Fan Forum
Remember Me?
Register

  Request a Forum   |     View New Forums

Reply   Post New Thread
 
Forum Affiliates Tags Thread Tools
Old 05-08-2010, 07:29 PM
  #31
Fan Forum Star

 
sum1's Avatar
 
Joined: Oct 2002
Posts: 126,315
Alien Movies Series Discussion #1:

Alien, Aliens, Alien3, Alien Resurrection and the various Alien/Predator movies.

I've been watching some of these recently and felt like discussing them here.

The first one, Alien, is a rather limited film. Kind of primitive. Ian Holm makes an annoying robot. The cat was my favorite part, along with the fact that it survives. Yaphet Kotto was good. But the characters aren't really developed.

The second one, Aliens, is most people's favorite, but not mine. It's a much better film than the first one, but still kind of limited. The marines include some good characters (notably Hicks and Vasquez). Paul Reiser is good as Burke. The kid is slightly annoying. Lance Henriksen is very good as a robot. Bill Paxton's marine is a Pain In The Butt. And of course Sigourney Weaver is good. The aliens are made satisfyingly scary, the queen in particular. The best part of the film is from when Ripley goes back to find the kid onwards. Good stuff. But the film overall only goes so far, doesn't feel terribly real, with character portrayal feeling not quite right. Still, the film certainly has its merits.

The third film, Aliens3, is better made overall but not as much fun as #2 and kind of depressing, plus the aliens aren't half as scary as they were before. Charles Dutton and Charles Dance are both very good. There are numerous annoying characters, though. Character portrayal feels more real than in the last two. There's plenty atmosphere. Things generally feel more real than in the previous two films. But the film still doesn't work 100% And it's annoying how they kill off the previous film's survivors (except Ripley) in the beginning of the film. I get the impression Michael Biehn was pretty pissed off about that and I can sympathize -he's killed off in most films he's in. The director is David Fincher, who directed Fight Club.

The fourth, Alien Resurrection, is my favorite. It's just generally more interesting and works better. And Winona Ryder is really good as the android Call. I'd say she's the most relatable character in all four films. She makes the film. Ron Perlman's presence is welcome, and Dan Hedaya's. Kim Flowers is sexy and killed off too soon. Vriess is annoying -every film has to have at least one annoying character. Brad Dourif and J E Freeman are good. Sigourney Weaver turns in a good performance as a semi-alien Ripley clone.
__________________
Icon: BlackWhiteRose

Last edited by sum1; 05-12-2010 at 05:15 PM
sum1 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-10-2010, 05:12 AM
  #32
Obsessed Fan

 
The Kender's Avatar
 
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 5,764
My favourite is Aliens, yes the kid is annoying, but i just like everything about it.

Alien comes second....the others, i just try to pretend they don't exist, especially Alien 3. There was just so many continuity mistakes in it, its just a joke. Alien Resurection isn't as bad as the third, but nowhere near as good as Aliens. Of course thats just my opinion
__________________
"It is a strange fate that we should suffer so much fear and doubt over so small a thing...such a little thing." - Boromir

Misha's Minion
My LJ Kender's Twitter
The Kender is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-10-2010, 07:05 AM
  #33
Elite Fan

 
Cryostar's Avatar
 
Joined: Mar 2003
Posts: 47,151
You forgot Ron Perlman. Aliens 4 has Ron Perlman
__________________
"Be quiet brain, or I'll stab you with a Q-tip!"
"Tact is for people who aren't witty enough to be sarcastic."
Twilight isn't about vampires, it's about teenagers with sharp teeth.
Vampires don't "sparkle" in the sun: they screech in horror, burst into flame and wither to ash.
Cryostar is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-10-2010, 03:25 PM
  #34
Fan Forum Star

 
sum1's Avatar
 
Joined: Oct 2002
Posts: 126,315
I didn't forget Ron Perlman. See lines 2 and 3 of my paragraph on the film.

The first Alien film really isn't much use. It gives you very little real connection with the characters and the film just isn't built right. The alien is scary, though, and the cat is nice. But I didn't care much about the people, because we weren't given a real connection with them.

