Alien (Film)

[StrangeDevice]

Alien 3 and Alien vs. Predator exist in a very strange space for me personally.

I got my hands on the Aliens comics with a grown-up Newt in a mental institution, Hicks suffering from PTSD and the Earth taken over by an alien infestation, so the third film exists in this weird netherspace of "Things that happened to other characters".

Alien vs. Predator was pretty much the same, I reckon there could have been a very nice film out of the hunt on Ryushi and Machiko Noguchi makes a pretty damn good protagonist in her own right, she doesn't feel like a Ripley or Dutch clone.

[ORCACommander]

alien isolation is the squeal we deserved but i still resent they dragged amanda ripley into it

[MadAmosMalone]

alien isolation is the squeal we deserved but i still resent they dragged amanda ripley into it

Will I regret it if I ask why?

[CareerKnight]

I surprised by the positive reception of the deleted egg scene in Alien cause me and my brothers reactions were basically "Huh interesting, glad they didn't go with it". Alien 3 is alright. Rather impressive how good it is considering the development hell it went through, but ultimately its trying to retread (horrorwise) what the first already did so effectively. Alien Resurrection, good director, good writers, absolute garbage (Joss has some explaining to with think clone alien hybrid Ripley was a good idea). Alien vs Predator is mindless fun that I'm not willing to turn off my brain for. I would probably enjoy more if I hadn't seen the idea done better (both the game I mentioned and the comic)and I dislike setting it on Earth as the Alien movies have beaten it into our heads that aliens get to Earth = we @#*$%!. Never saw AVP Requiem, my brother described it as badly directed anit-fun and that was enough for me. Prometheus is what happens when you have a good script and randomly paste in some bits from a bad script. A lot of it is very good but other parts are facepalmingly bad.

[ORCACommander]

well let me clarify, alien and aliens were great I think they should of let it rest with the ripley bloodline. just a whole new crew. no need to drag ripley's daughter into it

[MadAmosMalone]

Sorta like how I feel about Star Wars. They have a whole galaxy of stories yet everything is all about the Skywalker family.

[ChiggyvonRichthofen]

To me, the problem isn't the Ripleys so much as it is the Alien itself. A lot has been made about the original being a "haunted house in space" horror film. And of course, you almost always have to deal with diminishing returns (in terms of quality) with horror franchises. Aliens managed to circumvent that for one movie by changing the nature of the xenomorph. Effective for Aliens, although not great for the alien itself as a monster in my opinion.

But where can you take the franchise after you've already done your horror and action takes on the franchise? Alien 3 tries to go introspective and dramatic, but that film sabotaged itself. Prometheus tries to expand the universe itself, which is the way you'd have to go I think. Make the universe about more than just the xenomorphs. Unfortunately, the answers (and questions) in that movie received a mixed reaction, so now it looks like we're back to horror.

On an artistic level, I think only so many movies are justified with the Alien universe. Most of the movies in the franchise use similar tropes and follow a pretty familiar formula. Although in other media (e.g. video games) it's another matter. Alien: Isolation was a breath of fresh air, to me anyway, because it brought the great atmosphere and terror from the original to video games for the first time.

[LittleRaven]

I'm not sure if this is the right place to ask this, but does anyone know what music was layered over Ripley's final sign off at the beginning of the review?

[MadAmosMalone]

I think it was called "Romantic" by Howard Hanson. Lemme google it right quick.

*googling*

According to one of the comments, it is Howard Hanson but is simply called "Symphony No. 2 - First Movement."

https://youtu.be/UD_RA1ImgoE

[LittleRaven]

I don't think that's it at all...what I'm talking about is the Twinkle Twinkle in a minor key number that starts a few seconds into the review. I don't think that's part of the Alien soundtrack...I think it was added by SFDebris.