Aliens has Not aged well

The over use of back projection did not help aliens age well and burke looks straight out of the 1980s with his ben elton suit lol. I always felt he looked so out of place in that film.

blasphemy !

Altered, Aliens is still one of my favorites. I just got it on B-Ray. Target has Alien and Aliens on sale at $14.99ea Burke was supposed to look completely out of place thats documented in the making of the film. :P Regards, Rick

Absolute blasphemy! True though the rear projection doesn't look great today. However the vehicle design and the way the xenos moved and were shot is still nothing short of genius, even today.

i have the anthology on blue ray also . He's out of place in the context of the story yes but also in the context of the future. you know i like aliens to and i feel there's a lot of debate about what's better etc amongst the various movies but i respect cameron as a technician and film maker he's clearly a very talented guy and i think both him and ridley respect eachother's work cameron even states as much in the making of aliens and ridley's also stated he likes jim cameron and he raised the bar on many occasions . But on the issue of this topic there are elements that could be better even cameron said in his commentary i never got the marines right marines dont act like that in reality and he would probably change some things if he made the film these days. Even ridley has the tenacity to admit that there are things he would change about alien also had it been made today but those things were down to budget constraints and 8.4 million was not that much to make a classic sc fi but all in all i like the first two films and aliens looks overall great on blue ray as does alien i just feel alien has a timeless appeal even with the dodgy aspects of some of its effects i'm thinking ash's head and arms when he gets his head knocked off but for their day both movies are great.

Altered, I can agree with that. So of the backlighting doesn't look right. Also can someone look at the B-Ray Aliens and tell me if I'm seeing things. When they are in operations and medical I can see a real faint flash of light across the whole screen like a revolving white light because it repeats at normal intervals. I wonder if my Flat screen is going out and its jsut the refresh rate failing. Ender, It seems your Edited post poofed on ya. Send BH a PM so he doesn't think I'm out of my mind. I edit mine all the time and it goes adios on me. I have to keep a copy on my clipboard for when it does. Rick

yea as i wrote in another thread...aliens has not aged well...unlike alien3 which has aged very well indeed

It was made in 1985....it was the best technology at the time. You can't judge it now based on what we have today. 6 years later, Terminator 2 came out and look how far that came. I believe Aliens is still a great film. A lot was made and created for that film and I would choose Alien and Aliens above any new films that now come out which are just basically masturbating your brain for a few hours. Now we have countless remakes and Micheal Bay type of films where the story gets lost in these million dollar SFX and the story is well, horrid. Blasphemy! I say! Blasphemy! All in good fun guys!

well the topic is aliens has not aged well i'm commenting on that issue cain i never started the topic ! as for the rest of your post i agree whole heartdly with you. And debating how well a film holds up over time is a common debate and discussed frequently its part of the criteria of what makes something ultimately classic.

I'm afraid I'm going to disagree with the topic statement. The tank, the plane, the atmosphere generators, the touch-screen table, the pulse rifle, the autoguns, laptops, and the loaders. Damn all of that looks pretty good even today. Okay so a few execution issues but the story and the look and feel is not dated. I'd even argue that Burke is not necessary out-dated. Shoulder pads are back in nowadays so maybe sleeveless jackets are back in in the late 22nd century. Lol.

The kid on his Big Wheel with the Weyland logo: in your face, trite and bothersome. I also enjoyed the film, but James is apparenly not known for his subtlety. Acting was cartoony, but I was able to look over that. It was like a cartoon where the characters were a bit over the top. Al Pacino or Shatner would have been stellar! See where I'm going with this?

yeah all of these are minor issues and on the whole the film is still very current and watchable i guess we are highlighting things that could be ironed out given the benefit of hindsight.

The only thing I disliked with Aliens is the cranial changes made to the xenos. I can still go outside 33 years after seeing the first film and still fear that penis shaped silvery-black head falling from the sky to land, alive and well, in my back yard to grab me! Alien is timeless! But I would not oppose a total remake after Prometheus. Ridley, would you consider that?

