Bobby Roberts
Banned
Well, it obviously didn't bother her too much considering the decathlon she runs shortly thereafter, with the staples still in and everything.
-
Hey Guest. Check out your NeoGAF Wrapped 2025 results here!
RTTP - Alien series.
- Thread starter Lightning Count
- Start date
- Status
Well, it obviously didn't bother her too much considering the decathlon she runs shortly thereafter, with the staples still in and everything.
Nappuccino
Member
Alien is much more effective than Aliens. Aliens, while it does some things very very right, doesn't feel real and the characters in it--exceptions being Ripley and Burke--don't feel real either. All that tension and excitement is lost because of this.
Side note, I find it weird how much more dated Aliens feels in terms of clothing and style than Alien. Aliens just screams 80s to me.
Discotheque
Banned
Only the first two are worth watching imo. Like 3 and Prometheus have some cool scenes but as movies themselves they aren't very good.
Alien and Aliens are fantastic though. Prefer Aliens at the moment, but my opinion on this varies.
Alien and Aliens are fantastic though. Prefer Aliens at the moment, but my opinion on this varies.
To be fair, so does Alien specially when they show Ian Holm in the pilot controls with crt screens and big plastic buttons. I think though, both Alien and Aliens hold up pretty well otherwise and will continue to do so for decades. They are both very different kind of movies. Its comparing apples to oranges.
SCULLIBUNDO
Banned
I'd watch the frustratingly dumb and incoherent Prometheus over Alien 3 any day of the week.
Same with Alien Resurrection - which is just a rollercoaster ride of grating, cheesy lunacy, but is at least somewhat interesting in its design and failures.
Alien 3 (Assembly Cut included) is just the drabbest goddamn bore in the world. There is nothing remotely interesting about it from story to cinematography or production design. The only thing interesting about that fart in the wind is the behind the scenes shenanigans that resulted in it being such a forgettable nothing.
Same with Alien Resurrection - which is just a rollercoaster ride of grating, cheesy lunacy, but is at least somewhat interesting in its design and failures.
Alien 3 (Assembly Cut included) is just the drabbest goddamn bore in the world. There is nothing remotely interesting about it from story to cinematography or production design. The only thing interesting about that fart in the wind is the behind the scenes shenanigans that resulted in it being such a forgettable nothing.
Alien = Aliens (despite of being wholly different movies) > Alien Resurrection = alien isolation >>> > Prometheus > pieces of corn found in human feces > Alien 3
Resurrection has characters with something that resembles charisma and tense action sequences. Prometheus have amazing cinematography and a misterious, captivating atmosphere.
Alien 3 have none of these. None. It is a completely empty, souless, boring movie.
Resurrection has characters with something that resembles charisma and tense action sequences. Prometheus have amazing cinematography and a misterious, captivating atmosphere.
Alien 3 have none of these. None. It is a completely empty, souless, boring movie.
Nappuccino
Member
I buy it in Alien because this is a crappy old mining ship--they aren't going to have all the top of the line stuff that a brand new research colony would have. Granted, they'd probably still have LCDs now . . . but I feel like they fit the vibe of the movie.
Bobby Roberts
Banned
That's an interesting collection of syllables you got there, but I don't know if I find their utility as accurate descriptors of anything in either movie to be all that useful.
Or rather:
I could give you boring, because I can understand why someone would be bored by it. I've heard those criticisms, and while I don't agree, it's not like that's comin out of nowhere. It's a movie in a series known for scares that doesn't really have any, peopled with a cast that largely looks/sounds similar to one another, save for a few key exceptions (which I'll get to below). That can bore people, sure.
But the idea that the film is empty and soulless doesn't wash. Weaver, Dutton, and Dance are putting in too much work for the film to be that. The funeral itself disqualifies your "soulless" assessment singlehandedly.
(plus Goldenthal's score? That's some good shit right there. Better than Horner's score for ALIENS, even. Which isn't really Horner's fault considering the crunch on that film, but still.)
SCULLIBUNDO
Banned
Show me inspired cinematography and/or production design in Alien 3.
To Far Away Times
Member
Aliens is the right way to do a sequel. It takes something established and gives you something new and unexpected.
Both Alien and Aliens are fantastic in their own ways.
Both Alien and Aliens are fantastic in their own ways.
