Prometheus Trailer: The Aliening

You may have heard about Ridley Scott's new movie, Prometheus, his much-heralded return to the sci-fi genre. Originally, Prometheus was to have been a prequel to Scott's 1979 classic, but at some point in its development the project seems to have taken another more mysterious turn than simply being an Alien prequel. Scott and members of his cast and crew have made a lot of conflicting statements about just how much this movie has to do with the Alien series. Scott has made strange comments about the movie having "Alien DNA" and has implied that the movie is set in the same cinematic universe as Alien but he has denied that the famous monster makes an appearance in the movie.

Perhaps this is a bit of misinformation. Or maybe Ridley Scott is attempting to manage expectations so that people don't go into his movie expecting another Alien sequel in which his cast is devoured one-by-one. Aside from its connections to Alien there does seem do be a lot going on with Prometheus and the filmmakers have alluded to some big themes that apparently wouldn't be able to be shoehorned into a movie about a monster on the loose.

Today, a lot of questions are answered about the movie with the release of its first official trailer. For a movie that the filmmakers are trying to disassociate with Alien, this trailer really works in as many references to the classic movie as possible, from its eerie music first used in the original Alien trailer, to the title which slowly assembles over the moving images.



Also like Alien is what looks like a terrific ensemble cast including Idris Elba, Charlize Theron, Michael Fassbender, and Guy Pierce. Heading the cast is Swedish actress Noomi Rapace, the original Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. Once again, Scott has put together a group of established character actors, edgy up-and-coming movie stars and international talent.

From what little we can tell from the trailer, the movie is more clearly connected to Alien than Scott has been letting on. It looks a lot like much of the footage from this trailer is set on LV-426, the planet on which the first crew discovered the derelict ship and also the setting for most of Aliens. The planet from the Prometheus trailer has the same murky windswept craggy appearance. Later in the trailer, we see the derelict ship from Alien both balancing on its end, and then crashing down, perhaps into the position in which it is found in Alien.

Scott has long indicated a desire to explore the mysterious "Space Jockey" that was found in a fossilized form inside the ship in Alien and he looks to have made good on his wish. Here we see a quick shot of what looks like the head or helmet of the creature going through some kind of medical scanner. Later, we see it aboard the derelict as it rises from the floor and assumes its familiar position.

There are also some strangely unfamiliar things in the trailer. In a shot that recalls a similar situation in Alien, we see Michael Fassbender in a dark chamber filled with pods, but these pods are metal instead of the expected organic eggs. The room is dominated by the colossal sculpture of a human face, which we have already seen in the film's publicity materials. Shortly after, it looks as though Fassbender is face-hugged, although it is no secret that his character is an android. And then there is Fassbender again, pulling something out of a container.

I can't tell you how psyched I am to see this movie. We've gotten used to the idea of an Alien series of movies and have forgotten that Alien was very much its own thing, with it's own unique Anglo Gothic Horror vibe. Prometheus looks to take us back to the Lovecraftian horror roots from which Alien spawned. June 8th, 2012, people.



Patrick Garone is a writer, director, sketch comedian, and blogger. He is the author of City of the Gods: The Return of Quetzalcoatl. Follow him on Twitter for fun-sized ramblings on nerd culture and politics.

Monster Movie of the Week: Alien VS Predator (2004)

ALIEN VS PREDATOR (2004)
Director: Paul Anderson
Genre: Sci-Fi/Survival Horror

THE MOVIE

The AVP concept goes back to the 1980’s when Dark Horse comics created a series of cross-overs using both the Alien and Predator licenses (of which they had been running successful comics series). The original story was set around the time of the Alien movies on a distant colony planet. It established that the Predator race kept the Aliens in captivity to be unleashed on distant planets to be hunted as part of their coming of age rituals. In the original comic, a group of human colonists are caught in the middle of the struggle and a lone female colonist teams up with a surviving Predator to destroy the Alien menace.

This was a very cool and exciting combination in the late 1980’s and spawned a slew of similar concepts featuring unlikely comics cross-overs (such as Robocop Vs. Terminator, Batman Vs. Predator, Superman Vs. Aliens, etc) and fans wondered if we would ever see a movie of AVP. We got a tantalizing hint at the end of 1990’s Predator 2 which featured a nice easter egg in the form of a bleached Alien skull among the trophies on the Predator ship at the end of the movie. In the early 2000’s, with the Predator series dormant after its only sequel and the Alien series having fizzled out with two financially unsuccessful movies, 20^th Century Fox began to seriously consider doing a movie version of AVP.

