OK, so they’re rereleasing this sci-fi/horror classic. This movie is wonderful, often very scary, and H.R. Giger’s artistic input combined with some very careful directorial work more than makes up for the limited special effects capabilities that they had at the time. In fact, in many ways it beats the hell out of recent fake-looking digital effectstravaganzas as far as how scary the big bad thing is.
This is precisely my point. The reason the movie is so scary is that for the most part they refuse to show you the damned alien, and you’re left feeling just as scared as the crew, with only quick glimpses of whatever the hell it is that’s going after them. When you finally get to see it, that moment is very, very cool. Anyway, the schmucks in charge PUT THE ALIEN RIGHT IN THE FUCKING TRAILER!! I couldn’t believe it! That kills so much of the scare value of the movie right there.
Come on, that scene when the chains are swinging, and the shadows are all moving, and the guy’s all like “Jonesy?” and you see that tail just sort of curl up and move out of sight and you’re all like “Oh my god what the fuck was that thing” and then…
Are you telling me that scene would have been nearly as cool if you had already seen the alien the first time you saw it? Pisses me right off, it does.
Oh come on, its not like we hadnt seen the alien in the three sequels and several video games that have happened since the original movie was released, you already know how it looks.
I hadn’t actually thought about that - I suppose the studio is working under the assumption that people who want to go see the director’s cut have already seen the movie.
Still, I see your point, and sympathize. Close Encounters of the Third Kind has always been a favorite of mine, and when they re-released it in 1998 as a Collector’s Edition VHS (and similarly when it came out on DVD a couple years ago), they put images of the gigantic mothership on the cover. This irked me, because part of the fun of seeing the movie for the first time is being awed by the mothership!
Now THAT’S a movie I would love to see re-released in the theatres. I missed it the first time around - wasn’t alive yet - so I’d like to see it on the big screen.
I haven’t really seen any of the movies, and I still know what the alien in Alien looks like. I think at this point it’s a bit of a cultural thing; we’ve seen so many pictures/action figures of it that it isn’t gonna surprise us all that badly.
On a bit of a tangent, how long is it going to be in theaters for?
It isn’t as stupid as the travesty currently pulled by 20th Century Fox on the cover of the current DVD release of the original Planet of the Apes. Damn them all to hell!
Nothing can beat showing Gandalf alive in the Two Towers trailers.
My friend, who had never read the books, turned to me after seeing that and uttered the immortal words, “I hope whoever made that is found dead masturbating to animal porn.”
Honorable mention goes to Darth Maul’s lightsabre in episode 1. There’s all this dramatic music and the movie seems to make a huge deal out of the [gasp]second blade on his lightsabre[/gasp]…
…which would’ve been neat, except everyone and anybody had already seen the stupid double sabre in magazines, newspapers, promo posters, cereal boxes, Halloween costumes, and boxes of jawa-flavored condoms.
When Alien first came out, I didn’t even want to see it. The posters and the trailers made it look boring. A friend of mine talked me into seeing it and MAN! Was I surprised! It was awesome!
It’s been a long, long time since a movie left any surprises out of the trailer. Some trailers are so damn long I feel like I’ve seen the damn movie.
The trailer’s stilll not as bad as, say, putting the Statue of Liberty on the cover of Planet of the Apes. Everyone knows there’s a daggummed alien somewhere in Alien.
If you don’t know what the xenomorph looks like yet, you’ve been living in a cave. I mean, even if you’re not that big a fan of the series, Aliens is touted as the best sci-fi action film by a lot of people, and when Alien: Ressurection came out, the xenomorph was all over the trailers. Plus, the movie’s been out for nearly thrity years…how long are movies supposed to keep things a secret?
I can understand people being upset at having some aspect of a movie being spoiled for them if the movie’s fairly recent, but people throwing a shitfit because someone spilled “Rosebud is his sled” need to get a life. I can understand someone feeling that way about a movie that they’d like to share with their kids, who are too young to have seen a movie they wouldn’t have normally chosen to go see themselves, and you want to share something of your youth with them. But if a movie’s been on video for over a year, and you still haven’t gotten around to seeing it, then you don’t deserve to be “suprised”. And if it’s been out for 25 years…I mean, come on!
And for all those Lord of the Rings fans out there still upset about them revealing Gandalf’s return in The Two Towers trailer, what’s the big deal? You’ve already read the books, you know he comes back, why the big shock? I can understand Dark Prince’s friend being upset, but it seems to be most of the hard core fans who were upset by this the most. Why?
You know, even when Alien was first released, there wasn’t a huge amount of secrecy – they published a picture of the xenomorph in Newsweek as soon as the flick came out. A lot of people complained, but it was a done thing by then.
I agree about the Trailers Giving It All Away thing – some trailers should be burned. They show scenes from the end of the movie, telegraphing that key scenes haven’t happened yet, or that some character really hasn’t died, or even giving a totally false inmpression about the film.
Sometimes the trailer company cares, or else the producers of the original flick retain control, as happened with the original trailers for Back to the Future. Or Alien, for that matter.
Because die-hard fans are all insane. Star Wars die-hards, LOTR die-hards, Harry Potter die-hards (of which I am one) are all completely and totally damned loony. Don’t ever trust them to be remotely sane about that which they love.
[hijack]Why did the Director’s Cut not get widely released? I don’t care about the trailer, but I wanted to take my husband to see the rerelease, but because it didn’t come out anywhere in driving range, he won’t get to see it. It’s his favorite movie, too… :mad: [/hijack]
…not to mention, H. R. Giger’s Alien concept is one of the most influential–and most copied–designs of all time. Even if someone hadn’t seen the Alien itself, to be wowed by it in the movie, they would have to have been sheltered from all the numerous rip-offs.
:mad: [/hijack]