The ALIEN FRANCHISE Appreciation thread.

[Nick1Ø66 4,714]

 

5 hours ago, Jay said:

Check out this bitchin' pick of the ALIENS premiere 35 years ago today

 

 

They mostly come out at night.

Spoiler

Mostly.

 

[SteveMc 2,674]

The franchise ends for me with Aliens.  What comes after is overblown and ridiculous.  

[MrJosh 892]

8 hours ago, Jay said:

Check out this bitchin' pick of the ALIENS premiere 35 years ago today

 

Great photo. I really need to get that suit Paul Reiser is wearing. 

[crumbs 14,313]

Sigourney looks huge!

[MrJosh 892]

Jeanette Goldstein, looking radiant..."oh Vasquez, you're just too bad!"

 

...and Bill Paxton looking like he's lost in the background there. 

 

No Horner...he was probably too pissed after having to stay up all night to rewrite Bishop's Countdown at the last second. 

[Sweeping Strings 2,358]

Ahhh, the 80s. Reiser and Cameron looking like they've wandered in from an episode of Miami Vice there. 

[Smeltington 1,440]

9 hours ago, crumbs said:

Sigourney looks huge!

 

She looks like your avatar!

[crumbs 14,313]

2 minutes ago, Smeltington said:

 

She looks like your avatar!

 

I don't see the resemblance.

[Nick1Ø66 4,714]

Even allowing that this is the 80s, the way Paul Reiser rolls up his sleeves in that photo reveals him to be both a deeply insecure and way too eager to please man.

[crumbs 14,313]

6 minutes ago, Nick1Ø66 said:

Even allowing that this is the 80s, the way Paul Reiser rolls up his sleeves in that photo reveals him to be both a both deeply insecure and way too eager to please man.

 

Pfft, well he's mad about you!

[A24 4,331]

Was Paul Reiser's look meant to be hyper futuristic?  Scott's Alien is way older and yet looks more timeless (and fresher).

[crumbs 14,313]

43 minutes ago, AC1 said:

Was Paul Reiser's look meant to be hyper futuristic?  Scott's Alien is way older and yet looks more timeless (and fresher).

 

From memory even Cameron conceded the costume tweaks to suits in the early boardroom scenes didn't really age as hoped.

[A24 4,331]

Cameron should have cast Andrew McCarthy as well.

 

 

Hi, Ripley! I'm from 'The Company". I'm here to replace Mr. Burke. 

[Koray Savas 2,251]

On 5/26/2021 at 6:14 PM, Marian Schedenig said:

Still the best use of this meme, for me:

 

Also fond of this:

[A24 4,331]

New art book for Aliens:

 

[crumbs 14,313]

Kinda weird choice of composition for a front cover, not gonna lie.

 

One of those less is more situations. 

[A24 4,331]

I like it. What would you have done? 

[crumbs 14,313]

The Sulaco sticking out of Ripley's neck is just weird to me. I probably would've ditched Ripley off the cover entirely.

[A24 4,331]

That would have worked too but it doesn't bother me. My mind knows there isn't a giant Ripley in space (plus having the main character on the cover probably helps to sell the book). So you think there's too much on the cover then? I think it's a balanced composition with everything in the right place. I would have green-lighted it as well. 

[crumbs 14,313]

Yeah I think it just looks like 3 disconnected elements cobbled together without much design flow, that's all.

 

But design is a matter of taste, of course!

[A24 4,331]

Disconnected? It's a book about the design of the aliens, the characters and the tech ... all represented on the cover!

 

 

[Holko 9,526]

10 minutes ago, AC1 said:

all represented on the cover!

But put together badly!

[A24 4,331]

11 minutes ago, Holko said:

But put together badly!

 

Well, of course, it's put together, it's not one drawing, but I don't mind. The three elements look good and they are spaced out nicely.

 

This is much worse:

 

[Thor 7,503]

Worse in the sense of worse drawn, yes. But much better in terms of balance.

