"Alien Quadrilogy" DVD box set

Let's hope Scott directs again. He's the only one who could deliver a good story AND possibly reason with Sigourney who can be the franchise's worst enemy next to the studio...

 

actually, just to revise my previous statement:

If you go to the ninth bonus disk, under Alien you will find the complete Laserdisk Archive. Thank god for this. Featured in here is the original deleted scenes, without their further director cut editing--for example, the Ripley Confronts Lamber scene originally used an alternate take and went on longer and the Cocoon scene was much more elaborate. But most importantly, it contains the original deleted/outtake footage not included on the Alien Bonus disk.

Bretts Extended Death is viewable in the "deleted scenes" chapter; the original longer shots of the Nostromo are available in the special effects section detailing the models; and finally Lamberts Extended Death scene is available under the chapter titled "alien".

So my fears that this wouldnt be the definitive Alien Archive were put to rest. The Laserdisk archives also contain additional unused/alternate takes.

Dont know why these scenes werent placed on the Alien Bonus Disk were they should be; at least we got them though, you just have to search for them.

 

I just picked up this set yesterday. Fantastic! I was psyched to hear a James Cameron director commentary on Aliens - since he's usually against doing them.

The extras are awesome, and I'm sure it will be springtime by the time I get to finishing them all.

I wasn't a big fan of the Alien films, but this great set might be the kicker for me.

 

It's said there will be a fifth and final Alien movie.

Yes, apparently Sigourney Weaver has signed on for a 5th Alien film, under the stipulation that Ripley dies a PERMANENT death in it.

Just out of curiosity, where did you find this tidbit? I hope that it is true. I also hope that this might possibly, beyond any shadow of hope be the film that Ridley Scott and James Cameron were going to do together. Small hope of that, since Cameron apparently told Fox that he wouldn't do another Alien film if they put out Alien vs. Predator.

Actually, I wouldn't even mind if they shot continuity all to heck and just continued the story from the shuttlecraft at the end of Aliens. I heard somewhere that Cameron was not too happy with Alien 3 killing off his characters before they had a chance to do anything else. I would love to see what he had planned for them.

 

Just out of curiosity, where did you find this tidbit? I hope that it is true. /i]

I'll try and re-locate the source. I think it was comingsoon.net, which is generally VERY reliable.

Actually, I wouldn't even mind if they shot continuity all to heck and just continued the story from the shuttlecraft at the end of Aliens.

It'll never happen.

I heard somewhere that Cameron was not too happy with Alien 3 killing off his characters before they had a chance to do anything else. I would love to see what he had planned for them.

Ever read any of the Aliens comics...?

 

Just the novelizations, but I believe this ground was hashed over a few pages ago.

But I can dream can't I?

 

just started watching it last night!

Great DVDs! Plus it was only 41 bucks at Costco.

5 dollars a DVD!

Aliens is by far the best of the series!


Aliens VS Predator coming next summer, looks good!

 

I got my copy for Christmas, so I got to open it today, and I sat around and watched Alien3 SE, and the alternate intro and ending for Alien Resurrection. I am VERY pleased so far.

 

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If you go to the ninth bonus disk, under Alien you will find the complete Laserdisk Archive. Thank god for this. Featured in here is the original deleted scenes, without their further director cut editing--for example, the Ripley Confronts Lamber scene originally used an alternate take and went on longer and the Cocoon scene was much more elaborate. But most importantly, it contains the original deleted/outtake footage not included on the Alien Bonus disk.

Bretts Extended Death is viewable in the "deleted scenes" chapter; the original longer shots of the Nostromo are available in the special effects section detailing the models; and finally Lamberts Extended Death scene is available under the chapter titled "alien".

So my fears that this wouldnt be the definitive Alien Archive were put to rest. The Laserdisk archives also contain additional unused/alternate takes.

Dont know why these scenes werent placed on the Alien Bonus Disk were they should be; at least we got them though, you just have to search for them.[/b][hr][/blockquote]And I, too, am profoundly grateful that Mr. de Lauzirika decided to include these two laserdisc supplements in this set, as their absence -- veritable film-schools-on-disc -- was a gaping, honking-wide hole in the previous "Legacy" collection.

To say nothing of those original, uncut deleted scenes contained within them. Now I can officially sell off my lasers. One of the other omissions from the main supplemental sections of the new set is the 1986 James Cameron interview featured on the laserdisc and the last DVD. Obviously, with all that's contained within the [i]Quadrilogy[/i], you really don't *miss* it...but it's still there in the laserdisc archives, regardless.

Kudos muchly to the producers.

 

My wife got this for Christmas. We watched the Alien3 "director's cut." It is almost like a new film. So much better than the original.

Also watched the Aliens commentary; very cool. I loved that they brought Carrie Henn back for her comments on the project.

Haven't worked my way into the extras discs yet. Still looking forward to that pleasure.

 

I am STILL waiting to get this.

Its supposed to be a late Christmas gift from the husband.

Just reading this thread and hearing everyones review, I can't wait to get my hands on it!

 

I watched 'Alien Resurrection' Special Edition today, and it's a LOT cooler than the original cut. Seeing the "Wal-Mart" and "disposeable guns" scenes was worth the price of admission for me, and the alternate ending was really cool. Johner wasn't kidding around when he says that Earth sucks.

