• Welcome! The TrekBBS is the number one place to chat about Star Trek with like-minded fans.
    If you are not already a member then please register an account and join in the discussion!

Opinions on the Alien movies

Should you watch...

  • Alien only

    Votes: 4 6.1%
  • Alien & Aliens only

    Votes: 42 63.6%
  • Alien, Aliens, Alien 3

    Votes: 9 13.6%
  • Alien, Aliens, Alien3, Alien Ressurection

    Votes: 7 10.6%
  • Alien-AvP

    Votes: 2 3.0%
  • Alien-AvP;R

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Other?

    Votes: 2 3.0%

  • Total voters
    66
The fourth is my least favourite. Ripley isn't her usual self

There's a reason for that, though. She literally isn't her old self.
Yeah, and that's probably the main reason I don't like this one. It's essentially about a different character. When I watch a movie about Ripley, I want to see Ripley...not some alien hybrid clone with a totally different personality.
 
Ripley had injured the Queen and her ability to make more eggs (not destroyed it completely, the sac isn't necessary for making eggs). Her priority THEN would've been to make sure there were more aliens, thus she laid the Superfacehugger egg and put it in the dropship landing gear.

There, simple.
Simple but nothing I can buy into. They would have done better by following the story line Dark Horse Comics had in their continuation of the story.
 
"Alien" is very slow to start, and actually quite boring for the first twenty minutes or so... but then it picks right up and becomes awesome. I recommend the Theatrical Cut, just if you want it to square with the rest of the series, but you should watch both.

"Aliens" is my favourite. Consistently awesome from beginning to end. I strongly recommend the Special Edition: there's something lacking about the Theatrical Cut, but again it's worth watching anyway.

"Alien3" is a complete kick in the balls. It blatantly contradicts the previous movie at least once, and completely invalidates the previous movie's ending too... but once you get past that, the Assembly Cut is actually quite a good movie. The Theatrical Cut is a bad movie, definitely, but there are certain bits of it which are better than their Assembly Cut equivalent (e.g. the alien's birth).

(Does it seem to anyone else that "Alien3" is a lot more of a sequel to "Alien" than "Aliens"? It's like it wants to get all the trappings of "Aliens" out of the way.)

"Alien Resurrection" is just bad. Theatrical Cut is bad. Special Edition (i.e. exactly the same but with a new scene tacked onto the beginning and different opening credits) is worse. Hell, if you want the best possible version of this movie I recommend reading Joss Whedon's first-draft screenplay they have as a DVD extra. Or you could read it online, I dunno. Anyway, I don't recommend... but if you're a completist you might as well watch it anyway.
 
Alien: A suspense masterpiece. Everything about this movie from directing, acting, production design, editing and music is top notch.

Aliens: Entertaining but inferior. A Disney movie with bloodthirsty beasts in it. Silly and completely OTT. I have a fond childhood affection towards it. I left my rose colored glasses at home however. :devil:

Alien 3: Excellent. A perfect ending to the trilogy. I love everything about it. It's doom and gloom but in an uplifting way.

Alien Resurrection: Piece of shit!
 
But yeah, nobody I've ever encountered liked the Newborn...

I like the way it gets sucked out of the tiny hole in the ship at the end.

Alien. I'm not a horror fan. And there are some bits of the movie that feel really slow, especially when they're looking for the cat. However, this movie really gets by based on the excellent cast: Ian Holm, John Hurt, Harry Dean Stanton, and one of my all-time favorites, Yaphet Kotto.

Aliens. I am, however, a James Cameron fan. And aside from the 1st 2 Terminator films, Aliens is his best work. It's one of those great entries in the action genre and one of those sequels that is so dominant that it makes its predecessor feel like a prequel that only exists to set up this definitive entry. I prefer the Special Edition to the Theatrical one. I don't know what gave Cameron the idea to gut the emotional core of the film by removing the references to Ripley's dead daughter. (Plus, the Special Edition features a cameo by the guy that played Captain Hollister on Red Dwarf.)

Alien 3. I respect what it's trying to do but it's a little too grim for me. Plus, I can't tell what's going on in most of the action sequences, particularly the bait-and-chase scene at the end of the film where they're trying to lure the Alien into the steel mould.

Alien Resurrection. A crappy, cynical attempt to cash in on the popularity of the 1st 2. Only worth watching to see Brad Dourif act creepy (like usual) and to see Joss Whedon's proto-Firefly cast.

Alien vs. Predator & AVP: Requiem. Neither are good movies but they do deliver on the main promise of the title. Aliens fight Predators and that's pretty cool. In fact, while it can't hold a candle to Alien or Aliens, I think the 1st Alien vs. Predator is better than Alien 3, Alien Resurrection, or any of the Predator movies.
 
"Alien Resurrection" is just bad. Theatrical Cut is bad. Special Edition (i.e. exactly the same but with a new scene tacked onto the beginning and different opening credits) is worse. Hell, if you want the best possible version of this movie I recommend reading Joss Whedon's first-draft screenplay they have as a DVD extra. Or you could read it online, I dunno. Anyway, I don't recommend... but if you're a completist you might as well watch it anyway.

The thing about it, though, is that it makes me want to see a fifth Alien movie, one that takes what happened in A:R and builds an ending to the franchise for good.


As for AvP...the first one is okay. Not exactly an intelligent movie or anything, but it's fun. AvP: Requiem just sucks. It might suck less if the lighting was better. The whole thing is so dark that you can't even see what's going on half the time.
 
The thing about it, though, is that it makes me want to see a fifth Alien movie, one that takes what happened in A:R and builds an ending to the franchise for good.

