POLL: Favorite movie from Alien franchise

[davejames]

I refuse to watch 3 or 4 on principle. Unless one figures that the Nostromo's escape pods were subtly sabotaged, which I suppose is plausible, it's awfully convenient for Ripley to awake to a whole new hell for one sequel. To have it happen again just feels cheap.

I thought they did a decent job making it plausible in Alien3. And the idea of her being forever "haunted" by these demonic creatures, and finally driven to sacrifice herself at the end, made some kind of twisted sense.

But bringing her back AGAIN, through cloning of all things, was definitely when it started to feel cheap and gimmicky.

 

[Rarewolf]

Alien 3. I love the bleakness of it. No weapons, no hope, nothing.

 

[MacLeod]

Well the last two are out already, as the first two are the best in the series. In the end I went with Aliens.

 

[Caligula]

Alien is definitely my favorite of the bunch. I love that this movie has the power to create a claustrophobic atmosphere on a ship that fucking huge. One of the greatest casts ever assembled for a horror movie (essentially a haunted house in space), even if they don't last all that long.

Aliens is an extremely close second. How do you raise the stakes from one xenomorph stalking a crew of seven armed only with flamethrowers? You let loose an entire hive of the bastards on a cocky group of marines! Plently of tension, yes, but this one aims for more fun than scares, and even some drama with the Ripley/Newt dynamic.

It is definitely a close call between Alien and Aliens. Both are nearly perfect in everything they do. I just love the first film that much more.

As for those OTHER entries in the franchise...

Alien 3 made me want to burn out the part of my brain that remembers it - it almost ruined the second film for me. Stupid, nonsensical, farcical.

The fourth film was a valiant attempt to reverse the harm done by the third film, which was sadly an impossible task.

I couldn't have said it any better.

 

[Mr Light]

1. Aliens
2. Alien
...
3. Resurrection
4. Alien 3 (I really don't care for this one, but I just got the blu ray and I'm gonna finally see the director's cut which is substantially better I hear)

 

[Ghost Bones]

Alien 3's the only one whose master tapes shouldn't be junked. Alien's boring, Aliens is a thicko actioner with stupid characters and a Disney ending and Alien: Resurrection's nasty.

 

[CorporalClegg]

Alien was brilliantly original. Nobody had done anything like that yet, combining SF concepts and top-level effects in a serious studio package with characters and dialogue that drew from the more naturalistic cinema of the '70s.

QFT

It's also a masterwork of film making. IMO it's Scott's best piece of artwork.

Aliens is just plain silly. I have such a hard time taking it seriously. Honestly, I think Alien 3 is better.

 

[Starkers]

The problem with Resurrection, as I've often said, is that it's literally a "Best of..." compilation, bringing nothing new to the series.

It's not even that, the entire tone's just wrong. People are saying the marines in Aliens are cartoonish but they've got nothing on most of the characters in Ressurection.

Plus, although I know the ending varies, I do wonder why everyone's so petrified of Aliens getting t Earth when Earth appears to be a post apocalyptic wasteland in the last ending I saw!

 

[Relayer1]

Alien 3. I love the bleakness of it. No weapons, no hope, nothing.

No continuity, no common sense...

Leaving aside the fact that it immediately junked the whole dramatic premise of Aliens (rescuing the child - remember the cheer 'Get Away From Her You Bitch' got in the cinema ? / finding someone who she relates to) by killing both Newt and Hicks offscreen, where the **** did the facehuggers in the cryochamber come from ? There was at least one egg as well...

 

[Deckerd]

I loved the extended cut of Alien 3 and the ending is a stunning piece of cinema. The first film is the original and best though.

 

[Admiral James Kirk]

Alien 3. I love the bleakness of it. No weapons, no hope, nothing.

No continuity, no common sense...

