A Look Back at the Alien Franchise
This entry is often cited as an equally brilliant or superior sequel, but to be honest it suffers a bit from Cameron’s tin ear for dialogue and general ham-fistedness. The cold menace of Alien is replaced with gung-ho military energy. Entertaining as all getout, but not as satisfying in the long run.
That said, this movie is entertaining as all getout.
YES.
Cameron took advantage of the possibility of Ripley being out of sync with time. The Alien franchise actually covers hundreds of years, which is kinda cool. And in this movie Ripley’s been asleep long enough to wake up after her daughter has already died. And naturally one of the primary new characters is an orphaned little girl.
Actually, the characters in this movie are the most memorable in the series across the board. You’ve got the patron saint of cowards in Hudson. You’ve got the uber-cool Bishop. You’ve got the effortlessly charismatic Hicks. Even Ripley is at her most memorable in this movie. What’s that famous Ripley line everybody quotes?
Yeah, that one.
1979 – Alien (Theatrical Cut)
In the world of film, there are different breeds of “classics.” There are classics that simply didn’t age that favorably (Touch of Evil). There are classics that still work well, but will always be stuck in the time they were made (Dr. Strangelove). And then there are classics that are truly timeless, and will probably be great forever. This last category, I submit, is the category the original Alien falls into.
For one thing, it just oozes atmosphere. The opening forty minutes are bone-chilling; nothing happens, but the whole movie feels fraught with unseen dangers. From the silent descent of the Nostromo in the opening, to the harsh digital readouts from the ship’s computer, to the howling storm that surrounds the derelict, this movie is scary before anything alien even shows up outside the title.
And then comes the facehugger. We don’t clearly see it as it attacks Kane, but we get a good hard look while it’s attached. It’s just about the creepiest creature ever put to film. Mainly because it looks stunningly real, even today. For me, one of the creepiest moments in the whole film is the little moment where the facehugger’s tail tightens around Kane’s throat.
A few minutes later, of course, comes the scene that needs no analysis. And it’s all downhill from there.
Despite how iconic it is and how many attempts there have been to copy it, the original Alien still feels unique among the worlds of horror, science fiction, and film at large. The thing that seems to have sparked people’s imaginations more than any other in this film is the production design, famously drawn from the mind of H. R. Giger. He found a sinister visual palette to highlight and underscore writer Dan O’Bannon’s sexual undertones.
And, let’s face it, overtones.
The sex-driven horror side of these movies has been better covered elsewhere (like here), so that’s all I’ll say on that subject.
As of this writing, to this writer, it’s unclear how clearly Prometheus will tie into the existing Alien continuity. Only one of these movies is (more or less) perfect, but all of them are distinctive, and all of them are memorable. If Prometheus ties in strongly, I just hope it lives up to that legacy.
I was watching Resurrection on cable the other day and realized something. The scene where Ripley finds the other clones, gets all flustered, and burns the place to hell is a re-do of the deleted scene from the first film. I’d imagine, with Resurrection being written in 95′ and shot in 96′, since this was before dvds, Whedon probably had access to deleted scenes of the previous films, saw the deleted “Cocoon” scene from Alien, and decided to re-write the scene for the new film. Not saying it’s a bad scene as Weaver gives us a great performance, but it really doesn’t add to the narrative and seems like it was just added in.
However, lest anyone think I’m knocking it, it gave us 2 hilarious nods from South Park. The first episode with towelie parodied the scene, then the episode “Giant Douche vs. Turd Sandwhich” with the half human/half duck baby.
Alien 3 was not a bad film. Most of the detractors never get past being butthurt over the deaths of Hicks and Newt to see that other than that bit of piss poor narration, it otherwise works. Resurrection was actually good too until they started getting stupid with the cloning thing. When will writers understand that clones almost never make anything better? If they had let Ripley go and allowed the franchise to move forward to places the novels already had, I think we really would have had one of the greatest franchises of all time on our hands. And hell, if Prometheus lives up and Scott sticks around for a couple more, it still may be.
Meh. I think the highwater mark for me was always (and will always be) ALIENS. The first one I enjoyed; I just didn’t feel it had all that great re-watch qualities. ALIEN RESURRECTION was a pretty huge mis-fire, but I’ll agree that there were a few elements in it I enjoyed. I never had that much problem with ALIEN3. It was a different take on the whole ALIEN universe, and, on that level, I was okay with it.
Nolan’s Batman films are NOT better than the alien series . . . at least not the first two. Nolan’s Batman films are pretty cool, but they don’t hold up under analysis. Or, even if you pay that much attention.
The most impressive thing is that Aliens was back in 1986… Man I can watch that film today and still be blown away!
Alien and Aliens are movies that get watched EVERY time I see them on TV. They are both about as close to perfect as a movie can be. Alien, especially, when one considers it was done without the benefits of CGI, is mind-blowing, even more so when you learn how much effort the SFX and set and costume designers put into it. Alien has some faults that really show most when minatures are involved. But by and large, they are, to me, like The Godfather and The Godfather Part II are to others. Different, but great. I liked Alien 3, but the SFX are severely lacking. And at the time it was released the Aliens comics were still being written and Newt and Hicks were alive in them. I don’t deny missing them (Hell! I missed Hudson too. Comic relief cannot be over-looked). Alien: Resurrection was weird, but it felt in line with the series. Now, why Ripley felt any affection for that abortion of a baby alien/human whateverthefuck, I’ll never know. But as a series, I don’t think you can beat them. Even Alien vs Predator made me laugh.
I have now watched Prometheus and while it is a decent film, they really needed Giger’s input more. Seeing that picture of the facehugger reminded me that the effects in Alien transcend their medium. It looks like you could examine it under a microscope and it would hold up. Nothing in Prometheus feels like that sadly.
I like all of the alien films. I even love AvP (but not that God-awful sequel), but for me Aliens will always be the best. To this day I consider Terminator 2: Judgement Day to be the only sci-fi action movie comparable to Aliens.