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Watched the original "Alien" for the first time today...
lauscho
Member Posts: 79 Arc User
A.K.A. the "Travis FINALLY watches a classic movie" thread.
So I'm not the biggest film buff out there and there's a lot of classic movies I have yet to watch. And today, I decided to finally check out the 1979 classic "Alien".
Started off great. The effects are visually stunning, the dialogue is better than the average sci-fi flick...
...and then it pretty much turns into a violent slasher flick.
It's like, if I let go and try to accept "Alien" as just a good sci-fi movie, it does still work, but I have such a bias against violent horror movies that the transition just didn't work for me.
But the movie is visually perfect. It's like the J.J. Abrams or Michael Bay flick of the 70s, lots of big, loud explosions and aliens designed by H.R. Giger, crazy good and even believable actors... I fail to find any actual fault with the film.
And I did enjoy the last bit of it, after she blows the ship.
So I'm not the biggest film buff out there and there's a lot of classic movies I have yet to watch. And today, I decided to finally check out the 1979 classic "Alien".
Started off great. The effects are visually stunning, the dialogue is better than the average sci-fi flick...
...and then it pretty much turns into a violent slasher flick.
It's like, if I let go and try to accept "Alien" as just a good sci-fi movie, it does still work, but I have such a bias against violent horror movies that the transition just didn't work for me.
But the movie is visually perfect. It's like the J.J. Abrams or Michael Bay flick of the 70s, lots of big, loud explosions and aliens designed by H.R. Giger, crazy good and even believable actors... I fail to find any actual fault with the film.
And I did enjoy the last bit of it, after she blows the ship.
![http://i.imgur.com/cEbFqLD.png[/SIGPIC]](http://i.imgur.com/cEbFqLD.png[/SIGPIC]){kind=link}
Post edited by lauscho on
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I did watch some of the others in the series as well. Sadly, Aliens 3 was a huge letdown. I noticed everyone in the theater exited quietly and visually depressed. Aliens vs. Predator, while possibly the most shallow storytelling of the lot I've seen, was still entertaining.
I don't mean JJ-like in terms of plot. Hell, I'll admit that Alien has one hell of an intelligent plot for a sci-fi flick.
But visually, it's kind of fitting to compare them. Compared to some movies of its time, Alien could have come off as a big, dumb flick with a lot of explosions and gore. That's probably why most people got into it into the first place. Come for the glossy sheen on the effects and the action sequences, stay for the ridiculously amazing plot. And you don't generally go into a big, dumb, loud sci-fi flick thinking "man, I bet it has a great plot" :P Same with JJ and Bay, they're very well known for making visually stunning films, and I'll never fault either director for their effects work. They don't compare in terms of plot though. Alien stands alone in comparison.
I have to admit, I didn't realize that about the chest buster scene. That is actually both a **** move and totally awesome.
the films back in that era were far more engaging to watch because the atmosphere producd from the post production, or what i dont know, could be the suspese in the lack of noise for a few moments, but i dont care how dated it is, films for this era are a significant cut above the TRIBBLE you see to today, and you wonder why i call jj's version of trek, jjcrapverse.
columbo was great like the rockford files, quincy, die hard, commando, terminator and many others.
prometheus wasnt actually that bad, i kinda enjoyed watching the cold captain meet her end in the most ironic way possible, "the bigger they are.."
Been around since Dec 2010 on STO and bought LTS in Apr 2013 for STO.
Who can't forget that infamous first chestburster scene in Alien or the army of xenomorphs in the ceiling in Aliens, they don't make movies as good these days.
Prometheus is not bad, a bit slow but in places it did make sense and seeing the space jockeys was really nice.
-Lord Commander Solar Macharius
I recommend you also watch the director's cut, then part 2 and then stop.
Been around since Dec 2010 on STO and bought LTS in Apr 2013 for STO.
Allow me to explain to you in excruciating detail why everything you just said is wrong. :P
http://www.thebestpageintheuniverse.net/c.cgi?u=prometheus_nutshell
http://chrisbrecheen.blogspot.com/2012/06/8-things-prometheus-can-teach-you-about.html
-edit- p.s. these are both actually hilarious and worth the read, not just internet nerd rage.
