Be Excellent To Each Other

Hi

Recently I watched a film called Moon, which I thought was fantastic. The way the sets were designed etc was very reminiscent of Alien. Then I read a bit and found out a dude who worked on Alien also worked on that. Anyway, Im a long time fan of the series, and own the Quadrilogy on DVD (will get the BluRay sometime when its cheap), and this gave me a taste to revisit what I feel are two of the best films evarr, Alien, and Aliens.

I thought it would be cool to start a thread about the films, trivia and such and to discuss the series, and also the upcoming prequel by Ridley Scott.

Ill start proceedings by asking

- Do you think Lambert was sexually assaulted by the Alien, in the original movie?

and

- Do you reckon the new film will 1) be any good 2) be full of CGi nonesense (already hinted at sadly) and 3) resemble anything of the Script that was floating around ( I call it Brokeback Alien, if you havent read it, have a look its tosh).

Commence!

Never been a fan, personally.

This is a sick joke of some sort isn't it?

Sci Fi is for nerds

(Like me)

Pirates is where it's at nowadays.

No. I bought two original signed scripts of Alien by accident. I certainly don't have sealed copies of all the box sets and the Hunter edition of the 360 game, oh no.

We should totally put on a stage play.

One was a replacement. It's been out of it's box twice, and taken out of it's vacuum-bag and read once.

Phew.

Anybody seen Dark Star?

Sexual Assault? Implied in an Alien film? Madness.

Besides, the facehuggers are the rapey part of the Xenomorphs

Here's a thought. How different would games be now if Aliens had never existed? By my reckoning it's probably the most influential film for our generation of games.

I thought Moon was pretty fabbo also. Did you see the behind the scenes thing of it? That was pretty interesting - the whole set was tiny.

They flounced after someone took the piss over mining rights in the Gambia a while back.

*Obligatory I love Alien 3 and really like Alien Resurrection (up until the Newborn bit)*


With that out of the way. Nope, I think the book says that she just gets 'stung' by the alien's tail (which is capable of delivering some sort of paralysing toxin). Gorman also gets the tail in the book of Aliens but in the movie gets some boxes on the head.

Prequel. Well, I was kind of excited but then I heard it'll be in 3D so I'm expecting it to be rubbish. Will still go and see it though.

The original script for AvP was based on the Hunter's Planet book, and it's bloody good. Way to go, fools.

I think I've got a copy somewhere, hang on.

Alien was just awesome, top 5 film for me, even ranking pretty close to the likes of The Matrix and 2001 I reckon. It was made in 1979 as well, fully two years before even the 4.77MHz IBM PC... incredible! So much better than the likes of Star Wars, at least to me.

Aliens was also amazing, but not quite as good in my book.

Alien 3 wasn't as bad as some people like to make out, but inevitably disappointing nonetheless.

(As for the final installment, that really was shit IMO. Talk about wringing the franchise beyond any credibility to death; Terminator 3 anyone?)

Two minor points, here:

(a) Alien Resurrection was actually quite good, you fool.

(b) Terminator 3 was also actually quite good, you fool.

Does getting an OAP's free TV licence melt your film taste glands?

3D is fine as long as the lazy fucks film in 3d like Avatar. Fudging it on after the fact is the Wrong Way.

I'm looking at you, Clash Of The Titans

Meh. Really?

Well, each to his own mate; there was me thinking you were a man of taste, too.

I'm kind of excited about the prequel. Maybe. Perhaps more intrigued.

I dunno, for me part of the magic with Alien is the mystery surrounding the alien ship with all the eggs on board. Where did it come from? What was it doing? What happened to make it crash there? etc, etc.

Plus, let's face it, Alien Resurrection was largely gash (although part of the problem, in my mind at least, was them getting the wrong director in to do it. I love Jean-Pierre Jeunet's work, but there's no way he's the right choice for an Alien movie). The AvPs were much, much worse.

But still, Ridley Scott is directing this one isn't he? So who knows.

