Ok, now help me watch the Alien films! (1 Viewer)

[TedT]

1. open package.

2. turn on DVD player

3. press "eject" on your DVD player remote. Wait for tray to stick out.

4. place DVD in DVD tray (make sure label side is facing up)

5. close tray

6. Enjoy!

 

[Glen C]

imho both "theatrical" versions are the best for FIRST viewing. the alien DC is worthless really, but could have been great if Scott did not delete any footage from the original, and instead just added the cut scenes.

AlienS DC is good after you've watched Alien a few times, but ultimately the theatrical version is tighter and gets bogged down less. (ie. Apocalypse Now vs Redux).

For these reasons the Quadroligy is a no-brainer.

 

[Grant H]

I didn't mind the trimming of the Dallas/Mother scene.

It's primary effect seemed to be that of portraying Dallas as the rarest of all things: a complete moron.

I actually find the character a little more complelling without his stupidity included.

I didn't even notice the scene of Dallas talking about Ash being cut.

The cocoon scene I'm okay with mostly because it helps the kitty carrier contiuity a bit, and the alien's swat was cool.

Still not happy with the new color timing though.

I prefer the longer SE cut of Aliens, though I could go either way with the SE introduction on-planet.

I guess if you hadn't seen Alien, the theatrical cut would be more suspenseful, but if you've seen Alien first, you might as well go SE in regards to the beginning.

 

[WillG]

What did the Dallas/Mother scene have to do with Ash?

 

[Bryan Tuck]

I stand corrected. Looked again, and sure enough, the logo on the Quadrilogy is a newer one than was in the original, but not the current one. Anyway, as you said, it's a minor thing. Still weird, though.

 

[Robert Ringwald]

I prefer the theatrical cut of ALIEN, as opposed to the "Director's Cut." and the SPECIAL EDITION of ALIENS, as opposed to the theatrical.

ALIEN - the director's cut loses a lot of the atmosphere, and is too updated with the quicker edits. Like trying to appeal to an audience with a short attention span.

ALIENS - the special edition allows more time with the characters, and really makes for a more satisfying experience.

Both are wonderful films, and two of my complete favorites.

 

[Grant H]

Sorry, I meant Dallas. I will fix my post.

 

[WillG]

I don't know so much about that. Maybe you are refering to the idea that Dallas should have known that he would not get much assitance from Mother, as that computer could never simulate odds of being able to vanquish a creature it knows nothing about. True. But it always seemed to me that Dallas probably knew he would not get much help from Mother. It seemed to me that Dallas actually derived comfort from talking to mother, as he does not trust anyone on his crew all that much. He seemed to be a character who enjoyed solitude. So, I do think that scene made sense. Also, it is for the benefit of the audience to show that they probably do not have much chance of success.

 

[Nathan*W]

So, if you buy the new 2-disc versions, do you lose out on anything that would be included in the Quadrilogy?

 

[WillG]

The only thing that you would not get is the 9th disc. I believe that the 2-Disc individual versions have "Alien vs Predator" trailers on them. Those should be the only differences.

 

[Todd K]

OK, I didn't realize I held on to these for over three months before watching them!! I watched the theatrical edition of Alien last night. I kind of ruined my introduction to the series by going to a sneak preview of Alien vs. Predator last week. I had never seen an entry in either series in its entirety.

I did find one thing that AVP and Alien had in common -- both were really straightforward, predictable movies.

I guess a lot of people say Alien starts out really slow and gets boring. It was a little of the latter, but I fel there was a lot of realism involved so I didn't notice that an hour had passed before the Alien even broke out.

I found the chest burster scene to be somewhat anti-climactic. Maybe if I hadn't known how the aliens multiply it would have been scary to me in 1979, but it just seemed like the critter popped out without much ado, and the crew didn't freak out as much as I thought they should have. And to top it off, his little "scuttling" number was probably the worst special effect in the movie.

But all in all it was a nice suspense flick and a very well executed movie. I've heard Aliens is one of those as-good-as-if-not-better-than-the-original sequels, so I am really looking forward to that. I'll try not to wait another three months before getting back here.

Todd

p.s. What's the deal with that coccoon sequence? Do captured people mutate into eggs or something? Or are queens the only source of eggs?

p.p.s. How did the "company" know about the aliens being there, and why did they have to send that pathetic miming ship with 7 people to make contact? Am I missing something?

 

[Scott Weinberg]

1. The eggs come from the queen. Humans (or other creatures) are incapacitated in front of an egg. Facehugger comes from egg, attaches to host's face, implants an embryo in the host's chest, facehugger dies, newborn alien is born from inside the host's chest.

2. MOTHER let 'the company' know that there was something on the planet. The orders were to go down and investigate. Once the alien was on board, the new orders to MOTHER and Ash were: get this thing brought back alive. Crew expendable.

 

[Malcolm R]

I don't believe the Company knew about the aliens until Ash was in contact with them via "Mother" about what was happening to Kane. It was after the face-hugger attached, and the Company learned about it via Ash, that capturing and bringing back the alien became their primary objective.

EDIT: Yeah, what Scott said.

 

[oscar_merkx]

I bought the old Alien disc simply for the isolated music only track which is simply a haunting soundtrack.

I will still keep this and get a hold of the newer Alien & Aliens 2 disc SE

 

[Dan Rudolph]

Alien is only predictable because the movie is so well known. If not for everyone telling you about it ahead of time, Ripley being hte hero would have been a big surprise, as would the robot and a bunch of other stuff.

 

[Malcolm R]

Yes, if you were seeing the film for the first time in 1979, there were plenty of surprises.

 

[WillG]

The conception in the Coccoon sequence in "Alien" is that Brett's carcas is mutating into an egg. Dallas is incapacitated so that he will be the eventual host for a new alien. Cameron abandoned this concept in favor of an egg laying Queen in "Aliens"

 

[Kevin M]

What WillG said, if you bothered to watch the docu or if you have the SE-LD or the Quad-set you would see that, long before Cameron dreamed up the queen, the Alien species was more of a mystery. One of the many concepts was that they were the ultimate survivor/weapon, they didn't need sex to reproduce, all they needed was hosts. Incapacitate one victim that will metamorphose into an egg and subsequently facehugg another victim and the cycle of reproduction is continued....I actually like this concept better than the queen because it is far more ALIEN a reproductive cycle (although slightly inspired by the insect world) than the standard male female rolls, you can also see the idea of these things being some form of insane alien biological weapon, just drop one or two on a planet and after awhile....

 

[Todd K]

I didn't know Ash was a robot going into the movie. I just thought a few of the bigger things were pretty predictable, like the fact that the alien had snuck into the shuttle at the end. And that the plot would pretty much go: discovery of alien-->contamination-->killing of crew-->crew fighting back-->getting rid of alien.

But that doesn't really count as a strike against the movie, like knowing the Lord of the Rings ends with them getting rid of the ring.



If the company didn't know, why did they go through the trouble of putting an android on board?

Thanks for the input, folks. And one other thing, how come Ridley Scott didn't direct the second installment?

 

[Stephen_J_H]

I'm thinking that the reason you found Alien so predictable is that its winning formula has been copied so many times by lesser and equal films of the same genre.

Scott didn't direct the second installment because he was working on Legend @ the time.