Its a grotesque. Impossible to compare to the others. Its lacking as an Alien sequel, but pretty interesting as a movie on its own. Those deformed dead alien clones burned-in my juvenile mind. I liked it. Funny enough, Alien 4s director is the same guy who did Amélie. Watch "Delicatessen" by Jean Pierre Jeunet and youll find the same absurd, black picture language.
Its good to see some love to Alien Resurrection. Many people seems to just hate the movie, and yes, it breaks every alien convention created on the first two, but I found the movie pretty interesting, with a lot of memorable scenes and with and awesome (and really different) atmosphere. The movie don't take itself very seriously and that's something many people, who expected to see a clone of Alien forgets. (And that fucking scene with the clones also traumatized me in my adolescence).
I like it too, it’s an amazing execution of a bad idea. I was fucking angry for the death of Newt and Michael Biehn character, but the rest is very good, nice idea and I like the dark atmosphere. The ending was perfect
Sean Tracey Sigourney Weaver and Charles Dance along with Charles S Dutton saved the movie but I thought the same that was too bad seeing they had to kill off Newt and Hicks and later Bishop when Ripley pulled the plug but it also helped move the movie along with Ripley being in the prison.
I think the 2003 cut of Alien is underrated - you get to hear the creepy distress signal, better character interaction with the slap after Ripley not letting the contaminated in, the alien hanging in the chains and the blood raining down, the disturbing cocoon sequence that shows them being dissolved in acid to become new eggs, and Ripley having to taken it upon herself to torch her crewmate as euthanasia. It's just an even more satisfying film for me.
Alien 3 Assembly Cut is so underrated. Ive been singing its praises for ages. It was more true to what Scott did with the first one than what Cameron did with Aliens. Plus David Fincher's visual style is beautiful to look at and very Ridley Scott-esque. Alien and Alien 3 are both tragic stories, they are stressful and gives you a sense of dreadfulness. Aliens is a great film, it was a fun action flick filled with great lines and fun moments but that's the problem right there... FUN. It's too fun for a horror movie, I lost the sense of fear and dire I got from the 1st movie. In a way Aliens was a great introduction for people who don't know what the franchise is. It's a comfortable way to introduce the Xenomorph because it's not as traumatizing as Alien and it's a fitting sequel to uplift the viewers from the bleakness and hopelessness of the first one. Alien is like a horrible event in human history and Aliens is like the tale you tell your children to let them know that everything is ok. Alien 3 Assembly Cut was a fitting end to the story for a franchise about the direness of cosmic horror. Alien Covenant is giving anxiety just from watching the preview just like the very 1st movie.
I disagree. Even with the Assembly Cut I could not get into the movie. All of the plot holes, especially the one involving these alien eggs, as well as these dumb, boring prisoner characters and the decision to kill off main characters from Aliens off screen just bring the film down. This movie will be divisive for many years, but I am definitely not one of its defenders.
Beyond the context of the Alien film series I'm not sure how much credit James Cameron truly deserves for somehow incorporating the action genre into the pre-existent sci-fi horror mold of the original film. I have never seen any sequel mix up the style of the first movie so significantly and still end up being successful. Imagine if Terminator 2 were somehow an excellent sci-fi horror rather than sci-fi action film (given the titular cybernetic assassin is sort of a serial killer like character already)....
I don't think Cameron deserves that much credit either, I think Alien is the far superior film and, even though it's also directed by Cameron, The Terminator is better than T2.
Always found Aliens overhyped frankly. Least not for the fact it lost a lot of the original film's Lovecraftian elements and injected more animalistic behavior into the Alien.
@Steel Gray I think it's just a testament to how perfect Alien is. Aliens is a very fun sci-fi action film but it's much more dated and frankly ruins the Alien for me. The most egregious scene is where an Alien ambushes Vasquez from above and she wrestles with it, pulls out her pistol manages to pin the Alien's head against the wall with her foot and then shoots it in the head and kills it. The perfect organism with complete surprised taken out by a small woman with wrestling and a handgun. The same Alien that threw Parker around like a ragdoll in the first film. Fighting an Alien hand to hand should be game over even for the absolutely strongest of men. It's meant to be a biomechanical monstrosity. The rubber suit looks especially bad in the scene as well when she sticks her foot down on it. I think the Aliens could have been handled a lot better honestly.
@Minicle It's definitely overhyped because people enjoy it. It makes them feel good, which is absolutely fine, and it's a very effective movie, and seeing a more conventional sequel to Alien would probably have sucked. But there's definitely a step down in quality. Aliens feels like an 80s action movie, with all the positives and negatives that come with it. Alien is something else entirely.
I find it impressive that the people making Alien 3 were able to steer the series back to its actual roots in horror as well as recapturing the thematic elements of the first one. As I see it, where Alien was a huge allegory for rape - Alien 3 is plainly an allegory for suicide where Ripley finally escapes her nightmare of a reality by putting her life in her own hands.
Side note, I hate that scene in covenant where the alien is on the glass roof. Not b/c of the cgi. Not b/c of the blatant disregard for the fundamentals of horror. But b/c why the hell would an alien bash its head when it has acid blood as well as its piston-punching secondary mouth. ugh
For ALIEN 3-you need to see THE ASSEMBLY CUT -it is great and as close to Fincher's vsion as possible. Forget the theatrical release! Glad you mentioned it
Thing is with Alien 3, is that it is thematically the best... The first is the best example of horror, the second the best example of action, the third is the best example of thematic conceptual storytelling - and I really despair that people decry it for "being a mess" - with little other critique. Imagine that Ripley, Newt, Hicks and Bishop are the sole survivors of LV426; but they've brought a demon with them and it ultimately kills them and they crash into purgatory; the prison planet is full of the damned; those soles who comit brutal crimes and are seeking redemption; even the doctor who cannot forgive himself. The warden and 85 are both stuards of this place and are pretty undesirable souls also. Hicks and Newt are effectively innocent and go straight to the paradise (or whatever) and Bishop, despite being selfless, has no soul. Ripley is now cursed by her demon to rest in purgatory, until she faces it and kills it. The demon then runs amok and hunts down the souls of the damned and eventually, through finding their courage and their desires for selfless redemption, the prisoners defeat the demon though many are destroyed in the process (and likely destined for hell). Ripley, to defeat her demons, drags the new demon queen into the inferno and sacrifices herself also. Only Morse, the prisoner, is taken from purgatory with his soul intact. Now that's some pretty mindblowing stuff and is so much more high concept than the other two. The religious angle was written into the original script years before release/rewrites and that's what gives it it's final acclaim. It completes the arc and completes the trilogy perfectly - whilst not being a flawless movie its self. That is why I prefer Alien 3 to Alien, despite technically being a weaker movie, - the concept and delivery itself is just so powerful.
100% agreed. Aliens is my second favorite film of all time, mostly because it was my first alien movie and it still scares me to this day, plus it’s just so fun to watch. But Alien 3 is the best film of the franchise.
The religious angle also presented something that is in plain sight but if you're not explicitly looking for it then odds are you won't notice. These men knew that they wouldn't walk out alive the moment they tried to kill the beast and would either end up in hell after death or just die and lights out, depending on their beliefs. Neither ending is desirable so why risk their lives at all? Their only motivation was to deny the 'company' it's end goal which depends solely on the alien being alive. In the end that is all it took for the prisoners to literally walk into their grave.
CGI is the one thing that ruined it, shooting from the aliens point of view was also too much. Other than that a little more goth would've been nice, but I otherwise completely agree
Alien is the ultimate. Saw it in 1981 at a school film club - history teacher was way ahead of his time - watched it at least 100 times since and still love it!! Pretty flawless as a movie I agree.
Yeah, to this day I consider the saga a Trilogy as it resembles the structure of Beowulf: Monster, Mother, Dragon... And that's counting on the assembly cut and Ripley's daughter reference on Aliens original cut, so in that sense the first is the best and most perfect, no doubt. Thanx!!!
I'm a big fan of Alien3, though it comes in third both chronologically and in terms of quality. I haven't even seen the Assembly Cut, but I like the theatrical version fine. Much of the bile that's been spat at the film over the years does seem to stem from what happens to Hicks and Newt. Actually, I'd say it's mostly about Newt... mostly. I agree it was a ballsy move and in keeping with the bleak hopelessness of the Alien universe, and I have no problem with it. Although part of me wishes Newt had stayed alive in her cryo-tube, safely tucked away from the events of the film (thus raising the stakes for Ripley, who'd want to protect her from the convicts, the xenomorph _and_ the Company) only to be revived at the end after Ripley dies. Then we could have had a sequel (or sequels) with a grown-up Newt following in Ripley's footsteps, instead of the mess that was Alien Resurrection.
Very thoughtful review. I personally have always preferred the profoundly eerie science fiction world that Ridley Scott created in Alien. It is a masterpiece and no other science fiction film has ever matched it in the measures of character development, it's perfect pacing, and the absolute terror produced by both the appearance of the creature, and how it takes several different forms. On first viewing the movie, it's impossible to know what kind of horrible thing is next, and each time it arrives in a new shape, it is exponentially more dreadful than the last time you saw it. Yes, Aliens is very exciting and is probably the best sequel ever made. It's a terrific film, but for different reasons. But with due respect to James Cameron I will not apologize when I say that it simply does not hold a candle to Ridley Scott's Alien. I haven't seen the third film or Alien Resurrection so I can't make any comments about them. Alien vs. Predator? Was that a joke? Don't tell me they were serious. Prometheus was rather dull. And Covenant just pissed me off. I guess Ridley Scott wanted his universe to make sense. Now it does ... or does it? I just don't know anymore. I'm going to forget all but the first two films ever happened and be happy with that. Youhavetobehappyywithwhatyuhavetobehappywith.
I watched Alien in the theatre in 70mm when it came out. It was mind-blowing. Nothing like it had ever been seen before. Then when Aliens came out, I saw it three times in one week. For action, Aliens is better. (still very scary) But for scare the living shit out of you, Alien is better. Alien3 is dark. Resurrection, from the opening scene, is awful. While it has a good moment or two, the third act is unwatchable a 2nd time.
have to agree with you here 100% m8, two completely different movies. I saw Alien first when I was a kid and is scared the shit outta me (what it was supposed to do) then comes Aliens a full on action film that that to this day I love!! yes the effects may be a bit dated with the drop ship crash scene ECT but whereas alien relied on narrow spaces and twisting airvents to create a sense of claustrophobia, Aliens was a balls to the wall full on war. Both movies are a proud part of my collection
My beef with Aliens is that the Xenomorph(s) have become unintelligent. They throw themselves to their deaths. It just doesn't Add up considering a single Xeno in the first film seemed to almost play chess with the crew and be one or two moves ahead of them. It's a great action film for sure, but just doesn't add up in the 'universe' started with the original.
i think that kind of makes sense.In Alien it was just one alien, it had to work by itself and so it had to be better at everything and be intelligent, in Aliens, there was a hive of them, and because theres so many of them to focus on different aspects, there was no need for one alien to be intelligent at multiple aspects.
Fishfins wrong. In the first film they didnt have any guns and were not soldiers. So they were easily picked apart. In the second film the aliens do play very smart and use their numbers to overwhelm what is a significant enemy, a platoon of space marines. And they win too if it wasnt for ripley.
Just keep in mind, in the first film, the crew didn't have weapons (besides a man made flamethrower). Had they had assault rifles, (and once they knew what they were dealing with - looking at you Dallas), kiss that xeno goodbye early.
@@cwinowich How is blitzing your way down a heavily guarded corridor (which is a complete suicide mission) considered "playing it very smart" Using numbers to overwhelm your enemy is literally the least intelligent strategy you can possibly think of. It is no strategy, it's literally just "well, we will see what happens!! They can't kill us all!!" Let me guess, you plan to be there to storm area 51 don't you? XD
I mostly agree with you. Alien is the better film of the bunch, but I find myself rewatching Aliens more often. I'm a sucker for oneliners and good action scenes. I also agree that Alien 3 is better than many people give it credit for, especially the new cut you mention. I hated the firs AvP movie because I expected a film version of the first AvP comic and didn't get it, but it's far more entertaining than Requiem.
Thank you for saying the kind things about Alien 3, it has been shit on for so long and it is nice too see that people are coming around to it. I know I am in the minority on my stance on this but I love Alien 3 and actually think it is better than Aliens! The MAJOR plot hole of how the egg(s?) got on the Sulaco is the and how some of the effects have not held up over the years are the only thing that flaw the film. It brought back the near nihilistic horror and the acting was the best of the series. People don't like it, generally, because it killed the warm and fuzzy ending of Aliens. I went to see it three times in the theater and would pay good money to see the work print in a theater.
