Does Aliens look less appealing as time goes on??

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!!

The whole argument about James Cameron turning the xenomorph into bugs that can easily be killed always annoys me. The reason the alien seemed unstopable in Ridley's Alien is because the crew had practicaly no weapons to speak of except for some poorly made flame throwers that nobody in the movie ever even managed to hit the alien with. Dallas almost got it but we was looking in the wrong direction. If they had a gun then it might be be a differnt story. James Cameron himself has said that you feel terrified if you are locked in a house with no weapons and you're being hunted with a murderer with a knife. But as soon as you're surrounded by a few guys with guns, then the game changes. What James did was show that these aliens aren't indestructible, but when you get them in enough numbers, then you are faced with an all new type of terror. The terror of being surrounded and trying to hold out against them. And for the record, I think the Queen is a great idea and logical for this species whereas humans turning into eggs as per the Alien directors cut is not logical. Just because Ridley Scott put it in the director's cut doesn't mean I am going to accept it over James Cameron's bitchin Queen.

Avatar sucked blue balls and I heard the dingy sinks in Titanic.

"Queen is a great idea and logical for this species whereas humans turning into eggs as per the Alien directors cut is not logical".....the whole freaking point of being annoyed with the insect analogy is that it IS logical.....the egg tranformation is counter intuitive and alien by nature, hence its more disturbing qualities and thus, to us queen detractors, far more interesting a concept....

also just on a personall note, not on the way it looks, but on the way it was done is a thing that I feel is more artistic for aliens then for alien. With alien you can kind of tell how they did stuff, not because it looks cheap not at all but because it's simpler with the acception of the alien suit itself and the derelict but with aliens you have no idea how they did stuff. When I watch the making of alien I get kind of board because I already kind of know the stuff they did. But with aliens there are so many little details they had to do and the tricks they did to do them, it's really amazing. Did you know the entire egg chamber was a miniature with like ten guys doing a million things and the art work is gorgeous...... Idk this is just my opinion but aliens had a little more movie magic I guess, I can feel the amotion that people put into it and so many things where I ask how did they do that? And I feel that way about alien also, but not to the same extent.

@Rasmm: i take into consideration the FX technology that was around at the time ALIEN was made, it does look dated compared to how FX are now, at the same time...it seemed to really work. at least it did for me there is a book by Ron Cobb called "Colorvision" included in that book, is a section of ALIEN pre-production art Cobb did for Scott and ALIEN, in that section, you can see the transparent console displays that are in PROMETHEUS, as well as the drop-down windowed cockpit consoles that we see in this new film there is even a vintage drawing of the urns and temple glyphs that we see in PROMETHEUS that Cobb did for ALIEN way back in 1978, even the cover of "Colorvision" is pretty close to the shot were the PROMETHEUS glides over the clouds as it approaches the planet

Alien and Aliens are the only movies from the series to use real props. Alien 3 and 4 had terrible CGI which kills a movie IMO. I can deal with a little bit but A3 and A4 were pretty bad for props. Every scene in Alien was realistic and so on with Aliens. James Cameron, despite how you feel about him tried his best to use real props like the first even though they differed in many respects visually. Alien will always be my fave with a close second from Aliens that had awesome casting. Many of you hate Reiser but he did play the role he was meant to play very well. I never could see him as a comedian after that movie. As for technology in Alien vs. Prometheus (prequel). Imagine going to watch Prometheus with the same tech and style from back then in a 3D movie today. Assuming, Fox even gives up 200 million to allow Ridley to do it....it would never happen. Technology is cool, it sells, people want to see it and people pay to see what it does and it needs to be new for that wowwwww factor!

Also Scott did not want that scene in the movie. That's why it wasn't. The theatrical cut of alien is much better IMO and when asked tO make a directors cut Ridley said ".....that was the directors cut." but they wanted something special so they thre that together. And I love both ideas of the queen and egg morphing, and I think they can both be side by side, after all 2 ways of reproduction is better then 1.

Well I would love to keep going (I really would lol) but it is 12 am, I have school tomorrow and my battery is diying so good night :) I will are what you talked about tomorrow.

Well I would love to keep going (I really would lol) but it is 12 am, I have school tomorrow and my battery is diying so good night :) I will are what you talked about tomorrow.

This franchise is all about everything: Xenos, Prexenos, Engineers and the Predewok LOL [img]http://i1178.photobucket.com/albums/x368/bipolarestancia/tumblr_ll6581fFRm1qfbkomo1_500.jpg[/img]

People arguing about Aliens again? Wow. Well I'll try to stick to the op's points. I think Aliens is the second worst artistically speaking. But being that it was intended as a shoot em up mainstream flick, that isn't a negative criticism. I don't like the direction Cameron went, but he did it better than anyone else did/does. For a wide audience, the logical place is always the place to go. Alien rez was the worst artistically speaking because it tried to be "artsy" and humorous at the same time and just falls flat. And I suppose that I do agree that Aliens will age the least gracefully in the long run. But age it will. Let's not forget that the average viewer Still considers this one the best of the bunch. Rez may very well justly be fossilized and forgotten about. One can only hope.

plot holes in my lawn - NO WAY Weyland/ Yutani builds a settlement within driving distance of the Derelict rather than simply salvage the derelict. All the data gathered from the Nostromo incident would make it a no-brainer. [admittedly this wasn't in the final cut]

"Many of you hate Reiser but he did play the role he was meant to play very well. I never could see him as a comedian after that movie." Me neither. He must be a damn good actor because I'm STILL angry with him for what his character did in Aliens almost 30 years ago. We don't even see him properly suffer in the end, so no closure.

even if you dont like aliens, lets be honest, its everything that a sequil needs to be IMHO

I kind of agree. Alien was a masterpiece of Sci-Fi horror, whereas Aliens was much more of an action movie that really didn't explore the same dark ideas expressed in the first.

This debate is so tired. Why not just appreciate what you have and stop judgeing it. There will never be a different Alien 2, James Cameron's Aliens will always be the follow up to the first one. Reality has spoken, get used to it. I enjoy having a series of different Alien movies all done by different yet very capable directors, each with their own style. Its the only franchise I can think of that followed this sequence and it illustrates the purity of the source materiel. Each movie is a thesis on Giger's idea(s).

No.

oh c'mon....both movies were great!....for different reasons...Alien was sci-fi horror and Aliens was sci-fi action...with just a touch of horror....if i had to choose my favorite...it would be Aliens.....cause it just delivered MORE! Alien was great but very slow.....the whole building of suspense part just took forever....seriously as a kid i would just forward the video to the action horror bits after watching it twice....but i have'nt seen it since i was a kid...so perhaps now i would appreciate it more.....it does have a certain artistic craftsmanship and the performances are great...i have watched some snit-bits and the trailer lately....so i must just find a dvd rent place that deals in older movies...so i can watch it again......or i should just buy the damn thing!.. ...in terms of disturbing horror Alien wins hands down....but their is simply not enough of those horror scenes to make it stand out above aliens....I think Prometheus is gonna be way scarier and more exciting than Alien...i think Ridley has learned from all the other directors in the alien series....what works and what does'nt...I am hoping!....from what i have seen in the trailers so far it looks f##king amazing!

@ chthon. In terns of closure for Paul's character, have you seen this? [url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-zCnKbKr7eI&feature=youtube_gdata_player]Burke cocoon scene[/url]