The ALIEN Quadrilogy

ALIEN

German Title:
Alien - Das unheimliche Wesen aus einer fremden Welt

USA / UK, 1979
Director: Ridley Scott

Oh my goodness, I haven't seen "Alien" in a very, very long time and I almost forgot how awesome it is: Ridley Scott's groundbreaking sci-fi masterpiece is still one of the smartest, most suspenseful and most impressive space-horror-movies ever made.

Scott's sharp and intriguing direction is virtually perfect, as is Dan O'Bannon's simple but stunningly intelligent, stunningly thrilling screenplay, Jerry Goldsmith's dark and gloomy soundtrack, Derek Vanlint's marvellous camera work and the absolutely outstanding, incredibly effective editing (Terry Rawling).

The cast is fantastic and everyone delivers a fabulous and believable performance: Sigourney Weaver as badass warrant officer Ripley ("Will you listen to me, Parker? Shut Up!"), Ian Holm as android Ash ("You have my sympathies."), Tom Skerritt as ship captain Dallas ("I don't trust anybody."), John Hurt as chest-bursted Kane ("Oh, I feel dead."), Yaphet Kotto as hilarious engineer Parker ("Let's talk about the bonus situation."), Harry Dean Stanton as even more hilarious technician Brett ("Back to the ole Freezerinos."), Veronica Cartwright as emotional navigator Lambert ("I like griping.") and Jones the cat :-)

THE Highlight of "Alien" is undoubtedly the incredible set design: all the eerie-looking corridors of the stunning "Nostromo", a fantastically designed huge space freighter, H.R. Giger's nightmarish and outlandish alien planetoid with the derelict spaceship, the space-jockey and the haunting egg-field, and of course: the ALIEN, or more specifically the 4 stages of the ALIEN (egg, facehugger, chestburster, xenomorph). This surreal and frightening biomechanical bastard is definitely the most fascinating creature ever created in Hollywood history.

"Alien" is a masterful work of art and about as amazing as other science fiction classics like "Blade Runner" or "2001: A Space Odyssey".

THEATRICAL CUT - Masterpiece 10/10
DIRECTOR'S CUT - almost as great, especially because of the added scenes (e.g. Dallas cocooned, Blood dripping), but the few missing dialogue scenes makes me give it only a 9,5/10

Wiki ~ Imdb

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 ALIENS

German Title:
Aliens - Die Rückkehr

UK / USA, 1986
Director: James Cameron

Oh my goodness, I also haven't seen this in a very, very long time and I also almost forgot how awesome it is: James Cameron's "Aliens", an epic and explosive sci-fi/action sequel, totally different from the first part but still true to Scott's and Giger's original vision.

Instead of simply rehashing "Alien", Cameron and crew managed to create a unique, intelligent and super-thrilling follow-up, which eventually became one of the greatest action movies, AND one of the greatest movie-sequels of all time, thanks to the powerful storyline, Cameron's flawless direction, the wonderful progression of Ripley's character and Sigourney Weaver's pitch-perfect Oscar-nominated performance ("Get away from her, you bitch!").

The rest of the cast is also excellent: one-time-actress Carrie Henn as Newt ("Affirmative."), Michael Biehn as corporal Hicks ("Looks like love at first sight to me."), Jenette Goldstein as super badass private Vasquez ("Hey Vasquez, have you ever been mistaken for a man?" - "No, have you?"), the great Lance Henriksen as friendly android Bishop ("Not bad for a human."), Al Matthews as Marine Corps admirer Apone ("You know the drill. Assholes and elbows."), Bill Paxton as Private Hudson ("I say we grease this rat-fuck son-of-a-bitch right now!") and Paul Reiser as son-of-a-bitch Burke ("Maybe we could build a fire, sing a couple of songs, huh?").

The special effects all look top-notch, the set pieces are all very well designed, well-lit and look highly atmospheric, Adrian Biddle's lively camera work is fantastic and James Horner's adrenaline-pumping soundtrack is mindblowing.

Best of all: the Xenomorphic killer-machine armada and the creepy design of the Alien queen.

"Aliens" is an outstanding piece of  kick-ass awesomeness - in terms of action movies, only "Terminator 2" is better.

