I'm curious what aspects of Alien everyone is drawn to? What makes you especially excited about the films and what are you looking for in any new series or movies?
For me, it's the characters and dynamics between the crew members that I love the most. Also I love the exploration of new environments (whether it be the Nostromo or the destroyed colony in Aliens). The grit and grime of production design is awesome too!
As the franchise continues, what do you find is most important to hang on to?
It's something I've been thinking of as I get excited (and nervous) for a potential series.
I'm consider myself as an artist so for me DESIGN of creature and enviroment is on the first place, i guess, when characters and narrative are on the second.
And now with prequels came out i prefer to see great ideas and concepts rather than great character's development.
Quote from: Kradan on Mar 03, 2019, 09:42:44 PM
I'm consider myself as an artist so for me DESIGN of creature and enviroment is on the first place, i guess, when characters and narrative are on the second.
And now with prequels came out i prefer to see great ideas and concepts rather than great character's development.
Yes, the design is definitely key! Alien wouldn't be what it is without the specific creature and production design.
My honest answer can be summed up in one name, and one name only:
Drake.
Not even joking. Finding Drake among Mark Rolston's filmography led me to the franchise as a whole.
Not the creatures or the art and design. Just the grumpy blond wielding a big-ass smartgun. That's why I'm here.
Ridley Scott's Direction, Ron Cobb and HR Giger's art.
I like scifi and horror. Alien is the perfect mix. I'm also interested in art, so Giger's design intrigues me.
I'm also a fan of the EU, because I enjoy interconnected stories and how they expand on the originals.
I had already seen it on VHS prior to 1986 so I was already pumped when Aliens hit theaters. I saw it on opening day at a shopping mall theater in San Diego.
In order to recapture the magic, I saw Alien 3 in the same theater on opening day in 1992. It didn't work out quite as I'd hoped.
I can't be sure why I'm a fan of this property and more than I am about Star Wars. There's just so much to like about it. Or, at least, there was...
Everything. The creature, the environments, the universe.
It's all so dark and nihilistic and sexy. Far more unforgiving than others dare to be.
It is wholly unique, like a strange and fevered dream. And down we go into the depths of Hell, with Ripley (a beautiful woman) as both Dante and our Virgil.
This darkness is alluring. I cannot help but love it.
I originally fell in love with the facehugger scene in the Foster novelization and with the Kenner toys. Then I read the book. Then I had to see the movie. I was just a kid.
Now I'm attracted by countless things in this universe, but mostly it's the retrofoture + biomechanical aesthetics and industrial/bureaucratic nightmare thematics which fascinate me, along with some really dirty biological concepts.
Also the way the organic horror answers the existential questions in Prometheus always gets me.
At what point did it first disappoint you?
Resurrection myself.
Same. Saw the movie in theaters, I was 12 years old and so happy because I was exactly the right age to see it (it was forbidden to -12 years old kid) and I was such an Alien fan already and so happy to have the luck to finally see an Alien movie in theaters, and my grandfather took me to see it and well it was so bad.
The entirety of Aliens.
It was the first the series I saw when I was younger, I burned out my VHS copy of the directors cut.
I fall in love with "Alien" since I watched the first film os spanish tv on 1980´s the only way I could see it because my father never bothered buying a VHS video player (He never has been very interested on movies) and we didn´t have one till I grew up, earned money and bought a Panasonic one.
its unique iconography an production design, its state of the art cinematography, the perfect creation of an opresive suspensefull and chilling atmosphere....all that fascinated me.
And about the entire quadrology; I admire the producer´s boldness about searching young new talent director as Cameron, Fincher, and Jeunet and letting them to put his personal touch on the saga (Even in the case of "Alien 3" and the Fincher´s problems with the studio you can still see the director personality in the finished film), It can be considered an unique case of "auteurs blockbusters franchise".
"Auteurs blockbusters franchise." Indeed. <3
"Why are you an Alien fan?"
Because Sideshow Collectibles Affiliation program offers a pretty good commission on Alien maquettes and dioramas.
Sigourney Weaver. The Xenomorph. The Alien Queen. James Cameron's "Aliens".
Then later in comics and games as a perfect foil to Predators and vice versa. (I'm still waiting for the AvP concept to be truly realized in film.)
"Auteurs blockbusters franchise"
I like that :)
I'd love to see who else could take an original spin on it while still keeping the heart of the property right. I think Neill could. Who else do you think could take a good run at it?
