I’m talking all the Alien franchise, so you can choose right up to the last Alien vs Predator movie, I don’t know what it’s called, it doesn’t exist to me, will never watch.
Er, my favourite is the first, it had the right amount of horror but also kept a nice sci fi atmosphere?
Aliens was more of an action film which definitely felt like a natural progression and it still had a dreamyness to it.
Alien 3 had nothing but gore and I don’t particuarly like how brash Ripley was, also it didn’t keep the original musical score of the previous two, it was just a completely different feel, not as flowing and a bit clunky. Alhough we did get to see more of the alien and how it moved, so I liked that. Plus we get to see human Bishop.
Really like Alien Resurrection because it goes back to same vein as Alien and Aliens I feel, also we got to see the consequences of the corporates getting hold of the alien…or maybe I like it because I’m a fan of Ripley and don’t really care too much how they work the aliens in.
Like them all but I and II are in a different street. I probably like Aliens the best - difficult to think of a better action film in the pre (serious) CGI era, and it’s not just an action film. Alien has the obvious cachet and originality that goes with the first in the series, though. Thought it held up really well when I saw it recently.
I really like the latter two but they’re more for fans of the series then superb films in their own right. III is cool for being full of British character actors - Brian Glover running the joint as warden. It’s years since I’ve seen IV but I recall it being very disappointing second half - it set stuff up really well but sort of lost its way IIRC. Not a real meaningful conclusion.
My enthusiasm for this series of films is such that I even enjoyed AvP - thought it was great tbh, just the right side of B-movie quality. The one after, though, was miserable. Like a slasher film from the late 70s.
*Aliens *was a great action flick chock-full of enjoyable characters, quotable lines and interesting gadgets: remote-controlled ships, sentry guns, the cool assault rifles, and the exo-skeleton loader. Really enjoyable.
I’ve seen a lot of hate for Alien Resurrection, but c’mon, Ron Perlman’s in it! Everything’s better with Ron Perlman! I thought it was the second-best one. *Alien *is traditionally #1 or #2 on everyone’s list, but I think it’s too slow-moving, and I find the characters to be boring. Even Harry Dean Stanton and Yaphet Kotto, capable actors though they are, don’t interest me.
So for me, it’s: Aliens
Alien Resurrection
Alien
Alien 3 threw out the best that survived from 2 - Hicks and Bishop (Carrie Henn was too big, they would’ve had to recast Newt, and she would’ve limited Ripley to her mama bear role again)- and nothing new they brought in interested me at all.
They Alien vs Terminator movies were worth watching for a little mindless fun, but not worth talking about.
I’d love to see an Alien vs. Terminator movie. I think you meant Alien vs. Predator.
Aliens is my favorite for the obvious reasons.
Second favorite is actually AvP. I liked the fights, the creature design and the massive Queen that actually gets into the action for a change. Also I’m not a big fan of splatter movies so I liked that the gore was toned down.
I thought AvP:R was going to be awesome (dudes with assault rifles versus hordes of aliens! Douchebags getting their faces melted off! A Predator version of Winston Wolf! Reiko Aylesworth!) but unfortunately it was a suckfest.
Alien was very good, but Aliens stepped it up a notch.
Three was almost a remake of the first, but without interesting/likeable characters to root for (and killing off Hicks and Newt was a slap in the face, with all the effort to save them in the second).
Resurrection was ok, but the formula was getting a little bit tired by then. Didn’t seen AvP with all the poor reviews.
Alien is brilliant both conceptually and visually, and on an intellectual basis should be first, but my heart belongs to Aliens. Still Cameron’s best film, IMO, and one of the greatest action films ever made.
For no good reason, I’ve never gotten round to seeing Alien3. Despite a Joss Whedon script and the aforementioned presence of Ron Perlman, Alien Resurrection sets my teeth on edge; hated the direction (the characters are mostly way too cartoonish for my taste) and the ugly production design.
My Wife and I both love Alien and Aliens. We watch ‘em a few times a year. “Oh, what movie is this hon?” :rolleyes: A very bad inside joke for us.
For myself, I have to go with Alien. I saw it in the theater when it first came out and really did not know what to expect. I love that they presented the Nostromo for what it was. A space going tug. It wasn’t all shinny chrome and Formica. Also, I had no idea who Sigourney Weaver was.
Ash: “Well, it’s an interesting combination of elements making him a… tough little son-of-a-bitch.”
Ripley: “And you let him in.”
Pulp Fiction was similar for me. I had not heard any hype about it at all. Ended up in the front row. That was a wild experience.
I like that Alien does not have nearly as many plot holes a Aliens does. Like why does the Sulaco have no crew? and Why did they bring the wieght of an extra dropship but no second flight crew? In Alien most issues like that are explained by the fact that these are contract miners being asked to do job way out of thier paygrade for which they have zero experience, so any stupid mistakes and missing information are things they would not have been expected to know. An experienced Marine expedition should have know better.
Definitely Alien, followed very closely by Aliens. And I think Alien³ is a flawed but ultimately interesting movie. And none of the rest of the movies are worth a shit.
Same here. Alien^3 pissed me off by negating the hard won victories of the previous movie. It wasn’t without it’s merits as a standalone film. But it always felt to me like someone had written a really interesting sci-fi indie script about a prison planet, and some Hollywood exec decided to try and shoehorn it into the Alien franchise for some reason.
(underlining mine)
I think that nearly everyone felt that way. You take the roller-coaster ride that is Aliens, cheer the survivors, and then you have the victory taken away. It not only hurt the third movie, but retroactively tainted the second movie. It’s a lesson in how not to do a sequel, and how to piss off the fans of a franchise. Interesting thought on the prison planet/Alien mashup, and it does feel that way, now that you mention it.
They should’ve had Hicks survive, had Bishop continue to be as broken as he was, and had Newt be the alien carrier. Would it have changed the movie substantially to have had Hicks in it? By the same token, it probably wouldn’t have made it much better, but it would have been a step in the right direction.
Without a doubt Aliens. It’s probably my favourite movie ever. Its certianly the movie I’ve watched most (triple figure viewings easily).
Alien I like, but of course its a totla different style of movie.
Alien 4 I hate. Can’t stand it.
Alien 3 is a strange one for me. On first release, I absolutely hated it with a passion. I think that was for two reasons:
because Hicks was my favourite character out of Aliens and having him killed ‘off-screen’ as it where annoyed the hell out of me.
I simply couldn’t get past the plot hole of there being at least two alien eggs on the Sulaco, and them hatching for no reason.
I’ve gotten over point 1 long ago, but I still think Point 2* is terrible and lazy storytelling, but if I let myself ignore that, the movie in and of itself is enjoyable.
The less said about the two AvP movies the better. They were both woeful. How do you screw up twice, a very simple premises of two iconic sci-fi alien creatures duking it out?
I don’t want to derail this thread, but Point 2 is a massive plothole and no one can convince me otherwise. There is simply no way it could have happened. You just have to accept that the script writers for Alien 3 were too lazy too think up a way to set up the movie they wanted to tell, without completely ignoring the previous movie.
