Which do you like better and what does it mean.
>Alien: you value characterization and atmosphere over quick pacing and action.
>Aliens: you value quick pacing and action over atmosphere and characterization.
Arguments that they can't be compared are bullshit. Both have same protagonist and antagonist. The difference is production sensibilities.
>>64152815
Alien but I do like parts of Aliens.
>>64152815
Am I the only one who preferred Alien 3 to Alien 2?
>>64152882
Alien 3 introduced an interesting concept to me, instead of the company worshipping the Alien and doing anything it could to get one, that lone prisoner who worships it as a dragon was a pretty interesting concept
Both are nice but the first one edges out because they never really understand the Alien and even at the end its behaviour is unexplained , in Aliens , its all insects and then hundreds of them get blown up
>>64152921
Alien 3 had some cool characters like the Doctor , problem was none of them were left by the chase scene
>>64152815
Why didn't she have hairy pits and pussy though?
>>64152815
Aliens: you're retarded pew pew pew nerd probably prepubescent
Alien: you're a lover of cinema
no ass
Alien will eternally be better than Aliens because it doesn't feature an annoying redundant preteen girl with the most ear shattering scream in the history of cinema.
>>64153432
Also because of this dude. No amount of machine gun wielding beaner dykes can outcool this character.
>>64152815
Alien for space-horror flic
Aliens for space-action flic
Is Aliens a flick or a film?
>>64153640
stop
>>64152815
>Arguments that they can't be compared are bullshit. Both have same protagonist and antagonist. The difference is production sensibilities.
That's a load of horseshit. By that logic you can compare fanfiction to professional productions because some character names/roles are the same.
>>64153580
Alien isn't a flick. It's a true Masterwork of Cinema. One of those rare pieces of perfect commercially marketable but still well made pieces of work.
Very few other movies share this spot.
Die Hard
Indiana Jones
Jurassic Park
Alien
And that's about it.
>>64152815
Alien is my favorite film. I also enjoy Aliens, but that film has different priorities, and wasn't the first.
OP put a quarter in me, so I'm going to repeat stuff I've said on TV multiple times. First, let's compare these first two films in terms of their plot. They have nearly identical plots, so identical, even unusually so for sequels, that I doubt /tv/ has thought so deeply about this, viz:
Ripley and her crew rise from a cryogenic sleep, and investigate a ruin on a planetoid where they have reason to believe a (possibly malevolent) alien life form is present. Ripley's extreme caution is initially derided by other crew members, but after everyone observes the creature burst out of a victim's chest and a few bodies mount, she quickly takes charge. A series of corridors are sealed off and it quickly becomes obvious that the site has to be destroyed, but in the midst of all this, a company plant reveals itself and is promptly killed. The site begins counting down to its own destruction, and after a moment of despair, Ripley gets out in an escape craft with no time to spare, after rescuing a small critter she cares about. However, the monster has managed to stow away in the escape craft, revealing itself and forcing Ripley to blow it out the airlock. This task done, as one of the only survivors of the incident, Ripley returns to a cryogenic sleep, the final frame showing her peacefully at rest (with the critter nearby).
>>64153701
Here's the difference. This isn't fanfiction. It's a professional production and official continuation of the franchise.
>>64152815
I prefer Alien and the silence, also i love how gamers hate Alien : Colonial Marines, since it was a faithful Aliens adaptation and they got what they wanted, but they still pretended to hate it.
Both are amazing but I prefer Aliens these days. I like the characters more and the whole scene of the marines entering the hive and getting completely massacred is better than anything in Alien.
>Maybe they don't show up on infrared at all..
>>64153844
The marines are very thin characters and the scene you think is better is of people that I don't care about dying.
>>64152815
I'll tell you how much I liked Alien. I liked it so much that I've had numerous fap sessions over a big jawed, skinny, saggy chested, flat assed beanpole. That's dedication.
>>64153911
yeah, lots of cocky marine fodder characters dying, but I still love it. Especially the shots from their shoulder cams and Gorman and the rest sitting in the APC panicking watching everyone flatline.
And I still like Bishop, Hicks, Vasquez and Hudson more than the cast in Alien. Aside from Ian Holm I guess, he was great.
>>64153432
I also prefer Alien, but you're missing the importance and goodness of the Newt character, relative to other child characters in the movies. Fighting for Newt was the only time throughout /the entire franchise/ that Ripley's character actually had any real purpose, apart from saving her own ass. Quite the opposite of redundant, saving this character's life gave Ripley her real redemption from the preceeding events.
Furthermore, Newt is understandably traumatized, and in remarkably good shape considering. She is useful and can fend for herself on multiple occasions (carrying gear, leading the team out, finding a shady spot while Ripley cooks up her last plan). Most telling is the simple line during the escape from the nest, when a soldier drone is approaching. Newt's character could have easily said "behind you!", indicating that she still thought of herself as separate from Ripley, but she got attached quickly, instead saying the more unifying "behind us!" The point is that mother and daughter have bonded.
If Newt is annoying or a handful at times, this is understandably down to the horror she's lived, unlike other genuinely (often intentionally) annoying child roles (Veruca Salt, Anakin Skywalker).
>>64154131
Newt is a plot device and a paper thin one at that.
Alien: Iconic horror film in a sci-fi setting with action elements.
Aliens: Iconic action film in a sci-fi setting with horror elements.
As a pair, ignoring everything else in the franchise, these two movies form a flawless ying-yang of the action and horror genres encapsulated in a somewhat believable sci-fi setting.
As a movie I like Aliens better because I enjoy action slightly more than I enjoy horror. This is either due to my attention span or that, since action is easier to pull-off than horror, there are more good action movies than horror movies and I am conditioned to like them more. It's the easier thrill.
