What's the point? (Ash quote, LOL) It is fun to see if my preferences in Alien movies have changed or if they stay the same and how that is compared to other peoples preferences.
Nice work with the pictures Timmy the Ultramorph, I like it.
My list is as follows
1. Alien 3 (assembly cut and the original but I think that the assembly cut is better) – I like how hopeless it is and so. I like that this is the end of Ripley (until they decided to mess it up with AR). Even if the prisoners have done some nasty things they come off as real persons too and yes there are differences between them as far as the personalities are concerned. Clemens works as a character and I like his backstory plus that he is a bit different compared to the rest of the prisoners. 85 works as a company man and is far too trusting in the company but he gets his in the end (I won't spoil it for those that haven't seen it). He is not evil, he thinks that he does the right things but he finds out that he is wrong but then it is too late.
I like how they treat religion in this movie and I also think that the religious leader (Dillon) fits into this, his character as a spiritual leader is interesting. Speaking of religion, I think that this movies does that a lot better than Prometheus simply because the characters are better written because no one is annoying in this movie, but that is a matter of taste. They have to try twice before they kill the monster, that is a huge plus because that shows that it is a bit of trial and error and that makes the monster smarter compared to if they would have killed it the first time.
2. Alien – the one that started it all. I like the Giger aesthetics and who can forget the scene when they get into the room when they find the dead pilot that is sitting in the chair? That scene is filled with mystery which I hope that they won't ruin wen they are done with the prequels. One thing that I like is that we only hear when Lambert and Parker are killed by the Xeno, it makes it better because then we get to use our imagination which is better than if we would see it. Poor Ripley, she must have been even more scared when she saw their corpses. Alien is one of the movies that never gets old for me at least.
3. Aliens – This was my favorite movie until some years ago. I like that it is somewhat different compared to 1 and 3 because it wold have been boring if they would have repeated the first movie. James Cameron etcetera did a good job with this one. It is probably the movie that I think have the best quotes and it also has many interesting characters, especially Vasques and Hicks. Ripley is also developed in this movie and is somewhat different compared to Alien and she is also taken on a journey in this movie although she is probably one of the least interesting characters I this movie, at least to me. What happened to Jonesy? ;)
4. Prometheus – it has some interesting ideas but a somewhat disappointing result. I like David and Janek, both Elba and Fassbender did some great work here but unfortunately that is not enough since most of the characters come of as dumb, incomplete, or annoying. The character building worked in Alien 1-3, so what happened? The landscapes are very good looking and I also like the idea of exploring the Engineers, something that turned out to be OK but there were so much that was unanswered or was left vague. Lindelof got a lot of shit for this one but I don't think that it was only his fault. Another thing that I like is the idea of the black goo but I understand if some people think that it doesn't make sense. The more that you watch this one the more sense it makes but that requires too many repeated viewings which many people might think is too much so I don't blame them. A lot of deleted scenes should have been put in this movie since they make more sense to the story and seems to build up the characters, something that this movie really lacked. Who the F edited this one? This one takes the prize for having the dumbest lead character this far in the whole franchise.
5. Alien Resurrection – Oh no, this is not good. Here is where the franchise started to go to shit. The CGI or what ever it is called seems too artificial, like it would fit a comic book movie better. It is almost like they looked at the Alien franchise and tried to make it into a comedy (a guy in a wheel chair that talks funny, a basketball scene that doesn't make sense and what the F). The skin of the aliens look like they have been cut from a plastic bag (imagine the scene where they try to control them by some sort of ice mist). We get the newborn which looks like a monster made of clay with some skin that reminds me of some grilled chicken combined with mustard. Even Sigourney Weaver which I liked in Alien 1-3 can't save this movie. (“Who do I need to fuck to get out of here?” Maybe not an exact quote but that is almost what she says.) What happened? At least it has Winona Ryder and the underwater scene.
6. Alien Covenant – fuck, crap, shit. This movie was so disappointing so I can not find words for it. This is the movie after Prometheus where they were supposed to go to the Engineer home-world but David killed them in the beginning of the movie. AC starts with a reparation of a ship and they pick up a signal, which is an interesting beginning. Instead of going to the planet that they originally planed to visit they go to another place that I call the David planet because I don't remember the name of it there they walk around and shit happens and then they find David which they follow without any questions not even when they see the fried Engineers do anyone ask any question what so ever. The only character that is human that has any character building what so ever is Oram which I think was interesting as a religious scientist but he was too naive. Alien Covenant could be called the David and Walter movie because that is the only thing that Scott seems to give a damn about here. The lack of well-made characters is so disappointing especially since Alien 1,2, and 3 got it right so obviously you can write good characters so what happened? At least they were not as annoying as in Prometheus but they do not have any distinct character traits that stand out *sigh*.
Another dumb thing is that there is a woman that goes to clean up herself, totally alone in a dark place where they know that there monsters and of course she dies, it is like “oh well another death, I guess that we go on with the show from here”. It makes me annoyed, not pissed but a mix of not totally angry but somewhere between disappointed and angry since I want to be as rational as possible and not get carried away with emotions. A good idea was to have many of them being couples but since we have few well-developed characters it almost means nothing. I like that there was a gay couple that was new but I am not sure why they are at a colonization mission where they are supposed to populate and start families, wasn't that what it was about? What is nice about the couple is that they are not being written as effeminate guys but more like regular everyday persons, that was nice. One of them as named Lope but I forgot the name of the other one, probably because he didn't leave an impression on me what so ever because of bad writing. Since this is an alien movie there is gore and that but what does that do when there is no character that we have much connection too? This takes the prize for having the most anonymous main character (Daniels) what was she about? I only understood that she wanted to build a cabin on the lake with her husband (the thirty seconds captain that died that by the way had more time in the extra material that wasn't in the movie, duh!) and that she got sad when her husband died which was sort of sympathetic but we as an audience had no connection with him what so ever so that didn't work that much for me at least.
The switch in the end was kind of interesting, not for me but I felt for Daniels there because she must have been scared (who wouldn't in a situation like that?). Unfortunately not Daniels nor Tennessee had any writing behind them as characters, can someone name any character traits that Tennessee had? I can't see any, oh he has a hat. I don't blame the actors, the material was simply too weak. Now we have three underwhelming alien movies in a row (AR, Prometheus, and AC) I hope that they will do better with the next Alien movie but I don't have a lot of hope for it.
7. Alien versus Predator (2004, not to be confused with Alien versus Predator Resurrection) – A spin-off movie where they for some reason decided to throw in both the Predators and the Aliens which might be an interesting idea but that doesn't work as a movie. No one of the characters stand out even though we get Lance Henriksen as Weyland. They get to Antarctica and then they get to the Predator ship or pyramid or what ever it is. The Predators fight against the Xenos for what ever reason that I don't understand maybe they want to tame them for what ever reason. None of the characters is any memorable what so ever and even the Xenos are lame. Why the hell did they decide to have it on earth anyways? After a bunch of scenes where anonymous characters die since we get no connection to them what so ever the surviving human get some sort of spear from the Predator in the end as some sort of gift. I have not watched this movie for a long time so my memory of it is not very good but I remember some parts and I definitively remember that I didn't like it very much. My friend has this one so I borrowed it since I like some of the the Alien movies, so at least I gave it a chance but it was a disappointment.
