Alien Anthology

[JOE SOAP]

I have a huge soft spot for alien 3, and don't really understand why it gets such a hard time. The directors cut is indeed excellent. I thought it was a very bold sequel and very admirable how its so grim and does it's own thing rather than just copy aliens.

Probably because in the case of the assembly cut while it starts well with the extra scenes, story-wise it completely collapses half-way in, momentum vanishes, and dramatically it doesn't come back. Not Fincher's fault since they were forced to shoot as soon as while making the script up as they went.

Best thing about the A3 DVD is the documentary on the struggle to get the various versions of A3 made and of course the full read on the wonderful missed oppurtunity of Ward's wooden-monk-planetoid.

[Beaky Smoochies]

Best of it is Alien3 "Assembly Cut" which was brilliant better than Cinematic version!

Great to hear other forum dwellers that appreciate the woefully-underrated and unfairly maligned Alien 3, it really is the boldest, the most daring, and the least conventional of the trilogy - yes, that was correct, TRILOGY, the abomination that was ...Resurrection  doesn't count in my book - it wasn't the film that audiences expected nor wanted, but would they have wanted a re-run of Aliens, only with bigger action and effects sequences, how would that have been interesting or engaging!? 

If FOX had allowed the writers another month or six weeks to get the script done right, given David Fincher the room to shoot the movie he wanted, and not cut it to ribbons for the theatrical release, not only would that movie stand tall alongside it's two predecessors (which it very nearly does as is), it would have been the best of the three, hands down, but even in it's flawed state, I consider Alien 3 to be unquestionably the Empire Strikes Back of the Alien trilogy... and as far as [spoiler]Hicks' and Newt's sudden demises [/spoiler]are concerned, it fits in perfectly with the movie's thematic narrative; that death is no respecter of the rightness of a cause or the character of a person, it comes to us all regardless, it's how you deal with it that matters, and when it comes for Ripley, she is not a victim, she grabs hold of it (literally) with both hands, and dies a martyr, saving humanity and vanquishing her enemy in the process, making the final recorded soundbite all the more poignant, in that she is the last survivor of the Nostromo, and with her death, none of the Nostromo's crew survived their encounter with the alien species, and although Ripley, by sheer strength of will, survived far longer than the others, ultimately she too succumbs to the inevitable in the end...

[Onlyverysmall]

The Alien series is my favourite film 'franchise'. I'm never sure whether I prefer the first or second; they are different genres really, so it's about whether you prefer a tense survival horror over an all-out action thriller.
   Alien3(does anyone call it "alien cubed", as in in prison?) I really like, be it dog- or cow-alien, but it has less rewatch value.
   I actually like Resurrection. Be fair, where can the writer go after 3? It sometimes looks like a computer game, and I am no fan of CGI aliens, but it certainly entertains, and all that genetics stuff may seriously have influenced the thinking on Prometheus.

[Mardroid]

I enjoyed them all as well. Including the Alien Vs Predator films... although they're weaker than the Alien films and in hindsight I think they should have taken a future route like in the comics.

Back to the Alien films, when comparing the theatrical (or cinematic since most of us here are British) versions of the films to the second versions on the quadrilogy (be it director's cuts, assemblies, etc) I tend to side with the second... yet really my own definitive version would be somewhere between the two. In other words I like different things in each version.

Take Aliens for example. I like liked the extra earth-base stuff from the Director's Cut, particularly Ripley investigating what happened to her daughter, etc. On the other hand while I thought the robot machine gun sequence interesting it strikes me a superlative and makes the mistake of turning the aliens into unintelligent cannon fodder. I.e, I don't think the aliens are sentient, but they are intelligent enough to be sneaky and were even able to work out how to shut off the power at one point!  Having them continuously throw themselves into the line of fire after the first few are killed stuck me as inconsistent.

[Keef Monkey]

I'm the same, if I could take out the automated guns and all the colony stuff (with Newt and her family discovering the ship) then I'd have my perfect cut! As it is I think the special edition drags a bit and I always preferred turning up at the colony with the marines and just seeing the aftermath.

[IndigoPrime]

Without the guns, much of the rest of Aliens doesn't stand up to scrutiny. There are so few aliens left at the later part of the film—so where did they all go? In the Director's Cut, we see: they mostly got mown down by automated gunfire. In the standard version of the film, they presumably all popped to the shops for a bag of crisps.

