Quote from: ChrisPachi on Nov 29, 2011, 12:48:17 PM
The Queen fouled it up IMHO, just in the way that you said; there is no threat. A single alien becomes a snarling, drooling 'eat-my-shotgun' joke.
I wouldn't call that scene by the APC a joke... Came across as very threatening - and the addition of a Queen would have absolutely no effect on whether a director wants to do that.
It's also worth noting that scene happened before the audience realised the concept of a Queen was even included.
QuoteYou can have whole armies of them, and they still suck. The Queen is a brilliant movie monster, but the original alien is more than just a monster; it's a nightmare... we were never meant to understand it, and never meant to be able to kill it.
The Queen detracts from none of that. Her purpose is merely to breed and,
possibly, co-ordinate tactics (although, whether that's collectively or only extends to what goes on in teh room she's based, who knows?). Aliens are perfectly capable of being disturbing and all the rest of it.
QuoteThe fear factor in ALIENS owes so much to what the original film created; that unimaginable horror that would occur if an alien ever got its claws into you (poor dear Lambert). But ALIENS dumbed that down... I remember the first time I saw the sequel being properly thrilled but ultimately disappointed that all of the victims were neatly gathered up and cocooned to make for more aliens, to capture more humans, to make more aliens, to capture more humans... all for a giant Queen alien that Ripley could of one-shotted if she had only aimed her grenade launcher a bit to the left.
And you're saying the Nostromo Alien would've, what...?
Survived?
Truthfully, I always found the Nostromo creature to be far too slow and pondering. Some make a case for it somehow being more intelligent (which usually involves ignoring examples of intelligence in the sequel, which are just as valid), but all '
Aliens' does is basically say, hey, if they
could have shot that Alien, it would've gone boom. Nothing wrong with that. The Nostromo crew are in trouble
because they can't fight back and act stupidly by splitting up (even the director points out it would never have otherwise worked). By contrast, the sequel simply makes the human victims more capable of defending themselves.
The first is an introduction to monsters. The second shows you
can fight your demons, but at the very high risk of getting turned into baby food in the process. It's deliberately fitted with an undertone of fighting back against odds, yet acknowledging that doing so is highly dangerous when those odds have teeth.
Again, a Queen doesn't alter any of that. You could've had the colonists all being turned into eggs. The end result would've been the same - except that the potential number of Aliens would have necessarily only been half what it was.
QuoteIt never sat well with me that guns could kill it.
But that's the whole point. '
Aliens' pointed out how realism dictates they
can be defeated.
And let's be honest, if they couldn't be, what's the point of their acidic blood defence mechanism?
Don't forget, Cameron portrayed that in action very well. Look at Drake and Hicks.
Personally, I'd prefer it if a future film also shows they're capable of cellular regeneration and healing lost limbs, but there's room to say that has also happened off screen.
QuoteBy allowing that you demote the alien to cannon fodder and then need vast numbers of them for there to be any major threat. It makes for a great movie, but ultimately fouls up the alien concept from the original film IMO.
None of that is affected by the numbers of Aliens you have.
QuoteRegarding origins, wasn't it O'Bannon's original idea that the alien we saw in the movie was just an adolescent of an advanced race that would, after going through its aggressive 'reptilian' stage, evolve into something reasonable and civilized?
Yes. But quite how he thought the natural predator traits, like all those sharp teeth and killer instinct should be explained in that context, I don't know...
His concept for '
Aliens Versus Predator' was that Aliens would grow up, transform and that Predators would be the 'adult' Aliens, by the way. The guy had some... Strange ideas, sometimes.