[crumbs 14,313]

Yeah lol, compositionally that's actually a much better piece of artwork 

[Tallguy 3,386]

On 14/07/2021 at 8:21 AM, Jay said:

Check out this bitchin' pic of the ALIENS premiere 35 years ago today

 

 

Late to the party.

 

People are commenting on Reiser and Cameron. Nobody is mentioning Mark Rolston's suit? Or Michael Biehn?

 

Paxton looks so YOUNG. And putting Weaver anywhere near Jennette Goldstein is like putting Scarlett Johansson next to Karen Gillan. Who is the guy to the right of Weaver?

 

Alien and Aliens are obviously classics. Alien 3 is probably pretty amazing, but it spends all of the audience good will in the first scene when it kills Newt and Hicks. It could be brilliant after that but we don't care anymore.

 

I haven't seen Alien 4 since I watched it in the cinema. But my recollection is: First 30 minutes "This is amazing!" second 30 "This is really good" third 30 "Um, this is not good anymore" and the last 30 "Wow, this is terrible!"

 

I own all four on blu ray and I've mostly watched Alien. And occasionally Aliens. I should watch the work cut or whatever it's called of Alien3.

 

Prometheus. Sorry, I know it was trying to be deep. But Alien is smart first so it manages a kind of depth. Prometheus is stupid (really really stupid) so I don't care if it's deep or not. I will say that between X-Men First Class and Prometheus that Michael Fassbender has never been better.

 

I haven't bothered to see anything else. Although I've played Alien: Isolation until it got too scary for me to continue. Wow.

[rough cut 1,714]

Nothing beats Alien, but in my opinion, Alien 3 beats Aliens.

[Thor 7,503]

3 minutes ago, rough cut said:

Nothing beats Alien, but in my opinion, Alien 3 beats Aliens.

 

Gutsy opinion! I respect it, even if I disagree with it. And I'm a big ALIEN 3 supporter (I consider it the 14th best film of the entire 90s).

[rough cut 1,714]

Yeah, I thought I would see who I could provoke. ☺️

 

Honest opinion though. 😊

[Tallguy 3,386]

5 hours ago, rough cut said:

Yeah, I thought I would see who I could provoke. ☺️

 

Honest opinion though. 😊

 

I can totally see someone having it. And that score!

 

Like so many people here, when I hear the 20th Century Fox Fanfare a part of my brain says "Star Wars". So when that last note holds and then crashes it's like my mom walked into the room and instead of giving me cookies pulls a knife on me. I knew at that moment that I was in for something and boy was I right.

[A24 4,331]

Tom Skerritt celebrates his 89th birthday!

 

[Bespin 8,481]

I Just purchased the two first movies in BluRay.

 

 

[A24 4,331]

Alien looks beautiful on Blu-ray. It's a work of art, literally.

[Bespin 8,481]

I remember it on VHS on old TVs... it was a mess of shades of black and white ghosts.

[Naïve Old Fart 9,524]

2 hours ago, AC1 said:

Tom Skerritt celebrates his 89th birthday!

 

I'll watch A RIVER RUNS THROUGH IT, in celebration, later.

 

 

 

1 hour ago, AC1 said:

Alien looks beautiful on Blu-ray. It's a work of art, literally.

It always was 

[Nick1Ø66 4,714]

1 hour ago, Bespin said:

I Just purchased the two first movies in BluRay.

 

 

Then you have them all.

[Bespin 8,481]

3 minutes ago, Nick1Ø66 said:

Then you have them all.

 

This is what I said to myself. I was hesitating between buying these two titles separately or buying the 6-films boxset.

 

Good taste won!

[crumbs 14,313]

I'm surprised Aliens hasn't been remastered in 4K yet.

 

I'd be curious to see what restoration could be done on that grainy negative with modern tech. The Bluray looks fantastic of course, even if it was graded with modern teal/orange sensibilities.

