I love this film and I agree it works because of the things you distill, and many more besides. And yes, better than Predator, though Predator is still a classic. And Bill Paxton is in both sequels.
I'm one of those rare birds that likes Alien3. I get the religious allegory. I get the turn back into Lovecraftian elements. The element of this isolated outpost/monastery hanging on on a world that really does not want humans to be there. They managed to brutally, technologically carve out a redoubt, but it is slowly being ground back by a planet that does not want them.
And it ends RIpley's story, as she agreed this thing that has dominated too much of her life and has made her life a hell, is worth giving up to prevent the soulless corporate bastards from getting their hands on it.
Yes, it was jarring to see those seeds laid in Aliens tossed aside, and it is too bad Neil Blomkamp did not get his chance to do a "correction," and we can thank a cantankerous Ridley Scott for that.
But they really did try to do something different with it, and I got and enjoyed what they did. Besides the things already discussed, it is clear that this film and its makers, for all the warts, did not actually hold this creation or its fans in active contempt. And that's the difference between Alien3 and The Last Jedi.
Alien Resurrection is a decidedly mixed bag. Ripley did not need to return, especially the way they brought her back. And that hybrid beast? Atrocious. But I DID like the Betty and her crew, as clearly Joss Whedon looking to his past as a Traveller game master in college, and this ship and crew, and the ideas they were composed of, would be more refined and become Firefly/Serenity.
Ugh, DISNEY bought the IP? Crap. I hope they flame and burn even faster than one would expect.
Alien and Aliens are my favorite movies of the time period. I personally prefer the first, but the second is still incredibly enjoyable. Just from a set design angle, the movies are above any standard one can set - it's why they hold up. I just wish that they did sets, lights, and drama like the old movies did. All the CG stuff just doesn't look the same or hold up - yet real sets out perform, can be gritty or pristine, and catch the lighting design in ways that you couldn't get CG to do in a realistic manner.
Three cheers for Alien and Aliens - bringing Xenomorphs and Space Marines to life.
Commenting more for algorithm reasons (is that a thing in Substack?) than because I have anything to add. Aliens is fantastic, and you nailed it with this review Dark Herald. Bravo!
I still watch this one at least twice a year. It's a movie I can put on any time, for any reason, and know I'm going to enjoy myself.
You nailed it with the GRRRL BOSS Ripley trope, too. She's the first character that springs to mind whenever some hair-dyed fatty goes on about nO fEmAlE rOlE mOdElS.
I saw the directors cut and it was fantasticker. The set shot of the vibrant alive settlement sets up the gray, dead, lifeless one they show later. Very effective.
Except that it also kills the suspense. We in the audience know exactly what happened to the colony in the back of our minds - the movie's called Aliens, after all - but we can't really be sure until we've seen it for ourselves. The slow reveal of the particulars - dead colony, acid holes in the floor, "last stand" room, facehuggers in the medlab - builds tension in a masterful way, until we hit the top of the rising action in the atmosphere processor battle.
Showing us exactly what happened ruins all that, in my opinion.
There are three movies I wrote off as sunk costs and left. The first two, some baloney with Winona Rider as IDK, a newhire babygirlboss? I had a book I wanted to read. Asimov's Nightfall. Because, c'mon man.
And this one.
I never read past the first chapter of Game of Thrones, either.
Solid review! Methinks Aliens is one of the best sequels ever filmed. It provided a logical follow up to to Alien, which is one of my favorite movies. Bringing back Sigourney Weaver in her role as the only survivor as an advisor just works. The marines act like Marines. The film is a military horror, action and adventure flick too. It covers so many bases is is thoroughly enjoyable. It also spawned one of my favorite PC games of all time.
I worked at the 3-screen Avco Center Cinema in LA in 1986 (its heyday; https://losangelestheatres.blogspot.com/2017/03/avco-cinemas.html) when this was released and where it played for a time on the big screen in the 1100-seat theater before being rotated to the 600-seat screen. Definitely the peak of a mostly, but not entirely, unmemorable movie summer. It fired on all cylinders. Great flick.
