"Aliens" : Some nice effects, but actually kind've a crap film.

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I have to answer my own question above:

If it does this to a man who has seen 20,000 movies, what will it do to the average filmgoer?

Answer: thrill the shit out of them.

― Harold Media (kenan), Friday, 20 August 2004 06:50 (twenty-one years ago)

Gear OTM, plus everyone calling Aliens clichéd seems to have forgotten that many of these "clichés" weren't in fact all that overused back then -- the '80s was the decade for goofy one-liners, and this movie was just one of many to fall in line that way. I like the two movies equally, in different ways -- in the horrible, claustrophobic horror movie way, and in the horrible, claustrophobic action movie way...

(also, Newt was traumatised,FFS. What were you expecting, Alex, some nice, likeable, well-adjusted kid? Of course she wasn't fucking likeable...)

― David A. (Davant), Friday, 20 August 2004 06:57 (twenty-one years ago)

(actually, the 80s just set up the 90s nicely for goofy one-liners, really)

― David A. (Davant), Friday, 20 August 2004 06:58 (twenty-one years ago)

(wow, my tone was a lot harsher there than I intended. I'm just saying, have you ever encountered kids with post-traumatic stress? in other words)

― David A. (Davant), Friday, 20 August 2004 06:59 (twenty-one years ago)

I find myself agreeing with alex here. I remember seeing this at the cinema when it came out, and being thrilled mightily by it. Last time I saw it on tv, the dialogue... ugh!!! It just killed it for me. That "get away from her you bitch" (or whatever) line especially - in the cinema, people were actually cheering! When I last saw it I was like, "oh, for FUCK's sake!1" So corny!!

The actress who plays vasquez, I forget what she's called, she was in "near dark" and IIRC terminator 2 as well? K-ROWR!!!

― Pashmina (Pashmina), Friday, 20 August 2004 07:08 (twenty-one years ago)

This thread made interesting reading until someone, rather amusingly, thought the welding torch on the loader was a flame thrower !?

― Ste (Fuzzy), Friday, 20 August 2004 07:45 (twenty-one years ago)

ALEX WHAT FUCKING CLICHES ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT

― s1ocki (slutsky), Friday, 20 August 2004 12:29 (twenty-one years ago)

Haven't read the thread, but yes Aliens is the most disappointing movie I've ever seen.

― dog latin (dog latin), Friday, 20 August 2004 12:43 (twenty-one years ago)

it owns.

foolish elvens.

― g-kit (g-kit), Friday, 20 August 2004 12:45 (twenty-one years ago)

cliches? the end where the mother alien *gasp* isn't dead but is holding onto the ship zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz....

― dog latin (dog latin), Friday, 20 August 2004 12:46 (twenty-one years ago)

yeah what a boring scene

― s1ocki (slutsky), Friday, 20 August 2004 12:48 (twenty-one years ago)

Ok, but was that a predator ship?

― ())(())()()()(()(LASER)()()()LA(Z)E(R)()()()((L)()()(A)(S(E)R()()()) (ex machina, Friday, 20 August 2004 12:49 (twenty-one years ago)

yeah i mean before Aliens it was done *soooo* many times

― Ste (Fuzzy), Friday, 20 August 2004 12:50 (twenty-one years ago)

i was so sick of confrontations between angry maternal types in exoskeletons and huge mother aliens by that point

― s1ocki (slutsky), Friday, 20 August 2004 12:52 (twenty-one years ago)

i know it was getting beyond a joke wasn't it.

― Ste (Fuzzy), Friday, 20 August 2004 12:52 (twenty-one years ago)

er, more like the "oh goody baddies are dead let's go home oh wait they're still here *bang* now they're dead seeyalater chzthxbye" kind of lazy cliche seen in every horror movie ever.

― dog latin (dog latin), Friday, 20 August 2004 12:54 (twenty-one years ago)

yes but at the time of the release of the film it wasn't really a cliche was it, especially in the setting and the specifics of the scene (ie alien coming out of bottom of ship sticks tail in android and rips him in two)

you can't say that thats a cliche can you?

The trouble is films since Aliens have robbed it to fuck and now admittedly watching it again it some parts seem cliched but you have to realise it was unique at the time and was, and remains to be, an absoloute classic

― Ste (Fuzzy), Friday, 20 August 2004 13:07 (twenty-one years ago)

Speaking of cliches, did Alien invent the Shock the Audience with a Cat and Seperate the Group with a Cat tricks?