One, two and three are the best. To me, each movie as a masterpiece. My favourite trilogy of ALL TIME. Horror, action and thriller(I suppose). I don't give a fuck that Hicks and Newt died. It just adds more to Ripley as a character. You feel even more bad for her. It's not a classic Hollywood ending. It's gritty, dark and depressing. Man I love it so much. It stands out and Ripleys sacrifice at the end always makes me teary eyed. It's so epic. I'm sick of hearing people say it's a bad movie cuz it isn't! It's fucking awesome.
Cameron maybe gets too much flak for demystifying the Alien because the seeds of better understanding the creature were there from the beginning. Scott demonstrated you could shoot the thing when Ripley blasted it with the grappling hook gun and blew it out the airlock. It's beholden to physics just like the rest of us. Then it's not too much of a stretch to rip one apart with a powerful machine gun or crush it with a tank. Cameron nailed down the Alien physiology to something of which we can relate to in real life, bugs, for better and for worse. Once again, a wonderful video!
I'm not sure it is clear enough, but I don't even really have an issue with where Cameron took it. It's more that in the second film, they are relatively easy to kill and one xeno can't do much harm. In Alien, a single xeno can wipe out a crew. So the idea there's a 'field of eggs' out there is terrifying. That's like finding out there's a million Jason Voorhees on a planet. In Aliens, as they are generally weaker and it turns out, not autonomous, they become less imposing.
But the crew in Alien didnt really have guns. Thats how it wiped them out, they were all trotting around with little to defend themselves but bad language
Starship Troopers came out around 1995 - Aliens was 1986. Starship Troopers copied Aliens, not the other way around. [cinematically, that is - I think the book of Starship Troopers was way before Aliens]
I'm glad more people appreciate Alien 3, I had heard nothing but shit about it when I watched it for the first time and was kind of surprised how good it was (dodgy effects besides). It is a slog though, bit too bleak to be enjoyable watching. Resurrection is just a joke. No idea what the point of it was. FFS I just remembered the line in it about how Walmart bought out Weyland-Yutani. How did that line make it all the way through the writing and filming and editing without somebody saying "wait, this is fucking stupid"?!
Spot on! Alien 3 was simply a great movie and I really appreciate the ideas they tried to explore. I only wish the studios hadn't interfere so much in David Fincher's vision.
I agree... Alien is one of the few films I consider to be 'perfect'. It's so atmospheric. The set pieces, the score, Giger's design. I love it. When I was a kid I liked Aliens better--the action, the guns, the spectacle. When I got a little older, I realized how much of a work of art Scott's Alien really was. There's no film quite like it. The creature in the first film is so creepy, with truly alien mannerisms. They made him 'alien' in every possible way. Cameron's film lost that. I love Aliens for what it is, but the first xenomorph is the best, hands down. Nothing beats that first time you see the xenomorph, with sperm-like goo dripping from its metallic jowls, as it creeps up behind Brett. I love that scene. It's one of my favorite scenes in cinema. That, and the finding of the space-jockey are two of the best scenes in science fiction history. Anyway, I'm ranting. Thanks for the upload. Edit: I really like Alien3--I'm a huge Fincher fan. I wish he would have had the creative control he needed to realize his vision on a potentially brilliant sequel, but alas.
Your Ranking - Is perfect. Alien is a masterpiece. It's the perfect storm of many creative talents working together to create a shared vision of a perfect horror film. I was going to make a video essay about Alien, but you've beaten me to the punch, congratulations on another fantastic video!
Good point. I'll make a video on ALIEN one day. I'll add lofty commentary on the feminism subtext, as explored by Laura Mulvey... not too sure how entertaining that'll be.
+Rossatron I'm so happy to hear someone else feels the way I do about what Alien is meant to be. Everything you touched on in this video - sexual horror, Alien 3 being a closer successor to the first movie - is exactly my stance and what I always try to argue with fans of the 2nd movie.
Personally Aliens is my favorite of them all because I was able to relate to the characters a lot more when I was a child. When I saw Alien I wasn’t as able to relate to the characters as much. Ironically enough maybe Aliens planted a seed and in some way led me to my 4 years of servitude in the usmc as a grunt slaving away for no reason. That aside Aliens impacted me more than the first one however nothing in the Alien franchise was as terrifying as that first time the Alien bursts from that dude chest. As for 3 it could have been a lot better of a film had 20th Century Fox not got involved and ruined it. The director had a good vision but the studio Justice Leagued the movie.
It's on all the bluray releases. Just select "2003 Special Edition"...it's about 30 minutes longer and is compiled from David Fincher's original production notes. Highly recommended.
Personally enjoyed Aliens the most, partly due to the action. I just enjoy the element of scifi and action combined like the first Predator movie for eg.
*THE WORLD:* We want something new! Give us something new! We're tired of the xenomorph and it's not scary anymore! Give us something in the universe of Alien that goes to interesting, unexpected places! *RIDLEY SCOTT:* I couldn't agree more. I've cooked up something interesting and scary called "Prometheus". It's very much new. It expands on the space jockey, something no one else ever though to do. It's going to explain the origin of the xenomorph technology, how it started as a biological weapon, and is the fatal end result of an advanced alien arms race! you'll get the engineers. You'll get the ships. You'll get an explanation of why and how this tech so readily combines with Earth's DNA. All of this will be self-contained in a package that will do what the best science fiction films always do. It's going to ask the big questions. The hard existential ones that examine the relationship of God to creator. Of creator to creation. It will talk about conscience and what that means. You are not dreaming. All of this will be in a movie that will greatly expand on the alien universe we all love so much and could lead to dozens of exciting new directions! *THE WORLD:* Where's LV426? Where's the original black xenomorph? We didn't get the same old crap we always crave! *RIDLEY SCOTT:* Hey! I thought you said you wanted something NEW!! *THE WORLD:* We always say that. We want to believe that about ourselves. But we NEVER mean it.
I will always got a spot in my heart for Aliens thanks to the action and the development of Ripley as a Character comparing with the first one. But man, Riddley Scott's Alien just holds up so well in visuals, tension, Mystery, iconic scenes and direction. My best Alien movie will be always the first one!
I always felt the same way. Aliens was great, Alien 3 took it back to the vibe of the original. It simplified. The characters had no weapons..now that's a fight!
Small correction; At 3:40 you refer to the blue screen work on the film as appearing dated and show the dropship crash sequence. This was actually all in-camera using rear screen projection on set. There were no opticals.
In my perfect world, Alien, Aliens, and Alien 3 (Assembly Cut), are the only versions ever released. They would be a trilogy on par with pre-special edition Star Wars: undiluted. Not to say that I don't love TFA and Rogue One, but feel those largely exist because we have a generation of film fans who hated what the prequel trilogy was and felt Star Wars deserved better. I'm not saying Ridley Scott couldn't do Prometheus and a new bunch of films based on it, but it doesn't need Alien shoe-horned into it. Alien 3 (again, Assembly Cut) wasn't quite on par with Alien/Aliens, but it was a perfect cap to them in the context of a trilogy. How do you follow up Aliens with its 'feeling of absolute impossibility in the face of these insurmountable odds' but with stark fatalism. Ripley (and the audience) has seen dozens of these creatures torn up by the marines by the end of Aliens - now she's faced with only a single creature, but with none of the technology that they depended on in the first films. Instead of increasing the number of creatures, like all the other lesser films in the franchise, Alien 3 goes the other direction, and lets us see Ripley's story end in a tragic but satisfying manner.
Absolutely spot on assessment of the first 3 films, Alien is flawless, Aliens is slightly overpraised while Alien 3 is overlooked (assembly cut only, of course). I would personally swap Prometheus and AvP in the rankings, though they are both bad and the difference in rating is negligible, I think AvP is at least a mildly fun watch. Resurrection is terrible and AvP 2 is one of the worst films ever made.
I've never seen the Assembly cut, but I feel that Alien 3 is a pretty good film. Killing Newt and Hicks in the beginning makes sense. Ripley's life is supposed to be absolute hell, and giving her at least something good and constant in her life would take away just how much of a nightmare her life has become since her first encounter with the Xenomorph. If they had survived the beginning, the film would have gone two ways: get backlash for killing them later, like it did for killing Ripley, or let them survive, and get criticized for being predictable. There's also the problem with there being a six year gap between the releases of the movie. With adult actors, this isn't very noticeable, but child actors are different, and Carrie Henn would have looked very differently, since hypersleep is supposed to stop or at least slow down aging. As for the rest of the cast being unlikable, I don't mind that. I have no problem with every character being a terrible person, so long as the events surrounding them are interesting. I don't mind that they tried to rape one of the few likable characters in the movie, because it accentuated just how much of a shitty situation our heroine was in. Not everyone is a good person, and not every interesting event happens to good people. Personally, I think Ripley's story should have ended after the second movie. The franchise could have gone in some pretty great directions, if it had done what many other horror franchises do, and focused on different protagonists in the sequels. We could have gotten more films like the first two, in addition to it going in different directions (the idea of farming Xenomorphs, like was sort of touched on in Resurrection could have worked with the right script). The need to focus on the same character hurt the franchise. Would Friday the 13th have gotten as many sequels it did if Alice was the main protagonist in all of them? No. That's one of the reasons Resurrection sucks so hard. The franchise dug itself into a hole by picking one character to focus on, and when the studio demanded another film after that character died, there was no other option but to find some way to bring her back. A fourth Alien film without Sigourney Weaver could have been awesome.
I think it doesn’t at all make sense to kill those characters off. Just because someone’s life is like hell, doesn’t mean constantly removing people that made her feel more human. I am completely okay with Ripley making a sacrifice to destroy the next Alien queen though. People who criticise things constantly for being predictable have no idea how subverting expectations works. This is why we Game of Thrones Season 8 sucked. It made sense in Avengers: Infinity War, because Thanos’ attack on the Asgardians ship was set up really well, and he only slaughtered half of Thor’s people.
i agree with pretty much everything said in this video, like almost literally everything. i love alien and aliens, and i really like the assembly cut of alien 3. the atmosphere is really good, i dislike the decision to kill off newt, Hicks and bishop but I'm glad it happened as it really contributes to the movie. nearly all the characters are severely underdeveloped, but the few characters that are done well are done really well (in my opinion, they're Ripley, Dillon, Clemens, Aaron and Morse) and yeah i think alien Vs predator is somewhat underated
Orlor Why doesn't it make sense? I can totally imagine the queen dropping an egg. The creature seems to take every opportunity to procreate. Why wouldn't it also be diligent in the case you mention?
1: The queen was only on the Sullaco long enough to get blown out of the airlock. There was no time for her to drop a egg. 2: The queen ripped her egg sack off in the egg chamber. How could she drop a egg with no egg sack?
@@stevesoldwedel The Queen was quite clearly not carrying an egg. The egg was located in an area of the ship that the Queen was never in. The egg was glued upside down for no reason than a prop guy thought it looked cool. The egg hatches for no reason, every other one only hatches when it's disturbed. The facehugger lays 2 embryos. The facehugger gets into the tube without killing or waking Ripley up. The facehugger just happens the damage some critical, non-redundant system causing the EEV to be ejected. A3 makes absolutely no sense at all.
I love the first two films like you. When I found out about the assembly cut a few years back and watched it it changed my perception of the third film. I have really grown to appreciate Alien3 over the years, despite its flaws.
TBH I didnt expect Drake and Apone to die so early in the film,tHudson,Vasquez and Gorman I expected at least one of them to survive the film,so not so predictable.
I was unaware about the different version of Alien 3 until i bought that total destruction pack back on DVD many moons ago. It changed everything about that film for me in a good way like.
I love Alien 1 2 and 3. That director's cut of 3 is amazing. I have been trying to get friends who love the first two but hate the third to watch the director's cut. Who cares about Newt and Hicks. Killing then off was a genius move and it doesn't reduce the meaning or effectiveness of the second's ending. I think it mirrors reality in the sense that you have your victory today but tomorrow you might not win. Their deaths showed that.
I just wanted to say I totally agree about the new alternate cut of alien3, I got the box set and didn't realise it was the recut film included and just found myself thinking how much better it was than I remembered. It's no alien or aliens, but it's so much closer to that level than the theatrical cut.