Joined January 2009
Well done! I think that sums it up pretty well.
I'm surprised too...
But at this point I almost believe I'm getting old, since movies like this one do not seem obligatory to watch any more... probably "Transformers" is the classic movie for the current generation :roll eyes:
However I suggest to watch part 3 too. I thing it works very well with the previous movies although its a pretty depressing final chapter (which, again, imo fits in well with the series...)
I don't like violent horror movies either, but I like good movies. And this in one^^
99% of those kind of movies rely on cheap violence and shock effects instead of suspension, story and substance, that what makes them TRIBBLE. But this does not apple to the original alien movies....
Don't even MENTION Alien and JJ in one sentence please...
J.J. is a technically skilled director. Kind of like a pop music producer. If he had deeper material to work with, he could probably sculpt a classic. His Trek movies are every bit as visually stunning today as Alien was back then (oops, I mentioned them in the same sentence), so I have no particular beef with J.J., more with the lousy writing.
i was gonna hypocritically point out you shouldnt be an apologist for jj, but then again if i had then this other work outside trek would also be labeled the same way which isnt true. however being an apologist for jjcrapverse is the issue, he made a pigs ear of it, doesnt matter how much he had to work with, it was his job to come up with something credible to notoriously fickle trek fans and now hes got a love hate opinion from the trek community, sto at least is starting to show more hate then love though which i love to see.
Been around since Dec 2010 on STO and bought LTS in Apr 2013 for STO.
My character Tsin'xing
Anyways, I was first introduced to the Alien films through seeing bits and piece of ALIENS when I was 4 or 5 years old. I then saw ALIENS in it's entirety on a recorded VHS, and then saw the original ALIEN on another VHS recording copy afterwards. The rest is history.
I have to say that out of all the films in the franchise (this includes Prometheus, AVP & AVP:R) the first two films, ALIEN & ALIENS, are by far the BEST films in the whole set, both as part of the series and as stand-alone films. But I still love all the films in the series, including Prometheus. Each of them had their own special charm and mood.
ALIEN & Prometheus gave me a sense of how ships could be built and designed realistically - so lego moc inspirations there.
ALIEN was by all accounts, a good slasher film and a good monster-in-the-dark film, relaying only on practical effects, a dark setting, and a good story that slow paced in just the right way to keep you glued to the screen. It's so good IMO that to even try and remake it would be like trying to remake JAWS - it just won't happen, and it shouldn't happen at all.
For Prometheus, the story could have been written a bit better, hell I prefer it's original script, "ALIEN Engineers" (yes, that's the actual original script name, and it was a direct prequel) over the final product, as what I've read of the original script was way better than what became the final product, of course this is just my opinion, I could be wrong. Still, either way, it was an OK film.
ALIENS had the action factor overall. Hell, my Dad prefer this film over all the other films in the series. For him, ALIENS is THE only film in the series to watch, over and over again. As for my opinion, it is a great sci-fi film, and as far as I am concern, it is the "poster" & "mascot" for the entire series as a whole. And as some have said, it is one of James Cameron's BEST films and overall signature film. Nothing, IMO, beats or tops this film in any way, shape or form.
As for ALIEN 3, this was my "reward" for playing and beating ALIEN 3 the Game on SNES, as well as Super Metroid. Every time I beat either game, I ended up watching my copy of ALIEN 3 afterwards, and as time went by, I ended up liking the film more and more. So I do like ALIEN 3, but I have to agree it's not as good as the other films - it is still considered the weak link in the series. I'm sure if they followed the "Wooden Planet" concept that Vincent Ward created, it might have done a bit better, but that's just my opinion, I could be wrong.
Alien Resurrection gave off that same 90's sci-fi artistic feel I got from "Dark City" and the director's earlier film,"The City of Lost Children." Overall, story wise, it's tied with ALIEN 3 and Prometheus, but ALIEN 3, IMO I'm afraid, did better. Prometheus as well. Soory, A:R fans.