Anyway:
Alien: claustrophobic atmosphere, good script, suspense, nasty shocks, superb design

Aliens: Suspense, nasty shocks, superb design and GUNS GUNS GUNS! LOTSA GUNS!

I declare a tie.

― robster (robster), Friday, 20 August 2004 13:09 (twenty-one years ago)

Complaining that a Hollywood action movie contains a couple of cliches is like complaining that a 60s French film has too much smoking in it. Like, what the fuck did you expect?

Alien 3 is underrated, by the way.

― Wooden (Wooden), Friday, 20 August 2004 13:12 (twenty-one years ago)

Also applause request for Camerons use of Bishop and the will-he-won't-he factor carried on from the first films Ash character. A brilliant bit of film making which was abused to an extent in the third film and another reason why this thread should be renamed "Alien3 - Some nice effects, but actually kind've a crap film"

haha xpost

― Ste (Fuzzy), Friday, 20 August 2004 13:16 (twenty-one years ago)

(applause)

― s1ocki (slutsky), Friday, 20 August 2004 13:49 (twenty-one years ago)

I think the idea of a franchise sci-fi universe revolving around the conflict between the Predator, Alien and Human species has a great deal of potential, if only producers would stop looking ONLY at flash cinematography (which the baseline art design offers in spades anyway) and try getting a decent STORY out of it for ONCE.

Alien: haven't seen it! wtf
Aliens: That's the clumsiest exoskeleton I've ever seen, HOMO SNAPIES U HAVE NO CHANCE 2 SURVIVE MAKE UR TIME, also kind of an injustice to the Aliens that they keep getting killed so easily, yes I understand the guns are big but seriously people, this is the most dangerous species in the galaxy, they don't need numbers to win
Alien 3: I have tried to watch this like 5 times and have been unable to figure out what is going on enough to bother sitting through the giger cave bukkake
Alien Resurrection: Am I the only person who thinks this would have been better standalone, without trying to tie in to the Alien franchise? Ron Perlman!!! Whoop

― TOMBOT, Friday, 20 August 2004 14:09 (twenty-one years ago)

Alien: haven't seen it! wtf

Heavens! This is the best of the lot.

― Ste (Fuzzy), Friday, 20 August 2004 14:11 (twenty-one years ago)

Alien Resurrection is fabulous, yes. It wouldn't have made a lot of sense eliminating the Ripley-clone/Alien elements, though. Sigourney Weaver is actually hotter in A:R than in the original, too.

― miloauckerman (miloauckerman), Friday, 20 August 2004 14:58 (twenty-one years ago)

kind've?????

― Cathy (Cathy), Friday, 20 August 2004 15:02 (twenty-one years ago)

ron perlman, dan hedaya doing his bug-eyes thing, the pervy scientists, ron perlman, michael wincott (i love this guy!), the really gross fleshy alien child-of-ripley at the end. not even winona ryder as a robot as winona ryder can hurt this one.

― g--ff (gcannon), Friday, 20 August 2004 15:05 (twenty-one years ago)

"The trouble is films since Aliens have robbed it to fuck and now admittedly watching it again it some parts seem cliched but you have to realise it was unique at the time and was, and remains to be, an absoloute classic "

OTM.

i can't really participate in this thread objectively, as i'm an alien/aliens obsessive. but Alex, you ARE SO FUCKING WRONG!

ripley's character "humorless and wooden"? echhh. she is traumatized, she narrowly escaped being killed by a space monster. she is the only one who realizes how much of a threat the alien really represents, and she is exasperated by the marines and the company's incompetence. to her this is serious shit, the stakes are just too high if the aliens spread. and i think sigourney weaver nails this perfectly.

newt annoying? i've always thought that newt was one of the least annoying child characters in a movie like this. she doesn't even have that many lines!

― latebloomer (latebloomer), Friday, 20 August 2004 15:24 (twenty-one years ago)

I can't belive TOMBOT has never seein Alien. Remedy that, post-haste.

btw everybody I saw Sigourney at the Belmont last year and she's still SUPREMELY BEAUTIFUL at like 56 or whatever.

― hstencil (hstencil), Friday, 20 August 2004 15:28 (twenty-one years ago)

as i'm an alien/aliens obsessive. but Alex, you ARE SO FUCKING WRONG!

