The Alien Movies
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I saw a bit of Alien Resurrection again last night and it seemed to have got worse 
. Great as always to see Brad Dourif but why they thought it would be a good idea to turn Alien into a comedy I've no idea. The Aliens looked awful as well – too much like animals and nowhere near frightening enough to us or the characters.
. Great as always to see Brad Dourif but why they thought it would be a good idea to turn Alien into a comedy I've no idea. The Aliens looked awful as well – too much like animals and nowhere near frightening enough to us or the characters.
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Gonna be blunt, I don't like the Alien series, I don't find it to be strong or even entertaining. The first movie is well made, intense, beautiful and well paced but even that movie doesn't have a lot really that compels me to come back often.
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I've never been an Alien fan, even though Boom on Alien was in the 90s.
After years I watched sequels and I was disappointed, only later I saw original videos - they were much better.
After years I watched sequels and I was disappointed, only later I saw original videos - they were much better.
I have only seen Alien, Aliens, Alien VS. Predator and Prometheus but none of others. Out of those, the only ones I liked were Aliens and Prometheus.
The first Alien is not terrible, but I thought the characters were weak and did dumb things possibly, which brought it down for me, and feel that after the Alien is revealed, the movie becomes formulaic with the haunted house formula.
The first Alien is not terrible, but I thought the characters were weak and did dumb things possibly, which brought it down for me, and feel that after the Alien is revealed, the movie becomes formulaic with the haunted house formula.
I have only seen Alien, Aliens, Alien VS. Predator and Prometheus but none of others. Out of those, the only ones I liked were Aliens and Prometheus.
The first Alien is not terrible, but I thought the characters were weak and did dumb things possibly, which brought it down for me, and feel that after the Alien is revealed, the movie becomes formulaic with the haunted house formula.
The first Alien is not terrible, but I thought the characters were weak and did dumb things possibly, which brought it down for me, and feel that after the Alien is revealed, the movie becomes formulaic with the haunted house formula.
You liked Prometheus but felt the Alien characters acted irrational fashion? I'd say the former acted vastly moreso .
The original for me is still clearly the best film of the franchise and character does have a lot to do with that. Something I think most of the modern Alien films have tended to forget in favour of just focusing on the mythology. You have a superb cast building up characters in a very realistic fashion for me, that we don't plunge into over the top histrionics instantly and instead build up a view of these people are emotional distant careerists makes the climax much more effective.
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Yeah perhaps you have a point there, but I felt Prometheus had a lot more of a universe to offer than Alien and made up for it there. I also felt that Alien became formulaic in the last half where as Prometheus did not.
I didn't feel the characters were that built up in Alien though. I feel that remained too much the same throughout, without any change, and none of them were given difficult choices to make.
SPOILER
The only difficult choice was Ripley choosing not to let the others in, out of fear of contamination, but Ash just butts in and prevents her from having to live with such a dilemma. Where as at least in Prometheus, we have a similar situation where characters are forced to live with the harsh consequences, in comparison.
That's just how I felt the characters in Alien were weak, by not pushing them to their limits of difficult moral choices.
I didn't feel the characters were that built up in Alien though. I feel that remained too much the same throughout, without any change, and none of them were given difficult choices to make.
SPOILER
The only difficult choice was Ripley choosing not to let the others in, out of fear of contamination, but Ash just butts in and prevents her from having to live with such a dilemma. Where as at least in Prometheus, we have a similar situation where characters are forced to live with the harsh consequences, in comparison.
That's just how I felt the characters in Alien were weak, by not pushing them to their limits of difficult moral choices.
Prometheus definitely went formulaic in its second half, though. The first half was all exploration and existential pondering, but it quickly racks up a body count in its second half because of...aliens.
As for your other Alien remarks, I think you've brought them up before (they certain seem familiar), but I don't think we're meant to interpret that particular scene as some kind of moral dilemma since the film ultimately shows that Ripley was correct not to let Kane back onto the ship and that Ash overrode the choice because he has ulterior motives.
As for your other Alien remarks, I think you've brought them up before (they certain seem familiar), but I don't think we're meant to interpret that particular scene as some kind of moral dilemma since the film ultimately shows that Ripley was correct not to let Kane back onto the ship and that Ash overrode the choice because he has ulterior motives.
