Generally we are very careful about spoilers within our articles, but this time we will be a little loose on the subject and though we will not contain blatant *spoilers* for every film, there will be some things that will be said that could "spoil" some things within the movie. The purpose here is to prepare you for "Prometheus" which is a prequel to the alien series. There are a lot of people out there who are eager to watch "Prometheus" but either don't have the time or the want to watch all the four movies that follow it, thus the purpose of this post, to aid you in getting a little background so that you might be able to appreciate "Prometheus" more. Don't worry though, we won't ruin the movies, but just warn you about quality, major story premise and so forth, we hope this article might help prepare you for the newest addition to the series.
Alien
This original Sci-Fi horror movie came out in 1979 and was directed by Ridley Scott. The story follows a mining ship that intercepts a weird message that seems like an S.O.S. and goes to investigate within a small planet. There they find a ship, a ship that carries some surprises and everyone enters into a horror movie. This ship is important for it is the same ship we see in the preview for "Prometheus" so in the movie "Prometheus" is where we find out who or what that ship was and what happened to the crew. "Alien" is a great movie and we recommend you watch you, but be warned that it is a slow movie, the movie is just under 2 hours and a solid hour and a half (almost) are just back-story. In 1979 slow movies weren't a problem, so if you can appreciate that then you will appreciate this movie. We learn a few important things in this movie, xenomorphs are bad evil creatures, cyborgs exist and are used in all crews, and Ellen Ripley (Sigourney Weaver's character) really loves cats, while being awesome of course.
Aliens
The second movie within this franchise is directed by James Cameron in 1986, when watching this movie we recommend watching the special edition, it does make the movie be 2 hours and 39 minutes but it is worth it for sure, this is the best in the series in our humble opinion. Here we follow Ripley's character again as she is again confronted with "the company" and xenomorphs. The big two things we learn from this movie is that cyborgs are your friends, xenomorphs hunt at night, they hunt in packs, there is a mother who gives birth to them, and although marines are no match for them Ripley is because she is awesome. Another important plot point is Ripley's love for "Newt", without a cat around Ripley had to protect something (silly joke :p). James Cameron knows how to entertain his audience and "Aliens" is no different, Cameron delivers a great spectacle throughout the whole production, this is a solid movie to watch.
Alien 3
This is by far the worst movie in the series, it is done 6 years later 1992 and is directed by David Fincher (Fight Club, Se7en, Social Network, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo) so one would imagine that this would be equal to or at least on a similar playing field as his other movies, specially being that there is very little time lag between this movie and his other creations, so there is no excuse to how much this movie sucked. David Fincher must have been drunk when he made this movie, it has the worst dialogue, the worst sound, the worst picture quality, special effects, acting, and continuity, in fact there is very little good about this movie. This movie reminds us of bad British television, and the amount of curse words in this movie would make a sailor blush. *SPOILERS* Things to learn from this movie, there is such a thing as too many curse words, Ripley is still awesome and is now a host to a xenomorph queen, which makes no actual sense (who cares right?....what's a script, anyone ever heard of that?), and Ripley kills herself in order to prevent "the company" from getting their hands on the xenomorph growing within her. There is a level of applause deserved here, I can't see how someone would ever be able to make a worse movie, so job well done.
Alien: Resurrection
Jean-Pierre Jeunet directed this film in 1997 and did a fantastic job, well not really fantastic, more like made for television fantastic, but better than Alien 3, everything is better than Alien 3. The true motive for watching this movie and the thing that makes this movie so awesome from beginning to end is that it was written by Joss Whedon. If you are familiar with Whedon's work you'll recognize his signature moves from beginning to end and will come to appreciate this movie. This isn't the best directed movie, there are issues with lighting and set, but it is definitely one of the best scripted of the 4 movies. The major points here is that humans never learn from past mistakes, the movie takes place 200 years after "Aliens 3", and Ripley is brought back to life and is now part xenomorph. If you don't find any of that too absurd then do watch this movie, if nothing else this is a fun movie, and Joss Whedon is the man, so if you're a Whedon fan definitely watch it.
And there you have it, all four movies reviewed and major points given. We've attempted to avoid as many spoilers as possible, except for the third movie, only because we want to spare you the pain and agony. "Prometheus" hits the big screen on Friday and is being directed by Ridley Scott so you can expect big things from this movie, we'll have a full review for you on Friday. We hope your week has been great and pray that it might finish well.
Love from your humble blogger,
Wait.. Alien 3 is the worst in the series?? You're out of your mind. Alien 3 is right up there with the first one, with 2 hanging low, and Resurrection just being an absolute joke. Sure, there is zero sense to Ripley having an Alien queen in her after the events of Aliens, but Fincher did an outstanding job (the only thing that could've made even a microbe of sense would be Newt having an Alien in her, cocooned as she was near the end of Aliens). Unless your some sort of Mormon preacher, I'm not sure how you imagine the cursing was excessive, especially for a Penal Colony. Have you seen a Tarantino movie? Alien 3 was a stand out in the series, Resurrection, was the disaster area. There are very few fans of the series that even count that film.
ReplyDeleteSo what I got from your comment is that the order you would have is:
Delete1 & 3
2
Resurrection
---------------
I have a hard time myself placing any of them with the first one, that's a pretty bold claim, but I'll grant you that just for kicks.
I liked the Mormon preacher joke you made, but no, I am not. I think cursing can complement a movie as much as it can destroy a movie. Take "The Big Lebowski" or "Pulp Fiction", both movies have a heavy load of curse words and I love them both. The difference is that both contain good dialogue and well scripted scenes, while in Alien 3 there was little to no intelligent dialogue and the cursing was just useless banter. It's the different between me saying something like:
"Well that was a great f***ing movie"
to
"F*** how f***ing f****tastic that f***ing flick was"
Alien 3 is not comparable to a Tarantino movie when it comes to cursing, due to the fact that Tarantino is a brilliant script writer, so though he is heavy on cursing he is also heavy on good dialogue, which was not the case in Alien 3.
Personally as a fan of the series I would much prefer to just remember the first one and forget the rest. I disagree with you on three ever being as good as one, that's too bold a claim.
Alas, thanks for your opinion, I appreciate banter, always fun to hear from another fan of the series.