[Spikes]

Ive a soft spot for Alien3 as well, though to actually watch it is to witness a messy failure. But it has a history behind it (numerous scripts, different cuts, the whole making of....), which when viewed as a whole, makes for a interesting package.
Caught Aliens on Telly the other day, and i was struck by just how much it screams of the 80's now - and though the Alien Queen herself is a great design, the whole egg laying concept lacks imagination really. Still a great fun film though.

[Colin YNWA]

they presumably all popped to the shops for a bag of crisps.

Monster Munch I'd assume.

[Mardroid]

Without the guns, much of the rest of Aliens doesn't stand up to scrutiny. There are so few aliens left at the later part of the film—so where did they all go? In the Director's Cut, we see: they mostly got mown down by automated gunfire. In the standard version of the film, they presumably all popped to the shops for a bag of crisps.

Fair point. I've often thought Ripley's later walk into the Alien hive rather uneventful, although I took that to mean the Alien's purposefully kept back to lure her into the trap. They've learnt, in other words. I still think aliens continuously throwing themselves into the line of fire makes little sense when considering what we know of these creatures though.

I guess it could argued that they're more reckless in large numbers, but even so.

The robot guns were cool though.

[Spikes]

On a Alien related matter (has this been posted on elsewhere?) is anyone getting the re-issued Alien : the illustrated story Graphic Novel, that was originally released in '79?

The remastered editon(s) are due for release at the end of May.



The softcover colour version is about a tenner, and the Hardcover B/W Artist edition about £30+.
The Hardcover come with a signed Alien print, amongst other bits and bobs.

[Daveycandlish]

I've still got my original 70s copy


This is the first comic I can remember reading that had swearing in it, although they did take certain liberties, graphicly...

[SmallBlueThing]

I thought i was the only one to refer to Alien 3 as 'alien cubed', and i thought that was just the 2000AD influence, to be honest. Glad to see im not alone, though do the general populace refer to being in prison as being 'cubed', so IS it a joke in the title?

I confess im not a fan of Alien or Aliens particularly- ive always found the first one boringly-paced and massively overlong. But this might be because the first few times i saw it were on tv, with adverts- making it a many hours marathon like the equally now disliked james bond films.

Aliens ive always thought to be a pathetic rambo-clone in space, and early indication of jim cameron's plan to dominate cinema with bollocks.

Alien 3 however, in whatever cut you see it, has an elegance and a nihilism that impresses. Nothing nice or good happens to anyone, everyone you like comes to a sticky end, it pisses in the face of the previous film's fans by killing their cosy favourites-of-fanfic and refusing to feature the kind of macho weaponary and (cont)

[Professor Bear]

killing their cosy favourites-of-fanfic

You do know that when it's a professionally-produced novel or comic that it isn't actually fanfiction?

Also you seem to be splitting your posts a lot, SBT.  By any chance is this to avoid Firefox swallowing them whole after a certain amount of time?  Used to bug the hell out of me when mine did that, but an uninstall/reinstall will fix it for you.

[SmallBlueThing]

(cont) cold blue steel and machinery that cameron fetishised to such extremes. I have far more time for 3 than for any of the others. It's not perfect by any means, and the later cut is far better, obviously, but it's where the Alien series stops for me- with ripley's swan dive (mirroring arnie's in t2, again fincher seems to be literally calling cameron out on film- i'd be interested to know if they get along, personally). The fourth movie and the silly 'vs predator films' are entertaining only for their ridiculousness and crapness. And however bad the AVP franchise is, the french one with the ugly people and the humalien hybrid (i laugh as i write that, even now- awww it looks sad!) is far, far worse.

Im not at all interested in Prometheus, im afraid.

SBT

[SmallBlueThing]

Prof, no, it's just that my phone limits me as to how much text i can input per message. So i have to shout (cont) at the end, like john from john's not mad. As for the difference between fanfic and paid work- nah, has nuWho taught you nothing!? It's all the same- ive got and have read all those dark horse comics post-Aliens, and i read fair number of the tie-in novels they released (well, about three), and they were quite good. Especially the comics.
But they're done by fans, people with a strongly posive emotional response to the movies, who just wanted to recreate a bit of that. It's not always the best way to create something new and exciting based on a property, as i think the thing wrong with all of them is they're too reverential. Alien 3, the movie, isnt. It actively seems to dislike its predecessor (at least that's how i read it), and as result is far more vital than the comics the fans wanted to see on screen. I think, anyway.

SBT