They turned to Director Paul W.S. Anderson who had directed a number of hyperactive video game adaptations (Resident Evil, Mortal Kombat) that were popular with the Playstation crowd. This choice irritated a lot of people, particularly fans of the Alien movies who were used to a certain amount of respect for the material and quality directors. Also, irritating to fan boys was the continuity-bending fact that the film was to be set on Earth in the present (probably for budgetary reasons), and that the movie was being produced with a PG-13 rating in mind. Therefore, the movie was panned by hardcore sci-fi fans as well as critics who don’t like it when titles are not prescreened for them. Critics are also dismissive of anything with the word “versus” in the title, bringing to their minds Godzilla movies (to which I ask, what’s wrong with that?) As far as the tone of the movie, Anderson seems to be emulating Ridley Scott’s cool and austere British horror style more than James Cameron’s balls-on-the-wall American action movie style (like Scott, Anderson is a Brit). This might be another reason American fan boys don’t appreciate this much underrated monster flick.

So, what’s the deal with AVP? The movie has a lot going against it. The Earth setting is kinda dumb and negates the fact that the characters in the Alien movies were all working to keep the aliens from getting to earth. The characters are mostly dull. I hate the Jurassic Park-y exposition. The movie is frustratingly underlit and so frenetically edited that it is hard to see what is going on sometimes. What the hell are Predators doing in the Antarctic? And why do the Aliens mature so fast? What’s up with the ridiculously literal production design on the ice pyramid, with hilarious Alien and Predator hieroglyphics?

On the other hand, for all his reputation as a hack director, Anderson is clearly a big fan of the Alien and Predator movies and his film is filled with loving visual references to both the movies and the original AVP comics, which was pleasantly surprising. His knowledge of the Alien series and sci-fi in general goes deeper than expected and much of the inspiration for the pyramid comes from discarded early story ideas and concept art from Alien and much of the story itself seems to have been inspired by H. P. Lovecraft’s “At The Mountains of Madness.” There are even references to the fun but silly theories of ancient astronauts as proposed by Erich von Daniken.

The idea of a human female survivor who is “branded” into the Predator clan comes straight from the original AVP comic series from Dark Horse. And while the idea of Alexa suiting up with make-shift Alien weapons doesn’t work that well on film I have to respect that they put it in. It’s ironic that a movie that is such a labor of fan love is so reviled by fan boys.

THE MONSTERS/EFFECTS

One of the main reasons that I enjoy this movie so much is the fact that Giger’s Aliens have never looked better than they do in this movie. The Aliens go back to a classic design that resembles the creatures from the first and third movie with the domed head and they are brought to life with a combination of life-sized hydraulic puppet and CGI and as far as I know, there is no suit acting in this movie at all. This gives us Aliens that are more skeletal and less anthropomorphic than they have been before.

As I stated above, the Aliens in this movie seem to go from implant to chestburster to adult in a matter of hours (or perhaps even less) which is pretty fast compared to the previous movies. It seems to me in 1979’s Alien, the creature matures “overnight.” In Alien 3, the time period seems to be a day or two. These both seem too fast when you think about it but in AVP it is ludicrously fast. One gets the unpleasant feeling that the established continuity has been fudged to serve the plot needs of this movie. My own nerdy theory is that since these Aliens have been bred by the Predators to serve a particular purpose, they may have been altered to mature faster than normal. After all, it would suck to be a Predator and arrive at the temple only to be able to fight a bunch of chestbursters.

The Alien queen also makes a truly spectacular comeback in this movie after her rather lame appearance in Alien Resurrection. Her intro as she is frozen and chained in the bowels of the Antarctic temple is extremely cool and very inspired by the first AVP comic where she is similarly restrained aboard a Predator ship. She looks much like she did in Aliens only bigger, more skeletal and without the built in stiletto heels. Unless I am mistaken, she is completely CGI in this movie.

Unfortunately, the Predators in this movie don’t come out so well. Unlike the very tall and lean actor/dancer Kevin Peter Hall who played the Predator in the original two movies, the new Predators are very big and muscled and wear bulkier armor which gives them a weird linebacker-y appearance. Their arms also seem too short for their bodies. They also seem to have crazy extreme sports versions of their signature weapons. Their wrist gauntlets are now about four times longer than ever before and the very cool smart disc from P2 has been reimagined as a crazy giant throwing star. But, I guess if you are hunting aliens you need different equipment than if you are hunting humans.

MOST MEMORABLE SEQUENCE

The battle against the Queen at the end of the movie. Look at her go!

DVD AVAILABILITY

Widely available in a couple of different versions. There is an unrated version which is not that much different than the theatrical cut.

SEQUELS

Aliens Vs. Predator: Requiem, also enjoyable and a lot more graphic with a more American sensibility. If Anderson is trying to emulate Alien, then the directors of AVP:R are trying to emulate Aliens and Predator. You may enjoy one more than the other depending on your tastes.