If you've read the book, you can see which small parts of it remain in the movie and revel in the shame. The book was fantastic. The movie isn't.

Weeeeeeell, mostly.

I agree with bobby that A:R was fine up until the stupid bit with the stupid hybrid baby thing. Then it got stupid. Stupidly. Before that it was pleasingly gritty, and brown, somewhat like Fallout in space. The bit with the Aliens underwater was a particularly good sequence. It recaptured some of the essence and tension of Aliens, for me. And despite the ending it was definitely a more enjoyable film than 3, which was ruined by having a crappy cgi dog-alien.

Terminator 3 - it was definitely a worthwhile addition to the franchise, story wise if nothing else, but I'll grant you that it wasn't done as well as it could have been. As someone mentioned in another thread, the Evil Terminator was a bit overly one dimensional, and wasn't particularly scary when compared to Robert Patrick in T2. Having a female terminator was a nice idea, but it ended up being a bit of a geek-boy's "hur hur hur, hot chick in tight leather" silliness.

However, the fight on the truck/fire engine was superb. And the final icing on the cake was being able to gaze lovingly upon Clare Danes for two hours.

zio - AvP was ok-ish schlock-fare. I actually enjoyed AvP:R more, as it was more out-and-out gruesome.

It's like I just don't know you anymore.

Moon's set design was much more reminiscent of 2001 than Alien to my mind.

Yup - but I meant (and worded it really badly) that the first draft of the script literally was that book. Machico, Dachande, getting blooded, the lot.

It put me more in mind of Silent Running and Space 1999 than either of those really.

The sets on button moon remind me of clangers.

Are you going to drop your keks?

Kissyfur and Blucey united by fact. T3 was indeed pretty good.

I'm sure I've said this before but there were some great bits in A:R. Ron Perlman shooting the spider, the underwater bit and that weird wheelchaired getting stabbed in the legs. I liked it. A lot. I also liked the headburster bit even if it was a bit gratuitous. The General looking at his brain was a bit awful though.

Here's the thing with AvP. I've read the comics and the first book (Prey?), played the games and seen both the movies and I reckon they just don't belong in the same world. Crowbarring them together seemed like a good idea but it's never been satisfactory. That said, the Predator honour system is all over the place these days so I'd say they are shit in any story after Predator 2.

It's all a by-product of Dark Horse's obsession with crossovers. Most of which were awful. Dredd v Aliens was the tits though.

Yes, it's me fave sci-fi comedy of all time.

Good. Do you know why I mentioned it in this thread?

Did Dan O Bannon write it?

Yes. It was his first script which he wrote while he was in college. It was, I think, directed by another student called John Carpenter. Wonder what happened to him, eh?

And he (Dan o'Bannon) played Sgt. Pinback, our hero. Although actually, he wasn't.

What has happened to him? It's about time he made good films again.

He's never been right since Karen died.

http://www.thehut.com/blu-ray/alien-ant ... 27030.html

Blimey. Very pretty.

I've bought far too many copies of each film already. That is gorgeous though.

I remember the last time they advertised limited editions. The fucking Quadrilogy, that I paid £95 for, and is now available for sub-£10 in many DVD sales. Gnnngh.

Yup sorry Gaz, I paid well under a tenner for a second hand ('pre used') one at Block Buster, that was box fresh as far as I could tell - and even that was some months back.

By the way, is this prequel actually gonna happen guys, and if so when? I reckon it could be absolutely awesome, if done right.

Scott being involved is the best indicator of awesome, I think.

I paid £20 for my box set three years ago, using a WHSmith voucher. Early adopters, eh?

Well, to be fair to 20th Century Fox* the "early adopters" got a version of the Quadrilogy that had a limited edition number on the box. All the cheapo ones don't have those, but it's still a bitter pill to swallow

*

Er, no, my el cheapo one has the number too.

GODDAMNIT.

"This is number 32,216 of 50,000"

Oh, I meant the barcode number.

At least you didn't buy two