Rate a movie quadrilogy - Alien Quadrilogy

[peternorth]

Bought it for a bargin ($50) at jb. Ive never seen them in full, in fact only seen snippets of alien and aliens when i was a kid.

I watched Alien the other night, and backed up with Aliens last night.

Alien - funny seeing Ian Holm there as the robot/synthetic Ash. I guess IMO it was like the original star wars where you'd laugh at the "hi-tech" sets etc. I found it hard to get into, but can definately see why people were scared sh#&less back in 79-80.

Aliens - much better. more battles and weaponary. Paul Reiser plays a weak nerd well. Lance Henriksen great as the synthetic Bishop. Bill Paxon was annoying but played a very frightened solider. Really enjoyed this one.

For both of them, didnt mind seeing S. Weaver walking around in underwear!

Mrs North says 3 and 4 are better still. Cant wait to get stuck into the last two.

 

[Crosby87]

Imdb.com ratings:
Alien - 8.4
Aliens - 8.3
Alien 3 - 6.3
Alien: Ressurection - 6.0

So based on that, contrary to what your wife says, it's all down hill from here. But, of course, it's only a matter of personal opinion. Personally, I felt the second was better than the first.

 

[Andre]

A great series - except for 3.
I'd rate it :

Aliens - the extended edition with more on Ripley's daughter is best. The whole Ripley-Newt thing makes more sense then just a 'clucky female' thing you'd otherwise think.
Alien - Classic movie
Alien : Resurrection
Aliens 3

 

[The_Eagles]

Aliens - up there with James Cameron's best , love in the SE how they set up the 4 machine guns and they just watch with alarm as the bullets dwindle

 

[TheGhostOfJohnBelushi]

All four films are great. Resurrection is usually bashed but it's still a great film. The beauty is that each has a different feel to it, mainly due to having different directors.

Alien - dark, scary hide and seek film. Players go missing one by one, almost akin to a slasher film.
Aliens - military action in space.
Alien3 - mass prison survival. Slight return to the slasher film style, with only one alien in this one (well... two).
Alien Resurrection - space pirate team fight alien outbreak on a space station, Ripley's cloned and mixed with alien DNA.

Great series of film. I rate that quadrilogy set EXTREMELY highly. In fact, I bought that set brand new (just over $100) despite already owning the previous DVD box set. The extras, more than one version of the films... stunning.

I'm hoping the 13 disk Superman box set (Chris Reeve films 1-4 + Superman Returns) rivals it.

But still, nothing surpasses the LOTR Extended Edition sets (although not including trailers is a slight drawback).

 

[Ron]

Mrs North says 3 and 4 are better still. Cant wait to get stuck into the last two.

I am sorry but Mrs North doesn't have much taste in movies then.
Whilst 3 and 4 are good movies, they don't come close to the brilliance of the first two.

I prefer Aliens over Alien, but they are both very very good.

 

[Magnum]

The first two are classic. Aliens Special Edition is in my top 10 movies ever, and the first DVD I ever bought. James Camerons directing is flawless. 3 and 4 are reasonable at best but do no Justice to the first two films.

 

[scottywiper]

Aliens the best, the third one the worst.
I actually enjoyed Resurrection a great deal.

 

[raboyle]

Scott was the visionary. Cameron was the master. Alien and Aliens were the undisputed better half of the series.

Number four was fine, the extended cut of Alien 3 was good, loved seeing the film from a different angle. So much stuff that was on the trailers but you never saw it at the cinema, like the success of the original plan by the inmates to capture the alien in the toxic waste unit half way through the movie.

 

[Special Agent]

Alien - One of the best movies ever made
Aliens - Not as good as the original, but still very good

Haven't even seen the others yet.

 

[Jeffers]

I don't understand why Ressurection was trashed so much. I found it a hell of a lot better than the garbage number 3.

My rankings.