TRIVIA

James Cameron has apparently seen this movie and enjoyed it.

TRAILER

Patrick Garone
twitter.com/patrickgarone
www.patrickgarone.com
facebook.com/cityofthegodsnovel

Monster Movie of the Week: Alien Resurrection (1997)

ALIEN RESURRECTION (1997)

Director: Jean-Pierre Jeunet

Genre: Action/Survival Horror/Body Horror

Country: USA

NOTES

1992’s Alien 3 is unloved here in the US but it was well appreciated and financially successful overseas and kindled talk of a fourth Alien movie. However, as many of you know, the ending of Alien 3 was, shall we say, final. It was designed as a way to close out the trilogy and to conclude the Ripley story arc in a dramatic and cathartic way. So what is a studio to do? Since your protagonist is dead, will you venture out and take the series in a new direction with brand new characters? Or will you find some cheap half-assed way to bring a dead character back?

Alien Resurrection features a clone of Ellen Ripley. And as cop-outs go, it is not quite, “It was all a dream” but it is still fairly lame. And I can’t help but feeling that it is a major diss to Alien 3, a movie that is badly flawed but has a lot more integrity than its successor. I think that the decision to do a retread movie and bring Ripley back as opposed to developing new characters and scenarios is one of the reasons that the series fizzled out and was ultimately replaced with the AVP movies and the upcoming prequel/spin-off/nothing-to-do-with-the-Alien-franchise Ridley Scott movie, Prometheus.

"Where's your precious Beetlejuice now?"

THE MOVIE

All of that being said, Alien Resurrection is not a terrible movie. In an attempt to keep the series fresh and in keeping with the franchises history of being a showcase for talented directors, the producers brought in French director Jean-Pierre Jeunet, famous for his surrealist movies such as a City of Lost Children and Delicatessen. French directors were very hot back in the 1990’s with the films of Jeunet, Christopher Gans and Luc Besson finding audiences here in the states. Besson’s movies The Professional and The Fifth Element gave fresh Euro spins to well-worn American genres. No doubt the producers of the last Alien film were hoping for Jeunet to give the film a similar feel and he gives Resurrection a Gallic style and quirkiness that sometimes works but often doesn’t. Jeunet’s direction also frequently butts heads with the film’s other major raison d’etre: to recapture the ass-kicking action feel of James Cameron’s Aliens.

Alien Resurrection picks up 200 years after Alien 3 (so, The Future + 200 years) in which military scientists on a remote space station use blood samples from Ellen Ripley to clone her and the alien queen she was carrying at the end of the last movie. Um, okay. That’s same shaky science but okay. It turns out that there is some DNA crossover and this new Ripley has some alien characteristics and vice versa. The film also tries way too hard to make the Ripley clone into a badass: she fights, she shoots hoops, she says “fuck” a lot. This is one of the movies inept attempts to pander to what the producers think is the type of fan that really liked Aliens.

Alien Resurrection is rated R for frequent caressing.

Meanwhile the scientists have arranged to purchase abducted human beings in hypersleep from a group of smugglers that include a mysterious young woman named Call. This macabre storyline is the best part of the movie and makes for some cool imagery and recalls the many great Dark Horse Aliens comics of the time. The idea of these twisted scientists smuggling comatose human beings to breed aliens is dark and cool and it makes you wonder what Joss Whedon’s original Ripley-free script was like.

The smugglers dock with the station and encounter Ripley. Call sneaks into Ripley’s cell and tries to kill her revealing that she has come to prevent the aliens from being bred but is too late. Ultimately the aliens escape and Ripley must lead the dwindling group of military survivors and smugglers off the station. She is kidnapped by the Aliens and taken back to their nest (after apparently making out with one of them!?) where we learn that something is very wrong with these Aliens (this dysfunctional nest and the “mad scientist” type character seems to be a reference to the wonderful “Aliens: Labyrinth” comic). Ripley’s human DNA has infected the hive and the Queen lays prone and gives birth to a live Hybrid creature. After some additional caressing (what is up with the French?) the Ripley clone attempts to escape the doomed ship.

Sad Skeletor.

THE MONSTERS/EFFECTS

This movie features the usual suspects. The alien drone is slightly redesigned (nothing revolutionary) in light of its newfound ability to swim. Again the color scheme is browner and more roach-like than the first two movies. The Queen is featured…well only her head actually. Unfortunately we don’t get any good Queen action in this movie and she gets bitch slapped to death, which is sad.