I'm not fond of Alien3. It's a downer and very negative. But the character portrayal feels more real than in the two previous films and there's a lot of atmosphere. It's a well-made film, just not a likable one.
__________________
Icon: BlackWhiteRose
sum1 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-12-2010, 04:11 AM
  #35
Fan Forum Star

 
sum1's Avatar
 
Joined: Oct 2002
Posts: 126,315
Re the connected Predator franchise, the guy who wrote the original film is called John Thomas.
__________________
Icon: BlackWhiteRose
sum1 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-12-2010, 06:38 AM
  #36
Elite Fan

 
Cryostar's Avatar
 
Joined: Mar 2003
Posts: 47,151
Doh, my bad. You did mention him.

So, I see you didn't mention AVP.
__________________
"Be quiet brain, or I'll stab you with a Q-tip!"
"Tact is for people who aren't witty enough to be sarcastic."
Twilight isn't about vampires, it's about teenagers with sharp teeth.
Vampires don't "sparkle" in the sun: they screech in horror, burst into flame and wither to ash.
Cryostar is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-12-2010, 05:13 PM
  #37
Fan Forum Star

 
sum1's Avatar
 
Joined: Oct 2002
Posts: 126,315
I don't recognize that Predators crap. The aliens are inspired scary monsters. The predators are just a boring cliche warrior race, not especially scary and also annoying. The first Predator film was ok, but 2 wasn't much use. The Predator stuff should never have infected the Alien franchise. There was a lot of bullcrap comics and video games putting the two franchises together before AVP ever happened, and that was bad enough, without them also dragging the contamination into the movies. AVP was a cheap cash-in. Boring movie full of cliche. Sanaa Lathan wasn't bad in it, but the film was pathetic. And it wouldn't stop beating you over the head about how cool the Predators supposedly are. There's a second AVP movie too, god knows why.
__________________
Icon: BlackWhiteRose
sum1 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-14-2010, 07:25 AM
  #38
Elite Fan

 
Cryostar's Avatar
 
Joined: Mar 2003
Posts: 47,151
You mean the, "Hey, look at this cool weapon". Or "I have this cool weapon".

I take it you won't be seeing the Preadtors movie this summer then
__________________
"Be quiet brain, or I'll stab you with a Q-tip!"
"Tact is for people who aren't witty enough to be sarcastic."
Twilight isn't about vampires, it's about teenagers with sharp teeth.
Vampires don't "sparkle" in the sun: they screech in horror, burst into flame and wither to ash.
Cryostar is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-17-2010, 12:52 AM
  #39
Fan Forum Star

 
sum1's Avatar
 
Joined: Oct 2002
Posts: 126,315
They actually made two of those bloody AVP movies. One was bad enough. Both totally lame. Serious misuse of the Alien thing.

Also, the Predator and Alien creatures are in no way comparable. The Alien is a brilliantly designed scary-as-hell evocation of the archetype of the predatory carnivore, something sunk deep in the human psych. It resonates. The Predator is just a bland version of stereotypes of the hunter and the fierce warrior race. There is depth in the Alien. There is none in the Predator. One should not have been contaminated with the other. Also, there's a whole annoying macho pose in the Predator.

The AVP movies reduce the Alien franchise to basically just cheap slasher movies. Awful movies. I think the second is even worse than the first.

Apparently, Ridley Scott plans to make two Alien prequel films. I don't have much hope that anything good will be added to the franchise at this stage, so I don't expect much from them. Also, they're going to be in 3D.
__________________
Icon: BlackWhiteRose

Last edited by sum1; 05-17-2010 at 12:59 AM
sum1 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-19-2010, 07:05 AM
  #40
Elite Fan

 
Cryostar's Avatar
 
Joined: Mar 2003
Posts: 47,151
I found AVP 2 to be much better than AVP. It was a truer scenario, where the aliens really would have won if not for tact nukes.