Leaving aside the fact that it immediately junked the whole dramatic premise of Aliens (rescuing the child - remember the cheer 'Get Away From Her You Bitch' got in the cinema ? / finding someone who she relates to) by killing both Newt and Hicks offscreen,

Continuing the dramatic premise of Aliens shouldn't have been Fincher's consideration. It was Alien 3, not Aliens II. It had it's own identity and storyline that didn't require Hicks or Newt.

Personally I think killing them off was one of the bravest decisions in movie history. Especially considering all the whining and crying from the Aliens fanboys. You guys have been bitching for twenty years now. Get over it! They're dead!

 

[Relayer1]

Alien 3. I love the bleakness of it. No weapons, no hope, nothing.

No continuity, no common sense...

Leaving aside the fact that it immediately junked the whole dramatic premise of Aliens (rescuing the child - remember the cheer 'Get Away From Her You Bitch' got in the cinema ? / finding someone who she relates to) by killing both Newt and Hicks offscreen,

Continuing the dramatic premise of Aliens shouldn't have been Fincher's consideration. It was Alien 3, not Aliens II. It had it's own identity and storyline that didn't require Hicks or Newt.

Personally I think killing them off was one of the bravest decisions in movie history. Especially considering all the whining and crying from the Aliens fanboys. You guys have been bitching for twenty years now. Get over it! They're dead!

I could have taken killing them off IF it had given us a great movie. Or even a good one...

And where did the aliens come from ?

 

[davejames]

Well the huge ass Alien Queen managed to sneak onboard the ship without being detected, so surely a much smaller alien drone could have as well. Maybe one even hopped onboard much earlier, while Bishop was waiting outside for Ripley.

There were certainly enough of them running around on that colony. And they were supposed to be fairly intelligent creatures as well, so maybe the Queen's attack was just a diversion so her drone could sneak away and plant the egg.

As for killing off Hicks and Newt, I have to agree I thought it was a very ballsy move, which was just as shocking and unnerving as it needed to be, and reinforced the idea that these are creatures you do NOT want to fuck with. And it made you sympathize with Ripley's predicament even more. I just wish the rest of the story had been as strong as that opening, and was able to live up to Fincher's gorgeous direction.

 

[Beagleman]

Alien 3 for all the reasons alredy mentioned. It's bleak, gutsy and the ending is poetically fiting.

 

[Cutter John]

Aliens just barely inches out Alien for me. I thought never actually showing the creature in the first one was a bit of a mistake.

I refuse the acknowledge the second two even exist.

 

[davejames]

Aliens just barely inches out Alien for me. I thought never actually showing the creature in the first one was a bit of a mistake.

I refuse the acknowledge the second two even exist.

Nah I liked it better when you only saw small glimpses of it, and couldn't quite figure out WHAT the heck you were looking at. Plus their movements were much more strange and otherworldly too.

In Aliens they basically just jump and skitter around like huge bugs, and it's a lot more obvious they're guys in rubber suits.

 

[Ethros]

Where is AVP Requiem?!?!!

 

[Rarewolf]

Alien 3. I love the bleakness of it. No weapons, no hope, nothing.

No continuity, no common sense...

Leaving aside the fact that it immediately junked the whole dramatic premise of Aliens (rescuing the child - remember the cheer 'Get Away From Her You Bitch' got in the cinema ? .

I was too young to see it at the cinema. First saw it on TV. Alien 3 was the first 18 I rented from the video library, I was 15 at the time.

The thing is though there are plenty of films that revolve around characters going on a rollercoster of events, falling in love, going to be together forever... and then come the next film, if one of them's not in it, that's all been for nothing as well.

Where is AVP Requiem?!?!!.

It has its moments. A least you see the full horrors of an Alien infestation, Aliens is just the tidy up afterwards.

 

[Starkers]

Where is AVP Requiem?!?!!

One hopes in a specially created circle of hell all by itself!

Although I did think the maternity ward bit deserved to be in a much better film.

 

[Galileo7]

Alien and Aliens, too close to call one the favorite.