The “star” creature is the Hybrid, which leaves a lot to be desired, with its pasty skin, sad eyes, potbelly and nasal nub. I’ve heard rumors that the creature was originally designed with a penis (or vagina or some combination thereof) that was digitally removed in post-production. Call me a perv, but I want to see this.

The effects in this movie are somewhat marred by some shoddy CGI, which is too bad because this marks the first use of digital effects on these creatures. Unfortunately the aliens end up looking like Playstation characters in these scenes. This is especially sad because of the high special effects bar raised by the previous movies in the series.

C'est tres francais.

MOST MEMORABLE SEQUENCE

The Ripley clone discovers the meaning of the number “8” tattooed on her arm when she stumbles across the horrific previous seven attempts to clone her. That’s good body horror right there!

SEQUELS

Sadly, no. Although the story is continued in some comic books from Dark Horse. This movie marks the chronological end of the Alien series, although it does continue in the form of the AVP prequels and whatever Prometheus turns out to be (seriously, what is the deal with that movie?).

HOME VIDEO AVAILABILITY

On its own or in the mammoth Alien Legacy DVD set. Or in the even more mammoth AVP set. The extras are nothing great and the extended version adds very little to the movie.

The movie was unceremoniously kicked out of the series for the “Alien Trilogy” DVD set that you can find around. What a burn. I guess that means that Alien 3 has been officially replaced as the redheaded stepchild of the series.

On Bluray, it is found in the wonderful Alien Anthology set, which, like the Legacy DVD set, features a slightly longer cut of the movie.

Just when you thought it was safe to go back into the water...where no one can hear you scream.

MINORITY REPORT

A Latino almost survives the movie. Almost. Although the weird handicapped guy does survive.

TRIVIA

Believe it or not, Alien Resurrection is the most commercially successful of series in terms of global box office.

TRAILER





Patrick Garone
www.patrickgarone.com
twitter.com/patrickgarone
facebook.com/cityofthegodsnovel

Monster Movie of the Week: Alien 3 (1992)

Alien3 (1992)

Director: David Fincher

Genre: SciFi/Body Horror/Suspense

THE MOVIE

I grew up with the Alien movies. As a small child, I saw Alien on TV and loved it. When I was a little older my uncle took me to see Aliens and it became one of my favorite movies. As a seventeen year old, I was crazy psyched to see Alien3. Early looks at the movie promised that the Aliens would come to earth, the ads promised “three times” everything, and that “the bitch” would be back. I was already conditioned to expect any sequel to be twice as big and spectacular as the last one, much in the same way that Aliens was pumped up balls out version of Alien. However, Alien3 turned out to be a completely different creature than the other two movies. Instead of a hardcore action movie like its predecessor it is a moody and existential suspense movie that killed off most of the characters you came to care about in the previous movie. In fact, it has more in common with Ridley Scott’s movie than with James Cameron’s. For that reason, many people don’t like it; they feel that Alien3 is a step backwards in the series. But you have to admire a movie that is ballsy enough to give you something other than what you want or expect. One of the strengths of the Alien series is that each movie was worked on by a different gifted director with a different take on the material.

In this movie, Ripley often looks as though she is going to break out into "The Emperor's New Clothes."

Alien3 was the first feature of director David Fincher, who went on to make such movies as Fight Club and 7 both of which share a certain grimy visual style with his first movie. Alien3 was an extremely troubled production from the beginning. It had literally gone though a half a dozen distinct stories and over a dozen writers before settling on the final story. An early draft was written by science fiction writer William Gibson and focused on Hicks and Bishop and an alternative reproduction cycle for the Aliens. At one point, another version of the the movie was to be directed by Vincent Ward and to have taken place on a wooden planet on which lived a population of monks. At one point, the monks were going to be dwarves and there were going to have been seven of them. I suspect at some point there may not have been an Alien in the movie at all.

So the final script for Alien3 was distilled from many different sources, apparently by committee. And even the later drafts must have been significantly different, as proved by the teaser trailer that indicated that the movie would be set on Earth. So, Fincher was ultimately hired as an inexperienced director who would likely be easily controlled by the studio and to this day he doesn’t talk about the movie at all. He was the only series director to refuse to do a commentary for the Alien Legacy DVD boxed set.

Even the movie as it was filmed would have been significantly different. I remember at the time that Charles Dutton had said something to the effect that “The movie in the theater was not the movie we filmed.” Luckily you can now get a glimpse of this in the great Alien Legacy and the Alien Anthology Bluray set which includes an alternate and in many ways superior “Assembly Cut” of the movie which is about a half hour longer and includes numerous subplots and alternate story points.

I've been on this date. It's not fun.