1. Aliens
2. Alien
3. Ressurection







4. Alien 3

 

[Contra Mundum]

Alien 3 - hugely underrated. Should not have bothered with four

 

[peternorth]

watched Alien 3. ill never get those 1.5 hours back in my life

i know the characters were supposed to be inmates, but they reminded me of those who have received frontal labotomies! the swearing was out of context, it was like sitting in a collingwood cheer squad and the alient creature didnt look "real".

 

[dmc333]

watched Alien 3. ill never get those 1.5 hours back in my life

i know the characters were supposed to be inmates, but they reminded me of those who have received frontal labotomies! the swearing was out of context, it was like sitting in a collingwood cheer squad and the alient creature didnt look "real".

It was Fox, they continually screwed over Fincher during the whole production, the head of the studio actually called him a "shoe salesman" because he directed Nike commercials.

 

[raboyle]

The whole saga is documented on the Alien 3 special features disc. The studio was so impatient it put out a teaser trailer before a single scene had been shot!

 

[Philzsay]

Like most I thought Aliens was the best of the lot followed by the origional.

How long has it been since the last one came out? I wonder if they will revive this series sometime in the future....?

 

[Ed_Gein]

I enjoyed Aliens the most and is probably one of my all time favourites . Alien3 and Alien Resurrection seemed to be stretching the story a bit, Still enjoyable movies though. I seen Alien3 in the cinema as a 10 year old, i was scared ****less.

 

[raboyle]

Like most I thought Aliens was the best of the lot followed by the origional.

How long has it been since the last one came out? I wonder if they will revive this series sometime in the future....?

1997 -- 10 years ago.

I still cant believe the original is over a quarter of a century old!

 

[Jeffers]

Does Alien Vs Predator count?

 

[peternorth]

well watched alien resurection yesterday. i actually didnt mind it. during the movie i realised ive seen bits of it already but.

i felt that it wasnt as "horror" as the first 2. those were and will always be classics for the sheer fear factor. felt that alien 4 was more of a shoot em up, adventure type film.

 

[Fuzzy Wuzzy Bear]

1.Aliens
2.Alien

The other 2 have their moments but are pretty forgettable. Killing off Newt/Hicks/Bishop (offscreen mind you) almost cheapens the whole point of the second. Whereas Aliens took the franchise in a new direction, the third tried to be a copy of the first which did not work that well.

 

[Tuco]

Alien and Aliens are classics. Rare beasts in that they are A grade movies set firmly in a traditional B-grade genre. What elevates them are the quality of the direction, set and sound design, production quality and scores - oh and the acting is great.

But really they are just a 50's, drive-in, monster movies made by talented people who give a *.

In the same way Jaws, Raiders of the Lost Ark, American Werewolf in London, and Star Wars were (to name a few).

The other Alien movies were all just straight b-grade fare and pretty unmemorable imho.

 

[Dancing Potato]

1.Aliens
2.Alien

The other 2 have their moments but are pretty forgettable. Killing off Newt/Hicks/Bishop (offscreen mind you) almost cheapens the whole point of the second. Whereas Aliens took the franchise in a new direction, the third tried to be a copy of the first which did not work that well.

Completely agree. Killing those characters at the start of Alien 3 was such a dumb decision. The rest of the movie is total snore fest.

Resurrection was both silly and average...but at least it was somewhat entertaining in a B grade 'switch your brain off' kind of way.

 

[GROTTO]

With a new Alien movie in the works (Alien 5), this movie is apparently meant to take place after the events of Alien 2 as an alternate timelines. It appears at this stage to be ignoring the events of Alien 3 and Alien 4.

 

[DIG]

Yeah that's promising on new film. I remember being so disappointed walking out of Alien 3 at the cinema. IIRC Sigourney rejected about 5 scripts before going with one with no guns.

Aliens - up there with James Cameron's best , love in the SE how they set up the 4 machine guns and they just watch with alarm as the bullets dwindle

This was one of the best scenes of Aliems but yeah it was only in the special edition, watching the bullets silently dwindle away.