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get-it-out-of-me!
MemberOvomorphJul-30-2012 11:11 AMI mean I know its an awesome film and all that but it always seemed to me to be a bit lacking in imagination plot-wise. Whether that is a result of it following the instant classic of Alien I don't know.
Sigourney Weaver herself thought there were a 'few too many' aliens running around in the sequel and I think the xenomorph lost some of its mystery because we see so much of it and so many of them in the sequel.
And the ending...its like Ronald Shusett said about writing the plot for Alien, they had to come up with an imaginative way of getting the alien on board the ship 'it can't just be, it snuck in' which is exactly what happened in Aliens. To be honest I don't think the alien queen really worked for me anyway, it wasn't scary and looked a bit silly when it walked.
90% of the movie is pure gold I think but its never felt like the flawless piece of cinematic brilliance its always been presented as to me.
The making-of on the Quadrilogy is a real eye-opener though particularly concerning the tensions in the crew on set. David Giler I think is magnificent in the interviews, I think he really got the British sense of humour and way of working in a way that perhaps James Cameron struggled with at times.
11 Replies
Svanya
AdminPraetorianJul-30-2012 11:13 AMI loved Aliens when I was a kid. I saw it when I was very young and enjoyed it, I have watched it again recently and liked it less. Must be an age thing :P
I posted that documentary you are talking about "Superior Firepower" on the sticky board in the Alien discussions section. If anyone wants to watch it, I highly recommend it. :)
Custodian
MemberOvomorphJul-30-2012 11:21 AMthe Alien Queen has always seemed SUPERFLUOUS TO REQUIREMENTS to me, in light of the original alien being able to 'feather its own nest' so to speak and give any lifeform a deathf***ing to write home to mommy about.
:)
2013 sci-fi horror novels 'Custodian' and 'Tandem' available from Amazon, B&N, iTunes etc...
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MemberOvomorphJul-30-2012 11:29 AMI liked Aliens and still do, not for what it adds to the Alien "Canon"... but for the action and intrigue that is done very well. The alien queen for me just adds to the complexity that the Alien life cycle already possesses, and thus is another story requirement for future writes.
genjitsu17
MemberOvomorphJul-30-2012 11:53 AMAgree with Patch.
I may work for the company, but im really an OK guy.
zzplural
MemberOvomorphJul-30-2012 12:12 PMWhen Aliens first came out on VHS, it was an era where rental shops had almost exclusive access to the tapes. I snapped up a copy when it first became available to the general public for about £75 IIRC. And that was in old 80's money!
I've watched it countless times, although it's been a few years now. It was the last brilliant thing that Cameron did, IMHO.
The most terrifying fact about the universe is not that it is hostile but that it is indifferent
allinamberclad
MemberOvomorphJul-30-2012 1:10 PMI'm with you - I have never completely warmed to it, in the sense of never much considering it really anything to do with the dark and quiet mental breakdown that was, "Alien"?
But, given that, "Alien", would have been a very difficult Story to follow-up, "Aliens", seems a really magnificent and cohesive effort, to me.
I don't warm to the Queen for the same reasons - (it seems to dramatically divert the direction we were given in Alien and I blame it for the further diminishing of what the xenomorph represented, by other hands) - yet, I do have to recognise that the Queen seems the stroke of a Master in terms of taking a Story onward: and the way it was handled was just beautiful...
I think the whole, "Queen", sequence, from start to finish, just has to be one of the greatest ever filmed.
David 1
MemberOvomorphJul-30-2012 4:30 PMFreePlanet:
[i]the Alien Queen has always seemed SUPERFLUOUS TO REQUIREMENTS to me, in light of the original alien being able to 'feather its own nest' so to speak and give any lifeform a deathf***ing to write home to mommy about.[/i]
Couldn't agree more, mate. Queen was there for that action bit. mehh...
[b]Ask nothing from no one. Demand nothing from no one. Expect nothing from no one.[/b]
zzplural
MemberOvomorphAug-01-2012 12:06 AM@get-it-out-of-me!:
[i]To be honest I don't think the alien queen really worked for me anyway, it wasn't scary and looked a bit silly when it walked.[/i]
I thought the Queen head was scary - it's not so different from the original xenomorph. I can put up with the ungainly walk because its purpose is to stay put and lay lots of eggs, not to have its egg sac ripped away and go running about. Having said that, its run at the closing airlock was quite effective, especially so given the state of special effects at the time.
Some people like mystery to be preserved; others want no mystery at all. It's down to personal preference.
The most terrifying fact about the universe is not that it is hostile but that it is indifferent
djrees56
MemberOvomorphAug-01-2012 11:08 AMJames Cameron gave people what they wanted.Aliens came out in 1986 and by then Alien fans were pulling there hair out for a sequel to the 1979 movie.I remember feeling goosebumps watching the trailer..."This time its war"..holy smokes...there's a hole bunch of them this time...but the good guys have guns...After it was released I remember people cheering in the theatre...one woman was yelling hysterically at Newt to keep moving when the Queen was after her....the pace of the film didn't slow down :)
arrgy
MemberOvomorphAug-02-2012 4:47 AMHere is why it didn't work for you:
Alien was a sci-fi horror movie.
Aliens was an action movie, that you were looking at through a sci-fi/horror perspective. Aliens was written so that you did not have to watch Alien to understand it. Its not truly a sequel in that regard.
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