I don't know if carrying on with what Alien did would have worked. You said it was a perfect film, and that's something that a sequel is most likely not going to capture again. I understand that the xenomorph loses some of its intrigue after being turned into a bug, but I don't believe a sequel without the same team from the first would've done very well.
I agree - even if they kept the same team, it's never going to be as special. Alien Isolation too - one of the best ever videogames ... but I sense a creative burnout that makes a sequel unlikely, and not as good if it ever happened. That's the problem with making a classic.
That's why Aliens was effective even if it did a lot of things that I didn't like in hindsight. Alien is just lightning is a bottle. Aliens is an incredibly effective sequel and a great action film. But really you don't need anymore than that. Alien 3 works in some ways too and is fine as a conclusion to a trilogy, but they need to let it rest after that. Fair enough do expanded lore and comics and all sorts. But it's like Star Wars or any other big franchise where the original premise just runs thin after a while. There's not much more you can really do, and you're shackled to the original to the point where you can't innovate enough to make it interesting.
It's satisfying to have found your video and learned you rank the films the exact order I rank them, especially the fact that Alien is #1 and not Aliens.
Pretty much agree with everything you said. I (having recently watched all 3) honestly prefer alien 3 over aliens...something i'd never thought i'd ever feel. I found Bill Paxton (rip) grating very quickly and (as you mentioned) the one note character very apparent, though still enjoyable at times. I still have my problems with Alien 3, but it just appeals to me a little more as gothic horror rather than a proto vietnam narrative.
Introducing a queen didn't ruin anything. if the Xenomorphs need hosts to build the eggs that makes them extremely inefficient. That would mean they need At least two hosts just to create one xenomorph (one for the egg and one for the facehugger to impregnate). Having a queen doubles the speed in which these things can multiply and spread. only needing one host for each Xenomorph.
There is no reason why xenomorphs can't individually create more creatures like the deleted scene in Alien, and have a queen, it just adds more layers to them.
Nah, it takes away from them, as much as I love Aliens and the climax with the Queen, it really does turn them into big space bugs. Aliens is very effective in what it does, but it removes most of the mystique and Alien quality of the Alien.
I loved Alien 3 the most out of all series. It was just a perfect horror for me, plus a jail movie, plus a post-apocalyptic planet with no hope for a better future and nowhere to run for the inmates, not a single tree growing outside you could draw out of your cell. And in such a hell-hole things get even worse. The ending was also quite climactic. I understand the love for the first and the second one, but cannot change my affection for this beautiful film. The 4th one was an atrocity though. Btw I really hated the death of the girl int A3 too. But after I saw the Red Wedding I kinda got over it. :)
Considering all the chaos that was going on during production (no finished script, studio meddling, etc.) it is actually somewhat of a miracle how competent or at least "okay" Alien 3 still turned out in the end.
Although it has its problems, I think Prometheus has done good work towards making all film iterations of the alien work, because it changes what the alien is at a core level. The alien is no longer an organism of conventional understanding, but rather a technology of an uncertain (either military, religious, or both) purpose, that takes in material around it and alters/improves it as best it can, almost always to the end of making a monster, a monster that is almost never identical to previous iterations of itself within its own lineage as it progresses. Why is the alien of Alien more elegant than the idea of the Queen from Aliens? Because it's separated from her an needs to continue its function without her, so it optimizes itself to fill the function of a queen with what it can, adapting. Why are all the aliens of Aliens beyond the Queen identical? Because that lineage of the black goo has spent so long in one spot that its optimized the creatures it can make there with the resources it has access to, and needs another world and set of genes to work on. Why is a Queen even needed if the alien mass production units can spread on its own? Because it wants to optimize its ability to multiply, as such engineering an entity that can produce eggs at a higher rate than multiple individual mass-production units the black goo develops is ideal, increasing the probability per second of a facehugger/black goo carrier organism reaching a new source of genetic information. The optimization logic can also be used to justify the look of the dog/bull alien of Alien 3, in that regardless of which version you're using, the creature of those films is still mostly human, only taking in a small portion of the engineering from the dog or the bull to edit its form, resulting in something that is still almost the same as its previous iterations save being more streamlined. Another thing to understand is that this is one lineage of what the black goo can make. In Prometheus we see the inception of two(perhaps three if you want to get technical) different lineages (cobra-hugger > repurposed scientists, goo-in-drink > repurposed male lead, goo-in-drink > trilobite > deacon) of the alien monster, each beginning a cycle of engineering monsters from their surroundings, with covenant showing two more (conventional eggs, alien spore pods) stemming from whatever David has been doing in his own free time. This means that the Queen system is one that is invented by the goo from one out of four different lineage progressions, with no two of them guaranteed to result the same way, only somewhat similar ways. Because of what we know now, the Queen is not a guaranteed fact of the alien, just a feature of that one lineage, with nothing to say all members of that lineage at that time don't become Queens as they progress in age, or that the Queen is even necessary by the time Ripley kills her, simply just extant by being able to still be alive at that time. As much as Prometheus got wrong as a film, what it did to the alien and how the alien works is pretty important for future films to justify inconsistencies in the creature as it changes from writer to writer, because it makes the alien and its nature in no way fixed in any fashion save some general design traits, a quality that is going to be needed so long as Fox chooses to continue the franchise, and I am fairly confident covenant will do much of the same in its contribution.
people often diminish resurrection but as a stand alone film it's really fun to watch... plus the concept of a ripley mixed with alien resurrected hundreds of years in the future having no idea who she was and behaving like an animal is amazing
Matias Negro - I think the concept of Ripley sharing some of the ALIEN biology (acidic blood, strength, intuition, etc.) is probably the only good idea from the film, and really I'd have loved to see this explored.
This movie has probably the most badass Ripley ever, and it shows what the aliens can do better than Aliens. They can swim, they can climb, they are very strong, menacing, they are shown completely instead of dark shots or only being able to see part of them. They are smart, they are fast, they will kill one of their own to get their way. They can sense their surroundings. The only movie that has better aliens is AVP, where we get to see them move much more agile, and kill something bigger, stronger, and plenty more dangerous, than a human.
Your analysis of the first 3 films is definitely spot on with mine. Good job. Alien is my favorite movie and favorite horror movie of all time, Aliens is my favorite action movie all time and I really liked Alien 3 even before I saw the much superior Assembly cut.
TheReal RedWolfofDeath AVP:R is better than alien? WHAT?!? I..just...WHAT?!? Please for the love of God tell me you miss typed, or were drunk/ high, or have braindamge. Normally I'll be the first to point out that film is subjective but films can be objectively good or bad in certain ways. AVP:R is objectively worse than alien in virtually every way, as side frome the action since alien didn't really have any. AVP:R has the least interesting and memorable characters in the franchise, the aliens look considerably worse than they did in the previous movie, the directing and lighting are God fucking awful, the premise of the movie invalidates the rest of the alien franchise. I remember every character in the first 2 movies by name and the only character in AVP:R I can remember is Dallas, and that's because they stole the name from the first movie. They turned the best horror movie of all time into a dumb teen slasher flick with absolutely no redeeming qualities.
I think Alien is close to perfect. I saw it at 9 yrs old and it was so different from any sci fi I'd seen at the time. The space truckers and their very casual, short way of interacting made a big impression. I found the creature an uneasy combination of scary and beautiful. The added novelty, for the early 80s, of a woman being the lone survivor also impressed me. I really enjoyed Aliens but I liked Alien 3 a little more though its far from as good as Alien.
Your ranking list is incorrect at the end I think. You said you even like AVP and Prometheus better than Alien resurrection but you then listed resurrection 4th above those two movies.
I've always loved the idea that Cameron approached Aliens with Terror in mind, as opposed to Horror. I never really gave much thought into differentiating those two terms, however these two movies brilliantly show the delineation. Aliens has a frenetic, overpowering, almost draining feeling during its run. Its relentless; how in the hell are our characters going to remove themselves from an overpowering and tenacious force only to soon be running up against yet another iteration? Roger Ebert said it best when he left the theatre still "with knots in his stomach." Alien, on the counter, is the stuff nightmares are made out of. Although they're facing only one xenomorph this time, we're in for the slow burn. Where is this absolutely horrifying creature lurking, and while surviving characters slowly creep away, they have the added comfort of having to mentally digest what possibly could have happened to their crew. Lambert asks if "Brett could still be alive?", no trace of Dallas was found....even the seemingly clear cut (death wise) chest burster leaves the crew speechless and traumatized (as a fucking newborn no less)! Alien seems to relish in the hunt, scaring the shit out of you in simply displaying itself and its capabilities, while also leaving a trail of disturbing and unclear events behind as it hunts what's left of your group. While I adore Aliens, making the xenomorphs more insect like made them somewhat more predictable in terms of their behavior I think, even if a giant army of hive minded xenomorphs is cinematic gold. Alien, on the other hand....brought us a creature that somehow seemed both extraordinarily advanced, and yet still enigmatic. It was more.....alien.
Funnily enough I was working at Sega when A:I started development as a third person cover game. Aliens Colonial Marines was sadly my focus though...dark times.
Wow. Alien Isolation is my favourite ever game! And it's deservedly canon to the series. What's Sega up to these days - I heard they were pulling out of the games business about a year ago? Two of my favourite games - Alien and Football Manager - are distributed by them.
You should play 10 minutes of Alien Isolation - then you'll know you're in a compelling, terrifying game. In fact, you'll feel like you're in a proper sequel to the original Alien movie. That's deserved high praise indeed.
It's really funny how people say _Aliens: Colonial Marines_ isn't canon just because it's a shit game, even though Fox clearly said it was canon, but people say _Alien: Isolation_ is canon just because it's a good game, even though the developers and Fox have never said it was canon. Funny how that logic works.
The characters in aliens are much better. Who really remembered anybody else but Ripley in the first film? Black guy? Whiney girl? On the other hand, Aliens had Newt, Vasquez, Bishop and Hicks, genuinely memorable characters
I love Alien 3, if you ever wanted a horror sequel that embodied desperation and the erosion of hope it's that film. I'm amazed the film turned out the way it did considering the clusterfuck of filming before the screenplay was finished. The original three films to me are of equal footing. Sure there's the one that does this and that better but in all honesty having the films play out exactly like each other would be boring (Star Wars VII anyone). The tone between the movies is consistent yet they are all different enough that they have their own identity. The three films are so complimentary to one another that they make each other stronger films overall.
Alien 3 is really underrated It's flawed, but it took risks and it's beautifully shot The 3rd act is a little dumb, but the end with Ripley sacrificing herself is very good Too bad they f*cked it up in Ressurection
Some decent points but the one thing I would take issue with is when you said Alien has better-developed characters than Aliens. Um, really? None of the characters in Alien were developed at all, not even Ripley, which is why it remains unclear who will survive until the end. Alien is a haunted house movie in space, and the thing about that type of movie is that the characters have to be vague so you don't know which one will get offed next. Aliens did take the franchise in a new direction that's true, but that's to be applauded. So many sequels simply rehash the first film, Aliens is a genuinely different movie from the first. And it has so much more going on thematically that the first film, especially in the special edition, which really expands on the theme of motherhood. It also works as a Vietnam allegory as it depicts a platoon of tough, confident marines fully tooled up with the latest weaponry that marches into unknown territory and gets their arses handed to them by a cunning enemy that hides in tunnels and attacks them from every direction. I don't know how much of the allegory was deliberately intended but the film was released right in the middle of the 'Nam movie era so there must have been some influence - no art happens in a vacuum. I just think Aliens has more layers. The first Alien is a masterful, arty horror movie but only hints at themes of violation and birth since most of the film is just 10 Little Indians, trying to escape their doom. Aliens (particularly in the special edition) explores its themes much more vividly but also works as a kick-ass action movie, which is why for me, Aliens is the better film.
For me personally Resurrection had the scariest scene . The scene where a xenomorph jumps into the escape pod with all those soldiers strapped in made me the most uncomfortable of any Alien movie. The thought of being strapped in without even the slightest possibility to fight or flee scared the shut out of me.
What would've happened if the sequels have gone for a more cosmic horror kind of movie? Well, I think it woud've fell flat to the audience, and it wouldn't have gotten too much success, probably. Maybe that kind horror movies doesn't work well with sequels.
I like Alien more but I'm glad Aliens exists to make the series more successful. I also think that more cosmic horror would get stale with audiences, even if I would probably like that more action horror
Aliens didn't really do much to make the series more successful though in certain ways, with Alien 3 and to a lesser extent Resurrection never quite being the box office stars they would have liked.
