a tie between Resurrection and Covenant. Followed by Prometheus, AvP, Alien 3, and AvPR. I enjoyed them all, though (even the bad ones).
Moving ahead we need to split the Alien movies from the AvP movies, as Covenant clearly breaks the existing continuity between the two series.
This makes me sad.
Moving ahead we need to split the Alien movies from the AvP movies, as Covenant clearly breaks the existing continuity between the two series.
This makes me sad.
ShinHakkaider
Adventurer
The theatrical cut of ALIENS is easily my favorite James Cameron film and it's hands down one of the best seige films committed to celluloid. The pacing of that film is relentless even during the setup in the first half. Between the emotional trauma that Ripley is clearly suffering from, the realization that she's going to have to go back out there and face her fear to the point where everything goes pearshaped after landing on LV-426 it's just one bad situation getting worse and worse. ALIENS is my favorite of the ALIEN films much in the way that EMPIRE is my favorite STAR WARS film. While ALIEN introduced both Ellen Ripley and the XENOMORPH to us ALIENS defines and fleshes out both of them to a greater degree where we can really appreciate Ripley as a hero and the Xenomorph as an extremely capable and intelligent movie monster in it's own right.
ALIEN is a great horror movie. It's essentially NINE LITTLE (fill in the blank here since both versions of the title are fairly derogatory) in space, except SO MUCH WORSE. ALIEN does a few things very well, first it establishes that even in space in the far flung future there's still going to be working class people churning out a living doing the bidding of thier corporate masters. People have said that almost nothng happens in the first 30min of that movie. I'd argue that the first 30min are probably the most important as it establishes the characters relationships to each other personally and professionally. Particularly Parker and Brett's casually adverserial realtionship with Dallas and Ripley and Ash's detached (and evasive) demeanor to Ripley (and everyone else). We find out later that Ash is new to the Dallas and the rest of the crew which makes sense but totally feeds into what happens later in the film. What I realised upon subsequent viewing of the film was that the crew was kind of already on edge having been on a long salvage and eager to return home and the appearnence of the Xenomorph just exacerbates things in the WORST POSSIBLE WAY.
ALIEN is a Sci-Fi horror masterclass in tension building. Ridley Scott and his DP use light and shadows and the set itself to create a sense of constant dread even when the Xenomorph ISNT EVEN ON THE SCREEN. A prime example of this is Brett's search for the Xenomorph in the bowels of the Nostromo. ALIEN is an almost unpleasant viewing experience on the big screen because if youre uninitiated after the first half of the film youre looking at every shadow or weird looking shape on the Nostromo sideways hoping that it's not that damn Xenomorph....
ALIEN is a great horror movie. It's essentially NINE LITTLE (fill in the blank here since both versions of the title are fairly derogatory) in space, except SO MUCH WORSE. ALIEN does a few things very well, first it establishes that even in space in the far flung future there's still going to be working class people churning out a living doing the bidding of thier corporate masters. People have said that almost nothng happens in the first 30min of that movie. I'd argue that the first 30min are probably the most important as it establishes the characters relationships to each other personally and professionally. Particularly Parker and Brett's casually adverserial realtionship with Dallas and Ripley and Ash's detached (and evasive) demeanor to Ripley (and everyone else). We find out later that Ash is new to the Dallas and the rest of the crew which makes sense but totally feeds into what happens later in the film. What I realised upon subsequent viewing of the film was that the crew was kind of already on edge having been on a long salvage and eager to return home and the appearnence of the Xenomorph just exacerbates things in the WORST POSSIBLE WAY.
ALIEN is a Sci-Fi horror masterclass in tension building. Ridley Scott and his DP use light and shadows and the set itself to create a sense of constant dread even when the Xenomorph ISNT EVEN ON THE SCREEN. A prime example of this is Brett's search for the Xenomorph in the bowels of the Nostromo. ALIEN is an almost unpleasant viewing experience on the big screen because if youre uninitiated after the first half of the film youre looking at every shadow or weird looking shape on the Nostromo sideways hoping that it's not that damn Xenomorph....
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