Does Aliens look less appealing as time goes on??

Well said, Craig....it always amazes me how you can plop "Alien" in front of any aged crowd, and it looks as fresh as yesterday....but "Aliens" always screams "1980's"...may as well play the "Breakfast Club" Soundtrack with it...

artwise, a.3 and a.4 were beauty... (let the lightening strike now...) but a.1 is gorgeous.

shame on you! LOL.

I was just having a conversation about his with a friend yesterday......The aesthetic of 'Alien 3' and 'Alien Resurrection' is beautiful, it's the story and fundamental execution that are lacking.....'Aliens' IS the least visually atractive piece in the franchise...Visually, it dates where 'Alien' does not.....

my "fav" is the extended cut of "3" by the way!

Agreed with you guys...how did we all come to think "Aliens" was the "second best"??? Paul reiser is the worst cast person in the whole series...that movie is sickening the more you watch the series....

I would disagree. It seems you are thinking in today's terms, as in generic space marines and things like that are so common, it seems aliens is nothing special, but in reality the only reason it's "unartistic" is because lots of things were inspired by that feel aliens made, and by inspired I mean ripped off. Did you know that aliens is the most video game influential film of all time? Shit you not I did not make that up. Also I would call ressurecction the least artistic, and not just because it sucks and I don't like it. It's the least artistic because it took whatever creativity the other movies and watered them down. It may look the most artistic because of it's larger range of colors then the other films but that is just a coverup. Alien 3 being more artistic Is debatable.

Aliens does not hold water over time, and really stomps on "Alien" invader...sorry to say... James Cameron really was the ruiner of the series..One need only cite "Titanic" and "Avatar" as the true idiocy of what Aliens was/is...

And what are you talking about? Aliens is the second best (accept for maybe alien 3 special edition) may not be the most visually interesting, but that does not make the actual movie bad.

Now your picking on Jim? He "ruined" the series? I don't think so.

Titanic wad not a bad movie, not at all. Just over rated. And avatar was great, yes the story was a generic and simple one, true, but it's dam good for something we have seen a million times. Also avatar was really just made as a practice for the new 3D and CGI technology and hopefully the upcoming sequels will be much more interesting in the story department.

invaderzim42....we're talking visual aesthetics here...NOT the quality of the story, which, as I've said before, Cameron ripped from 'Alien' anyway.......I'm definately NOT saying 'Alien Resurrection is a good movie...I HATE IT, but I will admit that it LOOKS beautiful....that's all we're talking about here.......'Aliens' is easily the MOST dated picture of the four. You look at that movie and it SCREAMs 1980's......NONE of the other three SCREAM their cinematic period of origin and release....not even 'Alien'.....that's the amazing thing......

"it's dam good for something we have seen a million times. Also avatar was really just made as a practice for the new 3D and CGI technology and hopefully the upcoming sequels will be much more interesting in the story department." First off, I NEVER want to see something that's been made a [i]million[/i] times...Why couldn't they TRY to be more original?.... Second, "avatar was really just made as a practice for the new 3D and CGI technology"...really? You mean to tell me that a movie that cost $500 million to make was just for practice? And if that's the case, why should I give it the time of day when it's not a sincere attempt to begin with?.....especially considering Cameron ripped the plot structure for one of his movies AGAIN.

Oh ok I get you now, well first off he did not rip off the story, just the end countdown and the airlock thing, besides that its 100% different. And visually I see what you mean, it does scream 80s but in my opinion that's fine, 80s rocked..... Do I have a right to say that? Was never there lol but the pop culture of the time rocked anyway, but I think that's just because alien was a much smaller movie, didn't have room to bring the culture into it, but I does remind me of 70s whenever they are using the old computers and alien3 and 4 are from the 90s..... And who gives a f*** about the 90s? Worst decade of the 20th century (again this is just my opinion from viewing the pop culture of the times, I was not actually there) and had no memerable style to it at all so you can't really see the 90s in anything. Notice how you can ALWAYS tell when something is from the 80s, it's just so defined it can't not sink into things like film.

Why are you getting mad? it only cost 200 million lol and what past film was he ripping of his was he ripping off???