Disagree. Without ALIENS and its success you have no Dark Horse comic series, no vast merchandising and branding, no future. Alien is a great film but if not for its sequel it would be regarded as something like The Shining. A very good, well remembered film beloved by most film enthusiasts but nothing close to the cultural juggernaut the franchise has become despite some lesser entries.
I actually really like alien 3 and didn't even know many people didn't like it until recently. I also really liked Prometheus, I don't see why so many people didn't like it. Alien, aliens, and Prometheus are all outstanding films in my opinion, and alien 3 is a great film. AVP is decent and the last two are terrible. My ranking would be: Alien Aliens Prometheus Alien 3 AVP Alien resurrection AVP 2
It's one of several alternate scenes in the extended cut. The cow was one of the oxen that the prisoners use to drag the EEV out of the ocean: th-cam.com/video/lvuTYmTivEg/w-d-xo.html
And I like aliens more than alien idk why I'm just more of an action guy I suppose but even though I haven't seen it in a while I remember hating alien cubed as it was depressing and boring ressurection was okay though
Alien, Aliens and Alien 3 in that order. The rest are terrible. Though I like the concept of Alien Vs Predator. Alien 3 was a perfect ending to the Ripley storyline and a tone I think suits the Alien universe. I actually prefer the theatrical cut. The alien coming from a dead cow doesn't have the emotional impact of it bursting from a dog, not to mention cows aren't scary. So an alien coming from a cow just doesn't work for me as much as a dog alien. I also hate the effect in the extended version of Ripley falling into the lead. Looks so juddery and fake. Far better in the theatrical cut with the queen actually bursting out first. If only a cut was released with the start and end of the theatrical cut but the middle of the extended version.
How dare you! Unsubbed! :D jk good video! I'm in full agreement with your (intended) ordering. For some reason the original AVP holds a place in my heart, probably because I watched it a lot as a young teenager.
It was no mistake... Alien Resurrection with all it's flaws is much more ambitious and unique compared to the borefest of AVP and the confused mess that is Prometheus. I appreciate the attempts in AR even with the pretty awful ending -- just because they tried to do something new with the franchise.
Interesting how you raise certain points about the trilogy that I never noticed or considered despite seeing each film several times. Love this channel mate and the work you put into it!
While I understand your arguments as a whole, I disagree with your argument that the xenos in ALIENS are easy to kill compared to the one xeno in ALIEN. Remember that the characters in ALIEN were unarmed and out in space, thus completely defenseless. Had those truckers been on a planet with atmosphere and armed with rifles, that one xeno would have been wiped out in less than an hour.
But if the xeno from ALIEN went against people with guns, would it still be indestructible?? I agree that the first depiction of the xeno is superior (smarter, scarier, sexier) and I prefer the idea of a captured prey mutating into an egg but what else was Cameron supposed to do with a sequel? If he made the xeno attack a group of unarmed people then we'd have a retread of the first story, ala ALIEN 3.
cgarciahfcu Also the xenomorph is still near indestructible because the colonial marines had to use special armor piercing rounds on then. Even the pistol took like 4 shots to the head just to kill the alien and the shotgun only stunned it. They are still unstoppable creatures but aliens captured the action perfect for the aliens.
Yes, Alien 3's characters are very defenseless. They have no gun, no axe, no life detection system, etc. In Alien 1 they weren't prepared for fighting. In Alien VS Predators 1 humans had "basical weapons", they weren't prepared for fighting big issues (who would think about fighting alien creatures on an underground pyramid in the artic?) and the ones who had weapons stayed on the outside (and were killed by predators). Predators were prepared for fighting, they expected the fight and they have access to weapon that can kill aliens. In Alien 4, humans were full of weapons (both sides, and their weapon were more advanced than those from Alien 2) and Ripley were considered an alien by the aliens. The most equipped characters on the saga. Also, the place were prepared for the existence of aliens, actually it was built for containing aliens. In Prometheus, they have a lot of tecnhology. The funny thing is that no sane person would want to contact an alien form without having really good equipment (defensive and aggresive ones),however, the company decided to be poorly equipped (they had a flame thrower though).
The whole prepared for a fight thing is silly, since it was cameron and his writers that decided that the Xenomorph would be as weak or strong as it was in the movie. As understood in Alien though, the Xenomorph was virtually indestructible, and while we could asume all we want how it would have faired against an armed and trained squad of soldiers, the implication was that it was virtually unbeatable. That's Rossatrons point, until Aliens the Xenomorph was implied to be unbeatable, Aliens said "no actually, they are just very tough vermin".
People get hung up on the fact that Ash says you cannot kill the xeno yet Ripley killed it. The xeno is not indestructible. Cameron may have weakened the xeno but it was Ridley Scott himself that proved it is not unbeatable.
So what's the better action film Aliens or T2? Agree about Alien being a near perfect horror film (except from the part in the vent where the alien jumps out and shouts boo) and the best of the series. Also I kind of like Resurrection in a so bad it's good kinda way. Still need to see the Assembly cut of 3
Don't call Aliens an action movie. Aliens is a WAR movie. The parable clearly is born out of Vietnam. The inept officer in charge of grunts who can handle themselves better than he can. The xenomorphs use the vents like the Vietcong used tunnels. Guerrilla warfare is what it's all about. Ripley becomes so much more clearly defined as a character in Aliens. The first movie makes her an almost accidental heroine. In Aliens we see her intelligence and leadership. More importantly she as a mother figure is realized. This is an extension of some of the themes from Alien (all the womb and sexual imagery as well as the Nostromo computer being called "Mother"). Defining the genre of Aliens as action, even if you praise it as you did, is a disservice to what the move was actually about thematically.
I think Alien and Aliens are equally good for different reasons. Given the nightmare production of Alien 3, I say that it's a miracle we got a film as good as it was. Therefore it deserves praise. Resurrection was practically a spoof on the series. The AvP films were given to the wrong people.
Brian Babcock not to mention the screenplay was changed from being set on a planet in the Aliens universe (weyland yutani colony) to being on earth, and at the end the chick went on to fly off with the predators since she'd mastered their weapons along the way
Still, I think quite a few people would love to hear your thoughts on everything wrong with the film. From it's nostalgia pandering, failure to capture the spirit of the original films, poor characters, etc...
OpenMawProductions you just summarised exactly why Rossatron would rather microwave his own ballsack. Now stop reminding us we paid to sit down and watch AVP Requiem, money an 95 minutes we will never get back (the horror!!)
Hey, how do you think I feel? I was dumb enough to drag my brother and sister's boyfriend along with for that mess. That's not just wasting my own time, that's wasting family time! HA@
YEP. The original Alien has never been topped. People who insist on Aliens being better strike me as Sci-Fi fans that require a ton of action in order to hold their interest. I like both films but Alien is obviously the best.
Swoooze I thought Alien 3 was a complete mess. So disappointing, after the first two. But I gave the assembly cut a chance. Whoa. It's a totally different movie. And it's actually coherent. I'd recommend giving it a chance. It might redeem the movie for you.
I was quite young when I first saw Alien. The chest burst scene was a genuine surprise, even the full grown creature reveal. The mystery and intrigue with the creature worked perfectly with the claustrophobic feel. Combine this with the slow pace building tension made it terrifying. This could not be repeated in a sequel, because we know what the Alien is so the main mystery has gone. They had to go a different way, which is why Aliens is a perfect sequel to Alien. Both are masterpieces and I simply cannot pick one over the other. I have probably watched Aliens more, but Alien scared the living daylights out of me!
From best to I worst (alien movie) 1. Alien (1979) 2. Alien 3 (1992) 3. Aliens (1986) * reason - terrific action film but did not feel like an "alien film" to me. 4. Alien: Resurrection (1997) * see above, but inferior - AvP m (and related abominations) doesn't belong on this list. - Prometheus is not an alien movie in the narrative
2-3 effects looks dated and some aliens looks like rubber but the alien queen is still in 2017 one of the best movie monster and one of the best animatronics ever made. Also its not overrated, its just a great Sci-Fi action movie for adults that is loved by near every Sci-Fi fan.
In Alien 1 you can easy tell in some shots that its a human in rubber suit. Aliens look superb to me even in 2017. Both are masterpieces for me each in their own way.
I am not gonna lie... I love the first 3 Alien films as a single entity... Yeah It's kinda dated in Aliens when in the attack on the hive you just pretty much just see the marines shooting... And on Alien 3 the creature looks "pasted" into the scene... I will watch Resurrection from time to time, to me it's just "French" I like Prometheus, was super excited about covenant... But as more footage is released, my excitement lessens...
![BOWKYLION - วิงวอน (ex-change) [Official MV]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/cLdnZWDaO-w/mqdefault.jpg)
FYI my ranking as of now is:
8. AVP:R
7: Alien Resurrection
6. AVP
5. Prometheus
4. Alien Covenant
3. Alien 3
2. Aliens
1. Alien
Rossatron switch alien 3 and covenant.
No
Rossatron CGI Alien was bad, I can agree about that.
To be fair, Alien and Aliens are sort of interchangeable for 1st place. (at least to some people)
Fuck Resurrection and Requiem, though.
Isaac Zelinski yes alien and aliens were better than resurrection and requiem
Alien - Being circled by a great white in the deep ocean.
Aliens - Being attacked by a large pack of wolves but you have an assault rifle.
Frame by Frame great anology
*Aliens - Being attacked by a large pack of wolves in the dark but you have an assault rifle
noice
I count the aliens saga like the ice age saga. First 2 movies: great, 3rd movie :ok, the last ones : ah what
Touche'.
The movement tracker is also one of the best sci-fi suspense devices ever made. It feeds so well into the scariness of the impending aliens.
well said...it is a device that creates tension
0:12 The greatest delivery of this line in cinema history :)
The British are still world leaders in swearing :)
Everyone's feelings summed up in one word.
You'd like "the Witcher" ;-)
Donnie Darko
Alien is Cosmic/Sexual Terror, Aliens is Action/Horror, Alien 3 is Existential/Religious Terror and Alien Resurrection is... well... ¿a black comedy?
Sebastián Gómez Letelier
A french black comedy?
Espanol, hermano
Its a grotesque. Impossible to compare to the others. Its lacking as an Alien sequel, but pretty interesting as a movie on its own. Those deformed dead alien clones burned-in my juvenile mind. I liked it. Funny enough, Alien 4s director is the same guy who did Amélie. Watch "Delicatessen" by Jean Pierre Jeunet and youll find the same absurd, black picture language.
Its good to see some love to Alien Resurrection. Many people seems to just hate the movie, and yes, it breaks every alien convention created on the first two, but I found the movie pretty interesting, with a lot of memorable scenes and with and awesome (and really different) atmosphere. The movie don't take itself very seriously and that's something many people, who expected to see a clone of Alien forgets.
(And that fucking scene with the clones also traumatized me in my adolescence).
Whedon has categorically disowned the film, so I guess if you hate it you and he are in the same boat.
I think Alien 3 is extremely underrated. To clarify talking about the directors cut where a lot of missing scenes are added back in
I agree
I really like it!
I like it too, it’s an amazing execution of a bad idea. I was fucking angry for the death of Newt and Michael Biehn character, but the rest is very good, nice idea and I like the dark atmosphere. The ending was perfect
Sean Tracey Sigourney Weaver and Charles Dance along with Charles S Dutton saved the movie but I thought the same that was too bad seeing they had to kill off Newt and Hicks and later Bishop when Ripley pulled the plug but it also helped move the movie along with Ripley being in the prison.
No
I think the 2003 cut of Alien is underrated - you get to hear the creepy distress signal, better character interaction with the slap after Ripley not letting the contaminated in, the alien hanging in the chains and the blood raining down, the disturbing cocoon sequence that shows them being dissolved in acid to become new eggs, and Ripley having to taken it upon herself to torch her crewmate as euthanasia. It's just an even more satisfying film for me.
Alien 3 Assembly Cut is so underrated. Ive been singing its praises for ages. It was more true to what Scott did with the first one than what Cameron did with Aliens. Plus David Fincher's visual style is beautiful to look at and very Ridley Scott-esque.
Alien and Alien 3 are both tragic stories, they are stressful and gives you a sense of dreadfulness. Aliens is a great film, it was a fun action flick filled with great lines and fun moments but that's the problem right there... FUN. It's too fun for a horror movie, I lost the sense of fear and dire I got from the 1st movie. In a way Aliens was a great introduction for people who don't know what the franchise is. It's a comfortable way to introduce the Xenomorph because it's not as traumatizing as Alien and it's a fitting sequel to uplift the viewers from the bleakness and hopelessness of the first one. Alien is like a horrible event in human history and Aliens is like the tale you tell your children to let them know that everything is ok. Alien 3 Assembly Cut was a fitting end to the story for a franchise about the direness of cosmic horror.
