Favourite Alien Movie?

[DoomRulz]

It's tolerable for what it is. Long as you don't have high expectations, you'll enjoy it.

[SM]

Yeah, essentially don't get your hopes up for more fo the same after Aliens.  It's a completely different - and inferior in many respects - beast.

If you're an Alien geek, you probably won't care though.

[SiL]

Although I would say in the acting and cinematography departments it's a far superior beast.

[SM]

Note my judicious use of "many". 

[Alien³]

Thats why I love A3 so much, its a very different experience from any other alien film.

[DoomRulz]

Although I would say in the acting and cinematography departments it's a far superior beast.

Script too.

[SM]

No.  The Alien3 script is largely a mess.  Its starts with confused implausability, then spends the first hour of the film with the audience ahead of the characters - even Ripley.  There is some real gold in there, no doubt, but overall it's worse than either of its predeccesors.

[SiL]

Pretty much.

I think the characters of Alien 3 are better written - Those that constitute characters, anyway - and it works a much more emotional story, but at least Aliens is coherent.

[DoomRulz]

What do you mean by 'far ahead'?

[SiL]

We know thar be Alien, no-one else does.

[SM]

In Alien and Aliens, info was dished out to the characters at the same time as the audience.  In Alien3 there an Alien running around killing people for the first half, leading the audience to start wondering when the hell Ripley's going to figure it out.

[Bevo2506]

Yes!

[DoomRulz]

In Alien and Aliens, info was dished out to the characters at the same time as the audience.  In Alien3 there an Alien running around killing people for the first half, leading the audience to start wondering when the hell Ripley's going to figure it out.

Why is that a bad thing? We know there's an Alien, but that doesn't tell us where the story is heading. Or rather, how it will pan out.

[Alien³]

In Alien and Aliens, info was dished out to the characters at the same time as the audience.  In Alien3 there an Alien running around killing people for the first half, leading the audience to start wondering when the hell Ripley's going to figure it out.

But thats the whole point, shes got a false sense of security which makes you itch to see her when she finds out the horrifying truth about her current and future situation. Plus the free time she has before finding out the truth builds her relationship with Clemens making his demise all the more horrific for her and the audience. I mean I fell in love with that character at the same time Ripley does. His speech before his death is brilliantly executed by Charles Dance and wonderfully shot. 

[MadassAlex]

Why is that a bad thing? We know there's an Alien, but that doesn't tell us where the story is heading. Or rather, how it will pan out.

We're sorta twitching in our seats for half an hour to an hour, waiting for the fun stuff to start. And we know it'll only start when the characters begin to work things out. So there's a whole lot of wasted time there.