Until this weekend, Alien was the only Alien film I had not seen in the theater. Yes, I actually paid (and dragged my wife along) to see the unfortunate Alien Resurrection. What a stupid concept - Ripley (Sigourney Weaver,) having flung herself into flaming, molten metal at the end of Alien3, is cloned from a drop of blood. Apparently her DNA must have mixed with the alien creature's and now she's a hybrid of the two, but looks perfectly human. She just acts kind of like an animal at times, and I guess it provides a few twists to the story in that she's now somewhat immune to their attacks, being one of them and all. But come on, that's a pretty cheap tactic around which to base your story. But back on track: Alien is a masterpiece of mood and the good spook. Like any truly great horror movie, it works slowly, quietly, and provides you with the occasionally mild spook before ramping up the tension dramatically. Even after having seen it countless times, I found myself still reacting to the same scenes that get me every time. I also found myself bracing as the tension mounted - regardless of knowing exactly what's going to happen. That's what good horror does for you.
Ridley Scott has recently gone back into the vaults to resurrect some scenes that never made the cut of the original 1979 theatrical release. He also chose to tighten up some of the scenes, as he felt some of the material wandered a bit, and in my opinion he was right. After seeing this new version, I'm certain he's right - there's slightly less unnecessary exposition before we find the crew investigating the mysterious, deserted spacecraft that beckoned them. He's also added new bits here and there, the significant addition being the discovery by Ripley of Dallas (Tom Skerrit) and Parker (Yaphet Kotto) cocooned by the alien and impregnated by its face-huggers. Why this scene was left out of the original is unknown - it explains further why Ripley must destroy the ship, since there will soon be multiple creatures running around. The original entirely neglects to bring up the idea that the alien itself can leave eggs behind - something that seems to be further exploited in Aliens wherein a single, huge, very angry queen is responsible for reproducing, and the creature we knew from the first movie is simply a warrior, present in multitudes.
Article comments
1 - jadester
indeed. I was annoyed to find they didn't continue in Alien 3 by following the plotline of the comics/books (the aliens reach earth). The "but it would have been too expensive" thing was a poor excuse, IMO. Equally, there are some amazing one-off stories set ni the Aliens universe - something like Music Of The Spears or Labyrinth would've made a real cool 3rd or 4th film.
Ah well, i can make do with the director's cut of Alien...
2 - Tom Johnson
I never got into the comics and books that spun off the series, but I agree that the series should have progressed to the point where the Aliens were spawning on earth. How a story like that could be handled, I can't imagine, but there's millions of possibilities there.
I guess we'll have to hold out hope that Cameron is serious about shooting a fifth movie that will completely ignore what happened in the third and fouth installments. And of course next summer we'll get Aliens Vs. Predator . . . it's a good comic book idea, but I'm not sure how well these two movie creatures pair together. I'm sure I'll go see it regardless.
3 - Jim Carruthers
I actually saw "Alien" on its first run at the York Theater in Montreal, and it scared the crap out of me.
Considering what he did with "Blade Runner", I really like Ridley Scott's re-edits because they aren't indulgent, and usually distill the movie.
Though I am somewhat I don't think so about the 9 DVD box set.
If it is worth anything, Joss Whedon hates Alien 4, and he wrote it. Though, if you look at it, you see where he got "Firefly" from.
4 - duane
Alien and Aliens are two of my all-time favorite sci-fi/horror movies. One of the reasons why these movies are so effective is because THEY ARE SERIOUS, especially the first one --- from the opening sequence of the Nostromo with the spooky music as the title forms across the screen, to the end when Ripley and Jonesy curl up in the suspended animation pod. There are no gross impossibilities, no cowboys, no silly stereotypes, no goofy jokes, and no token zany characters, such as ruined Independence Day, for example.
The crew members act like real people. They are scared when they oughta be. There is no stupid love story threading through the movie (see Armageddon, for example). The actors are not "pretty" (see Starship Troopers, for example)-- they look like real people. There are no goofy teenaged heartthrobs (see most anything these days). Women are portrayed as being intelligent, accomplished, and tough when they need to be -- no damsel in distress bullshit.
Only a few other sci-fi movies are in this league, for example The Thing (1982), Blade Runner, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Terminator (although Linda Hamilton played a damsel in the first one, sure).
Aliens had a couple of elements that would have been better left out: the cute kid, Ripley calling the alien a "bitch" (yeah, sure), the obvious dissension in the ranks (it would have been cooler to see an absolutely first-rate elite team of space marines get the shit kicked out of them, just to further impress us with the aliens' ferocity and overwhelming superiority). Best line: "I say we nuke the site from orbit." That's right, dammit, no bullshit Star Wars dogfights. Coolest character: the pilot of the landing vehicle: "We're in the pipe, 5 by 5." She actually got imported into the computer gane Starcraft Brood Wars for being so cool. Uh oh, my geekiness is showing.
5 - Jim Carruthers
A large part of "Aliens" is about motherhood, which is where the "bitch" line comes from. In the extended cut on the dvd, there is a scene where Ripley gets a message from her (now elderly) daughter.
Aliens is probably the best of the series because it leaves the first alone.
Aliens 3 is, I think, vastly under-rated.
6 - Tom Johnson
The box is a must-have for me because I've always been a freak about the Alien itself. I just love the thing, I think it's one of the most brilliant creatures ever created for a movie. Choosing something created by HR Giger is fascinating - who better to develop a hellish nightmare vision like that? There seems to be a lot of alien-development footage on the set, so that makes it worth owning for me.
I'd like to see 3 again, because it's been a long time and I think it might indeed hold up better than I'm imagining it. My only complaint is that it's very convenient - Ripley, alone again, stranded with a small band facing a growing army of aliens. It was still a decent movie, but it was rehashing a lot of what Aliens already took care of.
Anybody seen the McFarlane figures yet? These are astounding, the massive queen especially. I'm asking Santa for these, that's for sure.
7 - Jim Carruthers
There are a bunch of HR Giger skins for the Sims, if they ever come with an animation engine for the Sims, you could do some cool Alien stuff. After all, Alien vs. Predator is totally the result of a FPS game.
One thing to look at the Alien movies is the great directors: Ridley Scott, John Cameron, David Finscher, Jean-Pierre Junet.
Where the Alien series falls down is how the writers have been treated. Great writers: Dan O'Bannon, Joss Whedon, and so so on, but their input was ignored.
8 - Nick Ramus
I bought the Alien Quadrilogy and I enjoy it immensely. However I am very unhappy with Director James Cameron's commentary on Aliens. James Cameron states that barefoot Vietnamese kicked US soldiers ass in Vietnam. Evidently his ego and big mouth preclude him from reading a book on the subject. The Vietnamese war was lost at home not on the battlefields of Vietnam. After the Tet offensive in 1968 there were no longer many VC cadres left alive. We killed 45,000 VC during Tet. After that the US military fought North Vietnamese regulars, a highly trained regular army. Still North Vietnam avoided as best they could any large scale contact with US forces due to the remarkably uneven contests where we anihilated Vietnamese forces very consistently. Yes, we were greatly outnumbered as well. Check out the casualties admitted by Hanoi in 1995.