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Holy Balls. The first two Alien movies are amazing.
- Thread starter Ultima_5
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SCULLIBUNDO
Banned
Nappuccino
Member
Most commercial directors don't make wonderful films their first trip out the door.
Though I guess a lot of them are at least imbued with some consistent visual flair- its just tends to be overbearing, unfocused and chaotic... which may or may not be better than "bland" depending on the film and what you look for in a movie.
Ooooook, anyway... in my opinion, A3 is a nice attempt to return on track after Aliens derailment in the "bigger, badder,badasser" territory.
But it's only my opinion.
SCULLIBUNDO
Banned
You know its bad when Resurrection's production design is better than A3.
SCULLIBUNDO
Banned
IIRC, Alien was shot at Shepperton Studios, while Aliens and Alien 3 at Pinewood.
No fucking way. I'm not saying A3 set any benchmarks in production design or was anything above mediocre, but the sets in Resurrection are laughable. Nothing about it is original or even memorable. The only thing Resurrection has over A3 is the CGI bits and the fact that it didn't have that shitty corridor sequence that A3 had at the end.
SCULLIBUNDO
Banned
YES WAY. Resurrection is a steaming pile as a film and has the worst story out of all of the films by a long shot, but at least its visually interesting at points - even if it isn't an iota in keeping with the Alien universe. The set design in Resurrection is better than Alien 3's Brown Industrial Corridor No.#7643 route.
What I remember about Resurrection is that for some reason it was a big ordeal to climb this one ladder. I'd go so far as to say this was the central struggle of the film. Then for some reason Winona Ryder's character fell down or couldn't make it, but she found an alternate route in about a minute.
Kinda the same feeling I got in the first Uncharted game when I spent two-thirds of the game opening up some super-secret vault that no one had entered for a thousand years, and then when I got inside there were enemies shooting at me.
Kinda the same feeling I got in the first Uncharted game when I spent two-thirds of the game opening up some super-secret vault that no one had entered for a thousand years, and then when I got inside there were enemies shooting at me.
You know, the Alien 3 documentary made me realize how poorly the sets were actually used. In the behind the scenes stuff you can see that they built MASSIVE stuff, but it doesn't really come off like that in the movie at all. It's not low budget, but it looks like it's low budget. It's the complete opposite of Alien.
I just watched Resurrection a few days ago and cannot recall one visually interesting shot. Not one. And I'm not saying A3 had any either, but at least A3 didn't look like a SyFy made-for-tv movie. Resurrection didn't have Brown Industrial Corridors? You're right, it had Generic Metal Spaceship Corridors instead.
Admittedly, we are looking at 2 piles of shit and saying one looks better than the other. Thus, I retract my "No fucking way" since the aesthetic differences between piles of feces cannot possibly merit that level of disagreement.
SCULLIBUNDO
Banned
I think the shot of Ripley laying in the Queen's entrails is kind of interesting. But both of them look like they were made for TV movies.
jonnyp
Member
Why is he?
Yes the physical production designed by Norman Reynolds is very impressive.
No. Just no. You want to talk about ugly, scifi TV level garbage? That's Resurrection. The set design looks like something out of Judge Dred. It's an orange/yellow ugly mess.
At least Alien 3 has some elegance.
The documentaries are really great. Totally worth it.
I just watched the movie less than a week ago. The sets look enormous and well produced. I'm pretty sure that the majority of your memory of the film is its tunnel chase sequence which was terrible, but only accounted for a fraction of the sets used in the film.
Narpas Sword0
Member
If the queen in alien resurrection gave live births as a result of her genetic mixing with Riley, then where did all the eggs come from?
The Xtortionist
Member
Aliens: Great pacing or greatest pacing?
Chuckie
Member
Didn't she have double reproducing systems or something?
The queen produced the eggs, and then birthed the.... puppy dog-eyed thing.
chalkitdown1
Member
I just re-watched the newest version of Alien 3 Special Edition a few days ago (the one with the re-recorded audio) and really liked it. There are some fantastic performances in it, I love the two Charles', and the character of Morse is really great. He has one of the best lines of the whole sage in this scene.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cKY7ZFabTq8
They should make the Special Edition the norm and try to rid the original from history. The difference in quality between the two versions is night and day.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cKY7ZFabTq8
They should make the Special Edition the norm and try to rid the original from history. The difference in quality between the two versions is night and day.
It's all about Golic in the Assembly Cut man. That demon worship. A small amount of Vincent Ward shining through
Chuckie
Member
Watched Alien³ for the first time..... Goddamn that CGI.... it is horrible... it really is painful to watch. If they would have used a puppet I would have enjoyed it more.
So far: Alien = Aliens >>>Alien³... next week I am watching Ressurection again. Don't know yet where to place it.
