Are the AVP and Original Aliens the same?

[Xenomrph]

Well this is the General Alien-Predator Discussion sub-forum; I'm pretty sure EU talk is allowed here.

[Undeadite]

Oh it is, its just taken with a grain of salt. And I dont consider a couple of interviews EU.

[Xenomrph]

Oh it is, its just taken with a grain of salt. And I dont consider a couple of interviews EU.

I don't either, so while the "Predators altered the Queen" explanation might not be OFFICIAL in a source like the novelization, script, comic book, whatever, I'm still willing to accept it because it makes sense and other evidence indicating it is present in the novelization (Aliens breed fast, Queen is hooked up to a bunch of tubes injecting her with chemicals).

[SM]

clearly the Predators were doing something to her.

They were.  They were waking her up.  No mention of  injecting her with stuff to speed up gestation.

It actually is an official explanation - Anderson mentioned it in an interview following the film's release.

I've heard several reports that interview wasn't entirely legit.

as well as addressing some of the "plot-holes" not addressed in the film (such as why Weyland's team was armed to the teeth), and goes into a lot more detail on what happened at the whaling station in 1904.

Anyone paying attention would know why Weyland's men were armed - they had a claim to protect.  And the the book actually adds plotholes in the 1904 sequence by going back over the events of the last few days, but never mentioning how the Aliens got to the surface - or indeed even came from.

Plus the garbage I mentioned earlier.

You describe the book as if it's some sort of affront to the written word.

It is.  It's Dan Brown bad without the interesting story to sustain it.

Likewise, in 'Alien Resurrection' it was about 24 hours from the time the cryo-hostages were facehugged to when they gave birth.

There's no time frame  given in Resurrection - least of all 24 hours which is longer than Alien or Alien3 anyway.  However, what Resurrection does have in it's favour is a number of scenes between the hosts being loaded by Call and Christie and Gediman studying the full grown creatures which conveys a sense of time, that could easily be long enough to be normal gestation.  Mind you the script did say gestation was sped up, but as this was left out of both versions of the film...

Paulie shot himself in the foot with his 10 minute pyramid shifts, so Rousseau goes from attack to burstage in a matter of minutes rather than the normal 16 hour ballpark.

Had it been their intention the whole time then it would have been in the novelization, let alone the script. But it wasnt, so I dont buy it. I will chock it up to bad film making, something Anderson should be used to be now.

Quite.  In the aforementioned possibly bogus interview, Anderson supposedly said the sped up life cycle would be explained in a longer cut of the film - but this was patently not the case in the extended film or the script.  As I said I think the Predators mucking with the Queen is a fine theory - but it's still just a theory.

[Xenomrph]

I've heard several reports that interview wasn't entirely legit.

This is the first I've heard of this. Could you expand on that?

And the the book actually adds plotholes in the 1904 sequence by going back over the events of the last few days, but never mentioning how the Aliens got to the surface - or indeed even came from.

Wouldn't the Aliens come from the same place any other Alien came from - from hosts? As for getting to the surface, that's easy: the Predators made a gaping hole in the ice with their mega-laser.

It is.  It's Dan Brown bad without the interesting story to sustain it.

To each their own, I suppose. I happen to like it; I think it improves on the movie quite a bit.

Paulie shot himself in the foot with his 10 minute pyramid shifts, so Rousseau goes from attack to burstage in a matter of minutes rather than the normal 16 hour ballpark.

Not to mention that had it been even ONE hour (let alone over 12), I imagine Lex and company could have found their way out of the pyramid after enough trial and error. Even without the 10 minute pyramid shifts, the pacing of the movie indicates that Rousseau gives birth in an extremely short timespan; the timing of the pyramid shifts just makes the problem worse.

Mind you the [Alien Resurrection] script did say gestation was sped up, but as this was left out of both versions of the film...

I'm not doubting you on this, but it's been ages since I read the AR script and I don't have my 'Alien Resurrection' scriptbook handy - it's in a box in my shed or something, I think. Where does it say it in the script? Is it a line that one of the scientists say or something?

