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

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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)

The other day I was talking about self-destruct mechanisms and how everything in action films has one. Yet I believe most fighterplanes, boats, cars and computers don't actually have them... So, why the hell would a space-mining ship have a self-destruct mechanism? Certainly there are answers, but they don't matter because: it's a big huge suspense/action film about virtually unkillable aliens!

― rrrobyn (rrrobyn), Friday, 20 August 2004 16:36 (twenty-one years ago)

submarines had them

― ())(())()()()(()(LASER)()()()LA(Z)E(R)()()()((L)()()(A)(S(E)R()()()) (ex machina, Friday, 20 August 2004 16:38 (twenty-one years ago)

because von Sydow is 80billyion years old and this is supposed to be about him as a young priest, duh!

― hstencil (hstencil), Friday, 20 August 2004 16:39 (twenty-one years ago)

"I can't believe River Phoenix played a young Indiana Jones! Why didn't they get Harrison Ford to play him?"

― hstencil (hstencil), Friday, 20 August 2004 16:39 (twenty-one years ago)

Aliens is one of the best movies ever - military action in a totally realized and believable future, with the aforementioned gender trouble subtexts, etc etc. The dropship, apc, pulse rifles, machine guns are all exquisitly designed too.

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Friday, 20 August 2004 16:41 (twenty-one years ago)

Spencer I think I disagree with all but about 5 words of that post and none of them are nouns. If the art design in Aliens had been worth a piss, besides the Aliens themselves, I would have loved it, been a fanboy from the start. Seriously, man, years and years in the future and the coolest weapon is a machinegun with a red LED counter on it to tell you how many bullets are left? Fuckin' eat me. The exoskeleton was stupid too. How the fuck do you build an android like Bishop and then everything else is so utterly dumb and retro? Believable my ass, the future of "Aliens" is a wad of unimaginative shit. God. I think you hit a nerve.

― TOMBOT, Friday, 20 August 2004 16:52 (twenty-one years ago)

um, bladerunner to thread.

― rrrobyn (rrrobyn), Friday, 20 August 2004 16:55 (twenty-one years ago)

Bladerunner had flying cars with gullwing doors, hello.

― TOMBOT, Friday, 20 August 2004 16:57 (twenty-one years ago)

the art design of the 2nd one pales in comparison to the first, but i still think the story is better. i mean the mechanics of the thing.

i do not quite understand the profound awe that blade runner inspires in so many people.

― amateur!!!st, Friday, 20 August 2004 16:57 (twenty-one years ago)

Bladerunner: set in Los Angeles
Aliens: not

― hstencil (hstencil), Friday, 20 August 2004 16:58 (twenty-one years ago)

Hell, Starship Troopers to thread while we're at it then

― TOMBOT, Friday, 20 August 2004 16:58 (twenty-one years ago)

It looks and feels fantastic while still allowing for an exploration of a central Philip K. Dick theme, for a start.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 20 August 2004 16:59 (twenty-one years ago)

BR is fantastic but comparing it to Aliens, esp. in terms of set design, is silly!

ps. in the future all ships will have flimsy subway-grate floors and people will still use those hanging lamps that mechanics use to look at your engine when the hood's up.

― hstencil (hstencil), Friday, 20 August 2004 17:02 (twenty-one years ago)

haha - gullwing doors of the future!
I like the idea that super-high-tech androids can exist in a world that is still dirty and bleak. Y'know, you could say "if there are androids, why is there garbage?" etc. It doesn't matter; that's how it is.
xpost

― rrrobyn (rrrobyn), Friday, 20 August 2004 17:04 (twenty-one years ago)

has anybody read david thomson's book on the aliens series??
-- vahid (vfoz...), August 20th, 2004.

Weirdly enough, I've read this. And I also have nothing to add to this thread kthxbye!

― Homosexual II (Homosexual II), Friday, 20 August 2004 17:10 (twenty-one years ago)

I have to say, tho, in Aliens 4 the scene with Sigourney playing Basketball is funny as hell. I mean doesn't she even spin the b-ball on the end of her finger like in a "whoa, i'm a ROBOT AND I DEFY GRAVITY" kind of way?

― Homosexual II (Homosexual II), Friday, 20 August 2004 17:12 (twenty-one years ago)

needs more slocki.

― cºzen (Cozen), Friday, 20 August 2004 17:12 (twenty-one years ago)

yes, slocki would kick some alien butt.

― hstencil (hstencil), Friday, 20 August 2004 17:15 (twenty-one years ago)

alex in nyc first.

― cºzen (Cozen), Friday, 20 August 2004 17:17 (twenty-one years ago)

But Mandee, she's not a robot - she was grown from Ripley's and alien DNA - and, as we know, Aliens are the stars of the Intergalactic Gl0betr0tters League.

― rrrobyn (rrrobyn), Friday, 20 August 2004 17:20 (twenty-one years ago)

alien 4 directed by jean-pierre jeunet.

― cºzen (Cozen), Friday, 20 August 2004 17:23 (twenty-one years ago)

http://scanprofil.no/images/Aliens/ABAstor.gif

― Gear! (Gear!), Friday, 20 August 2004 17:23 (twenty-one years ago)

so was amelie.