List:
Spoiler
Denis Villeneuve
Jonathan Glazer
Pedro Almodovar
Danny Boyle
James Mangold
Bryan Fuller
Jordan Peele
Neil Jordan
Robert Eggers
Ari Aster
Lynne Ramsay
Mary Harron
Debra Granik
Jodie Foster
Julia Ducournau
Coralie Fargeat
Ana Lily Amirpour
Claire Denis
Jennifer Wexler
Anna Biller
Fell in love with the original creature design in 1982 and haven't looked back.
2007 myself. ;D
H.R Giger's masterpiece entrances all!
1997. Brother borrowed the comics from the library. Told me I wasn't allowed to read them.
Big mistake.
Quote from: SiL on Mar 05, 2019, 07:46:24 AM
1997. Brother borrowed the comics from the library. Told me I wasn't allowed to read them.
Big mistake.
Which comic was that?
For me, I would say I became a fan in 2000 when I was 10. But I became obsessed in 1995. My family took me to a theme park the day before my 5th birthday and the park had the Alien 4D cinema ride, Aliens: Ride at the Speed of Fright. We went on it, Dad says I've got the film that's based on, wanna watch it. We get home, watched it before/during the ad breaks/after the premiere of Star Trek Voyager on TV, made it to the hive sequence and shit my pants and had to turn it off.
Tried again when I was 7. Same result. But I was obsessed but so immensely terrified of any imagery to do with Alien. It was that fear that caused that fascination. When I was 10, I accidentally walked in on my Dad putting it on the TV, turned around, tried to walk out. He shouts me back, makes me watch it and then I became an obsessed fan.
Quote from: Corporal Hicks on Mar 05, 2019, 09:06:47 AM
Which comic was that?
All the ones DH was collecting as TPBs back in '96 or so and a few others. The original trilogy, Hives, Genocide, AvP, Rogue, Stronghold, etc.
Quote from: SiL on Mar 05, 2019, 09:41:46 AM
Quote from: Corporal Hicks on Mar 05, 2019, 09:06:47 AM
Which comic was that?
All the ones DH was collecting as TPBs back in '96 or so and a few others. The original trilogy, Hives, Genocide, AvP, Rogue, Stronghold, etc.
Ah, not a specific title that did you in but the collection?
Quote from: The Old One on Mar 05, 2019, 10:20:02 AM
All your Dad's fault eh AP?
100%.
;D
Quote from: Corporal Hicks on Mar 05, 2019, 10:48:17 AM
Ah, not a specific title that did you in but the collection?
I think we read Book One first. It was -- like most people -- the design of the thing that got me. I didn't realise they were actually movies for another year or so (I didn't actually read the comics, just liked looking at the art. Used to want to be a cartoonist.)
Quote from: The Old One on Mar 04, 2019, 04:53:32 AM
Resurrection myself.
I had suspected you were someone else, now I know better.
I think I know who you mean and I thought the same thing :D
Quote from: The Old One on Mar 05, 2019, 07:11:00 AM
List:
Spoiler
Denis Villeneuve
Jonathan Glazer
Pedro Almodovar
Danny Boyle
James Mangold
Bryan Fuller
Jordan Peele
Neil Jordan
Robert Eggers
Ari Aster
Lynne Ramsay
Mary Harron
Debra Granik
Jodie Foster
Julia Ducournau
Coralie Fargeat
Ana Lily Amirpour
Claire Denis
Jennifer Wexler
Anna Biller
Awesome list!
My mom showed me the scene where Brett gets nailed about a year before I watched one of the series. So it was in my head for about a year before I finally asked to rent the movies (renting was a thing back then). We went to rent Alien from Kroger and it was out, so we watched Aliens instead.
I think besides the design of the Alien, which I think is the most iconic scifi creature ever created, it was the world that was presented that I believed in. It felt like humanity 150 years from now. Things like Star Trek and many other space operas paint humanity in too good a light for my taste. Prefer the scuzzy underside that was show in the original trilogy.
Indeed, the realistic highly Capitalist future is unfortunate but believable.
The concept of something is what initially grabs me. The Xeno having no eyes, acid blood, a sharp tail, creating hives and such just really interested me. And the horror aspect of being on a dark, silent spaceship. Visually and philosophically the franchise delivers. I started out as a strict Predator fan, but it's about 50/50 these days.