The decision to have Ripley host the Alien was controversial but I think ultimately a good way to (at the time) end the series. It also brings the body horror of the Alien to the forefront. The movie then becomes about mortality and existential horror. Even the briefly reanimated Bishop gets emo: “I’ll never be top of the line again. I’d rather be nothing.” This is another horror movie that addresses the AIDS epidemic in an allegorical way as it is a story of someone who has a malignant presence in their body that will ultimately kill them. In 1992 that would have been a clear reference to the epidemic.

For me, as a teenager, the movie actually appealed to me in a totally different way than the others. I actually thought it was really cool. It was very dark and vaguely goth and punk. It was a very early ‘90’s kind of movie. And while the ending was a downer it was also very beautiful and tragic. Although it is clearly a flawed movie, Fincher’s brilliance shines through and I will always have a special affection for Alien3.

THE MONSTER/EFFECTS

The Alien got a redesign in this movie, the justification being that it came from a quadruped host. This Alien, while smaller than the others, was the fastest and most deadly yet. This movie actually boasts the best Alien effects we would see until Alien vs. Predator twelve years later. A common misconception was that this movie featured an early version digital Alien but it was actually a combination of suitmation and a rod puppet that was digitally composited into live action shots.

It also returns to the smooth-domed Ridley Scott style head as opposed to the Cameron head ridges. Here, the body is a roachy brown color which goes well with the rusty prison facility. The back tubes from the previous movies are gone for a more streamlined effect.

HOME VIDEO AVAILABILITY

This movie is widely available on DVD on its own or in few different Alien boxed sets. As I stated above the Legacy and Anthology sets features the “Assembly Cut” which is definitely worth seeing. And I believe it is available in the single two-disc version as well.

The “Assembly Cut” is different in a few ways:

A lot the shots having to do with Ripley’s crash are much different. In the assembly cut she and the escape pod wash ashore. The pod is pulled back to the facility by oxen and it gives the planet a low tech effect.

There is a newly designed facehugger found, meant to represent the queen facehugger.

The chestburster comes out of an ox and not a dog.

There is an elaborate scene in which the prisoners succeed in capturing the Alien until it is let loose by the crazy prisoner.

The Alien does not hatch from Ripley’s chest as she dives into the melting pit at the end.

There are more character scenes overall in the assembly cut.

MOST MEMORABLE SEQUENCE

I like the scene (in the theatrical cut) in which the Alien hatches from the dog which is intercut with Hicks and Newt being thrown into the melting pit as Dillon eulogizes them.

SEQUELS

Alien Resurrection 1997

TEASER TRAILER

Misleading, Alien-style teaser.

Monster Movie of the Week: Aliens (1986)

ALIENS (1986)
Director: James Cameron
Genre: Sci Fi/Action

THE MOVIE

It is widely thought that Aliens is one of the rare sequels that is actually better than its predecessor. I love both movies and find it very hard to compare the two. Whereas Alien is a chilling horror film with a distinct British pedigree, Aliens is a rock-em-sock-em ‘80’s American action flick. It is certainly one of director James Cameron’s finest films and it is a seminal piece of action filmmaking. Along with Robocop and Cameron’s earlier film, The Terminator, Aliens helped to launch the hard-core action sub-genre of science fiction films. Cameron’s movie was critically acclaimed for its intensity and the overall quality of its filmmaking. Lead actress Sigourney Weaver received an Academy Award nomination for her performance as Ellen Ripley which something virtually unheard of for a science fiction or action movie.

Which one is Sigourney Weaver, again? I kid!

Aliens tells the wholly improbable story of Ripley’s second confrontation with the xenomorphic species first encountered by the Nostromo crew. After having survived her previous encounter with the Alien, Ripley put herself in suspended animation and drifted through space only to be discovered by a salvage craft almost 60 years later. After being reanimated she is held into account by the Weyland Yutani Corporation for the destruction of the Nostromo freighter. Her story about the Alien is ridiculed and she is stripped of her pilot’s license.

When contact is lost with the colony on the world originally investigated by the Nostromo crew, the military enlist Ripley (whose entire life and career have been destroyed by the Alien and her subsequent half century drifting in space) to serve as an adviser with a squadron of Space Marines. Once at the colony, the only survivor they can find is a small girl named Newt who has been living in the air vents. The marines use the computers to track the settlers to an atmosphere processor where they all appear to be gathered. Searching for the colonists, the marines stumble into an Alien nest and are ambushed by the creatures and barely manage to escape. Despite her civilian status, Ripley emerges as the natural leader of this group. The rest of the movie deals with Ripley and the survivors trying to hold off the Aliens in a fortified compound while trying to find a way off world before the reactor explodes.




Deleted scene from Aliens. The marines have set up automated gun turrets to keep the xenomorphs away from the doors. Incidentally, this can also be used at awards shows to keep Kanye West off stage.