So far: Alien = Aliens >>>Alien³... next week I am watching Ressurection again. Don't know yet where to place it.
I leik Halo
Banned
What if fox came to Fincher and told him that they wanted him to re-do alien 3, let him have complete control, and give him an unlimited budget. What do you think his response would be? This is what I thought about after re-watching alien 3.
he would kick you in the face
chalkitdown1
Member
It WAS a puppet. It's the compositing of it into the film frame that looks so jarring.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=re-mC-b0Y3U#t=04m17s
Chuckie
Member
Wtf...was it never 100% CGI? Man...thats even more sad
The Alien itself is only rendered with CGI when the iron ore cools and its head explodes. Otherwise, dude in a suit/puppets.
I always thought it looked weird as well, but it never bothered me much.
Chuckie
Member
I just saw it on bluray and the sharpness of the image seems to make it a lot worse.
The lighting is way off... the alien looks green instead of black. It reminded me of Luke Skywalker in front of the Rancor.
Look at this shit:
BigJonsson
Member
Finished Aliens last night........Started Alien 3
Not a fan of them killing off Hicks, Newt and Bishop like that, they go through a whole movie trying to get off the planet and everything and then they just get killed just like that, bleh
chalkitdown1
Member
This is one movie where I'd love for them to go back and re-do the special effects, George Lucas Style. Would improve the movie so much.
I just saw it on bluray and the sharpness of the image seems to make it a lot worse.
The lighting is way off... the alien looks green instead of black. It reminded me of Luke Skywalker in front of the Rancor.
Look at this shit:
I never noticed that particular scene being so bad until you took a screencap of it, but I can agree the model/puppets dont really transition well at times. Still, I find the CG in resurrection to stand out more.
So. Just watched Alien on blu-ray (courtesy of the Alien Anthology UK version, which I snagged for $25 - thanks Sculli). First time I'd seen the film in a few years, and the first time in a decent master and resolution.
Holy hell. The film is just drop-dead (ha) gorgeous; I noticed countless details I never picked up on before because they weren't clear enough. The entire production is just immaculate and detailed, and shot beautifully. And it's still perfectly paced, unsettling and creepy as hell.
I'm having a bit of a dilemma. My nine year-old really wants to see it. She's startling mature for her age, in 4th grade but reading at the 12th grade level (she churns through a novel every couple days). She loves scary stories and reads tons of scary books, and I've been gradually introducing her to scary films and monster movies, slowly turning up the temperature. We've hit some classics (Them!, King Kong, Gremlins, etc.), and are getting scarier fast (Poltergeist is next up).
She is not phased by them at all, laughs at the effects, and smiles through the suspense. She's able to totally detach herself from the films in a way I didn't when I was a kid. But she hasn't had her first truly terrifying film, yet.
I want her to see it partly because I've been able to keep her unspoiled - she doesn't know the story or alien life cycle or even what it looks like; I'm not sure how much longer I can keep that up though since she's so curious and the internet has all the answers.
All that said...she's nine.
I think I'll step things up a couple of notches further with the next few scary movies, and see how she handles it. Any advice from parent-GAF would be appreciated; this is one of few real dilemmas I've had with this sort of thing.
Holy hell. The film is just drop-dead (ha) gorgeous; I noticed countless details I never picked up on before because they weren't clear enough. The entire production is just immaculate and detailed, and shot beautifully. And it's still perfectly paced, unsettling and creepy as hell.
I'm having a bit of a dilemma. My nine year-old really wants to see it. She's startling mature for her age, in 4th grade but reading at the 12th grade level (she churns through a novel every couple days). She loves scary stories and reads tons of scary books, and I've been gradually introducing her to scary films and monster movies, slowly turning up the temperature. We've hit some classics (Them!, King Kong, Gremlins, etc.), and are getting scarier fast (Poltergeist is next up).
She is not phased by them at all, laughs at the effects, and smiles through the suspense. She's able to totally detach herself from the films in a way I didn't when I was a kid. But she hasn't had her first truly terrifying film, yet.
I want her to see it partly because I've been able to keep her unspoiled - she doesn't know the story or alien life cycle or even what it looks like; I'm not sure how much longer I can keep that up though since she's so curious and the internet has all the answers.
All that said...she's nine.
I think I'll step things up a couple of notches further with the next few scary movies, and see how she handles it. Any advice from parent-GAF would be appreciated; this is one of few real dilemmas I've had with this sort of thing.
SCULLIBUNDO
Banned
Well I'm obviously not a parent, but I first watched the first two Alien and Terminator films when I was five years old (Childs play when I was 4 - that was an accident though).