― cºzen (Cozen), Friday, 20 August 2004 17:23 (twenty-one years ago)

i like the art direction of alien 1 and 2 a lot, and i've always dug the movies' vision of the future as being totally corporatized, which i think is pretty prescient

― s1ocki (slutsky), Friday, 20 August 2004 17:28 (twenty-one years ago)

because von Sydow is 80billyion years old and this is supposed to be about him as a young priest, duh!

No, dick, my question is why are they doing it at all?

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Friday, 20 August 2004 17:28 (twenty-one years ago)

aliens is better than die hard.

― cºzen (Cozen), Friday, 20 August 2004 17:28 (twenty-one years ago)

he's not a dick and they're doing it for the $$$

― s1ocki (slutsky), Friday, 20 August 2004 17:29 (twenty-one years ago)

hollywood in squeezing every last dollar out of a franchise shockah

― s1ocki (slutsky), Friday, 20 August 2004 17:29 (twenty-one years ago)

he's not a dick and they're doing it for the $$$

he's a dick for attaching the "duh!" to his post.

And really....for the money? It ain't like Exorcist II: the Heretic and/or Exorcist III really cleaned up at the box office.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Friday, 20 August 2004 17:34 (twenty-one years ago)

no that's not different at all.

― cºzen (Cozen), Friday, 20 August 2004 17:35 (twenty-one years ago)

hollywood in squeezing every last dollar out of a franchise shockah

― s1ocki (slutsky), Friday, 20 August 2004 17:37 (twenty-one years ago)

if I'm a dick you're a doof, doofy.

― hstencil (hstencil), Friday, 20 August 2004 17:38 (twenty-one years ago)

let's reduce it to schoolyard-style, that would great.

― hstencil (hstencil), Friday, 20 August 2004 17:38 (twenty-one years ago)

grate.

― cºzen (Cozen), Friday, 20 August 2004 17:39 (twenty-one years ago)

exorcist prequel original director: PAUL SCHRADER!!!

― s1ocki (slutsky), Friday, 20 August 2004 17:39 (twenty-one years ago)

seriously tho I think I read something where the dude who wrote it wanted the prequel because the original movie didn't have as much backstory as the novel?

― hstencil (hstencil), Friday, 20 August 2004 17:41 (twenty-one years ago)

I really like Stellan Skarsgard.

― Gear! (Gear!), Friday, 20 August 2004 17:41 (twenty-one years ago)

yeah william peter blatty, who is a real weirdo

― s1ocki (slutsky), Friday, 20 August 2004 17:42 (twenty-one years ago)

also there's this very interesting piece from L.A. Weekly last week regarding this Exorcist prequel.

http://www.laweekly.com/ink/04/38/features-foundas.php

― Gear! (Gear!), Friday, 20 August 2004 17:42 (twenty-one years ago)

Sorry Tom, the design in Aliens rings very true for me and it's actually one of my favorite ever sci-fi visions. I have absolutely no problem with it at all, especially since it was coming from 1986 (you are a bit younger than I am and maybe this is an interesting example of sci-fi expectation). I really like how most of the stuff was just a slight update on current technology. This served the story well as it means we could identify with the Space Marines (and be reminded of Vietnam etc) and with the rest of the technology. I happen to firmly believe that the future will not look very different from the one presented in Aliens (although it will probably be tackier). The same goes for Alien (except for the 'mother' computer room which is terrible now).

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Friday, 20 August 2004 17:52 (twenty-one years ago)

oooh ooooh good Vietnam analogy!

― hstencil (hstencil), Friday, 20 August 2004 17:52 (twenty-one years ago)

Yeah, it's also explicitly stated I think on some of the dvd bonus features. I've actually built a drop-ship model kit and had a miniature APC. I considered buying a 1/1 scale pulse rifle too - but thought that might look weird.

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Friday, 20 August 2004 17:56 (twenty-one years ago)

I flipped past Aliens on TNT last night myself and of course had to watch like half an hour of it, but what struck me was how it looked like every sci-fi shoot-em-up video game from the past ten years. If you want to talk influentiality. And neologisms.

― wickerbocker please (hammy), Friday, 20 August 2004 18:59 (twenty-one years ago)

there would be no doom or halo as we know them without aliens, that's for sure.

― latebloomer (latebloomer), Friday, 20 August 2004 19:16 (twenty-one years ago)

No Super Soakers, either.

― sexyDancer, Friday, 20 August 2004 19:21 (twenty-one years ago)

Alex in NYC is LeBrain Boy

― Leeeter van den Hoogenband (Leee), Friday, 20 August 2004 21:40 (twenty-one years ago)

Ballsy thing about "Aliens:" there's something like 45 minutes of nothing before anything really happens, at least in the theatrical version. It's like, OK, this is going to be slow, like "Alien." Then, blam, all the shooting starts. Nice misdirection on Cameron's part.

― Josh in Chicago (Josh in Chicago), Friday, 20 August 2004 21:43 (twenty-one years ago)

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