Amph On Earth, Everyone Can Hear You Scream: The Prometheus / Alien Discussion Thread (Romulus)

Awesome really. Good grief, he just tore her apart. David essentially became Geiger.

 

Hell , I'll see any Ridley Scott SF movie , but I really don't know what the point of that last movie was .

 

If you paid money to see it, that was the point.

 

The Blu Ray also has more than a few nifty extra features, the main ones were released online as Last Supper and the Shaw / David bit (which really should have been in the movie) but I like the extra stuff, basically it's a message from David to Weyland Yutani that takes place after the film, David admits he's looking at making Daniels his "Queen". And there's a nifty bit of the crew undergoing psychological testing that is nicely random.

Scott saying that he basically just wants to make David: The Wacky Android movie as a sequel is cool. Covenant may be the closest to an Alien origin that we get but it's really more about "How David went nuts and made a bunch of monsters". I'd argue it's more about him than anything, and he doesn't show up until about 30 minutes in.

 

I love Alien: Covenant
And the blu ray is awesome.
Great special features. Ridley is the man.

Find it hard to believe this wasn't a bigger hit, but I guess it's too scary for most movie fans to handle or something.

It's certainly one of the best films of its type to be released in awhile. Same with Prometheus. Both films are gangbusters.

 

By “of its type” do you literally only mean Alien movies that don’t star Sigourney Weaver? Because otherwise I’m struggling with calling this hot garbage “one of the best.”

 

No. By "of its type" I meant genre.

Alien: Covenant and Prometheus are two of the best films to be released in this genre for awhile. That's what I meant.

As for the franchise(s), my top 5 are:
1. Alien
2. Predator
3. Aliens
4. Alien: Covenant
5: Prometheus

How about you?

 

1. Aliens
2. Alien

Honestly you should stop at this point. If you inisist, Resurrection and the original AvP are sort of watchable in that order.

 

This, except swap 1 and 2.

 

Honestly, not really.

1. Alien
2. Predator
3. Aliens
4. Alien: Covenant
5. Prometheus
6. Resurrection
7. Predators
8. Alien 3
9. AvP
10. Predator 2
11. AvP: Requiem

 

I like Alien the best of the films because of the horror aspect of it and how it invented the biology and physiology of the Xenomorph; from the egg, face-hugger, gestation period, birth and adulthood. Alien combines the aspects of horror and science fiction so well. And the tagline sets up the mood of the film extremely well in that "In space no one can hear you scream." And because the horror element of Alien, I have more of an emotional connection to the film.

Aliens and Predator are pretty much typical 80's blockbuster film.

The rest of the franchise films are either trying to recreate the magic or just trying milk the cash cow of the franchise.

 

If we're going to toss Predator franchise in here, honestly, the 1st Predator is a shockingly great film. Even the "Arnie and squad quipping while blowing up mercs" portion which actually works well because A) it has some great quips "you're hit! You're bleeding!" "Don't got time to bleed" B) it sets up these guys as sort of a typical 80s unbeatable action hero squad. Then the Predator shows up and does horrible, horrible things to each of them one at a time. And still there's some fantastic bits throughout the back half of the film with everyone going crazy in various ways. "Gonna have me some fun!"

 

Yeah, I mean this is one of those things that can go either way, depending on your film tastes (and which decade of films you prefer cinema from, the 70s or 80s). If Fincher were allowed to have his own vision of Alien3 then that might even be in there too.

But realistically, like all good arguments, there are cases to be made both ways -- like The Godfather / The Godfather, Part 2 or Star Wars / The Empire Strikes Back... unlike AvP, no matter who wins the above fight -- we win, because both are amazing.

 

ESB is a terrible film.

 

What's with this "Stop with Aliens" poppycock? There's still two spellbinding hours of Charles Dance, Charles S. Dutton, and Sigourney Weaver acting their tails off.

Alien (Haunted house horror)
Aliens (War epic)
Alien 3 (Existential gothica)

Best trilogy ever.

 

Alien 3 is some weird dystopian thing about sex offenders on a prison colony or something. No one in their right mind wants to watch that.

 

Alien 3 was a deliberate 'back to basics' movie following the military hardware porn of Aliens.

 

The 2003 Special Edition (Restored Workprint Version) of Alien 3 is the best version, imo. After seeing this one, I won't watch the theatrical any time soon.

I do prefer the theatrical version of Alien though, as this is not only the best film in the franchise, it is one of the best films of all time. Equal to any SW film in quality.

I still haven't watched James Cameron's 1991 Special Edition of Aliens. I love the original so much, never bothered to watch the SE.

Anybody know if it is substantially different than the 1986 theatrical cut?

 

The2ndQuest

Thanks! Well, apparently I've been watching the SE all along as I am very familiar with all of those scenes. Silly me. Ok, so now I need to rewatch the theatrical lol.

 

JabbaWocky: One of the things I love about Alien 3 is that the motivation of the core characters is no longer survival, but to take the Alien and the Company into the abyss with them. Many people find the movie insufferably bleak, but I find it all rather inspiring. Life is a losing proposition: the only victory we can draw is to die with meaning and a measure of grace. Consequently, Ellen Ripley is granted a death more noble and majesterial than any film genre hero. I'm glad we got this intimate apocalyptic tale than the Aliens vs. the Earth crap so many were hankering for.

Re: Aliens: Special Edition. I'm not a fan of most of the new scenes (the Ripley/daughter revelation is too on-the-nose, and the colonist material undermines the intricate buildup), but the sentry gun scenes are incredible. So incredible that it bewilders me why Cameron expunged them from the theatrical--they're as deliriously tense as anything in the movie.