Which Alien score was the best?

[LastSurvivor92]

Overall I think Elliot Goldenthal's score from Alien 3 was the best. It was spooky, eerie, beautiful, intense, dark and full of dread. It was such a well done score. Vote Above!

[oberonqa]

I voted for Aliens.  There's a reason why bits of the score are still used to this day in trailers. 

[Vertigo]

My preference is the same order as the film chronology. First three all have perfect scores in my opinion. Resurrection had a great main theme but not much else; Prometheus was mostly assorted generica.

Should clarify all that by saying that I don't listen to any of them in a separate format, just within in the context of their films. There's only a handful of scores I can enjoy listening to in isolation (does help if they're mixed and sequenced into a more CD-friendly format).

[Cvalda]

Toss up between the first and third. They are both brilliant pieces of work. Aliens has too many bits of temp track copying and "homage" (read: polite way of saying Horner ripped off other works, including his own). Still a terrifically exciting and colorful score, though. Resurrection is very good and works great on disc in its complete form, but its not quite in the league of the first three. And Prometheus has some good bits but is mostly dull modern score writing, flatly mixed and recorded. I like Streitenfeld's original main theme a good deal (shows up in "A Planet", "Space Jockey", etc), before it was shafted for the new Star Trek-y "Life" theme.

[Elmazalman]

Alien.

[The1PerfectOrganism]

In order from best to worst, Alien, Alien3, Prometheus, Aliens, A:R.

[Elmazalman]

In order from best to worst, Alien, Alien3, Prometheus, Aliens, A:R.

My exact order of preference also,but the original is the best IMO.One of my favourite music cues is Brett's death,which now is unfortunately drowned out in the audio mix by that corny heartbeat.The old 80's video tape I owned,the score in that scene took precedence while the heartbeat could be heard much more subtlety in the background.

[LastSurvivor92]

I honestly think all the films have great soundtracks. Just like the films the soundtracks are all different and distinct in their own ways. I enjoy all of them!

[RobThom]

Thats interesting that 3 is getting the most votes.
I honestly dont remember any cues from that.

alienS has a few memorable ones.

[Gash]

A L I E N

Just love listening to it. I think Goldsmith somehow perfectly matches his cues to the production design, evoking Giger's landscapes and haunting interiors, and the discordant elements of the alien itself. But he also conveys the solitude of space and humanity.

Don't get that from any of the other scores, although I've increasingly warmed to Prometheus the more I've listened to it, the Space Jockey cue is perfect, as is the collision.

[RobThom]

A L I E N

Its weird how Alien fell into place.

The script, the creature, the planet, the kills, the suspense...

the soundtrack.

Try to watch "Freud" without a rictus of terror.
I'm not sure that was the original intention...

It was weird the way everything fell into place.
I can say that in perspective.

[Scree]

I love Jerry Goldsmith's ALIEN score the most. It's like creepy, scary chill-out lounge music.

[Corporal Hicks]

I always used to say Goldenthal's A3 score but having re-watched Alien again at the weekend I was reminded of just how wonderful it was. So now it's a toss-up between the two for me at the moment.

[SM]

They're all, in various ways, derivative of Alien.  This is not a bad thing.  Horner barely wrote anything original for Aliens and that worked a treat.

[PsyKore]

Alien is leaps ahead of the rest, IMO. I'm rubbish at properly conveying how much I like the score, so I won't bother, but I'll just say that without that score, the movie would be so much less powerful than it is. I think Jerry Goldsmith's score is as important to the film as the alien creature itself.

The other films are brilliant as well, though, no denying it. I just think Goldsmith's has something extra special.