While fast paced and action-packed, the movie also takes the time to develop characters and relationships. Aliens explores one of James Cameron’s most recurring themes: the survival of the family unit threatened by extreme circumstances. Ripley almost immediately adopts Newt as a surrogate daughter and risks her own life through out the movie to protect her. Corporal Hicks and Ripley, also develop a gentle affection for one another and these three characters and the family unit they represent are the heart of the movie. The marines as a group, despite their initially annoying macho banter also emerge as a sympathetic family unit.

Interestingly, while the movie is very different in tone from Ridley Scott’s film, it follows a plot structure that is almost identical. Instead of a small group of unarmed humans we have a squadron of galactic marines. Instead of being trapped on a ship, the humans are trapped in a terraforming facility. Instead of escaping from an exploding freighter in an escape pod while the timer counts down, Ripley escapes in a drop ship from an exploding power generator. Instead of an alien drone stowing away on the escape pod, the alien queen stows away (somehow) on the drop ship. Instead of blasting the drone out of the airlock of the escape pod, Ripley blasts the queen out of the airlock of the Sulaco. And so on. I point this out because I think it is interesting how the movie can be so derivative of the original and yet so strikingly different at the same time.

THE MOSTER/EFFECTS

Aliens features the Alien drone slightly redesigned from the creature in the original movie. Overall, they are smaller and less spindly. Gone is the smooth, dome-like head. Instead it is replaced with a smaller ridged head. These have become known as “Cameron Aliens.” Nerdier people than me have speculated that the Cameron Aliens are older than any of the other Aliens featured in the series and that the smooth dome is something that is lost when physical maturity is reached.

Okay, that was a lie. That’s actually my theory.

Aliens also created a life cycle for the creatures that somewhat contradicts the original movie by creating an Alien Queen that lays the eggs which we first saw in Ridley Scott’s movie. Deleted from the theatrical cut of Alien was a scene towards the end of the movie in which Ripley comes across the Alien nest where she finds her crew members being cocooned and being TURNED INO EGGS. So the original idea was that all those eggs in the derelict ship from Alien were actually the crew of that ship. Does this contradict Aliens? Possibly. But I like to think that in the absence of a Queen a drone can produce an egg from a host body.

*adjusts glasses*

The Queen herself was designed by James Cameron for this movie and is a larger more terrifying version of the Alien. She rather looks like a cross between the original Alien, a dinosaur skeleton and Joan Rivers. When we first see her she is disgustingly perched on her bloated, slime-filled egg sack (paging Mr. Lovecraft, your table is ready). Her crowd-pleasing battle with Ripley at the end of the movie is one of science fiction’s most iconic scenes.

The effects in Aliens are clever and largely done in-camera. Cameron uses all of the tools and tricks available to him in 1985 such as extensive miniatures, reverse photography, forced perspective and suitmation. The Aliens here are not designed for long lingering shots but for quick impressions and movement. Cameron tries to make the Aliens move more like living creatures than in the previous movie and he provides us with a variety of movement styles that recall different types of animals. My personal favorite is the quick shot of the Aliens crawling roach-like through an air vent.

Ripley impresses Hicks and Hudson with her pinball prowess.

Now, of course, there are some wince-worthy effects moments. We’re talking the mid 1980’s here. The moment I hate the most occurs in the Alien hive while the marines are making there initial exploration. There is a moment when one of the first Aliens we see seems to zip down from the ceiling and rubberly grabs on to a marine and somehow zips back up. Perhaps for the 25th anniversary in 2011 Cameron will give us a Special Edition with some revamped effects.

MONSTERS FEATURED

Dozens of Alien drones, several face huggers, a chest-burster, a queen, and a partridge in a pear tree.

HOME VIDEO AVAILABILITY

Widely available on its own or in a couple of boxed sets with the first three Alien movies or all four.

Sarah Palin takes Bristol on a particularly dangerous moose hunt.

I have the Aliens Collectors Edition which is a two DVD set (and I think identical to the one in the Alien Legacy and Alien Quadrilogy sets.) This version contains both the theatrical cut of the movie and the longer, but far superior Director’s Cut, which contains several interesting scenes that were edited from the original cut of the movie, one of which is of vital dramatic importance. This is the scene early in the movie in which Ripley learns that her daughter has recently died while she was frozen in hypersleep. This scene is pivotal as it gives depth to Ripley’s relationship with Newt and helps to explain more clearly why she goes back into the Alien nest looking for her at the end of the movie. This is the version of the movie (or one very like it) that was shown on CBS in the 1990’s and subsequently put onto an exhaustive Laserdisc set. It’s definitely worth checking out even if you are familiar with the theatrical cut of the movie.