@Luca: i could really go OFF on how much "Aliens" has turned into a cinematic joke to me, but i will do my best to "restrain" myself here aside from the the cheap looking set details, the back screen effect looked really bad, even back in 1986 when i saw it in the theater. both my friend and i noted how it looked like something from a "TV movie of the week" Cameron seemed to have a huge boner for the weapons / hardware in the film, but he seemed to have been oblivious to certain obvious details like said cheap screen " FX " i hated the fact that he turned what was once truly alien, into a "insect / hive" theory, even the face huggers and eggs looked like they had been dosed up with growth hormones and WHY the crystalline teeth...? (shakes head in disbelief) the "aliens" themselves looked like CRAP. really cheap / commercial end result, like Cameron was giving the middle finger to Giger's brilliant and detailed work in ALIEN the god AWFUL structure that we saw when the marines first begin to see the "alien" works on sub-level 3 was simply and utterly APPALLING to look at. i thought to myself "WTF..?!?" the true buzz kill for me regarding "Aliens" is the overall tone of the film, it just can not, nor will it EVER measure up to the film it's supposed to be continuing N E V E R i agree with you Luca, "Aliens" has not aged well at all. (looks like i ended up going off a bit after all) ah well.....

lol shardy i'm saying nothing else i was threatened with being burned at the stake for my comments like witch finder general..... lets see how you fare lol.

Lets not start another Alien Vs Aliens - Cameron Vs Scott thread huh ... I think 95% of people here love BOTH movies ...of course its perfectly right that someone say "i dont like aliens" " i dont like alien" but lets not start a stoooooopid flame-trolls war like its happening on MANY other forums ( alien prequel news and imdb for example ). Shardy theories are understandable even if i dont agree with any of them .

i still think aliens is one of the best sequals made because its not a carbon copy of alien. yes the sets and the xenos are a bit archaic compared to todays standards, but when you have that many to mass produce, details suffer. the queen was a bit much but james needed it to separate himself from ridley. plus its been his niche to make something bigger and better in each of his prior movies. i will say the queen wasnt better but it did fill in a plot gap.

@alteredstate" lol! you feel the gathering crowd wants to kill the unicorn! ha! i suppose an opinion is only as hurtful to some as it is true (or something like that) i think this debate will continue on, like Frantz has stated, it is a but redundant, at the same time, when i find other folks who feel the same, i can't help but identify with them, and feel compelled to let them know they aren't alone in that regard some folks on here bash ALIEN in the same way that some on here bash "Aliens" so i'd guess threads like this one are all subjective

Aliens is probably one of the best sequels ever made in the sense of scope that is when compared to the minimalism of ALIEN, but where Aliens falls short is in its character and tone. If one were to consider Aliens the second act of an overall 3 act mythology then it didn't bring the tragic drama that it could have brought. For example, the original Star Wars trilogy followed a model of classic story. And Empire which imo is "the" best sequel ever, took the characters to their absolute lowest and put them through their toughest challenges. Empire was a very dark film and since Sir Ridley had already took us down a dark path, Aliens should have been even darker, even more horrific in tone. But instead it was a everybody gets to kick ass action flick at heart. Yes it carried a different tone from the original and so it gave the audience something new with a new direction. But there were so many changes taken with the established continuity that it almost seemed as if the story was taking place within an alternate universe. Yes I really really love Aliens and I can watch it now and not feel that it's that dated, but it just doesn't have the same amount of quality that ALIEN has. What made ALIEN work was the same theory of economy of words. Less is more and with less you don't risk over doing it. Aliens had a huge budget for the time and it was just over done in a sense. Since this forum is about Prometheus I'm going to end my rant with, I hope that Sir Ridley doesn't over do it with Prometheus. I hope he brings us the same intimacy and quiet that ALIEN had but just expanded upon.

Yeah for a moment there it was like being stuck in the life of brian... jehova, jehova, jehova, i was half expecting a crowd of bearded women to bash the front door down and stone me to death lol but yeah debates like this will always raise their ugly heads and be thrashed out.

