Alien Super Blu-Ray Pack

drmandolin

drmandolin

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OK, so after having the shit scared out of me playing the phenomenal Alien Isolation game on my PS4, I ordered the newish blu-ray pack of the Alien flicks. Thought it was time to revisit these bad boys and check out the 'directors' cuts.

They are (quality wise) as good as you may have heard - truly great hi-def remastering in sound and video, etc. Whoever did these knows what the fuck they are doing.

Alien looks like it was filmed yesterday. Really quite amazing. The original negs must have been preserved very, very well because it's crystal clear even on my projector setup. Super clean, no DNR whitewash. Amazing to see film grain! I though it was now verboten.

I'm only two movies in so far. But... having not seen these movies in years I was blown away on two fronts. Firstly how AWESOME Ridley Scott's 'Alien' is. My God that's a good flic. I loved everything about it. (Also noted just how much detail the Isolation game put into being a Nostromo simulator.)

And secondly, how awful James Cameron's 'Aliens' is. They are not comparable.

I always believed that Alien was kinda scary and overall really good. Which it is, and then some. And that Aliens was horrifyingly edge of the seat scary and really really good. But it just isn't. It's bad. Not scary, badly acted (except Ripley), terrible script, worse premise, and not interesting. It looks so much like Commando or Predator, it's sad. Just needed Sly or Arnie to polish it off - not Paul Riser.

Curious if I'm way off base? Again, the first movie was so very good. Made me extremely pumped for the second which I remembered as being the best. But wow was I surprised how bad my memory was. Granted this movie came out during all the Ahhhnold and Top Gun style flics, and so I guess they were going for that with the retarded zero IQ space marines?

Alien had an almost Kubrick, 2001 feel to it. Whereas Aliens was much more something where you'd expect to see Will Smith.

Anyway, curious if anyone else has revisited recently? Holding my breath for the third one tomorrow night!



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Column_sl

shitlord
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That's not comparable tho. Alien is imo a straight up sc-fi thriller. Terminator is both Action, and Thriller with T2 being over the top action.

Alien is a work of art, and it's supposed to be.You can look at it today, and still be amazed by the cinematography much like Blade Runner.


Aliens is a bad ass action film, and it's supposed to be. It is unapologetic which makes it so awesome. Same thing with Predator.

Ridley could never make a film like Aliens, and Cameron could never make anything like Alien.
 
Kovaks

Kovaks

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Agree with column alien is amazing and by far my favorite. Aliens is also great but more as a fun ride than a great movie. I will say I too found as an adult I appreciate alien alot more and aliens somewhat less while as a kid I found some of alien boring and loved every bit of aliens.
 
ohkcrlho

ohkcrlho

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Kovaks_sl said:
Agree with column alien is amazing and by far my favorite. Aliens is also great but more as a fun ride than a great movie. I will say I too found as an adult I appreciate alien alot more and aliens somewhat less while as a kid I found some of alien boring and loved every bit of aliens.
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Same here.
After re watching , like 3-4 times, both movies this year, Alien still has a huge impact on me, although i know the movie back-to-back.
Alien has elements that still makes me wonder (yes, i retcon prometheus): the space jockey, LV-426, the alien itself, ash. The movie's style and environment was copied in various movies and series since its release, back in 1979. Nothing can top the first movie and, in my opinion, the best sci fi horror ever. (The thing being 2nd)

Aliens is a well made movie. Like in Alien, many tried to copy the movie's genre but still very far from cameron's. I like how he changed the genre, not trying to recreate the first movie, but at the same time, still connecting the movies in a respectful way. But.....apart from great action, set pieces, famous lines, some characters (i'll get to that later)....in the end, it's just an action movie and we know that is the objective. Yes expanded the universe by creating a Queen (and many say it contradicts the first movie because of that) and the hive mentality.
I think the characters is the biggest problem. You only care about some of them because those are the ones that have something to say or do. Do you remeber anything relevant from Crowe, Dietrich, Wierzbowski or Spunkmeyer? Oh yeah...they just die. Too many characters that you don't know shit about, their personalities and relationships.