[Nick1Ø66 4,714]

My understanding is James Cameron has been a little busy.

 

We still haven’t even gotten a Blu-Ray of The Abyss (though supposedly 4K remasters of both films have been completed).

[A24 4,331]

1 hour ago, Nick1Ø66 said:

Then you have them all.

 

I remember vehemently hating Alien 3 and Alien Resurrection when they were released in theatres. And I still hated them upon rewatching them on home media. Needless to say, I expected to hate them when I bought the Alien Blu-ray box movies contaiing all 4 movies. Well, I still didn't see the light when it comes to Fincher's disowned movie but much to my surprise I somehow had fun with Jeunet's Metal Hurlant-esque caricatured take on the Alien universe.

 

1 hour ago, Naïve Old Fart said:

It always was 

 

Home media releases didn't always do it justice.

[Naïve Old Fart 9,524]

3 minutes ago, AC1 said:

I remember vehemently hating Alien 3 and Alien Resurrection when they were released in theatres. And I still hated them upon rewatching them on home media. Needless to say, I expected to hate them when I bought the Alien Blu-ray box movies contaiing all 4 movies. Well, I still didn't see the light when it comes to Fincher's disowned movie but much to my surprise I somehow had fun with Jeunet's Metal Hurlant-esque caricatured take on the Alien universe.

I was exactly the opposite. I loved ALIEN ³, and hated ALIEN RESURRECTION.

Now I see the dry humour in AR, and I appreciate its technical aspects, but I can't say that I've grown to love it.

ALIEN ³, on the other hand, was, is, and always shall be, my favourite Alien film.

 

 

6 minutes ago, AC1 said:

Home media releases didn't always did it justice.

Indeed. There's nothing like seeing it in 70mm. Right, Alex? 

[A24 4,331]

9 minutes ago, Naïve Old Fart said:

Indeed. There's nothing like seeing it in 70mm. Right, Alex? 

 

I did see the 70mm (blowup) version. Same for Star Wars and Blade Runner. You'd think because of the blowup process the IQ would suck but all three looked great. Of course, 2001: ASO was genuine 70mm.

 

9 minutes ago, Naïve Old Fart said:

 

ALIEN ³, on the other hand, was, is, and always shall be, my favourite Alien film.

 

 

[Nick1Ø66 4,714]

30 minutes ago, AC1 said:

I expected to hate them when I bought the Alien Blu-ray box movies containing all 4  5  6  7  8 movies.

Fixed.

[rough cut 1,714]

I love Alien 3.

[A24 4,331]

I would have disowned it too. I'm allergic to it.

[rough cut 1,714]

Why? It’s not by any means perfect, but I really can’t see any fault bright forward that I agree with - not any that I think calls for it being disavowed anyway.

 

Curious for real. 😊

[Naïve Old Fart 9,524]

I love ALIEN ³'s religious overtones, and the fact that, after three times the heroine, the filmmakers had the chutzpah to kill-off Ripley.

[Naïve Old Fart 9,524]

3 hours ago, AC1 said:

I would have disowned it too. I'm allergic to it.

You've got to like the score though, right?

[Tallguy 3,386]

I didn't hate 3 when I saw it. I don't watch it much but I certainly see value to it. There is almost no point to 4. I liked the beginning but by the end it goes so far off the deep end that I can't even watch it again.

 

1 and 2 are masterpieces.

[Nick1Ø66 4,714]

31 minutes ago, Tallguy said:

I didn't hate 3 when I saw it. I don't watch it much but I certainly see value to it. There is almost no point to 4. I liked the beginning but by the end it goes so far off the deep end that I can't even watch it again.

 

1 and 2 are masterpieces.

 

Aliens is a lot like Terminator in that way...two classic films followed by seriously diminishing returns. There's only so many ways you can tell the same story.

 

On 15/7/2021 at 1:04 AM, SteveMc said:

The franchise ends for me with Aliens.