Alien Covenant is giving anxiety just from watching the preview just like the very 1st movie.
I disagree. Even with the Assembly Cut I could not get into the movie. All of the plot holes, especially the one involving these alien eggs, as well as these dumb, boring prisoner characters and the decision to kill off main characters from Aliens off screen just bring the film down. This movie will be divisive for many years, but I am definitely not one of its defenders.
Beyond the context of the Alien film series I'm not sure how much credit James Cameron truly deserves for somehow incorporating the action genre into the pre-existent sci-fi horror mold of the original film. I have never seen any sequel mix up the style of the first movie so significantly and still end up being successful. Imagine if Terminator 2 were somehow an excellent sci-fi horror rather than sci-fi action film (given the titular cybernetic assassin is sort of a serial killer like character already)....
I don't think Cameron deserves that much credit either, I think Alien is the far superior film and, even though it's also directed by Cameron, The Terminator is better than T2.
After seeing this video I agree with the original Alien being the
overall better film. But I honestly enjoyed Terminator 2 more than the
first.
Always found Aliens overhyped frankly.
Least not for the fact it lost a lot of the original film's Lovecraftian elements and injected more animalistic behavior into the Alien.
@Steel Gray I think it's just a testament to how perfect Alien is. Aliens is a very fun sci-fi action film but it's much more dated and frankly ruins the Alien for me. The most egregious scene is where an Alien ambushes Vasquez from above and she wrestles with it, pulls out her pistol manages to pin the Alien's head against the wall with her foot and then shoots it in the head and kills it.
The perfect organism with complete surprised taken out by a small woman with wrestling and a handgun. The same Alien that threw Parker around like a ragdoll in the first film. Fighting an Alien hand to hand should be game over even for the absolutely strongest of men. It's meant to be a biomechanical monstrosity.
The rubber suit looks especially bad in the scene as well when she sticks her foot down on it. I think the Aliens could have been handled a lot better honestly.
@Minicle It's definitely overhyped because people enjoy it. It makes them feel good, which is absolutely fine, and it's a very effective movie, and seeing a more conventional sequel to Alien would probably have sucked. But there's definitely a step down in quality. Aliens feels like an 80s action movie, with all the positives and negatives that come with it. Alien is something else entirely.
Alien: (1979), a work of genius, for its time. Unsurpassed.
I find it impressive that the people making Alien 3 were able to steer the series back to its actual roots in horror as well as recapturing the thematic elements of the first one. As I see it, where Alien was a huge allegory for rape - Alien 3 is plainly an allegory for suicide where Ripley finally escapes her nightmare of a reality by putting her life in her own hands.
Side note, I hate that scene in covenant where the alien is on the glass roof. Not b/c of the cgi. Not b/c of the blatant disregard for the fundamentals of horror. But b/c why the hell would an alien bash its head when it has acid blood as well as its piston-punching secondary mouth. ugh
yes
@@reecemcdude751
I did not care much for Cameron's Rambo approach and therefore appreciated the return to the horror genre in 3.
For ALIEN 3-you need to see THE ASSEMBLY CUT -it is
great and as close to Fincher's vsion as possible. Forget the theatrical release! Glad you mentioned it
Thing is with Alien 3, is that it is thematically the best...
The first is the best example of horror, the second the best example of action, the third is the best example of thematic conceptual storytelling - and I really despair that people decry it for "being a mess" - with little other critique.
Imagine that Ripley, Newt, Hicks and Bishop are the sole survivors of LV426; but they've brought a demon with them and it ultimately kills them and they crash into purgatory; the prison planet is full of the damned; those soles who comit brutal crimes and are seeking redemption; even the doctor who cannot forgive himself. The warden and 85 are both stuards of this place and are pretty undesirable souls also. Hicks and Newt are effectively innocent and go straight to the paradise (or whatever) and Bishop, despite being selfless, has no soul. Ripley is now cursed by her demon to rest in purgatory, until she faces it and kills it.
The demon then runs amok and hunts down the souls of the damned and eventually, through finding their courage and their desires for selfless redemption, the prisoners defeat the demon though many are destroyed in the process (and likely destined for hell). Ripley, to defeat her demons, drags the new demon queen into the inferno and sacrifices herself also. Only Morse, the prisoner, is taken from purgatory with his soul intact.
Now that's some pretty mindblowing stuff and is so much more high concept than the other two. The religious angle was written into the original script years before release/rewrites and that's what gives it it's final acclaim. It completes the arc and completes the trilogy perfectly - whilst not being a flawless movie its self.
That is why I prefer Alien 3 to Alien, despite technically being a weaker movie, - the concept and delivery itself is just so powerful.
finally someone who gets it
100% agreed. Aliens is my second favorite film of all time, mostly because it was my first alien movie and it still scares me to this day, plus it’s just so fun to watch. But Alien 3 is the best film of the franchise.
Concept < Execution
I would love to see that film done properly
The religious angle also presented something that is in plain sight but if you're not explicitly looking for it then odds are you won't notice. These men knew that they wouldn't walk out alive the moment they tried to kill the beast and would either end up in hell after death or just die and lights out, depending on their beliefs. Neither ending is desirable so why risk their lives at all? Their only motivation was to deny the 'company' it's end goal which depends solely on the alien being alive. In the end that is all it took for the prisoners to literally walk into their grave.
CGI is the one thing that ruined it, shooting from the aliens point of view was also too much. Other than that a little more goth would've been nice, but I otherwise completely agree
Alien is the ultimate. Saw it in 1981 at a school film club - history teacher was way ahead of his time - watched it at least 100 times since and still love it!! Pretty flawless as a movie I agree.
RIP Bill Paxton. Game over man, game over.
Also "maybe you haven't been keeping up on current events. We just got our asses kicked pal"
Yeah, to this day I consider the saga a Trilogy as it resembles the structure of Beowulf: Monster, Mother, Dragon... And that's counting on the assembly cut and Ripley's daughter reference on Aliens original cut, so in that sense the first is the best and most perfect, no doubt. Thanx!!!
I'm a big fan of Alien3, though it comes in third both chronologically and in terms of quality. I haven't even seen the Assembly Cut, but I like the theatrical version fine. Much of the bile that's been spat at the film over the years does seem to stem from what happens to Hicks and Newt. Actually, I'd say it's mostly about Newt... mostly. I agree it was a ballsy move and in keeping with the bleak hopelessness of the Alien universe, and I have no problem with it. Although part of me wishes Newt had stayed alive in her cryo-tube, safely tucked away from the events of the film (thus raising the stakes for Ripley, who'd want to protect her from the convicts, the xenomorph _and_ the Company) only to be revived at the end after Ripley dies. Then we could have had a sequel (or sequels) with a grown-up Newt following in Ripley's footsteps, instead of the mess that was Alien Resurrection.
Very thoughtful review. I personally have always preferred the profoundly eerie science fiction world that Ridley Scott created in Alien. It is a masterpiece and no other science fiction film has ever matched it in the measures of character development, it's perfect pacing, and the absolute terror produced by both the appearance of the creature, and how it takes several different forms. On first viewing the movie, it's impossible to know what kind of horrible thing is next, and each time it arrives in a new shape, it is exponentially more dreadful than the last time you saw it. Yes, Aliens is very exciting and is probably the best sequel ever made. It's a terrific film, but for different reasons. But with due respect to James Cameron I will not apologize when I say that it simply does not hold a candle to Ridley Scott's Alien. I haven't seen the third film or Alien Resurrection so I can't make any comments about them. Alien vs. Predator? Was that a joke? Don't tell me they were serious. Prometheus was rather dull. And Covenant just pissed me off. I guess Ridley Scott wanted his universe to make sense. Now it does ... or does it? I just don't know anymore. I'm going to forget all but the first two films ever happened and be happy with that. Youhavetobehappyywithwhatyuhavetobehappywith.
I need to sit down and watch Alien. Never quite done it but I did enjoy Aliens.
I watched Alien in the theatre in 70mm when it came out. It was mind-blowing. Nothing like it had ever been seen before. Then when Aliens came out, I saw it three times in one week.
For action, Aliens is better. (still very scary)
But for scare the living shit out of you, Alien is better.
Alien3 is dark.
Resurrection, from the opening scene, is awful. While it has a good moment or two, the third act is unwatchable a 2nd time.
Okay, you talked me into it. I've got the DVD and I'm gonna watch it right now. Thanks!
If I have nightmares, it's your fault. ;-p
RedTeamReview I feel you, it's a pretty slow building movie so when you sit down to watch it you have to be 100% committed
I want to see a sequel to Alien that ignores every other Alien movie. Also I want to see more content on your channel, homie.
have to agree with you here 100% m8, two completely different movies. I saw Alien first when I was a kid and is scared the shit outta me (what it was supposed to do) then comes Aliens a full on action film that that to this day I love!! yes the effects may be a bit dated with the drop ship crash scene ECT but whereas alien relied on narrow spaces and twisting airvents to create a sense of claustrophobia, Aliens was a balls to the wall full on war. Both movies are a proud part of my collection
My beef with Aliens is that the Xenomorph(s) have become unintelligent. They throw themselves to their deaths. It just doesn't Add up considering a single Xeno in the first film seemed to almost play chess with the crew and be one or two moves ahead of them. It's a great action film for sure, but just doesn't add up in the 'universe' started with the original.
i think that kind of makes sense.In Alien it was just one alien, it had to work by itself and so it had to be better at everything and be intelligent, in Aliens, there was a hive of them, and because theres so many of them to focus on different aspects, there was no need for one alien to be intelligent at multiple aspects.
Fishfins wrong. In the first film they didnt have any guns and were not soldiers. So they were easily picked apart. In the second film the aliens do play very smart and use their numbers to overwhelm what is a significant enemy, a platoon of space marines. And they win too if it wasnt for ripley.
Just keep in mind, in the first film, the crew didn't have weapons (besides a man made flamethrower). Had they had assault rifles, (and once they knew what they were dealing with - looking at you Dallas), kiss that xeno goodbye early.
Good point
@@cwinowich How is blitzing your way down a heavily guarded corridor (which is a complete suicide mission) considered "playing it very smart"
Using numbers to overwhelm your enemy is literally the least intelligent strategy you can possibly think of. It is no strategy, it's literally just "well, we will see what happens!! They can't kill us all!!"
Let me guess, you plan to be there to storm area 51 don't you? XD
"Get away from her YOU BITCH!"
Best damn line.
They mostly come at night. Mostly.
airbomb34 I'm the monster's mom. (wait wrong movie, still best line ;)
"We're in the pipe, 5 by 5"
"Game over man, game over. The fuck are we gonna do now?"
LET'S ROCK!
I mostly agree with you. Alien is the better film of the bunch, but I find myself rewatching Aliens more often. I'm a sucker for oneliners and good action scenes. I also agree that Alien 3 is better than many people give it credit for, especially the new cut you mention. I hated the firs AvP movie because I expected a film version of the first AvP comic and didn't get it, but it's far more entertaining than Requiem.
Perfect! I feel exactly the same way. The original vision has soooo much more potential than was realized.
Thank you for saying the kind things about Alien 3, it has been shit on for so long and it is nice too see that people are coming around to it. I know I am in the minority on my stance on this but I love Alien 3 and actually think it is better than Aliens! The MAJOR plot hole of how the egg(s?) got on the Sulaco is the and how some of the effects have not held up over the years are the only thing that flaw the film. It brought back the near nihilistic horror and the acting was the best of the series. People don't like it, generally, because it killed the warm and fuzzy ending of Aliens. I went to see it three times in the theater and would pay good money to see the work print in a theater.
very glad you give Alien3 some love I always thought it encapsulated the tone of the series perfectly.
One, two and three are the best. To me, each movie as a masterpiece. My favourite trilogy of ALL TIME. Horror, action and thriller(I suppose). I don't give a fuck that Hicks and Newt died. It just adds more to Ripley as a character. You feel even more bad for her. It's not a classic Hollywood ending. It's gritty, dark and depressing. Man I love it so much. It stands out and Ripleys sacrifice at the end always makes me teary eyed. It's so epic. I'm sick of hearing people say it's a bad movie cuz it isn't! It's fucking awesome.