A lot of movies are that way for me, where I didn't necessarily care for the movie at hand but it left things in such a way that I'm very interested in a sequel. (The Chronicles of Riddick is another film like that which comes quickly to mind.)
 
The thing about it, though, is that it makes me want to see a fifth Alien movie, one that takes what happened in A:R and builds an ending to the franchise for good.

A lot of movies are that way for me, where I didn't necessarily care for the movie at hand but it left things in such a way that I'm very interested in a sequel. (The Chronicles of Riddick is another film like that which comes quickly to mind.)

What bothers me most about "Alien Resurrection" is that it undoes the ending that Alien3 provided. Whether you like the film or not, Alien3 wrapped up the Ripley saga in a very real way. The story was finished.

Then "Resurrection" came along and opened it all back up again and then just kind of left it there. It's like tearing the stitches from a half-healed wound. It'll heal, but now there's a big scar.
 
Ripley had injured the Queen and her ability to make more eggs (not destroyed it completely, the sac isn't necessary for making eggs). Her priority THEN would've been to make sure there were more aliens, thus she laid the Superfacehugger egg and put it in the dropship landing gear.

There, simple.
Simple but nothing I can buy into. They would have done better by following the story line Dark Horse Comics had in their continuation of the story.

The Dark Horse comics are utter trash that are unworthy of use as toilet paper.
 
What bothers me most about "Alien Resurrection" is that it undoes the ending that Alien3 provided. Whether you like the film or not, Alien3 wrapped up the Ripley saga in a very real way. The story was finished.

Then "Resurrection" came along and opened it all back up again and then just kind of left it there. It's like tearing the stitches from a half-healed wound. It'll heal, but now there's a big scar.

Right after 3 came out, on the early 90s version of the Internet, we were already speculating as to how the aliens would inevitably come back. One of the theories was that Morse, the only apparent survivor, was carrying an alien.

The Borgified Corpse said:
Only worth watching to see Brad Dourif act creepy (like usual)

Yes, Dourif is indeed extremely dependable in that respect.

ColeMercury said:
Special Edition (i.e. exactly the same but with a new scene tacked onto the beginning and different opening credits)

Not quite. There is also intermittent extended footage throughout the film and a different ending which shows the Betty landing on Earth near what's left of the Eiffel Tower.
 
Alien - Excellent. It's a Ridley Scott film, and he only rarely makes a bad one.

Aliens - Excellent. Ah, the days when James Cameron made good movies, those were the best.

Alien 3 - Okay. Their was potential there, but they royally screwed the pooch.

Alien Resurrection
- Okay, as an action movie. But it would have been better to make it its own movie and not attach it to the Alien franchise.

Alien vs. Predator
- Bad. Just bad.

Alien vs. Predator: Requiem - Oh God! Oh my God! That movie hurt me!
 
Few hours in those circumstances when you have just lost your daughter are not simply few hours spent with someone. And Newt represented the loss of her daughter when the film finished, she was meant to take the place of her, filling the emotional hollowness that was left.

Like I said, Ripley was just projecting her feelings of loss onto someone else. Newt was her "rebound" and nothing more, and once she was dead and Ripley had time to think it over she'd realize it too.
No, Newt outlived Ripley. I don't know what you're talking about. :p
 
Words cannot express how bad 3 is, they realised their mistake and 4 tried to rescue the series, returning to the brilliance of 1&2. It partially succeeded, gave us the basis for Firefly and gave Ripley her happy ending, got her ship, crew and little girl back, finally made it back to Earth, nuked the bugs, regained her humanity and is free to become the female Mal Reynolds. All the series have triumphal endings (Ripley and Jones as sleeping beauty, Ripley and the survivors as family, Ripley's new crew, lone survivor walking to the snowcat to radio the ship, the brothers and mother/daughter being rescued by the SF) except 3, it's the one that is out of kilter, the makers just don't understand

AvP and AvP:R aren't great but they're ok, just sad to see how far the series fell since 1&2.

Best way to settle this is a poll. Meet you there
 
I was really impressed with 3 and thought 4 was vapid. I don't get the Firefly thing, though.
 
When should you stop watching the Alien films?

Ok, you have the power to go to Lacuna Inc and have certain films erased from your mind/have to advise someone who's never seen the series which one's to watch.

Personally my choice is Alien and Aliens and stop there. The series has never recovered from Alien3 which is not only appallingly bad in itself but ruins your enjoyment of it's brilliant predecessors, you can't watch them knowing it's all pointless. That said if you do make the mistake of watching 3 be sure to watch 4 so that th experience isn't a total loss for you
 
I was really impressed with 3 and thought 4 was vapid. I don't get the Firefly thing, though.

3 is appalling, it just throws away all that was terrific about 1&2, it's the film network execs are shown to teach them what they shouldn't greenlight. It really doesn't understand what people loved about the other movies.

Lots of traces of Firefly in Alien 4. USM is the Alliance, the Betty is very Serenity, Cal is very River and Ron Pearlman's character very Jayne. Plus Kim Flower's (in the Zoe role) delectable backside:). In the end Ripley is the new Mal:techman:
 
I was really impressed with 3 and thought 4 was vapid. I don't get the Firefly thing, though.

3 is appalling, it just throws away all that was terrific about 1&2, it's the film network execs are shown to teach them what they shouldn't greenlight. It really doesn't understand what people loved about the other movies.

Lots of traces of Firefly in Alien 4. USM is the Alliance, the Betty is very Serenity, Cal is very River and Ron Pearlman's character very Jayne. Plus Kim Flower's (in the Zoe role) delectable backside:). In the end Ripley is the new Mal:techman:


Of course it wouldn't do for me to say other than I disagree in every respect.
 
If you are not already a member then please register an account and join in the discussion!

Sign up / Register


Back
Top