What's your favourite "Alien" movie?

[Elendil_s_Heir]

Aliens was best. A kickass sf/military action film with strong horror overtones, a great cast, endlessly quotable dialogue, etc. One of the best sf action movies ever.

Alien was a close second for me. It started the franchise, of course, and set the tone and ground rules (many of which, esp. as to the xenomorphs’ reproduction, were of course defenestrated later). A fine, chilling haunted-house picture.

The other movies, alas, were disappointments for six or seven reasons each. I’ve seen them all except for the most recent, AvP Requiem.

[Jophiel]

@CalMeacham

Cameron, as ever the SF fan, tried to bring some consistency to the life cycle, giving us an Alien Queen to lay the eggs and requiring face-huggers for implantation. But subsequent directors chucked all that out of the airlock.

Given that it was Cameron’s queen who supposedly laid the eggs, I can’t really buy into it. I understand your explanation for it but in terms of movie enjoyment and suspending belief, it’s just a mess and gets the movie off to a giant stumble right out of the gate.

@kingpengvin

It is a fun movie, I won’t argue that. But as far as the franchise goes it isn’t as strong as people place it.

It was a fun movie. Alien wasn’t as “fun” but did well on the strength of its suspense. The later movies lacked both the same fun or suspense and deserve to be ranked low.

[CalMeacham]

Given that it was Cameron’s queen who supposedly laid the eggs, I can’t really buy into it. I understand your explanation for it but in terms of movie enjoyment and suspending belief, it’s just a mess and gets the movie off to a giant stumble right out of the gate.

I simply don’t understand what it is you’re trying to say here.

To my mind the Cameron film hangs together wonderfully. There’s no “giant stumble right out of the gate” that I can see. And nothing impedes my suspension of disbelief or my movie enjoyment.*

Alien, on the other hand, is filled with holes and nonsequiturs that make it impossible for me to enjoy.

*By the way, it’s not necessarily so that the Alien Queen has been in the bowels of that Other Alien ship laying eggs. I always assumed that the Queen is newly hatched and developed from one of the eggs the colonists stumbled onto. So she probably didn’t lay the eggs that they stumbled onto in the first movie.

[marshmallow]

@CalMeacham

Whence comes this information? AFAIK it’s not explained in the movie. And how does someone change into an egg?

Deleted scenes. Fridge logic is involved.

Alien is good, but I feel it hasn’t aged very well. The pacing feels pretty slow. Aliens is still incredibly watchable, plus it has sooo many great quotes. Where would video games be without it?

Game over, man, game over!

I say we take off and nuke the entire site from orbit. It’s the only way to be sure.

Hey Vasquez, have you ever been mistaken for a man?
No. Have you?

I guess she don’t like the cornbread either.

Who’s Snow White?

Drop your linen and start your grinnin’ – I found 'em.

How do I get out of this chicken-shit outfit?

Hey maybe you haven’t been keepin’ up on current events but we just got our ASSES KICKED, PAL!

Frost: It’s hot as hell in here.
Hudson: Yeah, but it’s a dry heat.

Stay frosty!

We’re in the pipe, five by five

We’re in for some chop

I like to keep this for close encounters.

Ripley: They cut the power!
Hudson: What do you mean THEY cut the power? How can they cut the power, man, they’re animals!

Hudson: Man, this floor is freezing.
Apone: What do you want me to do, fetch your slippers for you?
Hudson: Gee, would you sir? I’d like that.
[widens eye with middle finger]
Apone: Look into my eye.

I am ready man, check it out, I am the ULTIMATE bad ass! State-of-the-bad-ass-art. You do not want to fuck with me. Check it out! Hey Ripley, don’t worry. Me and my squad of ultimate bad-asses will protect you. Check it out! Independently targeting particle beam phalanx…FWAP! Fry half a city with this puppy. We got tactical smart missiles, phase plasma pulse rifles, RPGs, we got sonic, electronic, BALL breakers! We got nukes, we got knives, sharp sticks…

[Jophiel]

@CalMeacham

I simply don’t understand what it is you’re trying to say here.

To my mind the Cameron film hangs together wonderfully. There’s no “giant stumble right out of the gate” that I can see. And nothing impedes my suspension of disbelief or my movie enjoyment

I think you misunderstood me (or I did a poor job of quoting you to put my remarks in context).

The second film did a good job of establishing the egg cycle. The third movie hangs upon the actions in the second movie. But what we’re asked to accept in movie #3 regarding the eggs seems very improbable when set against what we learned in movie #2.

In other words, even if the directors in later films tossed the “biology” for their own reasons, because #3 is linked to #2, I can’t really buy into it when watching #3. I have no issue with Aliens and think it’s a great film. It’s Alien3 that I think stumbles.

[Face_Intentionally_Left_Blank]

@Evil_Captor

Aliens is the best watch. But Alien comes in close second for its strong science fiction theme and for introducing the Aliens and Ripley. Alien 3 is the worst of the franchise, even worse than the second AVP movie, because it’s a dull prison planet story, and of course fucked with fans’ expectations in a bad way. The notion that it is a mashup of someone’s indie script about a prison planet and Aliens feels very, very right. And you gotta wonder if a certain amount of its terribleness was just Wheedon being a snarky bastard. (I notice Wheedon fans have a way of missing out on Aliens3 when they talk about their idol. heh.)