Can we tawk?

Absent is the infamous scene in which Ripley encounters a cocooned Paul Reiser at the end of the movie. I don’t believe this scene has ever appeared in any broadcast or home video version of the movie.

The Alien Anthology Bluray set is truly beautiful thing, with all of the above features and plenty of Bluray exclusive content, and it offers a customizable way to watch the bonus features according to what you are interested in seeing.

Good thing he didn't have that cornbread, after all.

MOST MEMORABLE SEQUENCE

Six words: "Get away from her, you bitch!"

Five words: "Game over, man! Game over!"

SEQUELS:

Followed by Alien 3 (1992) Alien Resurrection (1997) and Alien vs. Predator (2004) and Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem (2008) although the two AVP movies are technically prequels.

SEE ALSO:

Starship Troopers (1997)

"Get away from that bitch, you whore!" Or something like that. Whatever.

THE TRAILER:




TRIVIA


The scene in which the marines are making their initial survey of the Alien nest in the atmosphere processor is a great example of suspense-building editing. In about a minute of screen time there something like 67 cuts. The resulting scene is an unsettling montage of the marines nervously poking around this unexpectedly creepy environment, grainy first-person video feed from the helmet cams, Burke and Ripley bathed in blue light from the monitors as they observe, and the handheld motion sensor with its eerie beep. You jump from one shot to the next in under a second and you never get a chance to get your bearings before the attack.

Bonus Monster Movie of the Week: Alien (1979)

ALIEN (1979)

Director: Ridley Scott

Genre: Science Fiction/Survival/Body Horror

THE MOVIE:

Ridley Scott’s Alien is a milestone in monster and horror cinema and features what is arguably the greatest movie monster of all time: The Alien, designed by Swiss artist H. R. Giger. The movie has spawned three sequels (each helmed by a different gifted director with radically different takes on the material), two cross-over prequels with the Predator franchise, and too many rip-offs to list here. It also helped to launch the careers of star Sigourney Weaver and director Ridley Scott. In addition to all of this, Alien and its sequels have also inspired a flood of spin-off comics, novels and videogames. It was one of the first genre movies to feature a woman as a strong protagonist and the ultimate survivor (this is heightened in James Cameron’s 1986 sequel Aliens in which Ripley becomes a bonafide action heroine) and Alien features what Bravo TV deems the second scariest movie moment of all time: the infamous dinner scene, one of the most shocking and disturbing sequences in the history of the movies.

Alien was produced as part of the great late 70’s sci-fi boom in the wake of Star Wars but in many ways it is the polar opposite George Lucas’ movie. Whereas Star Wars is an optimistic piece of bubblegum space fanstasy, Alien is a dark and cynical horror tale that is thoroughly unromantic about the exploration of space and what we may find once we get there. While Luke Skywalker desperately dreams of adventures off his humdrum planet, Ripley and her crew would have been better off staying home. Ultimately, they are only in space to work, not to save the universe.

At its core, Alien is a throwback to the Sci-Fi horror films of the 1950’s such as It! The Terror from Beyond Space, in which a spaceship is menaced by an alien that hides in the shadows picking off the crew one by one until it is blown out of the airlock. Alien does a better job of creating suspense and exploiting social tensions between the crew members. It shares with Star Wars a certain design aesthetic of a “used universe” unlike the sleek chrome rocket ships of classic Sci-Fi movies or the clinical whiteness of 2001: A Space Odyssey. The production design of Alien attempts to create a realistic utilitarian space in which a small crew lives in for long periods of time. The phase “truck drivers in space” was thrown around a lot during preproduction.

Ridley Scott’s film begins as the crew of the enormous interstellar shipping vessel “Nostromo” is awakened from an induced hibernation by a mysterious distress symbol. They receive instructions from their faceless employer (referred to throughout the film as “The Company”) to investigate this beacon. Once on the barren planet they discover a mysterious derelict space craft complete with a fossilized alien pilot and a cache of leathery eggs. When crewmember Kane examines an egg it hatches and a strange crablike creature attaches itself to his face. Kane ultimately ends up birthing The Alien which stalks the crew one by one until only Ripley is left.

THE MONSTER/EFFECTS:

The real star of the movie is Giger’s Alien. Without this extraordinary and nightmarish creature the movie would not be as effective as it is. H. R. Giger designed The Alien through its various life stages as well as the derelict ship and it’s interior. From the moment we see this ship on a grainy video feed from one of the crewmember’s exo-suits we know that we are in for something special.