I also played around with the A:R supplemental disc, which was really cool. I didn't have the time to watch all of the featurettes, but I watched two of them (the one about formulating the story, and the one about designing the Aliens and implementing the puppets and costumes for them) and went through some of the previsualization drawings for the characters, props, sets, and ships.
Good stuff.

 

David Giler seems to ride the "sour grapes" horse quite hard in the A:R documentaries, but it's a damned impressive arrangement, nonetheless. It's going to be difficult to top this set in the years to come, and at the moment it's probably rivalled only by the Lord of the Rings Extended Editions and the "Ultimate Edition" of T2. (And I'd also put the Criterion edition of Brazil in the same league, too.)

And correct -- I'd been hearing about the "Wal-Mart" line for years, as it turned up in the novelization and in other sources, from what I've read, but figured it wasn't something actually shot for the movie itself. Very interesting.

The extended cut adds much depth and texture and pathos to the movie, particularly in the scene where Ripley and Call discuss Newt in the chapel. Hard time seeing why these were scissored out, except maybe for Jeunet's not-entirely-unexpected Gallic attention to cinematic "pacing" concerns.

 

It's going to be difficult to top this set in the years to come, and at the moment it's probably rivalled only by the Lord of the Rings Extended Editions and the "Ultimate Edition" of T2.

Funny you should mention that...

As I see it, as a whole, the Alien DVD set is FAR superior to the T2 DVD individually, or any of the LotR extended DVDs individually. However, if I were to compile a boxed-set of all 3 LotR DVDs and compare it to the Alien Quadrilogy, or any one Alien film DVD pair and compare it to the T2 DVD, then they'd win out over the Alien DVDs in my opinion. See what I'm saying?

I spent today playing around with the supplemental discs for Aliens and Alien3, and those were very interesting. I loved on the Aliens disc in the "Queen vs Powerloader" featurette, one of the special effects guys talks about the test props for the Bishop upper-torso (after he's ripped in half by the Queen), and says "I know there's some test footage lying around... I wonder where it went?", and then the DVD plays the test footage he's talking about. At that moment, I knew the DVD set had been made FOR the fans.
On the Alien3 supplemental disc, I got big kicks out of the featurette about the wooden planet (I've read that script - I have a copy of it, along with the other 4 or 5 rejected Alien3 script drafts, such as the Twohy draft and the Anchorpoint Station draft, sitting on my harddrive if anyone's interested), and the time-lapse featurette was cool, too.

Tomorrow if I find some time, I'll mess around with the 'Alien' supplemental disc, and see what it's got. I've been spending a while playing around with my new Back to the Future trilogy DVD set, though, which is really cool.

I can only hope that if this Alien DVD set is a success, that maybe we'll get a US release of the really kickass Predator special edition DVD, especially with the AvP movie on the horizon.

 

...And here is the Japanese packaging for the Alien Quadrilogy set from Way Out East.

Hm:

[image=http://www.thedigitalbits.com/articles/miscgfx2/alienhead.jpg]

 

Holy crap. I am DEFINATELY impressed.

 

I'm sorry, but that is the collest DVD related hting I have ever seen in my life.

 

Anyone else having problems with their set? Out of the five discs I've watched so far, three have problems.

 

And here is the Japanese packaging...


Only in Japan?

Must....fight....urge....to.....whine.... D'OH!!!

 

Anyone else having problems with their set? Out of the five discs I've watched so far, three have problems.

I've gone through every disc, had no problems thus far.

 

Anyone else having problems with their set? Out of the five discs I've watched so far, three have problems.

I've had problems with the extras discs for Alien 3 and Resurrection. Both have many documentaries that, when selected, cause the discs to stop working on my player.

They work fine on my laptop, though.

 

That's why we thank all that is holy for system redundancy. I remember one day going through five dvd players (the old one, the new one, two pc's and finally the PS2 worked) trying to get one that would read the dvd.

I have not had any problems with my discs either.

Syntax, I'd be interested in getting a copy of those two alternate scripts that you mentioned. I'll pm you my email address, if that's alright?

 

From what I've heard regarding those defective disc pressings, it's more a regional issue in the continental United States than anything else.

Folks from out in my part of the country (the Midwest, out to the east coast) have reported very few to zero problems with their sets, whereas those who purchased the collection further west -- in Colorado, Texas, another guy in Utah, I believe it was -- have experienced the "defects" on at least two or three of the DVDs.

Depending on which warehouse yours shipped from to whichever retail center it was purchased, you might or might not have received a mispressed edition; from what I hear, Fox is working to redo most of these and get "corrected" copies out to the stores.

 

Syntax, I'd be interested in getting a copy of those two alternate scripts that you mentioned. I'll pm you my email address, if that's alright?

Well, there's a few more than two alternate scripts. More like 4 or 5. I Emailed you a few of the Alien3 ones, the early 'Alien' script, and the alternate 'Alien Resurrection' script.

 

Thanks, dude! These are sweet! This is reading material for the next couple of weeks.

Think I'll watch Resurrection SE tonight.





95 days and counting