Aliens is a good thriller action film and science fiction, this more than clear that it shines with the light of their own and as has been said is the best of the sequels to Alien. We all know that Alien is the original canon but does that not make Aliens something false or badly designed. It is simply that they are very different films, each one has its own charm and grace; that on the one hand we have a claustrophobic horror and on the other hand we have a action thriller… Best regards

@alteredstate: "crowd of bearded women" ha! ain't that the truth!

i just like being dominated by women shardy lol wishful thinking lol

lol!

I firstly TOTALLY agree that Alien has not aged - it is still visually awesome and believeable. Aliens has definitely retained more of an 80s feel. The effects are not quite as good and nor is the quality of the cinematography (gets too technical for me to understand - different film formats etc). Otherwise this is a discussion on how Aliens measures up as a movie to Alien, My vote is that Aliens is a good ACTION movie that James Cameron used the Alien franchise for. It is not in the same SF/Suspense genre that RS aimed at. I wonder: if Aliens did not use the Ripley/Xenomorph franchise, would we still be talking about it today anywhere enar as much? I don't think so. It would be a good 80s Action/Shoot 'Em Up but not a SF classic. I admire Alien for not relying on GUNS to face the threat. To me that added more suspense than just the "Look At Our Big Guns" US of A approach in Aliens :)

Yes I agree with Frantz. Its stupid to get in such a debate, which has mind you, been debated hundreds of other times on different forums. Both films have aged wonderfully as well as Alien 3 and Alien Resurrection. I have the Anthology on blu-ray as well as a 55' Samsung LED tv in my room. Watching all the Alien movies on that thing is glorious lol. Honestly the blu-ray films of both Alien and Aliens are FANTASTIC. Alien is now in full screen with fantastic quality. On the Quadrilogy it looks great but it was in widescreen and didn't project the same quality image as on blu-ray with the Anthology. They remastered everything the sound, picture and definition. Its marvelous especially on a 55' LED Samsung Tv Aliens was also AMAZING. One of the great things about this film is that they took away the grain that was on the previous releases of Aliens. So take Aliens, remove the grain, remaster the picture, sound and definition and DAMN its sick as hell. I can't get enough. Alien 3 and Alien Resurrection also look pretty damn amazing. They've remastered all the films. If you don't have a blu-ray player, get one. If you don't have a nice LED tv, you really need one. And if you don't have the Alien Anthology on blu-ray yet, whats wrong with you? LOL.

I think we are all sounding off and we all have our opinions defined we are not going to change minds by what we think regardless but in terms of debating the issue in hand we can always re -evaluate the merits of each film and clearly there are those that still wish to express something so although it may have been discussed before its one of those topics that will resurface again and again.

Exactly alteredstate. Everyone has there own opinions and in the end opinions are JUST OPINIONS. There not necessarily facts. Debates ere fun but pushing your opinion on people is like telling them "Well I think this so its A FACT." I see a lot of this in other forums about the Alien series. Some people think that just Prometheus, Alien and Aliens are the true series to the Alien Quadrilogy but is that true? No of course not. Its an opinion. They judge the series by how well they liked a film. Their not judging it off of character consistency, story consistency and plot. "Well I liked that film but hated that film, SO it's not canon." God do I see more of this than anything else. Unfortunately with Prometheus coming out there are a lot of people out there not all but a lot who are true elitists to Ridley Scott's "ALIEN" that they neglect and put down the rest of the Alien franchise. They are SO entrenched within his film that the fact that he's making a prequel to Alien tells them that they have to forget everything else. I even see a lot of bashing to Cameron's ALIENS. Come on man. Just because Prometheus is coming out doesn't mean the rest of the story that has been put forth for Alien is worthless. Its a hollow statement with no meaning. Aliens, Alien 3 and Alien Resurrection helped define, embolden and bring more depth to Alien. And as a collection of films that are all within the Anthology, Quadrilogy and the rest of the box sets its clear that Alien, Aliens, Alien 3 and Alien Resurrection are all truly canon whether you hate them or accept them. So to me opinions are JUST opinions and nothing else. Its up to people themselves to change their perception on the Alien series and life in general. I am fucking excited for Prometheus to come out but I don't degrade the quality of films that followed after Ridley Scott's Alien. They were fucking amazing. Hype surrounding anything tends to put off the reality of what things actually are. Opinions are opinons. But facts are facts.

agree completely with the thread statement, i dont need to give reasons as they - and many more, have been well stated in the previous comments. still love the film though because i am a true fan, dont feel the need to bash, just focus on the good aspects of these movies!! well said rc8, there is a lot of alien snobbery in these forums. i think the series has to be looked at from an all encompassing position. yes while alien is great, it is lent more weight by virtue of the other films. there are people on here giving reviews on the series and they hav'nt even seen all the films....thats just plain stupid.

it was always a plasticky and fake Alien franchisee.