SCULLIBUNDO
Banned
Its an incredibly tense movie. Please name some films that nail that feeling better than Alien.
Nappuccino
Member
Fifel Goes West?
fixedpoint
Member
Stay frosty gentlemen
I love them all. And Chappie too.
That's an interesting collection of syllables you got there, but I don't know if I find their utility as accurate descriptors of anything in either movie to be all that useful.
Or rather:
I could give you boring, because I can understand why someone would be bored by it. I've heard those criticisms, and while I don't agree, it's not like that's comin out of nowhere. It's a movie in a series known for scares that doesn't really have any, peopled with a cast that largely looks/sounds similar to one another, save for a few key exceptions (which I'll get to below). That can bore people, sure.
But the idea that the film is empty and soulless doesn't wash. Weaver, Dutton, and Dance are putting in too much work for the film to be that. The funeral itself disqualifies your "soulless" assessment singlehandedly.
(plus Goldenthal's score? That's some good shit right there. Better than Horner's score for ALIENS, even. Which isn't really Horner's fault considering the crunch on that film, but still.)
Goldenthal's score is one of the best score's in the Alien franchise. Even Alien Isolation uses a few cue's from it.
Bobby Roberts
Banned
I think they used "Candles in the Wind" didn't they? That, "Bait & Chase" and "Adagio" are the standouts, for me.
Definitely. Alien 3 is a good closure to Ripley's story. I think the franchise could have continued but pointlessly bringing back Ripley and going with Joss Whedon as the screenwriter was a pretty terrible mistake.
ImpalingNarwhal
Member
I watched them for the first time a couple years ago. I loved the first, but was blown away by Aliens.
Any film, just pick one at random.
As I've said already in this thread, aliens does everything better so I'll just list that.
Bobby Roberts
Banned
This shit is weak.
Not as weak as alien's attempt to scare the audience
Bobby Roberts
Banned
You're right. This is weaker.
Seriously though, you couldn't name one other horror movie that managed to build tension more effectively for you? Just one. Pick one.
Henchmen21
Banned
Except it's not. Both Alien and Aliens uses tension but in different ways.
Alien builds tension in the classic horror ways of "what's in the shadows?" or "who's going to get picked off next?". It wonderfully works fear throughout the movie.
Aliens (rightfully so) builds a different kind of tension. Cameron new going in that just trying to ape the first movie would just make it seem like a pale imitation. The tension in Aliens comes not from fear but from expectations. We all knew what the alien creature looked like and so having it hide in shadows was unnecessary. The tension builds from expecting the first confrontation of the good guys (colonial marines and/or Ripley) vs the bad guys (aliens). The whole movie does this to a great success which is why back when it came out it was often described as a rollercoaster ride (a term bandied about today with little to no meaning that was pretty new back then)
Bobby Roberts
Banned
Fancy Clown
Member
You can give Alien 3 stick for a lot of things, but it's a good looking movie (apart from the xeno in anything other than closeups...)
Even Ridley Scott is quoted as saying that Alien 3 is a fine looking film, and he voiced some objection to the movie but still admired Fincher's visuals. I'll have to look for the quote but it is on record that he did compliment Alien 3.
*Fist bump*
Nappuccino
Member
Maybe that's what the movie tries to do but it fails (for me, anyway) because a) the movie doesn't help me to care about the any of the marines--they're hardly more than cardboard cutouts so their deaths don't matter--and b) while my knowledge of the previous movie helps, this movie actually doesn't do a great job of setting up that expectation or filming the out come. I realize they had to shoot around budget limitations, but a lot of people shooting at things off screen doesn't do a lot to boost my tension. The scenes that work in Aliens, for my money anyway, are the scenes were Ripley is alone and trying to save Newt. From there till the end of the movie is pretty splendid.
edit: Alien3 is almost better than Aliens, but it screws up the landing so massively. The bits where they're trying to trap the alien are just so boringly shot and paced that if they cut out almost 20 min of the movie, I think everything would be better off for it. Shortly her friend dies, the movie feels much more low budgeted and much more poorly thought out. In the end, it's quite a bit below Aliens in quality . . . but man, does it start so promisingly.
