Alien 'Quadrilogy'

However, the yanks have been one up on us with Indiana Jones too - cannot believe we got the but to pieces BBFC approved version of Temple of Doom.

i prefer to pretend that Ressurection doesn't exist.
bunch of shite, innit?

Rest in Peace, Dan O'Bannon. He was 63.

what?! ah, shit. RIP

nooooooooooooo

he was the real genius of sci fi. I credit him with inventing "Blade Runner."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8QozLSpjQc0

i got the blu ray version of the quadrilogy, and just watched Alien 3 the 2003 version (which i've never seen before)

They really changed a lot didn't they. I think I preferred the dog host rather than the ox though.

one question. how did the 'company' know anything about ripley being impregnated?

The little scanner doohickie automatically sent the CAT scan to the company.

^ yes indeed

Preferred the ox host, but only because I'm a squeamish person who didn't like seeing the dog being killed

Surprised at how much better that version of Alien 3 was, and also and how feeble were the attempts to clean up the audio in the extra scenes

dude who came up with word "quadrilogy" should be fucking eaten by wolves

or any form of quadruped

Lobster Quadrillogy

haha I was just coming here to post that Phil.

the blu-ray set's just the "alien anthology" now, thankfully (at least in the US)

they shoulda just called it the "ALIEN THIS-MANY" with a pic of Ripley holding up 4 fingers on the cover

yes Latebloomer correct, i'm in uk and it's called the anthology too.

Bought the Alien Vault 'making of' book recently, pretty nicely produced and lots of detail on the production, pre-production sketches, storyboards etc. Doesn't have the hilarious ron cobb or chris foss visualisation of the spave jockey tho - just a crap humanoid skeleton in an office chair.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1845136675/ref=asc_df_18451366757156531?smid=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&tag=googlecouk06-21&linkCode=asn&creative=22206&creativeASIN=1845136675

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_8GJbAAr1DY8/TK_1Vxc-DYI/AAAAAAAABv8/Y1GVIAv2REo/s1600/spacejockeypic.jpg

doesn't quite have the belittling office cubicle perspective i recall.

this image satisfied Dan O'Bannon in terms of what he wanted.

obv he deserves a lot of credit for the story and script but you gotta be glad the design work was out of his hands. he didn't even like giger's derelict ¯\(º_o)/¯

http://parkablogs.com/content/book-review-book-of-alien

yeah i remember reading someone else's copy of this as a kid, definitely beats 'alien vault' for concept art.

So I ran into this company Super 7 over the weekend down in Orlando - they've received permission from 20th Century Fox to produce and sell the "Alien" action figures that were planned but never came to be:

In 1979, prototypes for 3 ¾” action figures for the ALIEN film were developed but never manufactured. Through our network of industry and collector contacts, Super7 has unearthed the original 33-year-old prototypes and will utilize these to help make these “lost toys” a reality.

With official authorization from 20th Century Fox, Super7 will produce the full series of ALIEN toys as part of our REACTION Figure Series (Retro-Action.) REACTION Figures are stylized exactly as items from the “golden age” of action figures with approximately five points of articulation, accessories, and period-authentic blister card packaging.

The original line up of 3 ¾” action figures for the ALIEN were scheduled to be RIPLEY, ASH, DALLAS, KANE in NOSTROMO SUIT, and the BIG CHAP (the nickname used on-set for the ALIEN creature).

http://getfile9.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/temp-2012-07-08/nwJHtaDvkluaDxGeJDlCxvprzrjDcrmzEtjFqzBFJGqAzBGAAxntbluehIyg/Alien_Lineup.jpg.scaled500.jpg

Kane in the Nostromo suit looks like one of the dancers from the "True Faith" video.

http://vincentwardfilms.com/concepts/alien-3/unrequited-visio/

http://avp.wikia.com/wiki/Alien_III_(Vincent_Ward)

knew those were going to be about the wood-structured satellite thingy

they threw away more interesting ideas making this series than some movies have ever had

wood moon is a trippy idea that should not have made it past the drug session. i'm glad fincher changed it.

films never made and the documentary/speculation bits prob lend well to the imagination, may not have done well on film

the jodorowsky/dune doc being prime territory for that

has anyone seen aliens on 70mm? is it special?

I watched the Alien 3 "assembly cut" once and thought it was OK. Am I misremembering?

I don't know if this was discussed in another thread, but last month the North Bergen, NJ high school put on a stage production of Alien that very quickly went viral. They apparently had zero budget, so they built all their own props and costumes, which all turned out to be very clever. It got some attention from both Ridley Scott, who offered his congratulations and future assistance; and Sigourney Weaver, who recorded a video thanking the school and then attended an encore performance.