Alien Resurrection*, the fourth movie, was Whedon’s script, and yes, I know your point still stands. You’ll note my disagreement upthread, but opinions vary.

[Valgard]

Alien is one of the best horror movies made, IMHO. I have a special place for it in my heart because my folks refused to let me see it when it came out (I was about 8), I snuck in with some friends, had to leave early and had nightmares for weeks afterwards and would turn on the lights and check the ceiling of rooms before I walked in. I think it still holds up quite well - for the people who think it’s “too slow”, sure it is compared to modern movies which appear to be made for an attention span of 12 seconds. I like that there are quiet, tense moments where you have to think about what’s going on and then sudden interludes of complete, evil, terror.

Aliens is one of the best action and sci-fi moves made, Cameron in top form. Saw it opening night on a huge screen in a packed theatre and everybody was absolutely blown away. Also still holds up extremely well - I throw both movies in once in a while, and some of my movie geek friends and I watch them now and then, still good for repeat viewing.

The rest of the various movies with “Alien(s)” in the title have just sucked and don’t bear watching, most especially the idiotic AVP films.

[interface2x]

@Bryan_Ekers

Aliens, by a margin wider than an eight-lane freeway.

Definitely. My mom took me to see this for my 9th birthday and I loved it so much, I dragged my dad to see it. They were kinda lax on that whole “movie rating” thing.

[DWMarch]

@CalMeacham

The Alien vs. Predator films seem to me just pointless exercises in gross-out depictions. Time has no meaning, with face-huggers implanting Alien babies only hours before adults emerge. They want to have both gross ends of the life cycle depicted without any of the annoying delay, so it’s pretty clear their goal is to squick out the audience. I can do without either of them.

If I may engage in some mild fanwankery here for a moment:

There are theories that the aliens are some advanced race’s bioweapon system. We’ve also seen that the alien takes on characteristics of the host, suggesting its genetics are flexible. So my fanwank is that the Predators in AvP brought along fast-breeding facehuggers because they don’t want to sit around polishing their staffs while waiting for the chestbursters to hatch.

If examined realistically, the alien life cycle is kind of impossible anyhow. It goes from being inches tall to being several feet tall without ever eating any kind of food.

[outlierrn]

@DWMarch

If examined realistically, the alien life cycle is kind of impossible anyhow. It goes from being inches tall to being several feet tall without ever eating any kind of food.

Careful, once you start down this path, forever will it dominate your movie reviews.

[Elendil_s_Heir]

The usual fanwank is that the alien on the Nostromo nibbled on Kane as it emerged, and then pillaged rations stored belowdecks before ambushing Brett.

[Valgard]

@Elendil_s_Heir

The usual fanwank is that the alien on the Nostromo nibbled on Kane as it emerged, and then pillaged rations stored belowdecks before ambushing Brett.

Alan Dean Foster’s novelization addresses this point, he has the critter breaking into a rations locker and pigging out, helping answer the “How’d it get that big so fast” question.

I’ve got one of the special edition DVDs which has the scenes that were cut from the original theatrical release including the one of Ripley finding Dallas being turned into an egg and begging her to kill him.

[CanvasShoes]

Aliens… Definitely.

[Walker_in_Eternity]

@Acorns.but_not_Bacon

A
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.
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.

I’m in your camp, Alien was the best, even though it had many plot holes, but I was one of the few who really enjoyed Resurrection. Like you said it was a welcome return to the feel of the original, plus I loved the crew of the Betty. Who wouldn’t want an android version of Winona Ryder?

[GreedySmurf]

@Elendil_s_Heir

The usual fanwank is that the alien on the Nostromo nibbled on Kane as it emerged, and then pillaged rations stored belowdecks before ambushing Brett.

I’ve got a book called the Colonial Marines Technical Manual which is quite a good read actually. Obviously it is based off Aliens without any of the later movies.

In the book there is a theory presented as coming from a WY scientist, that the Aliens may actually survive or be able to survive off leaching power off an electrical system. That their bodies can act as a giant battery, that’s one of the purposes of the acidic blood. (Some kind of giant lead acid battery I guess )

That is why in Aliens they made their hive near the fusion reactor, and IIRC correctly an of hand comment that the creaure in Alien, went and sat on a power cable in the Nostromo and converted that somehow into rapid growth.

[ralph124c]

I still can’t figure out that “molecular” acid-it eats steel, metals, plastic, etc.!
And why humans keep going back to that horrible planet.
The best part is when Tim Hulce turns around to see the alien that eats him…

[outlierrn]

You mean Paul Rieser, maybe, yeah? and I agree he does a good job in the movie in general, and in that scene I can believe he’s pissing himself.

[Yorikke]

To me, Aliens is one of the great films. Alien is really good, but Aliens is top-notch.

Joe

[shiftless]

*Aliens *is by far the best. The best action move ever.

Alien 3 should be nuked from space. It’s the only way to be sure.

[DWMarch]

I really didn’t like Alien 3 much at all but there was one bit I loved. After Ripley encounters the creature up close and personal and it has the little slobber fest for her she goes running to the warden, screaming her fool head off. “IT’S HERE! IT’S HERE!” The warden is in the midst of telling her to STFU when the alien comes down from the ceiling, grabs him and kills him in front of a room full of witnesses. But that was one of very few moments in that movie that I actually liked.