alien

Something Real

in 79, I guess the whole thing was effective as it was, but you can't make a sequel to a Lovecraftian story. Once you Imagined and provided some explanation for the inconceivable you diminish the effectiveness of the fear. That's why a more absurd creature as the Thing is more effective on the long run. Carpenter for me is much more intelligent to nothing or do some unrelated stuff then some rehashed sequel/prequel (Of course Escape from LA was shit for this reason and thank God that there is no escape from Earth). RS if he keeps on coming back he will bring only rehashed stuff and a robot can never be that terrifying no matter how evil he is.

RED0GUY - I wholeheartedly understand and respect your viewpoint, my friend. I, personally, am not pleased with the direction in which Sir Scott has taken the Alien series. With that being said, I respect a creative mind's desires. The Thing was an absolutely terrifying and wonderful film! It kept me awake quite a lot when I first watched it! :)

Something Real

To make it perfectly clearly, I could live with some stupid explanation for a creature I don't care about but what infuriates is killed off a character you made me care about, that I find interesting in spite of not being a believer myself. You made her being experimented upon (in the novelization while being alive and that is what I understood while watching the movie) and finally the xeno is the ultimate survival because of her dna? Why such a mockery? And why should I care anymore?   

RED0GUY - Those are very valid questions, my friend. Indeed; Ripley was an excellent character whom, in my opinion, should not have had the rather strange twists and turns which took place over her story. It is the human aspects of the first Alien film which drew me to like it so greatly. It is very easy to see some of the elements which occured to Ripley as a mockery - even dreadful. It is easy and understandable to be angry at such things. Furthermore, it is good to have healthy anger over such things - provided it is used contructively.  When I feel anger over a film's plot, I write down what I would have liked to see - it makes me feel much better. :)

Ok, ali81 , most importantly, what kind of awesome job do you have that you are able to watch Alien at work!?

Guys, I will just go ahead & say it, I do not care to see any Alien installment, not directed by the Knights Bachelor aka Sir Ridley Scott.  It is his creation & if he chooses to be David about it, so be it.  I do not care for any of the sequels, though I absolutely adore the prequels!  This has been my rant in Cerulean Blue!  ;)

Cerulean Blue I feel the same, still I like Alien 3 from the Alien sequels. The rest are like heresies. 

@daliens - I can do that, as Alien 3 seemed more in line with the end of Alien, than Aliens?  Alien could have even been Alien 2 & just skipped over Aliens?

I agree that it is an absolutly perfect movie. however there is ONE shot in the movie that is not perfect to me. it is when the xenomogph gets blown out of the ship. you can just tell it is a person in a suit. other than that, probably the best sci fi film of all time. if your wondering, here is my list of greatest sci fi films ever.

1: alien

2: blade runner

3: Alien 3

4: 2001. a space oddessy.

5: terminator 2 judgment day

6: inception

7: empire strikes back

8: the matrix

9: jurrsic park

10: aliens.

(honerable mentions include: prometheous, mad max fury road, the terminator, district 9, robocop, wall-e, alien covenant, akira, and ghost in the shell 1995.

I think it's just... different eras. What we saw in Alien wasn't necessarily what Scott saw when he imagined the future and spaceships. He did work out that aesthetic and thought it was a good one, but Alien was one of those movies that were made ahead of it's time. Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't trade anything in the world for Alien as it is (my favorite film!) I just think that Scott had so much he wanted to do visually with the story, that one of the reasons he went back into it with the prequels, is to realize that vision. He obviously wanted to do something very different and give it a different gravitas or meaning. Or, add to the meaning as well. 

The main reason I love Alien is the set design, so I love how it is, but I just feel like Scott had a lot of ideas in his mind that he could not do back then (like, a LOT). That is why we see so many recycled and reworked ideas either considered, or actually put into Prometheus and Covenant. 

I think when the prequels began, a lot of us thought that he would go back to those designs and just make it, somehow BETTER. Updated, but still like what we first saw, mostly. Instead, he went more what he wanted to do originally. 

Cerulean Blue I would remove Aliens from the Alien franchise. I know this would infuriate a lot of people, but Aliens turned the xenomorph into a bug. Better no sequels than such lame one.

vivisected, I work as a signaller for the railway

“. . . why have the prequels lost their edge?”

To me it is because they try to explain too much and they also have mostly lame characters. I like to have some mystery in the movies but if they would have made the characters better it would have saved a lot.

“It has to be in the writing, maybe egos at the studio or finding that talented writer is just too difficult.”

I agree in a way, they got to find writers that are good at writing interesting characters. Alien works because the characters are believable in who they are, sure they mess up but they are afraid and fear tend to mess up the judgement. Brett, Vasques, for example get my sympathies because they feel like real persons. Prometheus failed in this aspect and even though AC was better it also failed because the characters were not really fleshed out. They have failed with that part mostly this far. Scott seems to have too much of an influence in the story (I listened to a podcast on AVP-galaxy). Let him do the visuals but keep him far away from the script.

“Which many of that is kosher I just diabolically rage hate most of his characters and their dialogue.”

I try not to over-react but there are many things in the prequels that are bad either because of bad writing or messed up editing. To me they are just movies, I try to keep this in perspective. There are some things that are not worthy of that much emotional investment, movies are one example. Sure there are many things to get upset about in this world but I don’t think that this is one of these things.