THEATRICAL CUT - Amazing, but some important scenes missing 9/10

SPECIAL EDITION - Deeper backstory, more emotion, more action. The scenes with Newt's parents and Ripley's daughter are amazing. I definitely prefer this version 10/10

Wiki ~ Imdb

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ALIEN³

Alternate Title:
Alien 3

USA, 1992
Director: David Fincher

When I first saw David Fincher's "Alien³" back in 1997, I hated it. I thought it was boring, pointless and completely unspectacular. Now 15 years later, I watched it for the second time - and surprisingly, this time I enjoyed it!

 It's obviously far from being as awesome as the first 2 parts, thanks to the studios who spoiled the production with countless re-cuts and script re-writes - but overall, it's a well-made, well-shot film, dark, intriguing and captivating.

There's lots of amazing suspense and haunting atmosphere, especially in the first half, and it's full of really breathtaking scenes (opening, autopsy, explosion) and cool kills (tunnel fan, double kill in the candle corridor).

The production design of the industrial refinery/prison is awesome, lots of darkly lit corridors, gritty halls and eerie-looking shafts, all fantastically filmed with great angles, fantastic close-ups and amazing tracking shots. Elliot Goldenthal's experimental score is cool and extremely effective, the editing is neat, and I had absolutely no problem with the deaths of Newt and Hicks.

The cast is ok. Some mediocre acting and many unimpressive characters, but also some stunning performances from Sigourney Weaver as strangely erotic 'Skinhead Ripley' ("Do we have the capacity to make fire? Most humans have enjoyed that privilege since the stone age."), Charles Dance as facility doctor Clemens ("Who was it?" - "Murphy." - "How do you know?" - "It's his boot."), Brian Glover as prison warden Andrews ("This is rumor control. Here are the facts."), and an absolutely mind-blowing Charles Dutton ("You're all gonna die. Only question is how you check out? Do you want it on your feet? Or on your fuckin' knees... begging? I ain't much for begging. Nobody ever gave me nothing. So I say, fuck that thing! Let's fight it!") -  plus: 2 great Lance Henriksen cameos.

As for the bad:
Theatrical Cut - Most of the CGI effects look horrid, especially the laughable CGI alien. - The third act is disappointing and feels like a bland and mindless slasherfest. - The chest-burster spoils Ripley's suicide. - The scene with the dog reminds too much of Carpenter's "The Thing".	Assembly Cut - Most of the CGI effects look horrid, especially the laughable CGI alien. - The last quarter is disappointing and feels like a bland and mindless slasherfest. + Ripley's suicide without the chest-burster is a much better ending. + They fortunately replaced the dog with an ox which makes the scene more believable.

"Alien³" is not a masterpiece, but it's definitely a very good and highly interesting threequel.

THEATRICAL CUT - 6/10
ASSEMBLY CUT - 7,5/10

Wiki ~ Imdb

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ALIEN: RESURRECTION

German Title:
Alien - Die Wiedergeburt

USA, 1997

Director: Jean-Pierre Jeunet

Back in 1997 I saw this together with a few classmates, and I remember that we all quite enjoyed it - though at that time, we enjoyed almost everything we saw in theater...

Now, 15 years later, I didn't enjoyed it as much as back then. In fact... I hated it! "Alien: Resurrection", directed by the horribly overrated Jean-Pierre Jeunet, written by the horribly overrated Joss Whedon, is a terrible, TERRIBLE sequel, that feels more like a disrespectful spoof than a true continuation of the Alien-saga.

The movie is dull and tedious, there's hardly any atmosphere or suspense. The story is stupid (cloning Ripley WITH an Alien inside???), the script is a ridiculous mess and there are sooo many lame one-liners, it makes one puke.

Nearly every character is annoying (even Ripley 2.0 whose over-the-top badassery is simply laughable) and most of the acting is simply bad, especially Winona Ryder's super-lame performance and a rather weak Ron Perlman. The aliens look embarrasingly awful, the set pieces are unimpressive, the CGI looks bad and the soundtrack is more like background noise.

A handful pretty ok scenes (egg trap, Ripley's clones) and Sigourney Weaver looks pretty hot - aside from that, "Alien: Resurrection" sucks bad.

THEATRICAL CUT - 3/10

SPECIAL EDITION - The new bleak ending makes it a bit better 3,5/10

Wiki ~ Imdb

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