It's a little unfair to say the film hasn't aged well; it was 1986 and the resources that Cameron had back then were well used to make the film. You could arguably say all films from that gendre haven't aged well (e.g. the face repair scene of the terminatior, etc). I think the introduction of special effects, cgi, 3d have made our expectations so vastly different from 1986 that people become way too critical. I think we should respect and enjoy them for the time they were made and the impact they have had..........

@fuck it- lets go for it! Exactly! Their judging the entire series off of their own opinion. And as you said, they should be judging it from an "all encompassing position". I'm a true fan as well and to be honest, what makes a TRUE fan of any film series is that you acquire the taste and embrace all the films. If someone is a TRUE fan of a 4 part series such as Alien. Saying that you only love one film is to me not really a fan. Your not accepting the FULL story that has been put forth from the start of the first film. Whether you enjoyed it or not, there's a difference between a true loyal fan and just a fanboy of one certain film. There's a lot of Star Wars fans out there that I know of that only like the last 3 Star Wars and ignore the first 3. If your a true fan you'd accept every film as part of the franchise and not neglect any of it. To me if you only love say one of the Alien movies, to me your just a film enthusiast or a regular film goer. If you love lets say the first two Alien films ALIEN and ALIENS, I consider that a partial fan or "half ass fan" as I like to put it. They are only accepting half of the concrete story of Alien. I run into these types of fans more than anything else and to call yourself a TRUE fan when you've only accepted 2 out of the four films is blasphemy. I've run into people That only like the first 3 Alien films, ALIEN, ALIENS and ALIEN 3. To me thats just a fan. Yeah your accepting the first 3 films but your leaving out the fourth which is, whether or not you liked it, is still canon to the series. To me what defines a TRUE AND LOYAL ALIEN FAN is that your willing to accept and embrace ALIEN, ALIENS, ALIEN 3 AND ALIEN RESURRECTION as a full circle series. Its a 4 part collection of films that defines the Alien species and Ripley's story. If you love and accept all the 4 films to me thats a TRUE ALIEN fan. To say you only accept one or two them and still consider yourself a TRUE fan of the series is to me just a load crap. And like I said above, opinions are JUST opinions. Facts are facts. If your a true fan you'd accept the films that are canon in the series which are the 4 films.

@fuck it- lets go for it! Exactly! Their judging the entire series off of their own opinion. And as you said, they should be judging it from an "all encompassing position". I'm a true fan as well and to be honest, what makes a TRUE fan of any film series is that you acquire the taste and embrace all the films. If someone is a TRUE fan of a 4 part series such as Alien. Saying that you only love one film is to me not really a fan. Your not accepting the FULL story that has been put forth from the start of the first film. Whether you enjoyed it or not, there's a difference between a true loyal fan and just a fanboy of one certain film. There's a lot of Star Wars fans out there that I know of that only like the last 3 Star Wars and ignore the first 3. If your a true fan you'd accept every film as part of the franchise and not neglect any of it. To me if you only love say one of the Alien movies, to me your just a film enthusiast or a regular film goer. If you love lets say the first two Alien films ALIEN and ALIENS, I consider that a partial fan or "half ass fan" as I like to put it. They are only accepting half of the concrete story of Alien. I run into these types of fans more than anything else and to call yourself a TRUE fan when you've only accepted 2 out of the four films is blasphemy. I've run into people That only like the first 3 Alien films, ALIEN, ALIENS and ALIEN 3. To me thats just a fan. Yeah your accepting the first 3 films but your leaving out the fourth which is, whether or not you liked it, is still canon to the series. To me what defines a TRUE AND LOYAL ALIEN FAN is that your willing to accept and embrace ALIEN, ALIENS, ALIEN 3 AND ALIEN RESURRECTION as a full circle series. Its a 4 part collection of films that defines the Alien species and Ripley's story. If you love and accept all the 4 films to me thats a TRUE ALIEN fan. To say you only accept one or two them and still consider yourself a TRUE fan of the series is to me just a load crap. And like I said above, opinions are JUST opinions. Facts are facts. If your a true fan you'd accept the films that are canon in the series which are the 4 films.