T2 , for me , has a problem: use the time travel routine all over again. So nothing new was added to the series.
 
Chanur

Chanur

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I think both are genre leading films. One is Sci Fi Thriller and the other Sci Fi Action. Both are some of my favorite films of all times for different reasons.
 
drmandolin

drmandolin

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You know, it's interesting to note that for both I watched the revised versions of the films. My understanding is that Scott replaced 6 minutes of footage in Alien with 5 minutes of new footage. So the film is actually a little shorter.

As for Aliens, I think the extra footage was added by Cameron to the existing film without deleting anything already there. According to the info inside, it's over 16 minutes of new stuff.
 
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Narac01

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The whole part at the beginning with Newt's family in Aliens wasn't part of the theatrical release.
 
drmandolin

drmandolin

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I was gonna write a bit about Aliens 3; saying how much I liked it, and likely receive more nasty feedback...

But all I wanna do now is drop Titan 2 missiles on those fucking towel headed cock sucking Muslims!
 
A

a_skeleton_02

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Sorry you got some bad anonymous flack from people for stating your opinion, even IF you opinion is wrong.

Like what everyone else has said both Alien and Aliens are works of art and leading examples of their respective genres neither director could replicate what the other one had done in their films and they are truly apples and oranges.

I can see that you liked Alien 3 and for someone who disliked Aliens I can see how you would perfer it even though it's universally panned. It may not be on your blu ray set but I would suggest looking up the Alien 3 Assembly cut it's a reedit of the film with almost 40 minutes of additional footage that really fleshes out the movie. Makes it much better.
 
Kovaks

Kovaks

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I really enjoyed 3 when it came out I was in middle school I think and got to see it in the theator. Upon rewatch as an adult I'd is not great but I still enjoy it. It is definitely no where near the first 2
 
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Column_sl

shitlord
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It worked out perfectly for us tho. If Fincher would have gotten wide success off of Alien 3 we would never have had "7", and without 7 happening we never get Fight Club adapted by him.
 
Famm

Famm

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Its a James Cameron flick, its designed to be a popcorn blockbuster. No surprise it doesn't hold up the way your nostalgia for it does. He makes good movies and all, but they aren't great movies that define genres and eras of filmmaking. Alien kinda did at least define a genre of sorts.
 
drmandolin

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chaos

chaos

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I still like Aliens, I think I saw it about a year ago and it held up for me. Maybe a lot of that is nostalgia, it was the one I grew up with, I never even saw the first one until a few years ago. But I still like it.

I like how there's this world with very little backstory. You're dropped in the middle of it. Every time they try and do backstory they fuck it up. Prequels always suck, ALWAYS.
 
Faith

Faith

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Love both Alien and Aliens, but for diffrent reasons (as most stated already). They are very diffrent movies.

3rd..... no, do not want. To me its where the franchise started to go into a deathspiral. I had vague hopes for Alien vs Predator (based on the old comics and books like Earthwar and Hivewar) but ofc they decided to run off the rails with some mumbo-jumbo and placing the story on (almost) present day earth.
 
Attog

Attog

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drmandolin come over to the home theater thread and post some pics of your projector setup
 
Sulrn

Sulrn

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Famm_sl said:
Its a James Cameron flick, its designed to be a popcorn blockbuster. No surprise it doesn't hold up the way your nostalgia for it does. He makes good movies and all, but they aren't great movies that define genres and eras of filmmaking. Alien kinda did at least define a genre of sorts.
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Last I checked, Aliens still defines sci-fi action and holds up just as well as Alien does due to the lack of time dated props, cgi, or overly campy dialogue that plagues other action films. I wouldn't consider Alien or Aliens art, but there are plenty of good reasons both hold cult status and still receive nods to this day in other media.
 
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