To me, the funniest thing about Aliens is how much Ridley Scott (who IMHO is up there with Villeneuve as one of the all-time great visual directors, but his penchant for either ignoring or actively retconning continuity for the worse makes a mess of his franchise films, plot-wise) has shown that he hates it through his actions. Prometheus and Covenant don't mention a queen at all, and in Romulus (which he produced) there are somehow facehuggers and aliens running wild all over the station even though a queen is nowhere to be found, and nothing in Aliens makes sense either in the timeline or plot-wise if Romulus takes place in the same continuity.
I honestly think he hates the fact that he didn't think of it first. Then again, if you talk to Raz0rfist, it's actually because Cameron ripped off the Brood Queen from Marvel.
"For military horror to work, the troops have to smell right. They need to feel like products of a real martial culture. That’s where most filmmakers fail — they rely on clichés from other war movies, without the lived-in detail or respect needed to give their characters any depth. The end result is often a biker gang in camo. And when these movies fail, nine times out of ten, you’ll spot a Gamma Male’s thinly veiled resentment of masculine men seeping through the cracks."
DAY OF THE DEAD.
George Romero.
Captain Rhodes never would have received a commission. The closest thing to a noncom was Private Steele. Very disappointing dreck from the man who invented the post-apocalyptic zombie. So many Gamma cliches. A drunk Irishman? Check. A heroine smarter than everyone else in the movie? Check. A Drunk Irishman? Check! A Magic Negro? Check! THE THING FROM ANOTHER WORLD nailed it (The Air Force vs. James Arness), DOG SOLDIERS nailed it (British Squaddies vs. Werewolves), and FRANKENSTEIN'S ARMY (Red Army platoon vs. the gonzo creatures of Victor Frankenstein) nailed it. ALIENS nailed it with the exception of Jenette Goldstein's Private Vasquez (for reasons which should be obvious to readers here), the dropship pilot being a corporal (Colette Ferro), and the Corpsman, Corporal Cynthia Dietrich - which would traditionally have been a sailor. And - as the Dark Herald already mentioned - the ragtag uniforms. Everything else had the verisimilitude needed though.
Nailed it…except for the part about being better than Predator.
I love this film and I agree it works because of the things you distill, and many more besides. And yes, better than Predator, though Predator is still a classic. And Bill Paxton is in both sequels.
I'm one of those rare birds that likes Alien3. I get the religious allegory. I get the turn back into Lovecraftian elements. The element of this isolated outpost/monastery hanging on on a world that really does not want humans to be there. They managed to brutally, technologically carve out a redoubt, but it is slowly being ground back by a planet that does not want them.
And it ends RIpley's story, as she agreed this thing that has dominated too much of her life and has made her life a hell, is worth giving up to prevent the soulless corporate bastards from getting their hands on it.
Yes, it was jarring to see those seeds laid in Aliens tossed aside, and it is too bad Neil Blomkamp did not get his chance to do a "correction," and we can thank a cantankerous Ridley Scott for that.
But they really did try to do something different with it, and I got and enjoyed what they did. Besides the things already discussed, it is clear that this film and its makers, for all the warts, did not actually hold this creation or its fans in active contempt. And that's the difference between Alien3 and The Last Jedi.
Alien Resurrection is a decidedly mixed bag. Ripley did not need to return, especially the way they brought her back. And that hybrid beast? Atrocious. But I DID like the Betty and her crew, as clearly Joss Whedon looking to his past as a Traveller game master in college, and this ship and crew, and the ideas they were composed of, would be more refined and become Firefly/Serenity.
Aliens to this day is still one of my all time favorite sci-fi movies of all time. 😎
Ugh, DISNEY bought the IP? Crap. I hope they flame and burn even faster than one would expect.
Alien and Aliens are my favorite movies of the time period. I personally prefer the first, but the second is still incredibly enjoyable. Just from a set design angle, the movies are above any standard one can set - it's why they hold up. I just wish that they did sets, lights, and drama like the old movies did. All the CG stuff just doesn't look the same or hold up - yet real sets out perform, can be gritty or pristine, and catch the lighting design in ways that you couldn't get CG to do in a realistic manner.
Three cheers for Alien and Aliens - bringing Xenomorphs and Space Marines to life.
Commenting more for algorithm reasons (is that a thing in Substack?) than because I have anything to add. Aliens is fantastic, and you nailed it with this review Dark Herald. Bravo!
It was a genius move by Cameron.