Later Alligator
Member
alien > aliens > alien 3 > prometheus > getting shot in the face > alien resurrection
alien resurrection was a mockery. it's the sharknado of the franchise and deserves to be shot out of a cannon into the abyss, never to be seen again
alien is one of the greatest horror/thriller movies of all time. aliens is a fantastic action movie, up there with predator and terminator 2. alien 3 is meh, but watchable. alien resurrection is the movie equivalent of getting gonorrhea from a tractor
i consider the avp movies more predator then alien, however they are all complete dog shit. the only reason to watch any of them is if you are stuck at someones cottage, it's raining outside and its the only dvd they own
alien resurrection was a mockery. it's the sharknado of the franchise and deserves to be shot out of a cannon into the abyss, never to be seen again
alien is one of the greatest horror/thriller movies of all time. aliens is a fantastic action movie, up there with predator and terminator 2. alien 3 is meh, but watchable. alien resurrection is the movie equivalent of getting gonorrhea from a tractor
i consider the avp movies more predator then alien, however they are all complete dog shit. the only reason to watch any of them is if you are stuck at someones cottage, it's raining outside and its the only dvd they own
Henchmen21
Banned
They're supposed to be cardboard cutouts for the most part. We're not supposed to sympathize with them (something a lot of media taking their cues from this movie got wrong). They're supposed to represent America and it's egotism of "Might makes right". That's why so many of them get killed off early on. Their hubris is ultimately their downfall. It's only Ripley and Newts survival instincts and intelligence that allow any of them to survive.
Lightning Count
Member
It would seem this thread has landed a troll. Alien isn't tense or scary?
Get the fuck out of here with that shit.
Get the fuck out of here with that shit.
SpoonyBard
Banned
But it's not even in 3D!
Lightning Count
Member
3D is a lame gimmick, a fad at best, before long it will be forgotten about again.
Chuckie
Member
SpoonyBard
Banned
Next you'll be telling we're going back to black and white.
SCULLIBUNDO
Banned
Just like widescreen.
Alien 3 is a classic. Lots of tense moments, like in Alien. Very happy they left behind the action stuff from Aliens. That's not what this fanchise should be about. They are not insects. Also fucking loved Prometheus.
Alien>Alien Isolation>Alien 3>>Aliens/Prometheus>>>>>>>>>>>>Alien Resurrection.
Alien>Alien Isolation>Alien 3>>Aliens/Prometheus>>>>>>>>>>>>Alien Resurrection.
MrCunningham
Member
The original Alien is still a striking movie to look at. The set designs and cinematography are first class and still hold up to this day. The pretty visuals are contrasted with a slobby and no so pretty crew of humans.
Alien 3 is just as visually impressive in many ways, nut it also took a different direction with its use of muted colours and grays. No denying that it is a great looking movie.
James Cameron's Aliens never really went for the grandiose camera work like the other two films. Cameron is a special effects specialist first and foremost and he designed his shots around the practical effects in the movie. He does succeed with this too and there is a nice transition between Ridley Scott's direction style to Cameron's in the first portion of the movie. The cinematography is not as good as Alien or Alien 3, but it is functional. But I still have a lot of respect for the way this movie was filmed, it's a great hallmark in physical on-set effects .The fact that they had it canned and in cinemas in such a short time frame after filming is impressive to me. It is really not something you will ever see with special effect films again.
Alien 3 is a great movie to look at, but at the same time it still does nothing for me. I have seen all the different cuts, and while I do prefer the Assembly cut, the movie itself just doesn't hit the right notes for me. Not in the same way Alien or Aliens did.
I would rank those two movies above Alien 3, but Resurrection below it.
IronicallyTwisted
Banned
Having seen Alien and Aliens recently its pretty clear Alien is the better movie. Its much, much better shot and the set design is impressive even by today's standards. Aliens looks grimy and dated the way so many 80's movies do - and the allusion to Vietnam doesn't work nearly as well and the tokophobia of the original.
Why? Because you prefer "happy end"? For me, the ending in Alien 3 was a perfect.
I'm sure someone says the same thing about Alien IV. That don't make it so.
Still that scene where the marines are in the underground searching for the survivors and seeing the alien reveal is one of the greatest moments in the series. Burke & Ripley being confronted with the horrible mess they walked into is an added bonus.
Damn I need to watch Aliens again.
Keep it that way.
- Status