Quote from: SiL on Jan 12, 2016, 06:39:59 AM
What makes Alien genius is they gave the concept credibility. As does Aliens.
ALIEN pulled through whereas ALIENS messed up that part epically the last 20 or so minutes of the movie.
QuoteAliens. The evil penis monster is vanquished and the last survivor drifts off to sleep to live happily ever after. Which is exactly how Aliens ends, except with more dead penis monsters and more survivors. In both cases it's the sequel that interrupts the survivor{s}'s otherwise pleasant victory.
Not at all. The humans were never on top at any point during the movie. Even when Ripley ejected the harpooned Alien, who almost came on to her in an almost sexual manner, we still had that feeling of this rapist creature could come back and violate us. There is no rape-and-revenge thing going on in ALIEN. You sweat through the movie and never enter action hero territory as you do in ALIENS (Rambo Ripley cleaning up the Hive, and Powerloader vs. Queen Godzilla fight, and Ripley climbing up a ladder with a Powerloader and alien queen hanging on her foot while being sucked into space).
In ALIEN Ripley drifts off alone (...and the traitorous cat Jones), violated and f**ked up in ALIEN, whereas in ALIENS she goes home on a military Starship together with her newly found lovey dovy family (papa Hix, baby Newt and their loyal dog Bishop).
So theoretically, yes, you have a point, but in reality ALIEN and ALIENS are two completely different beasts dealing with the formula in very different manners. ALIENS, safe and pleasant. ALIEN, not so much.
QuoteKilling off [some of] the main characters in the opening scene in inglorious fashion is slasher movie sequel 101,
They didn't. The most poetic, beautiful and poignant scene in all of the movies is The Funeral Scene. That scene completely nullifies the argument that Hix & Noot's deaths were cheap, or inglorious, blah blah etc.
Quote...as is populating the movie with faceless, indistinguishable, unknown characters who exist solely to die in increasingly brutal fashion. Friday the 13th Part II et al.
They fill a symbolic purpose. Fiorina is in a way the purgatory and the inmates are in limbo. In the eyes of God we all look the same. It's your actions that set you aside. The irony of that mankind's most hated, shunned and despised individuals are the ones saving mankind, and thus finding redemption in their deaths, working together till the end knowing very well they will die, is beautiful. Their horrific deaths kind of work along the Old Testament doctrine their apocalyptic god inhabits. The symbolism is there and masterful but apparently subtle enough since too many Aliens fans seem to miss it (probably on purpose).
QuoteThe only thing Alien3 has going for it to push it from "low-end" horror is production value, performances, great direction and Ripley's sacrifice at the end.Everything else, particularly in terms of plot - shock deaths, bland chase sequences, increased gore in favour of genuine suspense or terror - is exactly bottom of the barrel slasher flick fare.
I see where you're coming from SiL, but you're really simplifying it, lots of cherry picking some details while ignoring others. I'm curious though why you defend ALIENS so much but have no problem throwing the other movies under the bus? Because it sure as hell has nothing to do with objectivity and such, even though you try to make it sound like that's the case. This is not the first time we've discussed ALIENS & A3, SiL. You're just as biased as I am.