Sigourney Weaver visiting the NBHS cast and crew at their encore performance of Alien after national media recognition was unbelievable!! #alien #Alien40th pic.twitter.com/2UXL0v1H3X

— Nicholas J. Sacco (@NicholasJSacco) April 27, 2019

The whole thing is now available on YouTube, and it's really nicely done. The special effects and staging are clever, they use pieces of Jerry Goldsmith's score and some video elements from the movie, and for not having any budget, accomplish some really great things on the stage!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DX3VaFG7AvU

omg this rules

certainly Fassbender's bitchy-priss elegance has never been put to better use

his insistence on just getting all of the shooting done for his films in a reasonable amount of time is probably one of his strengths

I can't remember if it was Covenant or Prometheus but he had some comment in an interview where he was doubling down that he only needed 90 days to get the movie shot and that the studios that kept doing screenings and reshoots to doctor up their movies were doing it wrong

lmao he shot Napoleon in 62 days

CGI aliens in covenant were hot garbage - i thought covenant would've worked better without any aliens in it at all. like just keep it a tight mystery with a skeleton crew that leads to the walter/david switch at the end.

finally saw Romulus. quick thoughts:

I thought it was interesting how... respectful? if that's the way to put it, the setting, costuming, and props were. Time period-appropriate, I guess? I was having trouble placing what seemed familiar about the station itself until I remembered briefly playing the video game Alien: Isolation that also takes place on a station, rather than a ship.

The reappearance of you-know-who's likeness was something I'd already heard about but I'd forgotten and honestly thought we'd see Lance Henriksen. Sounds like the new SAG approval/compensation policy was tested out with this movie. I honestly wasn't too put off by the animation/animatronic because we've already had several movies of half-destroyed androids playing out uncanny valley versions of characters and the goo and android guts were as expected

These alien xenomorph critters really are the science fiction version of convergent evolution. Much like many crustaceans evolve to look like crab, the xenomorph human/alien and alien/human progeny all kind of look like variations we've seen

For some reason the weak point to me in any of these is when we see an entire hallway full of the aliens. Just too busy of a threat.

I knew there'd be a few plot turns in the last act, but they really packed a half dozen of them into there

This was fun, this was nothing new, I liked Andy but think he should have left the last two words off The Catchphrase, I really liked the threat of smashing into the rings as well

Just caught up with this. At first I thought all the callbacks were simply a form of continuity, but from the start they came so fast and furious that it got kind of distractingly silly. Ah, yes, crawling through a vent. Ah, yes, condensation dripping. Ah, yes, trapped in a red-lit room with critters. Ah, yes, teaching her how to use a gun. Ah, yes, a countdown clock. And yes, of course, a lo-fi helmet cam. Not to mention the virtual cameo, which was extra distracting, because there was no reason at all it had to be that actor's image, it literally could have been anybody. And they kept bringing him back, too, as if they were so proud. (Oh, and by the way, I counted not just the big one but *3* intentional direct script quotes from the first two movies.)

At one point I had to pause it and was shocked there were 45 minutes left. However, I thought they did an OK job with the set pieces at the end, particularly the zero gravity sequence, and I liked the look of the planetary belt and, I suppose, the creepy hybrid, which is better than the similar one in Alien 4. Loved Andy, too; like its immediate predecessors, the artificial human is the best part. That said, the best Alien franchise installment aside from the first two remains the "Alien:Isolation" video game, which absolutely gets right everything the movies post-"Aliens" get wrong.

god this was so deathless & kinda dull, like it did not take long for me to root for the alien to kill all of them

why do i keep watching these movies thinking they will ever not be hopelessly broken

I’ve passed on everything after Prometheus but I’m sure I’ll be dumb enough to watch this when it’s included on one of my services. Not quite dumb enough to pay for a rental.

basically i cosign Ned’s review way up thread

like this was some alien franchise drinking bingo shit, it got so boring

like when andy Said The Thing i was like oh good is the movie over yet lol

Haha yup. What a nothing.

With a couple of fleeting exceptions it felt a lot like a PG-13 YA reboot.

that’s what The Thing prequel felt like too iirc

I liked it okay, but was put off by the "plucky teen TV series" energy of the cast. Maybe trying to chase contemporary horror audiences? I appreciated that the first half felt genuinely tense and creepy in a way that I don't think any of these has pulled off since Alien3. Like, it was by-the-numbers creepy abandoned spaceship stuff, but they did it well. Kinda lost me as it went on, I'll admit.

nice to see you Doc!

i guess i understand the complaints but this movie had someone floating in zero gravity through an acid vortex, so it was awesome

We are a long way from the deeply intelligent and effortless plotting and characterization and dialogue of the original alien and also obv the thing. Skilled and weary-looking character actors, stars who could be character actors, excellent use of cats and dogs.

I suppose I'm immune to carping about this or that Alien film given its genre roots, so in a sense I regard this one as a revanchist move: this is what the first film could or should have been.

should?!?