And again just my opinion but even if aliens is the least interesting visual wise, it's visuals stay with me the most out of any other in the series. The visuals of aliens are so ingrained into my mind unlike the other films, even the first one. But again that is a personal point

invaderzim42...you're missing the point, being dated like that IS NOT A GOOD THING...... Also, a sequel to maintain its credibility, it should NEVER rip any part of its plot structure from the original.."just the end countdown and the airlock thing".....should be more than enough to piss any 'Alien' fan off....

It is a personal point, I DON'T hold that against you...it's just the argument for argument's sake, almost, at this point....

'AVATAR', invaderzim42, is a plot rip from 'Fern Gully: The Last Rain Forest'...I realized that before I even got to my car when I saw 'AVATAR' in theaters. I'm not angry either, just passionate...I'm truly sorry if I come across that way.....

Just for Aliens....Eeer...No. But i'd say the entire series (post Alien) looks more unappealing when compared to Prometheus. Which actually has a complete story. Not an excuse for Xenomorphs to kill things... *facepalm*

Well you are right about How that should be enough to piss any fan off and it Is (not me though lol) but it's still not enough to call the ENTIRE story a rio off. Seams a little extream don't you think? Btw anyone else notice I am like the only one who really stands up for aliens on here? I mean there are plenty of people who say they like it, but almost never debate why it's good or defend it..... Cmon guys way to leave me solo lol :D

Oh that's fine :) as long as I know you are nit actually angry.... And I have never heard of that movie, us it one of his documentaries?

I love Aliens, it's got Bill Paxton in it, hello?! Lol. The action, it is an action film by the way, is awesome! Is the art direction in it good? Based on personal opinion...

[b]"In the Court Of The Krimson King.....aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhh"!!![/b]

I'll have to review them separately... Alien - Brilliant in every way. Aliens - Not particularly my kind of film, but good for what it is. It's just a very different kind of film compared to the first. I saw Avengers on Monday. Not really my kind of film either, but I understand why it's a commercial success. PS: I still love you Joss Whedon. My one complaint about Aliens is how much they changed the aliens. They did it for cost reasons (primarily). Cameron makes films that are VERY SUCCESSFUL with large audiences. He's very good at that. That's why FOX wanted him to do Nº 2. Alien3 - The cinematography is amazing. The IDEA is kind of interesting. I was disappointed in the special edition, though I guess it was a bit more logical. I love me a puppet or an animatronic, but the compositing was problematic. The script was not even finished when they wrapped. THAT was the biggest flaw. It showed. Fincher probably could have saved it at this point in his career, but SADLY, this is my least favorite. Resurrection - I actually liked it. I understand why some don't but. It has that [i]je ne sais quoi[/i] feel to it that just suits me. Ripley's character in it was interesting. Call was kind of interesting. I was genuinely surprised when the Newborn rejected the Queen. The fact that one xeno was sacrificed by two others so that they could escape was interesting to me. The xeno's ability to learn to use human technology was interesting. The researchers were HOR.RI.FIC! I just HATED the ending in Paris in the special edition. Apparently so did Jeunet. Prometheus looks like all of these rolled into one and done on a 21st century scale. It won't be like Alien in "scope," but it will be amazing.

Lol I don't think alien is THAT brilliant lol

Ther plot of Fern Gully: The fairy people of FernGully have never seen humans before, but when Christa sees one, Zak, she accidentally shrinks him down to her size. But there is trouble in FernGully, for Zak is part of a logging team who is there to cut down the forest. Zak goes on a wild adventure with Crysta. Eventually, Zak tells the truth about who he his and how the humans are destroying FernGully. The fairies join forces and fuse their powers together to fight the oncoming menace.

We can disagree about whether 'Alien' is brilliant...I call it a masterpiece of sci-horror, but that's me.....and no I'm not angry......now worries man...there's not no bad blood from my side...I just love to debate this stuff.

And this is a James Cameron movie?

No, it's an animated kids movie from the early 90's that is basically 'AVATAR' from start to finish with numerous minute diffrerences but the same overall plot structure....

Oh, dude there are like a million things with that plot structure I already knew that lol I thought that he ripped off one of his own movies.