So did everyone really hate Alien 3? I liked it. they tried to do something different than 1 and 2. Definitely not as good as the others but it had some incredible atmosphere in it. Or did people hate it because they killed off Hicks and Newt?
>>64152882
I liked it a bit more too (still prefer the original by a large margin), maybe was it because I was pleasantly surprised by Alien 3.
Sure they the plot was a bit lazy sometimes and a good chunk of characters are underdeveloped, but it had that dark and oppressing atmosphere I found in the first movie, and not in Aliens.
>>64152815
Aliens.
Hard to complain when you have prime Biehn and Paxton.
>>64154330
No they don't. You are implying upon them a narrative that doesn't fit. There are no "action elements" in the original alien. It's a slow burning suspense thriller with moments of violence. Aliens is a big dumb action movie with action setpieces and and almost no meaningful characterization.
>>64154400
nah, it's more like Alien and Aliens are 10/10 and Alien 3 is around a 7/10. I should go back and watch the theatrical cut of Alien 3 some time, I can't remember the last time I watched that and not the Assembly cut.
>>64153723
To continue with this train of thought, Alien also has one of the great documented creative processes of any film, which is loads more interesting than Alien's.
STORY:
-Dan O'Bannon sleeps on Ronald Shusett's couch for weeks, with the idea to re-do his recent black comedy "Dark Star" as a serious sci-fi-horror picture. They eventually come up with the basic life cycle of the creature, which is also meant to suggest homosexual oral rape, and they have a working story.
-eventually (post-Star Wars), Fox takes interest, and off they go. O'Bannon and Shusett don't get along with the producer-suits (Carroll, Giler, Hill IIRC), but somewhere in that latter bunch, one of them had a really good idea to add an extra beat: insert a robot plant in the crew. O'Bannon and Shusett are on record as acknowledging that this was a positive story contribution.
-Ridley comes in, and takes very seriously to the project, boarding the entire picture by hand. On the strength of his proof-of-concept, budget is doubled immediately. Then in comes Giger.
-MONSTER
Giger had two inspirations from modern art. The chestburster is directly out of Francis BAcon, and the derelict craft is from Bocklin's Isle of the Dead, a series of paintings beloved by Hitler. Nice history connections. The mango-artist Masamune Shirow once wrote that "Alien wrote the book on the aesthetic of alien spacecraft."
Here is an excellent documentary on all this.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SYJXaEN8F4Q
-It's also one of great ensemble casts (including the nice story of how they found Bolaji Badejo), but I"m out of room in this post.
>>64154561
>Hard to complain when you have prime Biehn and Paxton.
Paxton is a bad actor. Biehn is an uninteresting love interest. They do nothing of interest or importance for the characters or plot besides
>game over, man
Alien, for me, is vastly superior to Aliens
Alien is really just a bunch of people trapped in a scary house with a monster, it is just set in science fiction setting, it is never really about the scifi, it is all about the mystery, a scare, some death, a hunt, the getaway, a scare, the end?
The story is just a retelling of Agatha Christie's 1939 book "Ten Little Niggers" UK, changed to "Ten Little Indians" then "And Then There Were None" for the US
The editing, casting, cinematography, direction, acting, creature and set design were all excellent
The original story had 8 people in a house and the die one by one until only one is left, same as in Alien, Kane, Dallas, Brett, Ash, Parker, Lambert, Alien, leaving Ripley
Film had a 10 million budget and made 100 million at the box office a 10x return, not too bad
It was one of, if not the first, big budget, quality scifi monster movie
It followed the golden rule of great cinema, great story, great characters, the special effects are there only to support the story
>>64154659
There are reasons for that.
The AC is superior, in every conceivable way.
>>64154703
you just wanted an excuse to mention 10 little niggers didn't you?
more pics of sigourney pls
>>64154697
Paxton was perfect as a scared-shitless marine.
I never really viewed Biehn as a love interest, just a guy trying to get his crew out.
>>64154697
>one of the most iconic lines, ever
>an ad-lib by Paxton
Try again.
>>64153146
>Why didn't she have hairy pits and pussy though?
Well, /tv/? Answer this.
>>64154400
I've been writing the long posts in this thread and I really dislike Alien^3. Just because it's a kind of "logical" story resolution doesn't make it pleasant to watch.
You're first of all in a prison with a bunch of stupid violent criminals. /The minder's aide, one of the only "good guys", has as his defining character trait, that he is a stupid man./ I find this to be a /completely unsympathetic bunch of people/. I do not enjoy watching the criminal programs on MSNBC on the weekends, either.
So I've immediately got a group of fungible, inscrutable bald fodder that I don't care about. This is a very bad beginning for a story.
Next, this is where we really start to introduce CGI, i.e. eliminate the practical-charm common to the first two.
Next, David Fincher is the only director in the franchise to disown, hence "Assembly cut". Knowing that the creative process was painful and not-fun just exacerbates one's overall opinion of the movie.
HAVING SAID ALL THAT ... I did watch the Assembly cut for the first time a few months ago, and it does make things much more coherent, and fleshes Dillon out considerably. The abbatoir was a nice set as well.
The theatrical cut is such a mess, and it's clear why due to the creative process above. Also the sound seems to have a goofy mix - quiets are too quiet.
One thing that started to coalesce for me is the Christianity which pervades the Alien franchise at various levels, most explicitly in the third film. Scott's return involves a religion angle (the hybrid is named a... deacon? Bishops? "Testing" before God? The unsympathetic woman is a smug atheist who is smited?) Both the Winona Ryder droid character and the lead from Prometheus are Christians. The "abortion" sequence from the latter film can be read as an allegory on the horrors of abortion.