As for the prequel....supposedly the story will center on the navigator that we saw in the hive, the one when they were exploring the ship the first time
__________________
"Be quiet brain, or I'll stab you with a Q-tip!"
"Tact is for people who aren't witty enough to be sarcastic."
Twilight isn't about vampires, it's about teenagers with sharp teeth.
Vampires don't "sparkle" in the sun: they screech in horror, burst into flame and wither to ash.
Cryostar is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-19-2010, 02:30 PM
  #41
Fan Forum Star

 
sum1's Avatar
 
Joined: Oct 2002
Posts: 126,315
AVP 2 was a crappy film with no saving graces. I couldn't care about any of the characters. I didn't care much about anybody in AVP 1 either, but Sanaa Lathan wasn't bad. Plausible scenario? Maybe, but that's a small point next to how crappy the film was. I just don't see the point in making films like that. And I don't know whose bright idea it was to put the Aliens in the present day, but being set a good ways in the future is an important part of the Alien thing. Sticking it in the present was yet another thing that cheapened it in the AVP films.

Yeah, the prequel's supposed to be about the space jockey. I guess they figured it was time to go back and that up, too. It's so much better left unexplained. Some people don't seem to get that some things are better left to the imagination.
__________________
Icon: BlackWhiteRose
sum1 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-21-2010, 07:32 AM
  #42
Elite Fan

 
Cryostar's Avatar
 
Joined: Mar 2003
Posts: 47,151
What is this "imagination" of which you speak? Is that like THinking?

AVP is a hard concept to make in a film. The point of any AVP is mutual annhilation of all parties involved. Everyone should die, and that juts doesn't make for a successful movie.
__________________
"Be quiet brain, or I'll stab you with a Q-tip!"
"Tact is for people who aren't witty enough to be sarcastic."
Twilight isn't about vampires, it's about teenagers with sharp teeth.
Vampires don't "sparkle" in the sun: they screech in horror, burst into flame and wither to ash.
Cryostar is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-21-2010, 10:10 AM
  #43
Fan Forum Star

 
sum1's Avatar
 
Joined: Oct 2002
Posts: 126,315
There's a point to AVP?
__________________
Icon: BlackWhiteRose
sum1 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-25-2010, 07:17 AM
  #44
Elite Fan

 
Cryostar's Avatar
 
Joined: Mar 2003
Posts: 47,151
nihlism?

Did you ever watch dead set? That's what I loved about that mini....it was Nihlistic...as a zombie apocolypse should be.
__________________
"Be quiet brain, or I'll stab you with a Q-tip!"
"Tact is for people who aren't witty enough to be sarcastic."
Twilight isn't about vampires, it's about teenagers with sharp teeth.
Vampires don't "sparkle" in the sun: they screech in horror, burst into flame and wither to ash.
Cryostar is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-27-2010, 10:49 AM
  #45
Fan Forum Star

 
sum1's Avatar
 
Joined: Oct 2002
Posts: 126,315
Yeah, well, Dead Set is British and a lot of British stuff is negative in spirit. Not my thing. Haven't seen it, though. Don't intend to. A lot of zombie stuff is crap. The first two Resident Evil films got it right, but the third one was crap and so were the first three Romero zombie films.

The AVP films are just cheap exploitation of a franchise. They're the bottom of the barrel. You dislike the money-minded extension of the Terminator franchise. Well, AVP is like that but worse. Apparently the important people involved with the original Alien films don't recognize the canonicity of the AVP films and future Alien films will ignore them. Which is fine by me. After watching those AVP films, I felt cheated. I'd set out to watch a film and I'd just got this garbage.

The whole AVP thing should never have been developed, as comics, games or movies. Dark Horse deserves blame for thinking it up. Pollution of a franchise.
__________________
Icon: BlackWhiteRose

Last edited by sum1; 05-27-2010 at 11:02 AM
sum1 is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply   Post New Thread

Bookmarks

Tags
alien , ellen ripley , michael fassbender , movie , predator , sci-fi/fantasy


Forum Affiliates
Star Trek Ladies
Thread Tools



All times are GMT -7. The time now is 03:28 AM.

Fan Forum  |  Contact Us  |  Fan Forum on Twitter  |  Fan Forum on Facebook  |  Archive  |  Top

Powered by vBulletin, Copyright © 2000-2024.

Copyright © 1998-2024, Fan Forum.