I think a good bridge movie would actually be War of the Worlds - since it is thematically dark and frightening, but the horrifying things take place off-camera. It is a dark PG13.
Not a parent myself, but I introduced my brother and sister to Alien when they were fairly young (maybe not as young as 9), and they weren't traumatized or anything. I think if she has a clear understanding of the difference between fantasy and reality, which it sounds like she does, I think she'll be alright. It might even become her favorite movie someday purely due to the impression left by viewing it as a wide-eyed child. I think my brother is a bigger fan of Alien than even I am.
You wouldn't happen to be my cousin by any chance? Saw Aliens and T2 between the ages of 5-7 with my cousin, and saw Child's Play when I was 4 because my uncle left it on the TV.
SCULLIBUNDO
Banned
Nope. I saw Child's Play alone when I was 4 on the TV. I think I was supposed to be watching another channel and I changed it. Saw T2 in 1992 on VHS. I remember it vividly because right after I finished watching it with my dad, I knew that Arnold Schwarzenegger was my hero and watched it a couple more times before begging my dad to get me more movies with Arnie in it - as if trying to pretend that the same character lived on in other stories, as opposed to going into the pit of molten steel.
Ollie Pooch
In a perfect world, we'd all be homersexual
Watched Aliens on my stepbro's VHS when i was about 6. I took it from his room and watched the movie whlie he was out, then the tape snapped and got all wrapped around the heads inside the video machine. Of course i took it out, put it back in the box and hoped he'd never notice. Terrible plan
He found out and i started crying.SCULLIBUNDO
Banned
LOL good ol' VHS.
I remember my dad giving me the impression he could turn my favourite movies into videogames I could play by flicking the switch that would stop somebody from recording over it. He kept saying he'll take the tape the garage later and do it. I was so excited with the possibilities of playing my recorded Terminator II VHS.
I remember my dad giving me the impression he could turn my favourite movies into videogames I could play by flicking the switch that would stop somebody from recording over it. He kept saying he'll take the tape the garage later and do it. I was so excited with the possibilities of playing my recorded Terminator II VHS.
squidhands
Member
Holy shit at the bold. That's incredible for her to be reading at that level. Bravo, parents.
As to the rest, if she's that detached I'd say it would be okay to show it to her soon. What about Carpenter's The Thing? Would GAF consider that scarier than Alien? I'd put them fairly close together in that regard, with The Thing edging it out because of the extra on-screen violence.
We ultimately used Poltergeist as our bridge movie. It hit a 9 on her 1-10 scary scale; nothing else cleared 5.
A month later, she was up to the Alien films. She was tired of me refusing to answer questions about them, and I wouldn't let her look up spoilers. Last night we watched Alien, and tonight, Aliens, both on Blu-Ray from the Anthology (thanks again, Sculli).
She was fine. Several parts of each watching from between her fingers, quite a few more in Aliens than the first film, but after she was cheerful and we were talking about her favorite parts (alien queen, which she identified as such immediately). So thanks for the advice everyone.
I just realized that I was nine when the film came out in theaters, when I saw it. So she saw it at the same age; I'm totally living vicariously through her these days.
Watching the two films back to back, I can't pick one to call the better of the other. I thought I would, revisiting them both this way. In some ways, Alien has aged better; it feel more timeless and the effects while less flashy don't show their seams as often as in Aliens. Both have pitch-perfect, distinctive pacing. The first film's great strength is its unrelentingly beautiful photography, even when showing horrific things. Aliens is wickedly intense; the lead up to the first encounter in the hive is one of the greatest wind up to and releases of action ever. It was so damn smart of Cameron to graft Aliens on the same structural framework of Alien, while crafting his own style and tone. They feel like two sides of a coin, rather than one film echoing the second.
What really struck me, particularly on Blu-Ray, is how richly detailed both films are. The design of the sets are just immaculate, and they both give the characters room to breathe and become fleshed out. Little moments like the quick shot of the fear on Vasquez's face right before they get off the APC, or Hicks falling asleep on the way down. I read the characters in Aliens getting grief for fitting into easy cliches without depth and I want to start punching people.
Sorry for the late bump, but I figured where this left off made it appropriate. If Prometheus is half what these movies are, it's going to incredible. This time I'll get to take the kid along with. <3 parenting.
To be fair, we can only do so much. She knew the alphabet at age 15 months, and was sight reading by 2 or 3. We just nudge her along and she soaks everything up like a sponge. A big part of parenting is getting out of the way of what the kids want to be.
shadyspace
Banned
Huh. I've always found Alien much scarier than Aliens. Maybe she was scared more by the latter because she identified so much with Newt, being a young girl herself.
SCULLIBUNDO
Banned
The most important question is whether or not she watched the Director's Cut of Aliens, obviously.
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