[Undeadite]

I think they mention the speed up process in the AR novelization, somewhere along the lines where they discuss that Ripley has unexpected benefits of the cloning process.

[Xenomrph]

I think they mention the speed up process in the AR novelization, somewhere along the lines where they discuss that Ripley has unexpected benefits of the cloning process.

Huh, I'll check my copy in a little bit - I DO have that handy. I haven't read that in ages, either. Thanks

[SM]

This is the first I've heard of this. Could you expand on that?

It goes back years - a lot of the statements attributed to Anderson have been reported to be untrue - and based on later versions of the film where things he supposedly said weren't born out, I tend to think the interview was bogus.  Like how he's supposed to have said 'Fox cut all the good stuff' but then when the Extended DVD came out he said 'There wasn't much deleted footage to add back in'.  On reading the script, the latter statement appears to be more accurate.

Wouldn't the Aliens come from the same place any other Alien came from - from hosts? As for getting to the surface, that's easy: the Predators made a gaping hole in the ice with their mega-laser.

Which isn't mentioned in the book.  Lights off in the distance from the station are mentioned, and the whalers find a Predator still in his pod after these lights going for several days.  No mention of where the human hosts came from though.  At least in the film it's all ambiguous.  The extra detail added in the novel just confused things.

I'm not doubting you on this, but it's been ages since I read the AR script and I don't have my 'Alien Resurrection' scriptbook handy - it's in a box in my shed or something, I think. Where does it say it in the script? Is it a line that one of the scientists say or something?

From memory it's in the scene where Ripley says "There'll be more" (when Elgyn in killed) and timeframes of hours comes up and Wren corrects Ripley saying it'll be less than that.

[Undeadite]

Yes, that sounds right SM. Sorry, its been a while since I have read the book myself.

[Xenomrph]

This is the first I've heard of this. Could you expand on that?

It goes back years - a lot of the statements attributed to Anderson have been reported to be untrue - and based on later versions of the film where things he supposedly said weren't born out, I tend to think the interview was bogus.  Like how he's supposed to have said 'Fox cut all the good stuff' but then when the Extended DVD came out he said 'There wasn't much deleted footage to add back in'.  On reading the script, the latter statement appears to be more accurate.

Huh, interesting. Like I said, it's the first I've heard of this. I'm still willing to take the (alleged) Anderson quote at face-value, if only because the theory/explanation makes sense. I mean, even if he outright came out and said "Yeah I never said that", the theory still makes sense.

Which isn't mentioned in the book.  Lights off in the distance from the station are mentioned, and the whalers find a Predator still in his pod after these lights going for several days.  No mention of where the human hosts came from though.  At least in the film it's all ambiguous.  The extra detail added in the novel just confused things.

Eh, it made enough sense to me, I really didn't mind it.

I'm not doubting you on this, but it's been ages since I read the AR script and I don't have my 'Alien Resurrection' scriptbook handy - it's in a box in my shed or something, I think. Where does it say it in the script? Is it a line that one of the scientists say or something?

From memory it's in the scene where Ripley says "There'll be more" (when Elgyn in killed) and timeframes of hours comes up and Wren corrects Ripley saying it'll be less than that.

Cool, thanks

[Kimarhi]

Anderson blames Alien Res for the shortened lifecycle.  Like Ridley Scott your probably NEVER going to learn his true intentions for the film.  At least his true original intentions.


Its there in the dvd commentary for avp if you want it (not the unrated cut).

[Xenomrph]

Anderson blames Alien Res for the shortened lifecycle.  Like Ridley Scott your probably NEVER going to learn his true intentions for the film.  At least his true original intentions.


Its there in the dvd commentary for avp if you want it (not the unrated cut).

I didn't remember that he mentioned it in the DVD commentary - I haven't watched that movie with the commentary in a few years (and to date I think I've only watched it with the commentary once anyway).