Alien Anthology

[dweezil2]

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.

Alien Resurrection is a masterpiece compared to those two abysmal AvP movies. At least it has some ideas-no matter how poorly they're implemented.

[Spikes]

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.

Alien Resurrection is a masterpiece compared to those two abysmal AvP movies. At least it has some ideas-no matter how poorly they're implemented.

....and it has Kim Flowers incredible bum in it.

[Mardroid]

I confess im not a fan of Alien or Aliens particularly- ive always found the first one boringly-paced and massively overlong.

Much as I like Alien, I found the start dragged quite a bit. I thought the Director's cut better paced, although I'm not sure if that's just my imagination. As with Aliens, my definititive version would be somewhere between the two though. I thought that extra scene where Ripley [spoiler]finds Dallas cocooned[/spoiler] was supefluous, and I completely understood why they took it as it does mess with the pacing that point in the film. Not to mention [spoiler]confusing the Alien's lifecycle[/spoiler] somewhat, although I didn't understand that [spoiler]Brett was being turned into an egg[/spoiler], until I read that explanation online. [spoiler]I thought he was just in a strange looking cocoon.[/spoiler]

Sure, that scene was filmed before Cameron came up with the idea of the Queen, but the fact the Director's cut was edited later means they should have taken that continuity into account.

It does explain that line [spoiler]"There was no Dallas, no blood, nothing."[/spoiler] in an earlier scene, though, since an Alien's form of attack usually leaves a good deal of blood. If possible editing that line might have been better, but I'm not sure that would have worked without an abrupt cut in that scene. (And most viewers have probably forgotten it  by the end of the film, anyway.)

It's an interesting scene, but I think it should have been left as a deleted scene like it was in the previous Alien Legacy box set.

[The Enigmatic Dr X]

Watched Alien last night, having got this box set for £10 last week. I never realised how obvious it is that the Company knew about the ship. This easily ties in with Prometheus. In fact, the whole thing seems to be that Ash has been ordered to get a sample for the Company.

However, there are plot holes a plenty:

1) Why didn't the just freeze John Hurt, as suggested?
2) Why did John Hurt, and later the crew, go so gung-ho with quarantine procedures? There's an alien attached to a crew-member's face, FFS. Why operate on him? Why have dinner with him?
3) Did they know about alien life? The way they react to the crashed ship suggests so, but then why not be prepared for it going wrong?
4) Why did John Hurt break the mist and go into the egg chamber?

[Spikes]

Much as I like Alien, I found the start dragged quite a bit. I thought the Director's cut better paced, although I'm not sure if that's just my imagination. As with Aliens, my definititive version would be somewhere between the two though. I thought that extra scene where Ripley [spoiler]finds Dallas cocooned[/spoiler] was supefluous, and I completely understood why they took it as it does mess with the pacing that point in the film. Not to mention [spoiler]confusing the Alien's lifecycle[/spoiler] somewhat, although I didn't understand that [spoiler]Brett was being turned into an egg[/spoiler], until I read that explanation online. [spoiler]I thought he was just in a strange looking cocoon.[/spoiler]

Sure, that scene was filmed before Cameron came up with the idea of the Queen, but the fact the Director's cut was edited later means they should have taken that continuity into account.

It does explain that line [spoiler]"There was no Dallas, no blood, nothing."[/spoiler] in an earlier scene, though, since an Alien's form of attack usually leaves a good deal of blood. If possible editing that line might have been better, but I'm not sure that would have worked without an abrupt cut in that scene. (And most viewers have probably forgotten it  by the end of the film, anyway.)

It's an interesting scene, but I think it should have been left as a deleted scene like it was in the previous Alien Legacy box set.

The whole concept of [spoiler]Dallas and Brett turning into eggs[/spoiler], though edited out of the original cut, was no real secret - and had been known about from day one really.  Its featured in Giger's Alien book, numerous mags of the time had written about it and its mentioned in the PB as well. Always thought it a very strange concept, and could never quite get to grips with it back in the day. Then of course came the dvd's and we saw the actual deleted footage (then later on re-instated in the "directors cut").
Ridley has said both versions of the film are valid - so continuity isnt messed about with so much, i guess.
The whole [spoiler]mutating aspect of that scene, does seem to fit in nicely with elements of Prometheus, from what i can gather[/spoiler].
A strange and unsettling concept, but one thats infinitely more satisfying, and alien, than Cameron's Earth bound analogy.

[Colin YNWA]

However, there are plot holes a plenty:

1) Why didn't the just freeze John Hurt, as suggested?
2) Why did John Hurt, and later the crew, go so gung-ho with quarantine procedures? There's an alien attached to a crew-member's face, FFS. Why operate on him? Why have dinner with him?
3) Did they know about alien life? The way they react to the crashed ship suggests so, but then why not be prepared for it going wrong?
4) Why did John Hurt break the mist and go into the egg chamber?

Most if not all of those are dealt with in the film:

1) and some of 2) As Ash, working on the companies orders would have been in charge of such decisions as Science Officer and clearly didn't want to. I'd guess the company wanted to find out as much as they could with a safe control group away from Earth.

Rest of 2) The beastie was dead and if Ash didn't say otherwise why would the rest of the crew worry. After all by that point Quarantine was well and truly broken at the end of what was clearly a very stressful time for all why not have a meal to celebrate at the injured parties request?

3) Aliens suggests that by that time contact with Alien races is established and the Quarantine rules (broken) in Alien support that idea. Again the Science Officer mani[pulating the situation covers most of that.

4) There's a few character points in the film that make it clear that Kane is an adventurous man and might well let his curiosity run away with his common sense.

[Spikes]

Regarding question 3, we have the referance in Aliens to "Arcturian poontang!", though what that actually is, is never really elaborted on. In the Alien novel, its mentioned that when they first come across the derelict, Ash checks with Mother, and informs Dallas that its "an unknown type - that doesnt correlate with anything previously encountred before". Whether thats made up by Alan Dean Foster, or is taken from an earlier script draft is open to debate. Over on the Prometheus site, the timeline states that by that time at least, life has been discovered on Europa.