No I'm not, actually. You're just a fanboy in denial.

she doesn't even have that many lines!

One doesn't need lots of lines to be annoying.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Friday, 20 August 2004 15:39 (twenty-one years ago)

Sigourney Weaver's hottest moments are inarguably in The Year of Living Dangerously, with tiny Linda Hunt and Mel Gibson.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Friday, 20 August 2004 15:40 (twenty-one years ago)

"No I'm not, actually. You're just a fanboy in denial."

why did i become a fanboy in the first place then, hmm?

― latebloomer (latebloomer), Friday, 20 August 2004 15:44 (twenty-one years ago)

Sigourney's hottest moments are, like, every moment she's taken a breath while being alive on this planet.

― hstencil (hstencil), Friday, 20 August 2004 15:45 (twenty-one years ago)

She wasn't that hot with '80s hair in Ghostbusters.

― miloauckerman (miloauckerman), Friday, 20 August 2004 15:46 (twenty-one years ago)

SO WRONG.

― hstencil (hstencil), Friday, 20 August 2004 15:47 (twenty-one years ago)

http://sfstory.free.fr/images/Alien4/20.jpg

― miloauckerman (miloauckerman), Friday, 20 August 2004 15:47 (twenty-one years ago)

http://sfstory.free.fr/images/Alien4/20.jpg

― miloauckerman (miloauckerman), Friday, 20 August 2004 15:48 (twenty-one years ago)

Heartbreakers would have been so much better if it turned into an Alien movie halfway through.

― miloauckerman (miloauckerman), Friday, 20 August 2004 15:49 (twenty-one years ago)

yeah she looks hottt in that pic, woohoo!

― hstencil (hstencil), Friday, 20 August 2004 15:52 (twenty-one years ago)

i actually think this is a really canny film. i mean it's not the kind of thing i will watch 50 times and find something new each time, but it's pretty provocative and exciting the first few times. i think the script is very well-constructed even if it's not the most literate or even believeable thing on a line-by-line level. i think james cameron has a good story sense.

― amateur!!!st, Friday, 20 August 2004 15:56 (twenty-one years ago)

alien3 is the sequel to dune.

― amateur!!st, Friday, 20 August 2004 15:58 (twenty-one years ago)

OTM.

"But why would a space-age forklift come equipped with one?"

welding?

― latebloomer (latebloomer), Friday, 20 August 2004 15:58 (twenty-one years ago)

ps. tiny pedantry from earlier - the new Exorcist movie is a prequel.

― hstencil (hstencil), Friday, 20 August 2004 16:01 (twenty-one years ago)

Heavens! This is the best of the lot.

I was about to say! Tom, trust me, it's worth it.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 20 August 2004 16:06 (twenty-one years ago)

why did i become a fanboy in the first place then, hmm?

Perhaps, like I was, you were intrigued by the first film. Unlike me, however, your blind devotion to the promise of the first one makes you overlook the flaws of the second.

ps. tiny pedantry from earlier - the new Exorcist movie is a prequel. ?

Duly noted, Stence. But why do we need one of those either?

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Friday, 20 August 2004 16:13 (twenty-one years ago)

because the Max von Sydow character is cool?

― hstencil (hstencil), Friday, 20 August 2004 16:13 (twenty-one years ago)

actually i've never seen any of the alien films.

― latebloomer (latebloomer), Friday, 20 August 2004 16:15 (twenty-one years ago)

(psych)

― latebloomer (latebloomer), Friday, 20 August 2004 16:16 (twenty-one years ago)

i will concede that the first alien is the best, though.

― latebloomer (latebloomer), Friday, 20 August 2004 16:20 (twenty-one years ago)

I can't even read all of this thread b/c the need to say:
Aliens is great, I love Aliens! is too much to hold in. I've even watched it on tv *dubbed in French* and loved it. Um. Yeah.

― rrrobyn (rrrobyn), Friday, 20 August 2004 16:24 (twenty-one years ago)

because the Max von Sydow character is cool?

True, but von Sydow isn't playing said character. I believe the guy playing him is the advanced-Calculus genius from Eastern Europe with the fancy scarf that pals around with Robin Williams in Good Will Hunting. To which I say: why?

The Exorcist is fine where it is. Leave it there.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Friday, 20 August 2004 16:25 (twenty-one years ago)

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