If you want to see a Sci-Fi classic that has stood the test of time!!! watch Forbidden Planet!! it's over fifty years old, and the SFX still look awesome for a film of that era!!! When I first saw Aliens it was a fantastic film!! and by modern standards no,it does not look too clever now!!...Mind you if they re-rendered Aliens using CGI or 3D would it really add anything to the movie???

It is what it is - STILL A LEGENDARY MOVIE! We're spoilt today, that's our problem, and life before cgi doesn't exist for many. Truth is, on the contrary, the film HAS aged well. I don't even think the backscreen stuff is a problem. Everything retains the aesthetic of future industry, the drama of the piece is still intense, the characterisation excellent. It still looks like a big-screen movie that can entertain audiences for year. I argue that Avatar will probably date more visibly than Aliens, because of it's very dependence on a technology that is being refined by the hour. Personally Alien remains my favourite, but Aliens still gives me the chills and thrills too...when the sentries run out of ammo lol how I wish they had more!!!

im not so sure we are spoilt today i haven't seen a true sc fi classic in years depending on what rocks your boat i never liked any of the matrix films and i'm struggling to think of a genuine classic in the scfi genre . Am i supposed to like transformers. pitch black The Chronicles of Riddick ? battlefield LA SKYLINE i dont count super hero films i think they are their own genre. the best sc fi in recent years has been on the small screen bsg , finge etc the last star trek was enjoyable but im struggling cowboys and aliens haven't seen yet. Although sunshine wasn't bad . wall-eeeee terminator salvation was ok solaris was good but a remake. the day the earth stood still the original was better.

yeah the big problem today is that everyone is so entrenched in a world of action and instant gratification. We all want everything "NOW". Movies tend to over do the action, the story sucks, the cgi is overdone, movies rip off from other movies, every scene is spoiled through the trailers so that movie studios can draw in an audiences easier, audiences are always comparing one movie to another, studios are too afraid to produce anything original due to budget constraints and financial risks. Movies just don't leave an impact as they once did. Film studios and filmmakers alone are looking to just please the audiences and make films that will bring in a large profit. Nothing is just "story" anymore. Its all about pathetic and overdone cgi and action. Everyone goes to the movies to be entertained but nowadays its like their spoon feeding us rushed and overdone crap. They put everything in the trailer just so we can spend our money and increase their profits. A good director knows that they have to fight for their vision. They can't just let studios walk all over them just to get what they want. Film studios don't care about the creative content of a film, they just want things in a film that they know will draw in an audience. What a good director knows is that he will have to fight for his vision in order to convince the film studios to up the budget and thus giving the director more room to expand his vision. It seems like either directors nowadays either depend on too much cgi or they just want to remain "friends" with the studios thus giving the studio the opportunity to take advantage of whomever may make the film. In the end I feel like over 60 percent of the films we get nowadays are done in small amounts of time, rushed out the door and milked dry for advertisement purposes. Very few films, if any leave a lasting impact anymore. Originality has been thrown out the window for cash and cgi is overdone pathetically to the point where we have just accepted it. What happen to miniatures. What happened to "REAL". Is everything just going to be done in cgi one day? I really don't know. All I know is that film itself has taken a turn for the worst and the biggest problem is, it doesn't seem to be getting better anytime soon.

I was referring to the technology used in films opposed to the sci-fi genre.

I'm not going for the whole spoiled thing either but movies do age. Just think on another 20-30 years from now how dated Avatar and Prometheus will look when we have interactive hologram movies with multiple endings based on critical key decision points throughout the movie. Or hell in 50 years we can go in and get lojacked in the cerebelleum like in Schwarzenneger and live out a fantasy movie.