I'll probably be shot down for this but in my opionion (and it is just my opinion) the only thing about Aliens that seemed to scream 80s to me was some of the instrumental music and Paul Reiser and Sigorney's hairdos. Everything else was fantastic IMO. But if we go to that level of criticism then we can also criticise the 70s visual effects of the model ships in the original Alien movie, the ancient computer screen readouts or the 70s horror orchestral score as the alien is about to strike. Those scream 70s to me IMO but apart from those scenes everything else in Alien looks and feels fantastic. The more I watch Aliens the more amazed at how good it is and the more I watch Alien 3, the more amazed at how dull it is. Its artistic look give me the sort of feel you get from watching those cheaply made science fiction movies of the late 80s early 90s where they had minimal budget for special effects and instead focused on boring scenes and dialogue. For me, Alien 3is the worst of the series both in look and feel. IMO it was Alien 3 that killed the series not Aliens. Hell, Alien 3 literaly killed everyone that James Cameron made us care about in Aliens including Ripley who was fleshed out more as a character. I do accept the original point that Aliens is less artistic in its look compared to Alien, but it added so much more in substance and visuals than any of the movies that followed. Whenever a computer game is made in the Alien universe, its almost always set in the James Cameron version with marines, pulse rifles, auto turrets, dropships, apcs, etc; Ane the less I say about Alien Resurrection the better except that I think it was better than Alien 3.

At work we call Avatar "Dances With Smurfs"

@otto: i agree with your assessment of " Aliens " and so on... i think ALIEN(1979) was almost perfect in its depictions and suggestions of what could truly be and look alien as some of us have already well deduced, Cameron had to dumb-down the alien, and turn it into a bug, he nixed the domed head, and made the creatures teeth crystalline instead of that hardcore looking stainless steel Scott gave is the um " queen " creature was / is a total mess, it looked really great in the trailers, but when i saw it in it's entirety on screen, it looked very cheap and forced, not really convincing to me anyway the alien in Alien3 wasn't very impressive either, i think those AWFUL mechanical looking FX didn't help it's case Alien Resurrection was the same, bigger looking bugs, all the more to trash and shoot up. BORING. the one redeeming creature in A4 was the hybrid, i saw some pics of the unaltered version of the alien hybrid, it looked really interesting, too bad the studios had to wimp out and modify the sex organs in post i am not happy with how the helmet to the bio-suit looks in this new film, it is giving me way too much snuffleupagus, and not enough intriguing looking Jockey that i knew from ALIEN, at the same time, in the context of the film, it could convince me, in the trailers so far...not-so-much i do think the cobra-hugger looks great

In answer to the question, nope :-P

Aliens sucked because of the over the top Marines and overly stupid lieutenant. Resurrection sucked because of the goofy characters (caricatures). Only Alien and Alien 3 were dead nuts serious, which made them kick ass.

Queen looks great idk what you mean :D and I hated the metal teeth, they looked spray painted and I can see the paint on the gums (probably my only complaint about the original suit) and I think only the queen had the crystal teeth, not the regular ones, and what makes the doam so important? I heard people say it's mysterious... I call bs, for the longest time I didn't even realize it was transparent until I started to get big into alien and I fund that the only mysterious thing was that it had no eyes, so taking the doam off made no deference to me.... And for the last time they were bugs to begin with! They were always supposed to be insect like.

I agree with you W2rh, accept for the alien 3 being the worst I still think 4 is the worst by far IMO. And refere back to my earlier comment about the marines arnis :)

@invaderzim42: (shardy rolls eyes / shakes bald head) lol..

I gotta jump in here. For sure, Alien is the best. However, whenever I see those old CRT's (vs. today's touch screens and digital displays) it's for sure dated. Look at Mother's font as she scrolls out the messages to Dallas. So how can we not say Alien is dated. Consider Prometheus, a pre Alien story - you've got to ignore the glass cockpits and other technologies that are much more modern then what we saw in Alien. I don't care that the Nostromo was a cargo/tow ship - how can it be so technologically far behind what we see in Prometheus? I can't say that Alien 3 looked good - it was all in all (my opinion) a poor movie and the beginning of the end of the Alien franchise as we once knew it. For sure, Aliens had a different feel and for what it was meant to portray (a tough USMC squad) - but it rocked!!