Everyone who was scared shitless by the first movie couldn't wait to see Aliens, because THE SPACE MARINES WERE GONNA KICK IT'S ASS.
I still watch this one at least twice a year. It's a movie I can put on any time, for any reason, and know I'm going to enjoy myself.
You nailed it with the GRRRL BOSS Ripley trope, too. She's the first character that springs to mind whenever some hair-dyed fatty goes on about nO fEmAlE rOlE mOdElS.
I saw the directors cut and it was fantasticker. The set shot of the vibrant alive settlement sets up the gray, dead, lifeless one they show later. Very effective.
Except that it also kills the suspense. We in the audience know exactly what happened to the colony in the back of our minds - the movie's called Aliens, after all - but we can't really be sure until we've seen it for ourselves. The slow reveal of the particulars - dead colony, acid holes in the floor, "last stand" room, facehuggers in the medlab - builds tension in a masterful way, until we hit the top of the rising action in the atmosphere processor battle.
Showing us exactly what happened ruins all that, in my opinion.
Good point - I hadn’t considered that. I like the startling contrast of those two images. It stayed with me for a long time.
There are three movies I wrote off as sunk costs and left. The first two, some baloney with Winona Rider as IDK, a newhire babygirlboss? I had a book I wanted to read. Asimov's Nightfall. Because, c'mon man.
And this one.
I never read past the first chapter of Game of Thrones, either.
Sometimes you Just Know.
Solid review! Methinks Aliens is one of the best sequels ever filmed. It provided a logical follow up to to Alien, which is one of my favorite movies. Bringing back Sigourney Weaver in her role as the only survivor as an advisor just works. The marines act like Marines. The film is a military horror, action and adventure flick too. It covers so many bases is is thoroughly enjoyable. It also spawned one of my favorite PC games of all time.
I worked at the 3-screen Avco Center Cinema in LA in 1986 (its heyday; https://losangelestheatres.blogspot.com/2017/03/avco-cinemas.html) when this was released and where it played for a time on the big screen in the 1100-seat theater before being rotated to the 600-seat screen. Definitely the peak of a mostly, but not entirely, unmemorable movie summer. It fired on all cylinders. Great flick.
To me, the funniest thing about Aliens is how much Ridley Scott (who IMHO is up there with Villeneuve as one of the all-time great visual directors, but his penchant for either ignoring or actively retconning continuity for the worse makes a mess of his franchise films, plot-wise) has shown that he hates it through his actions. Prometheus and Covenant don't mention a queen at all, and in Romulus (which he produced) there are somehow facehuggers and aliens running wild all over the station even though a queen is nowhere to be found, and nothing in Aliens makes sense either in the timeline or plot-wise if Romulus takes place in the same continuity.
I honestly think he hates the fact that he didn't think of it first. Then again, if you talk to Raz0rfist, it's actually because Cameron ripped off the Brood Queen from Marvel.
"For military horror to work, the troops have to smell right. They need to feel like products of a real martial culture. That’s where most filmmakers fail — they rely on clichés from other war movies, without the lived-in detail or respect needed to give their characters any depth. The end result is often a biker gang in camo. And when these movies fail, nine times out of ten, you’ll spot a Gamma Male’s thinly veiled resentment of masculine men seeping through the cracks."
DAY OF THE DEAD.
George Romero.
Captain Rhodes never would have received a commission. The closest thing to a noncom was Private Steele. Very disappointing dreck from the man who invented the post-apocalyptic zombie. So many Gamma cliches. A drunk Irishman? Check. A heroine smarter than everyone else in the movie? Check. A Drunk Irishman? Check! A Magic Negro? Check! THE THING FROM ANOTHER WORLD nailed it (The Air Force vs. James Arness), DOG SOLDIERS nailed it (British Squaddies vs. Werewolves), and FRANKENSTEIN'S ARMY (Red Army platoon vs. the gonzo creatures of Victor Frankenstein) nailed it. ALIENS nailed it with the exception of Jenette Goldstein's Private Vasquez (for reasons which should be obvious to readers here), the dropship pilot being a corporal (Colette Ferro), and the Corpsman, Corporal Cynthia Dietrich - which would traditionally have been a sailor. And - as the Dark Herald already mentioned - the ragtag uniforms. Everything else had the verisimilitude needed though.