The ship itself is actually alien-looking. This is in itself remarkable because as often as you see extraterrestrials and their technology in movies the designs rarely look alien. Giger’s ship is vaguely horseshoe shaped but also asymmetrical with a strange bioorganic appearance. The crew enters through a weird sphincter-like orifice and one can see in that one shot that they simply do not belong there. One of the underlying themes of the movie is the very Lovecraftian, Men Do Not Belong in the Stars. This is powerfully reinforced in Giger’s design. The derelict ship is not made for men, it is the wrong scale, it is so alien as to be beyond human comprehension, the explorers stumble around it like children (not coincidentally children were used in these scenes so the sets could be constructed at half scale.)

The brilliance of the concept and design of Giger’s Alien is how it taps into people’s psychosexual fear and discomfort. The Alien itself is conceived in an act of oral rape, in which a creature attaches itself to Kane’s head and inserts a long tube down his throat with which it plants its seed. When we later see the underside of this “facehugger” we see organs that somehow manage to look like a penis and a vagina at the same time.


The infant alien later erupts from Kane in a bloody parody of childbirth. When we next see it, The Alien is spindly and asexual with a long phallic head. Novelist Anne Rice has speculated that movies like Alien and its imitators-in which sexualized or fetus-like Body Horrors exact their revenge on society-are exhibiting a kind of collective guilt over abortion.

In terms of special effects, the creature is realized primarily through suitmation and clever editing that rarely lets you see the entire Alien. The impression from watching the movie is that you ever know exactly what the Alien looks like.

MONSTERS FEATURED:

1 Alien.

MOST MEMORABLE SEQUENCE:

I like the exploration of the derelict ship. It’s very creepy and overwhelmingly Gigeresque.

HOME VIDEO AVAILABILITY:

Widely available on its own or in boxed sets. There two different DVD boxed sets the first of which features Alien, Aliens, and Alien 3 or the superior Alien Quadrilogy, set which features theatrical and alternate cuts of all FOUR movies. The special features for Alien include deleted scenes as well as a documentary on the making of the film as well as the usual trailers and interviews, as well as the exhaustive special features from the old Alien laser disc.

The Alien Anthology Bluray set is truly beautiful thing, with all of the above features and plenty of Bluray exclusive content, and it offers a customizable way to watch the bonus features according to what you are interested in seeing.

Out of all the movies in the series, Alien, really shines in this HD format. One really begins to appreciate the abundance of detail in the sets and costumes. The Anthology set is a must for any fan of this movie.

SEQUELS:

Aliens (1986), Alien 3 (1992), Alien Resurrection (1997), Alien Vs. Predator (2004) (Prequel), Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem (2007)

It has recently been announced that fifth and sixth Alien movie will be produced...directed by none other than Ridley Scott! These will be prequels to the 1979 movie. Scott has been circling another Alien movie for years and he has previously said that he was interested in seeing the Alien home world and possible exploring the origins of the fossilized "Space Jockey"that we see aboard the derelict ship in Alien.

THE TRAILER:



SEE ALSO:

The Thing (1982), It! The Terror From Beyond Space (1958), Species (1995)

Ex Games: Alien 3

As a teenager, I was ready to get back into video games after having been a big Nintendo fan as a kid. I had the choice between getting a Super Nintendo or a Sega Genesis. My friend Ian had convinced me that the Sega Genesis was cooler, better. Sonic the Hedgehog had some levels that were in 3D. Three D!! And then there were all these intriguing add-ons like the 32X and Sega CD drive. It could play actual CDs! I had never even used a CD before. But the clincher for me was Alien 3.

Alien 3 was a game that was very loosely adapted from the movie of the same name. It was more like the video game version of Aliens that we never got on the home consoles with lots of guns and violence and little of the existentialism of the David Fincher movie. According to my video game magazines at the time, it was going to be bad ass. And it was coming out for both systems. But it was coming out on the Genesis first. Sold!

So, I got my Genesis, I got my copy of Alien 3 and it was…okay. It was a little repetitive but the worst part was that there was no Queen at the end. Surely this had to have been some mistake. There was even a reference to the queen in the instruction manual. What the hell!

Later, I rented a Super Nintendo and a copy of Alien 3 for that system and I realized the great cost of my impatience. While the game play is very similar, comparing the two games, it is almost hard to believe that they are in the same software generation. The SNES version has vivid, eye-popping graphics and gorgeous stereo sound. How could I have been so stupid?

Years later, I bought a copy of some SNES games on eBay to use with my roommate’s old Super Nintendo. I bought Alien 3 and, surprisingly, it had not aged badly at all. I had some fun with it for a few hours, but not long enough to forget my ill-advised fling with the Sega Genesis.My copy of Alien 3 for the Super Nintendo is sitting in a drawer right now with a copy of Super Mario All Stars and an old Xbox controller.

For the Genesis:

For the SNES: