Alien 'Quadrilogy'

Alien 3, due to the setting, has the most uniformly drab costuming and character appearances but leans into it by having the most interesting looking dudes fill out the cast. I'd imagine people with face blindness might have had issues, but the fact that nearly every character has a distinct facial expression and voice is a feat in itself

re: Aliens being a 80s action cliche, I'd argue that the "squad of actual troops fight against unworldly horror" was relatively new? I rate it much lower than Alien and it seems kind of tired when revisiting, but only because it originated many of those plot devices and cast dynamics

arguably Predator is the other side of the coin, but with all of the tone flipped 180 degrees

there are obvious written predecessors to the whole Space Marine subgenre but Aliens was the primary influence for a lot of what followed, especially in video games

Aliens was 100% the right pivot.

i feel like aliens transformed blockbuster cinema in a similar way to jaws, a decade removed from it. it influenced everything. it is also just really beautifully constructed in every way, from the plot machinations to the design of the colony and the planet outside

sorry to just reword your post, mh

np, I'm in desperate need of an editor over here

One of the very few 'dude talks about movies' YouTube channels I have time for is the Bad Movie Bible, because the dude has perfect dry delivery and sharp humor/editing, and his three parter on the endless ripoffs/repurposings due to the Alien universe smartly splits those films that lean more towards Alien and then those more Aliens into separate videos.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KoQoyIixSCQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qMEQI4dmEuA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rKX-XQtL7uI

one thing I can concede is I know lots of us have "pop culture quote machine" fatigue where we get tired of hanging out with the one dude who does nothing but quote movies all day and nothing else and this movie definitely has a few quotes that have been banged into the ground so sometimes I don't enjoy this movie as much as I used to as lines like "game over, man" have been beaten to death in the public psyche.

but then I see awesome set piece after awesome set piece and just don't care.

also...I played Hudson in a Elizabethan-era, Shakesperean version of Aliens and getting to yell DIE MOTHERFUCKER while holding a claymore and charging at my 6'4 friend in a xenomorph costume was maybe one of the coolest moments of my theatrical life lol

but then I see awesome set piece after awesome set piece and just don't care

My two favorite moments in that regard were easily the 'silent' section, however handwavey, and the dodge-the-acid part.

the dodge the acid part was a little weird for me because I'm not saying this because I'm a childish person, although I am, but at one point it looked like floating cum and that hurt the gravitas a bit. the silent section felt revisionist with what we know of the lore and it bugged me a bit because it also felt derivative of a scene in the recent Quiet Place movie.

I swear I did like the movie! but I would say if you wanted to pick apart the in-film logic using the established or implied in-universe rules...you could keep yourself busy. i had to force myself to stop doing that during yesterday's watch and just enjoyed the bitey bitey.

The utilitarianism-or-deontology thread throughout the film felt hollow. Not that I'm expecting any deep philosophical arguments from an Alien flick. Just.... don't put the thread in if you are going to give it such a shallow treatment/not really say anything?

Sorry, I'll stop being such a hater now. I liked the face-hugger chases. I liked the pregnant lady storyline from start to end.

Facehugger scenes in alien movies have become the lightsaber battles from star wars for me.

I'm sure I will watch this soon, even though haven't appreciated any of the franchise efforts since Alien 3 (yes I liked it).

I liked resurrection more than 3. The direction was so classic, like someone filmed a comic book. It was silly, but more self-assured of itself in that fact compared to Alien 3. Alien 3 screwed up by making one of the plot points "we all need to die", thus killing all suspense of when/how things will turn out.

The Alien death at the end of resurrection is so grotesquely beautiful.

Elizabeth Vicentelli agrees with me in ranking all the Alien movies for the New York Times. (Gift link.)

Aliens
Written and directed by James Cameron, the first sequel to “Alien” is widely held as either the best or the second best movie in the series. But have you watched it recently? Because “Aliens” has aged badly. After 57 years in hypersleep, Ripley grudgingly agrees to help wipe out a nest of beasties threatening a settlement. “Aliens” bears many of the badges of dishonor of formulaic 1980s action: cartoonishly aggro toughies, a little girl in peril (Carrie Henn), a company tool with an upturned collar (Paul Reiser), a bombastically martial score (by James Horner) and, worst of all, an avalanche of hackneyed would-be catchphrases. Best: the confrontation between the alien queen (a major addition to the canon) and Ripley. Worst: almost everything else.

Alien 3
For many fans, this is the “Alien” maudit: the second sequel to “Alien” was cursed by a chaotic production process, met with a divided reception and disowned by its rookie director, one David Fincher. But time has been generous to this installment, whose number may also refer to three times the bleakness and desperation. The film starts with Ripley crash-landing on a planet that’s been turned into an all-male prison, where many of the inmates have become apocalyptic fundamentalist Christians. A parasitic facehugger, which attaches itself to a host and deposits the embryo that will eventually burst out, quickly grows to full size and spreads havoc on the colony. Featuring Weaver’s best performance in the entire series, “Alien 3” has a haunting grandeur and a core melancholia that are subtly emphasized by Elliot Goldenthal’s imaginative score. This one easily bears repeat watching.

Ah yes, the would-be catchphrases, none of them caught on.

I'm a bit bemused at how Vicentelli seems to skip over a kinda key point about Aliens, namely that the military's cartoonishly aggro toughies etc get their fucking asses kicked almost completely and mostly die gruesomely, which makes all the militaristic strutting/smugness early on ('another bug hunt' etc) completely get shot out of the water. It's fairly clear Cameron circled back to that later with the Avatar films and I'd rather watch Aliens as a Vietnam-themed film from 1986 than Platoon these days.

^^ Yes, exactly this. Bill Paxton, so good in his meltdown scene.

Also every film should be lucky enough to get Paul Reiser as a company tool with an upturned collar!

Alien 3, due to the setting, has the most uniformly drab costuming and character appearances but leans into it by having the most interesting looking dudes fill out the cast.

I cannot countenance considering a bunch of English actors Actin' 'Ard as more interesting than Winona Ryder / Ron Perlman / Brad Dourif / Dominique Pinon (and directed by someone interested in the interesting, too)

Andrew extremely otm

you're arguing against a point I wasn't making

also, nearly every one of those English actors plays a character that immediately falls apart as soon as the alien appears. Charles Dance gets killed nearly immediately! the only guy who survives long enough to see if he can hold it together who is not scrambling through hallways and running into the others is Charles Dutton

which is why I said "fills out the cast" because there's no team of soldiers or mercenaries in 3 until the company men show up, just a bunch of scared lifers

it's some Guy Ritchie hardman stand-off movie

sorry, NOT some hardman stand-off movie

https://i.imgur.com/jTIq9IT.jpeg

1>3>2>>>>4 which only gets included because of the scene where Dan Hedaya holds a piece of his own brain

Latter-day Ridley ones are too bad to consider and surely this one isn't worth the punishment

Seeing the new flick tomorrow with friends. We’ll see how it goes

"He needs to know that things like that could happen in life, it could be a true story, based on science..."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_zrxkUxAcsI

Ned otm about the two best set pieces in a rather okay film with dreary actors, though the last dude killed -- I won't even look up the actor's name -- was cute in a poncey way.

I'll also grant that the last creature is quite terrifying -- reminded me of the Julian Sands Mugwump in Naked Lunch.

beautiful pic.twitter.com/auQ73kEjSo

— giannis (@musashinoelegy) September 2, 2024

if you don't want to click thru that's
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GWeT1BSWAAA0N4E?format=png&name=900x900

adding:
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GWeS7qiWgAAc-kH?format=png&name=small

Jeunet otm

the original interview - https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/alien-resurrection-interview-joss-whedon-jean-pierre-jeunet-b2212720.html

studio... OTM?!

Whedon fought to set the film’s finale on Earth. It is the Alien series’ ultimate dramatic question: what would happen if xenomorphs came to Earth? “The reason people are here is we’re going to do the thing we’ve never done,” Whedon argued. “We’re gonna go to Earth.” The studio, however, wanted to spend the money elsewhere.

Broken clock of financial prudence

Just rewatched Alien: Resurrection and it's on par with 3. now knowing Whedon wrote it makes me revisit his work because that script is hot ass. the concept is there and would have really benefited being stretched out for a short series run. all of the characters are great! i wanted more hedaya. dourif killed it - i figure his grand monologue at the end was edited down.

Whedon’s always been a fucking hack.

What I remember about Resurrection is Sig Weaver's fuck-you energy.

Alien movies are Sigourney movies, not Alien movies

i rewatched resurrection the other day and frankly the ideas and images are too good to be entirely sunk by the fuckboy script. it's still whedon's worst tendencies all at once, particularly the crew dynamic... and yet it is the only alien movie to really dwell on abortion, and the only alien movie that is aggressively lesbian and trans, and the only alien movie where a human has sex with a xenomorph. god, what can you do except appreciate its mutant form

I haven't watched it since 1997 but even then I noticed the queer coding. I should watch it again this weekend.

the ripley/xenomorph sex scene is literally soooo beautiful lol

agree on all those points - though re "the only alien movie to really dwell on abortion" - prometheus has a quite memorable self-administered abortion scene!!

oh true but it's like a THEME in resurrection and it's just the coolest scene in prometheus (full disclosure i haven't seen prometheus in ten years)

Ivy completely otm. It's also the most gooey alien movie, so it's got that going for it

and Sig looks great!

Love her in this. From playing the prey in alien to the predator in alien 4.

Overall the casting is just so unbelievably perfect. Winona Ryder + Ron Perlman + Michael Wincott + etc. etc. etc.

xps i was gonna say -- that Prometheus scene is an unforgettable all-timer. but i am definitely a full-hearted apologist for that film

that interview with Jeunet made me want to rewatch Resurrection, don't think i've seen it since release

same

i tend not to watch movies more than once though in general

love her as the predator here:

https://i.imgur.com/qJgBSgT.jpg