Cameron maybe gets too much flak for demystifying the Alien because the seeds of better understanding the creature were there from the beginning. Scott demonstrated you could shoot the thing when Ripley blasted it with the grappling hook gun and blew it out the airlock. It's beholden to physics just like the rest of us. Then it's not too much of a stretch to rip one apart with a powerful machine gun or crush it with a tank. Cameron nailed down the Alien physiology to something of which we can relate to in real life, bugs, for better and for worse. Once again, a wonderful video!
I'm not sure it is clear enough, but I don't even really have an issue with where Cameron took it. It's more that in the second film, they are relatively easy to kill and one xeno can't do much harm. In Alien, a single xeno can wipe out a crew. So the idea there's a 'field of eggs' out there is terrifying. That's like finding out there's a million Jason Voorhees on a planet. In Aliens, as they are generally weaker and it turns out, not autonomous, they become less imposing.
But the crew in Alien didnt really have guns. Thats how it wiped them out, they were all trotting around with little to defend themselves but bad language
That´s because James Cameron basically did Starship Troopers (he acknowledged. Great director, great at plot, but hardly an original).
... or 100 million Trump voters that could cause untold damage; even ruining an entire planet's environment.
Starship Troopers came out around 1995 - Aliens was 1986.
Starship Troopers copied Aliens, not the other way around.
[cinematically, that is - I think the book of Starship Troopers was way before Aliens]
I'm glad more people appreciate Alien 3, I had heard nothing but shit about it when I watched it for the first time and was kind of surprised how good it was (dodgy effects besides). It is a slog though, bit too bleak to be enjoyable watching.
Resurrection is just a joke. No idea what the point of it was. FFS I just remembered the line in it about how Walmart bought out Weyland-Yutani. How did that line make it all the way through the writing and filming and editing without somebody saying "wait, this is fucking stupid"?!
Spot on! Alien 3 was simply a great movie and I really appreciate the ideas they tried to explore. I only wish the studios hadn't interfere so much in David Fincher's vision.
I agree... Alien is one of the few films I consider to be 'perfect'. It's so atmospheric. The set pieces, the score, Giger's design. I love it.
When I was a kid I liked Aliens better--the action, the guns, the spectacle. When I got a little older, I realized how much of a work of art Scott's Alien really was. There's no film quite like it. The creature in the first film is so creepy, with truly alien mannerisms. They made him 'alien' in every possible way.
Cameron's film lost that. I love Aliens for what it is, but the first xenomorph is the best, hands down. Nothing beats that first time you see the xenomorph, with sperm-like goo dripping from its metallic jowls, as it creeps up behind Brett. I love that scene. It's one of my favorite scenes in cinema. That, and the finding of the space-jockey are two of the best scenes in science fiction history. Anyway, I'm ranting. Thanks for the upload.
Edit: I really like Alien3--I'm a huge Fincher fan. I wish he would have had the creative control he needed to realize his vision on a potentially brilliant sequel, but alas.
Your Ranking - Is perfect.
Alien is a masterpiece. It's the perfect storm of many creative talents working together to create a shared vision of a perfect horror film.
I was going to make a video essay about Alien, but you've beaten me to the punch, congratulations on another fantastic video!
I didn't really do a video essay on Alien, I spoke very briefly about it really. The beauty of that film is there's so much there to talk about.
Good point. I'll make a video on ALIEN one day. I'll add lofty commentary on the feminism subtext, as explored by Laura Mulvey... not too sure how entertaining that'll be.
I'd watch it
+Rossatron I'm so happy to hear someone else feels the way I do about what Alien is meant to be. Everything you touched on in this video - sexual horror, Alien 3 being a closer successor to the first movie - is exactly my stance and what I always try to argue with fans of the 2nd movie.
Personally Aliens is my favorite of them all because I was able to relate to the characters a lot more when I was a child. When I saw Alien I wasn’t as able to relate to the characters as much. Ironically enough maybe Aliens planted a seed and in some way led me to my 4 years of servitude in the usmc as a grunt slaving away for no reason. That aside Aliens impacted me more than the first one however nothing in the Alien franchise was as terrifying as that first time the Alien bursts from that dude chest. As for 3 it could have been a lot better of a film had 20th Century Fox not got involved and ruined it. The director had a good vision but the studio Justice Leagued the movie.
A very thought provoking ranking.
I have not seen nor even heard of the Assembly Cut for Alien 3, but I will give it a go.
It's on all the bluray releases. Just select "2003 Special Edition"...it's about 30 minutes longer and is compiled from David Fincher's original production notes. Highly recommended.
Personally enjoyed Aliens the most, partly due to the action. I just enjoy the element of scifi and action combined like the first Predator movie for eg.
You're essentially put my entire feelings about the Alien franchise into words. Good work.
*THE WORLD:* We want something new! Give us something new! We're tired of the xenomorph and it's not scary anymore! Give us something in the universe of Alien that goes to interesting, unexpected places!
*RIDLEY SCOTT:* I couldn't agree more. I've cooked up something interesting and scary called "Prometheus". It's very much new. It expands on the space jockey, something no one else ever though to do. It's going to explain the origin of the xenomorph technology, how it started as a biological weapon, and is the fatal end result of an advanced alien arms race! you'll get the engineers. You'll get the ships. You'll get an explanation of why and how this tech so readily combines with Earth's DNA. All of this will be self-contained in a package that will do what the best science fiction films always do. It's going to ask the big questions. The hard existential ones that examine the relationship of God to creator. Of creator to creation. It will talk about conscience and what that means. You are not dreaming. All of this will be in a movie that will greatly expand on the alien universe we all love so much and could lead to dozens of exciting new directions!
*THE WORLD:* Where's LV426? Where's the original black xenomorph? We didn't get the same old crap we always crave!
*RIDLEY SCOTT:* Hey! I thought you said you wanted something NEW!!
*THE WORLD:* We always say that. We want to believe that about ourselves. But we NEVER mean it.
I will always got a spot in my heart for Aliens thanks to the action and the development of Ripley as a Character comparing with the first one. But man, Riddley Scott's Alien just holds up so well in visuals, tension, Mystery, iconic scenes and direction. My best Alien movie will be always the first one!
I always felt the same way. Aliens was great, Alien 3 took it back to the vibe of the original. It simplified. The characters had no weapons..now that's a fight!
Small correction; At 3:40 you refer to the blue screen work on the film as appearing dated and show the dropship crash sequence. This was actually all in-camera using rear screen projection on set. There were no opticals.
In my perfect world, Alien, Aliens, and Alien 3 (Assembly Cut), are the only versions ever released. They would be a trilogy on par with pre-special edition Star Wars: undiluted. Not to say that I don't love TFA and Rogue One, but feel those largely exist because we have a generation of film fans who hated what the prequel trilogy was and felt Star Wars deserved better. I'm not saying Ridley Scott couldn't do Prometheus and a new bunch of films based on it, but it doesn't need Alien shoe-horned into it.
Alien 3 (again, Assembly Cut) wasn't quite on par with Alien/Aliens, but it was a perfect cap to them in the context of a trilogy. How do you follow up Aliens with its 'feeling of absolute impossibility in the face of these insurmountable odds' but with stark fatalism. Ripley (and the audience) has seen dozens of these creatures torn up by the marines by the end of Aliens - now she's faced with only a single creature, but with none of the technology that they depended on in the first films. Instead of increasing the number of creatures, like all the other lesser films in the franchise, Alien 3 goes the other direction, and lets us see Ripley's story end in a tragic but satisfying manner.
Absolutely spot on assessment of the first 3 films, Alien is flawless, Aliens is slightly overpraised while Alien 3 is overlooked (assembly cut only, of course). I would personally swap Prometheus and AvP in the rankings, though they are both bad and the difference in rating is negligible, I think AvP is at least a mildly fun watch. Resurrection is terrible and AvP 2 is one of the worst films ever made.
I've never seen the Assembly cut, but I feel that Alien 3 is a pretty good film.
Killing Newt and Hicks in the beginning makes sense. Ripley's life is supposed to be absolute hell, and giving her at least something good and constant in her life would take away just how much of a nightmare her life has become since her first encounter with the Xenomorph. If they had survived the beginning, the film would have gone two ways: get backlash for killing them later, like it did for killing Ripley, or let them survive, and get criticized for being predictable. There's also the problem with there being a six year gap between the releases of the movie. With adult actors, this isn't very noticeable, but child actors are different, and Carrie Henn would have looked very differently, since hypersleep is supposed to stop or at least slow down aging.
As for the rest of the cast being unlikable, I don't mind that. I have no problem with every character being a terrible person, so long as the events surrounding them are interesting. I don't mind that they tried to rape one of the few likable characters in the movie, because it accentuated just how much of a shitty situation our heroine was in. Not everyone is a good person, and not every interesting event happens to good people.
Personally, I think Ripley's story should have ended after the second movie. The franchise could have gone in some pretty great directions, if it had done what many other horror franchises do, and focused on different protagonists in the sequels. We could have gotten more films like the first two, in addition to it going in different directions (the idea of farming Xenomorphs, like was sort of touched on in Resurrection could have worked with the right script). The need to focus on the same character hurt the franchise. Would Friday the 13th have gotten as many sequels it did if Alice was the main protagonist in all of them? No. That's one of the reasons Resurrection sucks so hard. The franchise dug itself into a hole by picking one character to focus on, and when the studio demanded another film after that character died, there was no other option but to find some way to bring her back. A fourth Alien film without Sigourney Weaver could have been awesome.
I think it doesn’t at all make sense to kill those characters off. Just because someone’s life is like hell, doesn’t mean constantly removing people that made her feel more human. I am completely okay with Ripley making a sacrifice to destroy the next Alien queen though. People who criticise things constantly for being predictable have no idea how subverting expectations works. This is why we Game of Thrones Season 8 sucked. It made sense in Avengers: Infinity War, because Thanos’ attack on the Asgardians ship was set up really well, and he only slaughtered half of Thor’s people.
@CurtisAlfeld
"Happy endings are just stories that haven't finished yet"
i agree with pretty much everything said in this video, like almost literally everything. i love alien and aliens, and i really like the assembly cut of alien 3. the atmosphere is really good, i dislike the decision to kill off newt, Hicks and bishop but I'm glad it happened as it really contributes to the movie. nearly all the characters are severely underdeveloped, but the few characters that are done well are done really well (in my opinion, they're Ripley, Dillon, Clemens, Aaron and Morse) and yeah i think alien Vs predator is somewhat underated
I will never forgive Alien 3 for sticking a egg on the Sullaco when it made no sense.
Orlor Why doesn't it make sense? I can totally imagine the queen dropping an egg. The creature seems to take every opportunity to procreate. Why wouldn't it also be diligent in the case you mention?
1: The queen was only on the Sullaco long enough to get blown out of the airlock. There was no time for her to drop a egg.
2: The queen ripped her egg sack off in the egg chamber. How could she drop a egg with no egg sack?
Fair points. I was willing to suspend disbelief. Like, maybe she could pop out one egg without the sac.
@@stevesoldwedel The Queen was quite clearly not carrying an egg. The egg was located in an area of the ship that the Queen was never in. The egg was glued upside down for no reason than a prop guy thought it looked cool. The egg hatches for no reason, every other one only hatches when it's disturbed. The facehugger lays 2 embryos. The facehugger gets into the tube without killing or waking Ripley up. The facehugger just happens the damage some critical, non-redundant system causing the EEV to be ejected.
A3 makes absolutely no sense at all.
I love the first two films like you. When I found out about the assembly cut a few years back and watched it it changed my perception of the third film. I have really grown to appreciate Alien3 over the years, despite its flaws.
TBH I didnt expect Drake and Apone to die so early in the film,tHudson,Vasquez and Gorman I expected at least one of them to survive the film,so not so predictable.
Technically Hicks is still alive because the awful Colonial Marines game is considered canon.
I was unaware about the different version of Alien 3 until i bought that total destruction pack back on DVD many moons ago. It changed everything about that film for me in a good way like.
Alien is definitely in the League of its own. I never get tired watching the 1979 original.
I completely agree with your opinion on Alien 3. It (the Assembly cut, that is) is a much better movie than people give it credit for.
I love Alien 1 2 and 3. That director's cut of 3 is amazing. I have been trying to get friends who love the first two but hate the third to watch the director's cut. Who cares about Newt and Hicks. Killing then off was a genius move and it doesn't reduce the meaning or effectiveness of the second's ending. I think it mirrors reality in the sense that you have your victory today but tomorrow you might not win. Their deaths showed that.