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I actually think the fundamental problem Prometheus and Covent have is that they look to introduce these grand sci fi concepts yet ultimately end up trying to revisit the "haughted house" style of the original without laying much groundwork.
To me the characters in the original are very well and subtly realised, a collection of burnt out space jockeys who are distanced from each other and overly career/money focused plus with undertones of sexual threat and class issues. The story I think ends up being more of a cautionary tale as they ill suited to working together, discover the same careerist mindset in others has traded there lives for profit and have to deal with the psychosexual space rape monster not to mention Ash trying to smother Ripley with a rolled up porn mag.
It doesn't rush its drama either like Covent did, the characters reaction to the situation builds up slowly and much more successfully for it. Ripley especially ends up being a much more effective protagonist for me by actually being shown to be tough/competent across most of the film before ending up a believably strung out mess by the end which isn't overly drawn out.
To me the characters in the original are very well and subtly realised, a collection of burnt out space jockeys who are distanced from each other and overly career/money focused plus with undertones of sexual threat and class issues. The story I think ends up being more of a cautionary tale as they ill suited to working together, discover the same careerist mindset in others has traded there lives for profit and have to deal with the psychosexual space rape monster not to mention Ash trying to smother Ripley with a rolled up porn mag.
It doesn't rush its drama either like Covent did, the characters reaction to the situation builds up slowly and much more successfully for it. Ripley especially ends up being a much more effective protagonist for me by actually being shown to be tough/competent across most of the film before ending up a believably strung out mess by the end which isn't overly drawn out.
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Prometheus definitely went formulaic in its second half, though. The first half was all exploration and existential pondering, but it quickly racks up a body count in its second half because of...aliens.
As for your other Alien remarks, I think you've brought them up before (they certain seem familiar), but I don't think we're meant to interpret that particular scene as some kind of moral dilemma since the film ultimately shows that Ripley was correct not to let Kane back onto the ship and that Ash overrode the choice because he has ulterior motives.
As for your other Alien remarks, I think you've brought them up before (they certain seem familiar), but I don't think we're meant to interpret that particular scene as some kind of moral dilemma since the film ultimately shows that Ripley was correct not to let Kane back onto the ship and that Ash overrode the choice because he has ulterior motives.
Alien borrows from Jaws and Star Wars, and combines it with the routine formula of Halloween or Texas Chainsaw Massacre with the final girl cliche in the end, or that is how at least I saw it.
Perhaps Prometheus did, I will have to watch it again. I have only seen it once compared to Alien. I guess on a first viewing I found Prometheus to be more redeemable in it's flaws, cause it had a more interesting sci-fi story to tell, where as I felt Alien was more of a basic routine monster/haunted house story, if that make sense.
Alien borrows from Jaws and Star Wars, and combines it with the routine formula of Halloween or Texas Chainsaw Massacre with the final girl cliche in the end, or that is how at least I saw it.
Alien borrows from Jaws and Star Wars, and combines it with the routine formula of Halloween or Texas Chainsaw Massacre with the final girl cliche in the end, or that is how at least I saw it.
Any monster movie could be said to borrow from another monster movie though.
As for Star Wars, the physical look of Alien as inspired by Star Wars. That "used future" aesthetic.
Mentioning Halloween though? It's got nothing in common with it unless you're on about the invincible villain theme. In that case though, again this is something that has been around in monster/horror movies for ages... and Halloween and Alien were both filmed at the same time, so it's not exactly fair to say Alien copied it.
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Resident Evil: Retribution was my one-pointer
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Well the reason why I mentioned Halloween is cause when I had this conversation, they said that Alien was original for having a female protagonist for a monster movie, and that made me think that that was not original since the final girl had already been done in Halloween and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. So I felt they borrowed the final girl thing as well.
I happen to think Alien is quite good, my second favourite horror film after Eraserhead. The movie does a good job of characterizing everyone without really delving into their backgrounds; come to think of it, we don’t really learn about the characters, even Ripley, but they certainly feel real due to the things they converse about and their reactions to the events that follow when **** inevitably hits the fan.