Spoilers Alien: Earth Spoiler Thread

[Zaukrie]

Alien: Earth launches on Disney+ worldwide (your local showings may vary) tomorrow. The reviews are looking good.

This is the spoiler thread!

Hulu in US? Dang.

 

[Laurefindel]

I saw the better cut of alien 3 with the changed beginning…

… yeah, but are Newt and Corporal Hicks still killed offscreen during the prologue? Cause if they weren’t, that would be a better cut…

grumble, grumble

 

[gban007]

Honestly, don't rewatch it. If you have good memories of Alien3 or Resurrection, don't destroy those with the reality.

I can't easily rewatch Alien3, and don't have good memories of it. I have good memories of Resurrection though and happily rewatch it every few years.
Went through a bit of an Alien watch through with my eldest, though we skipped 3. I just couldn't put her through Newt and Hicks dying off screen after the triumph of the Aliens ending. Raised some questions for Resurrection, but is only one key part need to know for that.

 

[Swanosaurus]

I can't easily rewatch Alien3, and don't have good memories of it. I have good memories of Resurrection though and happily rewatch it every few years.
Went through a bit of an Alien watch through with my eldest, though we skipped 3. I just couldn't put her through Newt and Hicks dying off screen after the triumph of the Aliens ending. Raised some questions for Resurrection, but is only one key part need to know for that.

I'll just say it: Alien3 is my favourite next to Alien. I know that Fincher disowned it, but it's the one that breaks the mould in several ways, and for me it was a course correction after Aliens, which is a great movie, but just a little to feelgood. I re-watched the series with my wife a while ago, and Aliens is the only one that made me cringe occasionally. I love the soundtrack of 3, I love its aesthetics, I love how they had the guts to make it really, really bleak.

I also have a soft spot for Ressurection, though I always feel it could have been so much more. Isn't it set 400 years in the series' future? How cool would it have been if they had set it in a baroque, dune-esque universe that only vaguely recalls what came before? Jeunet writing it gave me hopes for something along those lines back then ...

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Alien Resurrection is an entertaining enough movie (as is Romulus). Not great, but not 3 (or Prometheus or Covenant) terrible either.

 

[Morrus]

Hulu in US? Dang.

Is that a question? You’d have to check your own local listings

 

[Morrus]

and for me it was a course correction after Aliens, which is a great movie, but just a little to feelgood.

Aliens is.... feelgood?

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Aliens is.... feelgood?

Yeah that's a take and a half lol.

"Sure every single person on the colony except Newt died. Sure every single marine except Hicks died. Sure they faced a totally uncertain future. But any time more than one person survives - preferably infected - that's going too damn far!"

I mean as a percentage of the cast, I think the percentage is a lot smaller than Alien lol (I haven't done the math I admit). I'm surprised Jonesy surviving doesn't make Alien "too feelgood"!

(To be clear, I actually think it would have been okay if Hicks and Newt were killed onscreen during the events of an Alien 3 - a little cheap and shlock-shock-y but like okay, it's a horror movie (and Fincher was a "cheap" director in that sense at the start of his career). But killing them offscreen, that's no good. That'd be like if TLJ just had Luke die immediately as he received the lightsaber or something lol. Just drop dead of a heart attack (too much weird milk!) right in front of poor Rey lol. Like it's one thing to decide a path for an unestablished fact (i.e. Rey's parentage) in a way that might annoy the guy doing the previous movie, that's like Cameron and the xenomorph queen. It's quite another to just maliciously delete characters because they're inconvenient to the story you'd rather tell lol.)

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

Since we have veered into overall rankings of the Alien franchise, I thought I'd add my two cents because, as you might be able to tell from my prior posts on A:E, I have thought way too much about this franchise.

First- I don't consider any of the various spinoffs or Alien v. Predator movies or other stuff part of the franchise. At all.

Second, I think that there are two inarguable greatest movies in the franchise. Alien and Aliens. Period. Look, I get arguing for other movies and being all hipster, but those are the two classics. Of the two, Alien is the better one. That's not a slight on Aliens. Aliens is amazing. I love that movie. I'd argue that it's a more lovable movie than the original. But it's also an action movie- a great action movie, one of the best '80s action movies, but not a genre-defining horror classic that gave us a visual and film vocabulary that is still used today.

1a Alien
1b Aliens

Next ... okay, this will be unpopular. There's a lot I don't like about the next one. But I do like the ambition. I do like a lot of the specific scenes. I do like the cinematography. I do like the atmosphere. And to me, that more than makes up for the absolutely bizarre choices (too many to list, but ... don't run straight ahead, you can literally jump to the left or the right!). And ... some questionable lore. Questionable is a good word for it, right?

2. Prometheus

Following that is a film that is third in the trilogy, and third in the rankings (see what I did there). Look, I get the fan hate (killing Newt and Bishop after Aliens was harsh). I get that the studio kneecapped Fincher's vision and the budget to make this a truly great masterpiece. But ... if you can get past that, this is a good film. Imperfect, but good.

3. Alien3

Then there's what I call the J.J. Abrams Alien movie. That's right- you try to course correct the franchise by playing the classics. It's perfectly cromulent. Needz moar lenz flarez.

4. Alien Romulus.

Following that is the sequel to Prometheus. I don't want to totally bash it. Fassbender is a great actor, and he brings it. The opening is evocative and, um, kind of tricks you into thinking, "Hey, is this an Alien film?" It does try to wrestle with ideas and stuff. But ... it just does not work. It doesn't hang together, and it, um, doesn't hand apart either. That's just my opinion. But you see that I gave Prometheus the benefit of the doubt, right? I really tried with Covenant ... but nope.

5. Alien: Covenant

There is no other Alien movie. If you think that there was a movie after Alien3, then you're wrong. That was a terrible dream.

 

[Bagpuss]

My main complaint after watching the first two episodes is why doesn't Wendy run?

She finds out what floor her brother is on, and she walks there? She has a super human body, and a kids brain.

The kids I know run everywhere even when they don't need to let alone when there is a reason to get their in a hurry. They establish she can fall great distances without injury, yet she strolls up the stairway rather than leaps or sprinting up it.