Darren Murphy It also showed no one is safe in the alien franchise.
I just wanted to say I totally agree about the new alternate cut of alien3, I got the box set and didn't realise it was the recut film included and just found myself thinking how much better it was than I remembered.
It's no alien or aliens, but it's so much closer to that level than the theatrical cut.
I don't know if carrying on with what Alien did would have worked. You said it was a perfect film, and that's something that a sequel is most likely not going to capture again. I understand that the xenomorph loses some of its intrigue after being turned into a bug, but I don't believe a sequel without the same team from the first would've done very well.
I agree - even if they kept the same team, it's never going to be as special.
Alien Isolation too - one of the best ever videogames ... but I sense a creative burnout that makes a sequel unlikely, and not as good if it ever happened.
That's the problem with making a classic.
That's why Aliens was effective even if it did a lot of things that I didn't like in hindsight. Alien is just lightning is a bottle. Aliens is an incredibly effective sequel and a great action film. But really you don't need anymore than that. Alien 3 works in some ways too and is fine as a conclusion to a trilogy, but they need to let it rest after that. Fair enough do expanded lore and comics and all sorts. But it's like Star Wars or any other big franchise where the original premise just runs thin after a while. There's not much more you can really do, and you're shackled to the original to the point where you can't innovate enough to make it interesting.
It's satisfying to have found your video and learned you rank the films the exact order I rank them, especially the fact that Alien is #1 and not Aliens.
Pretty much agree with everything you said.
I (having recently watched all 3) honestly prefer alien 3 over aliens...something i'd never thought i'd ever feel. I found Bill Paxton (rip) grating very quickly and (as you mentioned) the one note character very apparent, though still enjoyable at times. I still have my problems with Alien 3, but it just appeals to me a little more as gothic horror rather than a proto vietnam narrative.
Introducing a queen didn't ruin anything. if the Xenomorphs need hosts to build the eggs that makes them extremely inefficient. That would mean they need At least two hosts just to create one xenomorph (one for the egg and one for the facehugger to impregnate). Having a queen doubles the speed in which these things can multiply and spread. only needing one host for each Xenomorph.
There is no reason why xenomorphs can't individually create more creatures like the deleted scene in Alien, and have a queen, it just adds more layers to them.
Except for the fact that the turning people into eggs was a terrible idea and the Queen is much, much better.
Nah, it takes away from them, as much as I love Aliens and the climax with the Queen, it really does turn them into big space bugs. Aliens is very effective in what it does, but it removes most of the mystique and Alien quality of the Alien.
@irllcd13 Yes, it's better when the Alien is more understandable and like a real-world insect, I agree. You don't want your Alien to be too Alien...
I loved Alien 3 the most out of all series. It was just a perfect horror for me, plus a jail movie, plus a post-apocalyptic planet with no hope for a better future and nowhere to run for the inmates, not a single tree growing outside you could draw out of your cell. And in such a hell-hole things get even worse. The ending was also quite climactic. I understand the love for the first and the second one, but cannot change my affection for this beautiful film. The 4th one was an atrocity though.
Btw I really hated the death of the girl int A3 too. But after I saw the Red Wedding I kinda got over it. :)
Alien and Alien 3 (assembly cut) are my faves.
Considering all the chaos that was going on during production (no finished script, studio meddling, etc.) it is actually somewhat of a miracle how competent or at least "okay" Alien 3 still turned out in the end.
Fo sho. What Fincher was able to salvage amidst the turmoil, especially as a first time feature film director, is commendable.
Although it has its problems, I think Prometheus has done good work towards making all film iterations of the alien work, because it changes what the alien is at a core level. The alien is no longer an organism of conventional understanding, but rather a technology of an uncertain (either military, religious, or both) purpose, that takes in material around it and alters/improves it as best it can, almost always to the end of making a monster, a monster that is almost never identical to previous iterations of itself within its own lineage as it progresses. Why is the alien of Alien more elegant than the idea of the Queen from Aliens? Because it's separated from her an needs to continue its function without her, so it optimizes itself to fill the function of a queen with what it can, adapting. Why are all the aliens of Aliens beyond the Queen identical? Because that lineage of the black goo has spent so long in one spot that its optimized the creatures it can make there with the resources it has access to, and needs another world and set of genes to work on. Why is a Queen even needed if the alien mass production units can spread on its own? Because it wants to optimize its ability to multiply, as such engineering an entity that can produce eggs at a higher rate than multiple individual mass-production units the black goo develops is ideal, increasing the probability per second of a facehugger/black goo carrier organism reaching a new source of genetic information. The optimization logic can also be used to justify the look of the dog/bull alien of Alien 3, in that regardless of which version you're using, the creature of those films is still mostly human, only taking in a small portion of the engineering from the dog or the bull to edit its form, resulting in something that is still almost the same as its previous iterations save being more streamlined. Another thing to understand is that this is one lineage of what the black goo can make. In Prometheus we see the inception of two(perhaps three if you want to get technical) different lineages (cobra-hugger > repurposed scientists, goo-in-drink > repurposed male lead, goo-in-drink > trilobite > deacon) of the alien monster, each beginning a cycle of engineering monsters from their surroundings, with covenant showing two more (conventional eggs, alien spore pods) stemming from whatever David has been doing in his own free time. This means that the Queen system is one that is invented by the goo from one out of four different lineage progressions, with no two of them guaranteed to result the same way, only somewhat similar ways. Because of what we know now, the Queen is not a guaranteed fact of the alien, just a feature of that one lineage, with nothing to say all members of that lineage at that time don't become Queens as they progress in age, or that the Queen is even necessary by the time Ripley kills her, simply just extant by being able to still be alive at that time.
As much as Prometheus got wrong as a film, what it did to the alien and how the alien works is pretty important for future films to justify inconsistencies in the creature as it changes from writer to writer, because it makes the alien and its nature in no way fixed in any fashion save some general design traits, a quality that is going to be needed so long as Fox chooses to continue the franchise, and I am fairly confident covenant will do much of the same in its contribution.
I agree 100%
Aliens is a massively entertaining and badass action film, but it just pales in comparison to the original.
people often diminish resurrection but as a stand alone film it's really fun to watch... plus the concept of a ripley mixed with alien resurrected hundreds of years in the future having no idea who she was and behaving like an animal is amazing
Matias Negro - I think the concept of Ripley sharing some of the ALIEN biology (acidic blood, strength, intuition, etc.) is probably the only good idea from the film, and really I'd have loved to see this explored.
It's shit, period.
Lucitaur HAHAHAHAHHAAAA YES
This movie has probably the most badass Ripley ever, and it shows what the aliens can do better than Aliens. They can swim, they can climb, they are very strong, menacing, they are shown completely instead of dark shots or only being able to see part of them. They are smart, they are fast, they will kill one of their own to get their way. They can sense their surroundings. The only movie that has better aliens is AVP, where we get to see them move much more agile, and kill something bigger, stronger, and plenty more dangerous, than a human.
Matías Negro I agree
Haters gonna hate
Your analysis of the first 3 films is definitely spot on with mine. Good job. Alien is my favorite movie and favorite horror movie of all time, Aliens is my favorite action movie all time and I really liked Alien 3 even before I saw the much superior Assembly cut.
I actually like Alien 3 and Ressurection (but of course I wouldn't call them the best Alien films). Fight me.
Cash me ousside
how bah dah
+Rossatron 😄😄😄
TheReal RedWolfofDeath AVP:R is better than alien? WHAT?!? I..just...WHAT?!? Please for the love of God tell me you miss typed, or were drunk/ high, or have braindamge. Normally I'll be the first to point out that film is subjective but films can be objectively good or bad in certain ways. AVP:R is objectively worse than alien in virtually every way, as side frome the action since alien didn't really have any. AVP:R has the least interesting and memorable characters in the franchise, the aliens look considerably worse than they did in the previous movie, the directing and lighting are God fucking awful, the premise of the movie invalidates the rest of the alien franchise. I remember every character in the first 2 movies by name and the only character in AVP:R I can remember is Dallas, and that's because they stole the name from the first movie. They turned the best horror movie of all time into a dumb teen slasher flick with absolutely no redeeming qualities.
Alien 3 wins simply because Winona is gorgeous and I like short hair.
I think Alien is close to perfect. I saw it at 9 yrs old and it was so different from any sci fi I'd seen at the time. The space truckers and their very casual, short way of interacting made a big impression. I found the creature an uneasy combination of scary and beautiful. The added novelty, for the early 80s, of a woman being the lone survivor also impressed me. I really enjoyed Aliens but I liked Alien 3 a little more though its far from as good as Alien.
Alien 3 is better than Aliens??? Has James Cameron ever made a good movie?
Your ranking list is incorrect at the end I think. You said you even like AVP and Prometheus better than Alien resurrection but you then listed resurrection 4th above those two movies.
You are correct. AR should be below AVP. I don't know how I did that, but I guess we all make mistakes.
I've always loved the idea that Cameron approached Aliens with Terror in mind, as opposed to Horror. I never really gave much thought into differentiating those two terms, however these two movies brilliantly show the delineation. Aliens has a frenetic, overpowering, almost draining feeling during its run. Its relentless; how in the hell are our characters going to remove themselves from an overpowering and tenacious force only to soon be running up against yet another iteration? Roger Ebert said it best when he left the theatre still "with knots in his stomach."
Alien, on the counter, is the stuff nightmares are made out of. Although they're facing only one xenomorph this time, we're in for the slow burn. Where is this absolutely horrifying creature lurking, and while surviving characters slowly creep away, they have the added comfort of having to mentally digest what possibly could have happened to their crew. Lambert asks if "Brett could still be alive?", no trace of Dallas was found....even the seemingly clear cut (death wise) chest burster leaves the crew speechless and traumatized (as a fucking newborn no less)! Alien seems to relish in the hunt, scaring the shit out of you in simply displaying itself and its capabilities, while also leaving a trail of disturbing and unclear events behind as it hunts what's left of your group.
While I adore Aliens, making the xenomorphs more insect like made them somewhat more predictable in terms of their behavior I think, even if a giant army of hive minded xenomorphs is cinematic gold. Alien, on the other hand....brought us a creature that somehow seemed both extraordinarily advanced, and yet still enigmatic. It was more.....alien.
play alien isolation
Funnily enough I was working at Sega when A:I started development as a third person cover game. Aliens Colonial Marines was sadly my focus though...dark times.
thats awesome i actually never played AI but i did play 10 minutes of colonial marines
Wow.
Alien Isolation is my favourite ever game!
And it's deservedly canon to the series.
What's Sega up to these days - I heard they were pulling out of the games business about a year ago?
Two of my favourite games - Alien and Football Manager - are distributed by them.
You should play 10 minutes of Alien Isolation - then you'll know you're in a compelling, terrifying game.
In fact, you'll feel like you're in a proper sequel to the original Alien movie.
That's deserved high praise indeed.
It's really funny how people say _Aliens: Colonial Marines_ isn't canon just because it's a shit game, even though Fox clearly said it was canon, but people say _Alien: Isolation_ is canon just because it's a good game, even though the developers and Fox have never said it was canon. Funny how that logic works.
The characters in aliens are much better. Who really remembered anybody else but Ripley in the first film? Black guy? Whiney girl? On the other hand, Aliens had Newt, Vasquez, Bishop and Hicks, genuinely memorable characters
Well said
I truly love Alien 3, the series had to stop there. Alien 4 is rubbish.
I love Alien 3, if you ever wanted a horror sequel that embodied desperation and the erosion of hope it's that film. I'm amazed the film turned out the way it did considering the clusterfuck of filming before the screenplay was finished. The original three films to me are of equal footing. Sure there's the one that does this and that better but in all honesty having the films play out exactly like each other would be boring (Star Wars VII anyone). The tone between the movies is consistent yet they are all different enough that they have their own identity. The three films are so complimentary to one another that they make each other stronger films overall.
"Alien" is the movie that holds up best. I love "Aliens" to death, but "Alien" is a masterpiece.