As for the AVP films, Alien VS. Predator & Aliens Vs. Predator: Requiem, the first AVP is by far the worse in the entire series. It felt more like a spinoff to John Carpenter's The Thing, in terms of location. While it was slow pace at first, it went too fast paced when the action started (which is typical for films nowadays). And while I did find the concept of the Predators helping humans build temples unique, the film would have been better if it just went with a story based on the original material, set in the ALIENS timeline.
As for AVP: R, it did a bit better than AVP, simply because almost everyone died in the end, and it was basically a true "no-win scenario" for the town setting.
So overall, score for me is:
#1: ALIENS
#2: ALIEN
#3: ALIEN 3
#4: Prometheus
#5: Alien: Resurrection
#6: AVP:R
#7: AVP
Again, my opinion. Enough said.
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But that's what I'm saying. It wasn't his job to write the script, nor to tell the actors/actresses not to follow it. And now he's got a bad rep because the writers plopped a **** sandwich in front of him. If he had a better plot to work from (how would you expect him to fix a plot where you lose track of the revenge schemes less than halfway through it?) Into Darkness might actually have been a decent movie. I literally can't fault his directing or production work. In fact, it's because of his work with Trek that new fans are appearing and learning about the old Treks, he gave a crappy script just enough of a glossy sheen to pass it off as cool, and the phenomenon is taking off again. Heck, I dunno if you're following Renegades at all, but it looks pretty promising as a pilot to the next Trek TV series, and it probably couldn't have happened had Trek's popularity not exploded with the JJverse, no matter how awful the writing was.
Personally, there are moments in those movies I like but on the whole I could do without them. But to fault JJ personally for everything wrong with the movie is just spiteful. He turned what could have been a massive failure into a sort-of success, and made a bunch more Trek fans in the process. How could you fault a guy for that?
As for Alien, I'm gonna have to rewatch it to form my opinions on it. Perhaps the violence won't be so offputting the second time around, and I might get to dig in a little deeper.
Hey that 10% of humor is like a fine spice that brings a gourmet dish to life. :P
Joined January 2009
I have to disagree.
Jar Jar might not have written the movie itself, but he went with it. He approved the crappy screenplay.
He could have said "good joke, also thanks I was out of toilet paper, now where is the Screenplay?"
But he didn't and ultimalty there are 2 people included in any movie production who are in control and therefore responsible for the result: The Producer and the Director. If I'm not mistaken, Jar Jar was both.
If you really wanna debate, I could say it's society's fault the new Trek sucks because society would never have wanted a classic Trek movie.
Ultimately, the issue is more complex than "hyuk hyuk JJ done broked it".
Its not.
And there are a lot of "classic" Trek movies well received by the "society".
Star Trek II still counts as one of the best. ST6 went pretty well too.
So a classic Star Trek movie is a relative term in the first place.
It doesn't need to be about... peaceful exploration. It CAN be an action movie. It just shouldn't be stupid, and this is what the Jar Jar movie is.
You CAN make a generally audience appealing movie without making a stupid movie.
The sequel to the film we are discussing here is a perfect example for that. Same for the first 2 Terminator movies, Ghostbusters, some Star Trek movies, the original Star Wars movies....
And as Jar Jar beeing in charge of the movie HE is responsible for that, it IS that simple.
Society changed since Trek's last real spurt of popularity.
Glad you enjoyed the first alien movie, OP. I was 9, and too young to see it on the big screen. I saw it on HBO, when I was 11, and in 1981...it was still cutting edge Special effects. I saw the sequel on the big screen.
Back in its day, mixing sci fi, and horror like that was pure brillance.
Released with the state of the art special effects (and without.... well... flared trousers.... STII would still be a success.
Society might have changed, but it didn't change into "Only bad movies are liked and good movies not". And that is the only logical conclusion to your argument.
My character Tsin'xing
My character Tsin'xing
Alien is all about practical effects with a isolated and foreboding atmosphere.
J.J. Abrams films are about lens flares and explosions.
DOES NOT COMPUTE!
Really?!? I didn't know that... no wonder it looked so genuine.
But anyway, OP you should watch the sequel. It's a bit of an action movie, but still very interesting to watch.
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