Maybe? *shrug*

hi Tracer!

fuck outta here with should

this movie is a parasitic entity that entirely subsists on thr first 2 movies … there is, to me, nothing that this movie does narratively or visually that in any way stands alone or could be an improvement on the original.

improve how? by replacing hungry talented actors with deadeyed teens sleepwalking through their characters? or having the final reveal look like cgi developed based on sketches by Chris (Simpsons Artist)?

i’ll pass. thanks though

All I meant by "should" was to hint at the film's pulpy roots. It's a monster movie at its core but deepened by first-rate visualists and action directors like Scott and Cameron (and Jeunet). I don't feel a sense of betrayal because the last couple of installments were just as vaporous but at the moment diverting.

I didn't feel a sense of betrayal, just disappointment at how rote it seemed. I thought the last two Scott films were among the silliest sci-fi movies I'd seen in some time, but they looked great and had some sort of vision, even if said vision was as dumb as a rock and shapeless as sand. In a lot of ways I'm always more bummed by mediocrity than failure, because mediocrity often means there's a sad residual glimmer of what the movie could have been. This one, those glimmers are there, but they were reduced by all the endless, lazy callbacks and references to the other movies, which might have been more acceptable if they were in service of something more compelling. This one was just a pu pu platter of Alien tropes and (literal) quotes.

otm

Love your hard pan VG

One thing this film reinforced for me was how superb (and essential) the lighting in the first film was. Quite a few glistening closeup knockoff shots which just looked like maquettes being pumped with aloe vera in this one, whereas in the first film they look feverish and terrifying. Anyone who has a 4K player should get the disc of ALIEN, it’s an absolute revelation for the lighting alone.

and to be clear, if my hard pan made it unclear, i dont dislike Romulus more than Covenant or Prometheus - if anything i’m more irritated by Scott driving the whole thing into the ground with boring yet visually beautiful nonsense.
I had zero expectations going into this & was still left wanting so idk

I’ll keep seeing new Alien movies because of the good will still burning in me for the first two, and the hope for something creatively exciting … but at this point not clearing a very low bar is status quo

otm

saw this tonight, i would like just one morsel of a new idea in an alien movie pls

i was struck by how much it felt like ALIEN: ISOLATION, kinda sad that a videogame remains the best alien-related media of the last three decades

i guess i understand the complaints but this movie had someone floating in zero gravity through an acid vortex, so it was awesome

― ivy., Saturday, 19 October 2024 17:39 (four hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

I practically fell off my sofa yelling WHERE DID THE ALIEN CORPSES GO during this sequence

i was struck by how much it felt like ALIEN: ISOLATION, kinda sad that a videogame remains the best alien-related media of the last three decades

That said, the best Alien franchise installment aside from the first two remains the "Alien:Isolation" video game, which absolutely gets right everything the movies post-"Aliens" get wrong.

― Josh in Chicago, Wednesday, October 16, 2024 6:31 PM (three days ago)

High-five!

^ this guy gets it

did I get it when I mentioned Isolation a month ago?
🤔

alright fine glad we’re on the same page about this

but where did the alien corpses go ffs

Same place the facehuggers came from, a pocket universe of narrative convenience

Where have all the corpses gone
Gone to graveyards
Every one
Oh when will they ever learn

This felt so much like Dead Space: The Movie. It was all fetch quests. Pretty good derelict space ship set design though. Would have been a good airplane movie, not so bad watching it 1/2 an hour at a time while exercising.

Lol Dead Space is a perfect comparison

I watched it while working the other day and had fun. It’s pretty brain-dead and the obligatory fan service was embarrassing and the fake Ian Holm looked so bad. But the bulk of it worked for me. I especially liked the young android and his personality shifts.

BUT WHERE DID THE ALIEN CORPSES GO FFS

It could have been a pretty decent movie without the aliens, just some kids trying to figure out how to steal and fix a broke-down ship and outwit the corporation.

The director admittedly playing a shit-ton of _Isolation_ before beginning work of this film kind of structures the entire thing, with aspects down to using the exact same sound effects of the doors.

I get why they cast young people vs the older folks in the first one, as the differences between how film horror has been consumed between the 70s and now, but I wish they had done more with the characters to actually set them up and their relationships before you get to the picked-off-one-by-one section. I think I read that they had a lot more shot about all that but it got cut.

Watched ALIEN: COVENANT last night and was reminded once again that Danny McBride is the snob's Larry The Cable Guy, and nothing more.

when Larry creates something like The Righteous Gemstones, let me know. I'm tuning in

I made it halfway through one episode of that.

other than sounding vaguely folksy and being white dudes, I don't really think they have much at all in common. but it's really funny you're broadly painting them both as the same and live in Montana?

like, Larry is a fictional persona of a Canadian man who moved to the US and does his shtick as a wholesome parody, and McBride generally plays characters that lean into mannerisms that are only broadly similar to skewer the same

one of them is more a cynical ploy than the other and it’s not McBride, imo. but maybe I’m out myself as a snob!