Alien 3 is really underrated
It's flawed, but it took risks and it's beautifully shot
The 3rd act is a little dumb, but the end with Ripley sacrificing herself is very good
Too bad they f*cked it up in Ressurection
Some decent points but the one thing I would take issue with is when you said Alien has better-developed characters than Aliens. Um, really? None of the characters in Alien were developed at all, not even Ripley, which is why it remains unclear who will survive until the end. Alien is a haunted house movie in space, and the thing about that type of movie is that the characters have to be vague so you don't know which one will get offed next. Aliens did take the franchise in a new direction that's true, but that's to be applauded. So many sequels simply rehash the first film, Aliens is a genuinely different movie from the first. And it has so much more going on thematically that the first film, especially in the special edition, which really expands on the theme of motherhood. It also works as a Vietnam allegory as it depicts a platoon of tough, confident marines fully tooled up with the latest weaponry that marches into unknown territory and gets their arses handed to them by a cunning enemy that hides in tunnels and attacks them from every direction. I don't know how much of the allegory was deliberately intended but the film was released right in the middle of the 'Nam movie era so there must have been some influence - no art happens in a vacuum. I just think Aliens has more layers. The first Alien is a masterful, arty horror movie but only hints at themes of violation and birth since most of the film is just 10 Little Indians, trying to escape their doom. Aliens (particularly in the special edition) explores its themes much more vividly but also works as a kick-ass action movie, which is why for me, Aliens is the better film.
For me personally Resurrection had the scariest scene . The scene where a xenomorph jumps into the escape pod with all those soldiers strapped in made me the most uncomfortable of any Alien movie. The thought of being strapped in without even the slightest possibility to fight or flee scared the shut out of me.
I liked alien 3 as well.
Really underrated film
My ranking is:
8) Prometheus
7) Aliens vs predator requiem
6) Alien resurrection
5) Alien vs predator
4) Alien Covenant
3) Alien 3
2) Alien
1) Aliens
What would've happened if the sequels have gone for a more cosmic horror kind of movie? Well, I think it woud've fell flat to the audience, and it wouldn't have gotten too much success, probably. Maybe that kind horror movies doesn't work well with sequels.
I like Alien more but I'm glad Aliens exists to make the series more successful. I also think that more cosmic horror would get stale with audiences, even if I would probably like that more action horror
Aliens didn't really do much to make the series more successful though in certain ways, with Alien 3 and to a lesser extent Resurrection never quite being the box office stars they would have liked.
Rossatron
Good to know; at least it became a cult classic, even if by a loose standard.
You make a good point. I can't imagine a sequel to Event Horizon, Solaris or Sphere. They would just be endless mindfucks.
Disagree. Without ALIENS and its success you have no Dark Horse comic series, no vast merchandising and branding, no future. Alien is a great film but if not for its sequel it would be regarded as something like The Shining. A very good, well remembered film beloved by most film enthusiasts but nothing close to the cultural juggernaut the franchise has become despite some lesser entries.
I actually really like alien 3 and didn't even know many people didn't like it until recently. I also really liked Prometheus, I don't see why so many people didn't like it. Alien, aliens, and Prometheus are all outstanding films in my opinion, and alien 3 is a great film. AVP is decent and the last two are terrible. My ranking would be:
Alien
Aliens
Prometheus
Alien 3
AVP
Alien resurrection
AVP 2
WTF did i see the alien come out a cow carcass? I've only ever seen it burst out the poor rottweiler in Alien 3.
It's one of several alternate scenes in the extended cut. The cow was one of the oxen that the prisoners use to drag the EEV out of the ocean: th-cam.com/video/lvuTYmTivEg/w-d-xo.html
Alien Resurrection is extremely underrated.That underwater sequence is one of the best in the series.
And I like aliens more than alien idk why I'm just more of an action guy I suppose but even though I haven't seen it in a while I remember hating alien cubed as it was depressing and boring ressurection was okay though
But to each their own BTW what do u think of the predator sequels?
I dunno I quite like them
I really enjoy them both but can understand why people don't like em
Yeah I completely agree
Alien, Aliens and Alien 3 in that order. The rest are terrible. Though I like the concept of Alien Vs Predator. Alien 3 was a perfect ending to the Ripley storyline and a tone I think suits the Alien universe. I actually prefer the theatrical cut. The alien coming from a dead cow doesn't have the emotional impact of it bursting from a dog, not to mention cows aren't scary. So an alien coming from a cow just doesn't work for me as much as a dog alien. I also hate the effect in the extended version of Ripley falling into the lead. Looks so juddery and fake. Far better in the theatrical cut with the queen actually bursting out first. If only a cut was released with the start and end of the theatrical cut but the middle of the extended version.
Wait.
"I like AVP and Prometheus better than Alien: Resurrection."
So why is Resurrection ahead of Prometheus and AVP on the list?
*CRIES* I MADE A MISTAKE ALRIGHT I'M SORRY IT WAS PAST MIDNIGHT AND I WAS EDITING LIKE A MADMAN. I've added an annotation to the end correcting it.
How dare you! Unsubbed! :D
jk good video! I'm in full agreement with your (intended) ordering. For some reason the original AVP holds a place in my heart, probably because I watched it a lot as a young teenager.
It was no mistake... Alien Resurrection with all it's flaws is much more ambitious and unique compared to the borefest of AVP and the confused mess that is Prometheus. I appreciate the attempts in AR even with the pretty awful ending -- just because they tried to do something new with the franchise.
lol except it was a mistake read his reply dummy
Interesting how you raise certain points about the trilogy that I never noticed or considered despite seeing each film several times. Love this channel mate and the work you put into it!
While I understand your arguments as a whole, I disagree with your argument that the xenos in ALIENS are easy to kill compared to the one xeno in ALIEN. Remember that the characters in ALIEN were unarmed and out in space, thus completely defenseless. Had those truckers been on a planet with atmosphere and armed with rifles, that one xeno would have been wiped out in less than an hour.
But if the xeno from ALIEN went against people with guns, would it still be indestructible?? I agree that the first depiction of the xeno is superior (smarter, scarier, sexier) and I prefer the idea of a captured prey mutating into an egg but what else was Cameron supposed to do with a sequel? If he made the xeno attack a group of unarmed people then we'd have a retread of the first story, ala ALIEN 3.
cgarciahfcu Also the xenomorph is still near indestructible because the colonial marines had to use special armor piercing rounds on then. Even the pistol took like 4 shots to the head just to kill the alien and the shotgun only stunned it. They are still unstoppable creatures but aliens captured the action perfect for the aliens.
Yes, Alien 3's characters are very defenseless. They have no gun, no axe, no life detection system, etc.
In Alien 1 they weren't prepared for fighting.
In Alien VS Predators 1 humans had "basical weapons", they weren't prepared for fighting big issues (who would think about fighting alien creatures on an underground pyramid in the artic?) and the ones who had weapons stayed on the outside (and were killed by predators). Predators were prepared for fighting, they expected the fight and they have access to weapon that can kill aliens.
In Alien 4, humans were full of weapons (both sides, and their weapon were more advanced than those from Alien 2) and Ripley were considered an alien by the aliens. The most equipped characters on the saga.
Also, the place were prepared for the existence of aliens, actually it was built for containing aliens.
In Prometheus, they have a lot of tecnhology. The funny thing is that no sane person would want to contact an alien form without having really good equipment (defensive and aggresive ones),however, the company decided to be poorly equipped (they had a flame thrower though).
The whole prepared for a fight thing is silly, since it was cameron and his writers that decided that the Xenomorph would be as weak or strong as it was in the movie. As understood in Alien though, the Xenomorph was virtually indestructible, and while we could asume all we want how it would have faired against an armed and trained squad of soldiers, the implication was that it was virtually unbeatable. That's Rossatrons point, until Aliens the Xenomorph was implied to be unbeatable, Aliens said "no actually, they are just very tough vermin".
People get hung up on the fact that Ash says you cannot kill the xeno yet Ripley killed it. The xeno is not indestructible. Cameron may have weakened the xeno but it was Ridley Scott himself that proved it is not unbeatable.
So what's the better action film Aliens or T2?
Agree about Alien being a near perfect horror film (except from the part in the vent where the alien jumps out and shouts boo) and the best of the series.
Also I kind of like Resurrection in a so bad it's good kinda way.
Still need to see the Assembly cut of 3
Aliens wins.
Don't call Aliens an action movie. Aliens is a WAR movie. The parable clearly is born out of Vietnam. The inept officer in charge of grunts who can handle themselves better than he can. The xenomorphs use the vents like the Vietcong used tunnels. Guerrilla warfare is what it's all about.
Ripley becomes so much more clearly defined as a character in Aliens. The first movie makes her an almost accidental heroine. In Aliens we see her intelligence and leadership. More importantly she as a mother figure is realized. This is an extension of some of the themes from Alien (all the womb and sexual imagery as well as the Nostromo computer being called "Mother").
Defining the genre of Aliens as action, even if you praise it as you did, is a disservice to what the move was actually about thematically.
I think Alien and Aliens are equally good for different reasons. Given the nightmare production of Alien 3, I say that it's a miracle we got a film as good as it was. Therefore it deserves praise. Resurrection was practically a spoof on the series. The AvP films were given to the wrong people.
Brian Babcock not to mention the screenplay was changed from being set on a planet in the Aliens universe (weyland yutani colony) to being on earth, and at the end the chick went on to fly off with the predators since she'd mastered their weapons along the way
you should make a video about how bad app requiem is, and how badly it messed up both iconic monsters
Yeah but that would necessitate me watching Requiem again and frankly I'd rather microwave my own ballsack
Still, I think quite a few people would love to hear your thoughts on everything wrong with the film. From it's nostalgia pandering, failure to capture the spirit of the original films, poor characters, etc...
OpenMawProductions you just summarised exactly why Rossatron would rather microwave his own ballsack. Now stop reminding us we paid to sit down and watch AVP Requiem, money an 95 minutes we will never get back (the horror!!)
Hey, how do you think I feel? I was dumb enough to drag my brother and sister's boyfriend along with for that mess. That's not just wasting my own time, that's wasting family time! HA@
Man, you're really good at putting down to words what we know but find really hard to explain.
Thank you.
YEP. The original Alien has never been topped. People who insist on Aliens being better strike me as Sci-Fi fans that require a ton of action in order to hold their interest. I like both films but Alien is obviously the best.
I used to hate Alien 3... but these day when I crave an Aliens movie, its always Alien 3 that scratches my itch.
I hated Alien 3 so much I refuse to watch the Assembly Cut. Alien is still the best then Aliens.
Swoooze I thought Alien 3 was a complete mess. So disappointing, after the first two. But I gave the assembly cut a chance. Whoa. It's a totally different movie. And it's actually coherent. I'd recommend giving it a chance. It might redeem the movie for you.
Maybe. The movie was so unpleasant that I'm reluctant but I'll give it a chance.
It's probably 1/10 better, as in making a 3/10 film into a 4/10 film.
@DR Evil maybe I'll give it a chance now then.
I was quite young when I first saw Alien. The chest burst scene was a genuine surprise, even the full grown creature reveal. The mystery and intrigue with the creature worked perfectly with the claustrophobic feel. Combine this with the slow pace building tension made it terrifying. This could not be repeated in a sequel, because we know what the Alien is so the main mystery has gone. They had to go a different way, which is why Aliens is a perfect sequel to Alien. Both are masterpieces and I simply cannot pick one over the other. I have probably watched Aliens more, but Alien scared the living daylights out of me!
From best to I worst (alien movie)
1. Alien (1979)
2. Alien 3 (1992)
3. Aliens (1986) * reason - terrific action film but did not feel like an "alien film" to me.
4. Alien: Resurrection (1997) * see above, but inferior
- AvP m (and related abominations) doesn't belong on this list.
- Prometheus is not an alien movie in the narrative
Rossatron,your description of the 79 original was the best I've ever heard ...awesome
1 & 3 are superior.
Aliens is deeply overrated and has aged terribly
Prove me wrong
2-3 effects looks dated and some aliens looks like rubber but the alien queen is still in 2017 one of the best movie monster and one of the best animatronics ever made.
Also its not overrated, its just a great Sci-Fi action movie for adults that is loved by near every Sci-Fi fan.
In Alien 1 you can easy tell in some shots that its a human in rubber suit. Aliens look superb to me even in 2017. Both are masterpieces for me each in their own way.
I saw 3 on opening night and spent the last 45 minutes of it looking at my watch to see if there was time for a plot to get started.
There is no need to prove you wrong. You do that yourself by actually thinking 3 is better.
What has this guy been smoking???
I am not gonna lie... I love the first 3 Alien films as a single entity... Yeah It's kinda dated in Aliens when in the attack on the hive you just pretty much just see the marines shooting... And on Alien 3 the creature looks "pasted" into the scene... I will watch Resurrection from time to time, to me it's just "French"
I like Prometheus, was super excited about covenant... But as more footage is released, my excitement lessens...