“Alien” & “Aliens” Impressions
Being really sick means I have tons of down time. The bad news is I’m too dizzy to play “Halo” or other video games, but I can get caught up on the stack of DVDs I have to watch, which is why I spent some time today with “Alien” and “Aliens” (something Jim Smash convinced me to do).
My first impression of both films is that
My next thought about the two movies is that Ridley Scott’s “Alien” felt like a true horror movie and one that helped define the genre while James Cameron’s “Aliens” felt like one of the earliest summer blockbusters, but with a “horror” setting. Both were good in their own ways but in a sense I don’t think its really right to compare them because they are different genres.
The last time I saw both films I was a sophomore in high school and knew very little about movie making or writing (in fact I watched “Alien” for the first time during the first week I worked on “Runaway Bride”). So now that I’m more educated on the film making process I definitely appreciate “Alien.” It has a flawless structure which gives the pacing this amazing feeling. At times its slow and at other times its chaos… it’s that perfect balance that manipulates the viewer and sucks you into the movie. Even the twists aren’t (specially the robot/android one) aren’t predictable or cliché.
Even though I enjoyed both movies I did have two real plot problems. With “Alien” I just didn’t understand why, after the face-hugger fell off Kane, they didn’t give him a body scan. Maybe I’ve been watching too much “Star Trek” (which I FINALLY FINISHED and will post about later) or maybe I’ve spent too much time in hospitals… but I just don’t understand why no one thought to scan Kane to make sure he was ok. There is no reason they wouldn’t be aware that a baby alien was inside his body.
My other plot problem is with “Aliens.” It’s r
Now beside those plot issues I was also left with TONS of questions about the Alien-Universe:
- Does the “alien” species have a former name? In the movies they are just referred to as “creatures” but I wasn’t sure if they had an official name.
- Can the alien-species survive in the vacuum of space?
- The ship that was crashed in the first film (where they found all the eggs)… how did it get there? Also who were the people/species that flew it?
- Where is the government in both films?
- I seriously want to know more about “The Company.” Who are they? Why do they do what they do? What kind of power do they have?
- What about Ripley’s life? She’s gone for 57 years but doesn’t seem to
- I know the alien species is intelligent but are they fully sentient or are the smart like how a wolf or really smart animal is smart?
- What is up with the androids/robots? Who built them? Where did they come from? Are they recognized as sentient or are their personalities just programmed? For example was Ash in the first film just following programming or did he make the decisions he did himself?
Even with all my questions, both films were awesome and if you haven’t watched them in a long time (like me) then they are worth tracking down and viewing again.
November 28th, 2007 at 3:14 pm
YES!!!! Dude, you just made my day! Not only did you watch them, but you liked them! I really enjoyed your review, too! Fantastic! And I have some answers for ya…..
Re: PLOT PROBLEMS:
1) In ALIEN, when they first scan Kane, Ash is aware of what’s going on… he feeds a BS line to Dallas, “Oh, its just feeding him oxygen” but Ash knows that Kane is being impregnated. So from then on, Ash is waiting to see what happens. His secret orders from the Company is to bring back the lifeform. So that is why they do not scan him. And the rest of the Crew leave all science matters to Ash; Dallas says something to the effect of this, as well…”Look, I just run the ship. Anything that has to do with the Science Division - Ash has the final word…It happens, my dear, because that’s what the Company wants to happen.”
2) The Colony being overrun by aliens 57 yrs later in conjunction with Ripley being found….
When Ripley comes out of her long hypersleep, she tells her story…. Burke then sends a message to the Colony to go out to the coordinates of where the Derelict space ship is, which they do. And the rest plays itself out. When Ripley has her angry encounter with Burke, she says, “I just checked the colony log: directive dated 6-12-79, signed Burke, Carter J. You sent them out there and you didn’t even warn them. Why didn’t you warn them, Burke?” In addition, in the Special Edition, you actually get to see the Colonist get the message from Burke and go find the ship - the first to get facehugged are Newt’s parents, which comes off way too force-fed and coincidental in my book. I think the Ripley/Burke encounter is enough.
Re: QUESTIONS:
1)No, the alien species does not have an official name.
2)In the first issue of the first Dark Horse Comics series (recommended!) the alien is shown to be able to survive in the vacuum of space. My memory is fuzzy, but that might have been stated in one of the scripts of ALIEN and/or ALIENS. So yeah, fans say they can survive.
3)The Derelict spacecraft and its crew is still a mystery. Nothing is known about them at all. Ridley Scott has said if was to do another Alien film, he’d want to explore that part. Personlly, I like it kept a mystery.
4)The Government is there but there’s not alot of info. Basically the Coroporations run things now, with “The Company” (Weyland-Yutani) being one of the big boys… if not THE big one. In ALIEN, there is a patch that reads “Flag of the United Americas”, which aludes to North, Central & South America uniting. However, this could be more or less like “Europe” than a single country because there is also a patch that celebrates the U.S.’s 300th birthday; http://time.absoluteavp.com/pics/ustripatchsml.gif
In ALIENS, the marine corp is the USCMC: “United States Colonial Marine Corp”. But again, the Corporations run things now.
5)There isn’t alot of info on The Company. But its huge with vast various departments… Ore Refinery (ALIEN) and Bio-Weapons Division (ALIENS) and Planetary Colonization (ALEINS) to name 3.
6)In the Special Edition (Director’s Cut) of ALIENS, there is a scene at the beginning after Ripley is awakened. There we find out that during ALIEN, she was heading back to Earth and had promised her daughter, Amy, she’d be back in time for her 11th birthday. You find out that Amy lived out her life and died of old age. A picture of the old Amy is shown, which is actually Sigourney Weaver’s mother. Both Ridley Scott and James Cameron wrote up single-page length bios/history of the characters which they gave to the actors. I’d love to get a hold of those! I do know some info from the pages for Hudson, Vasquez and Drake.
7)The Aliens are very intelligent, but run more on instinct. Within a Hive, they are more or less controlled by the queen, much like other insect colonies (bee, ants….). They are also smart enough to figure out how to open doors. But they are not fully sentient with self-awareness like a Star Wars or Star Trek alien. Think of them as highly developed animals…. like uber dolphins I guess. haha
8)The androids are built by The Company. They’re running on programs, but programs with A.I. so they can learn. Bishop mentions “Behaviour Inhibitors”. Ash was both acting on orders and “his own”… Burke says Ash “malfunctioned” (which Ripley argues against) and Bishop, upon learning that Ash was of the “Hyperdine System’s 120-A2″ models, retorts, “Well, that explains it then. The A2s always were a bit twitchy.” In ALIEN 3 we meet the guy who built the Bishop model android, played by Lance Henrikson - so he made the android look like himself. WITH THAT SAID, though, there’s lots of stuff in ALIEN 3 that shouldn’t be allowed into the “official” mythos of ALIEN, heh.
Whew, that was long! Sorry for geeking out hard there. But I love talking ALIEN stuff. Hope I shed some light on your questions.
And I hope you’re feeling better, man!
November 28th, 2007 at 5:58 pm
When are you writing the guide to the Alien’s universe? If there isn’t already one you seriously need to pitch it to publishers.
I ended up watching the theatrical editions of both films because the DVDs I got from netflix were double sided with the “special edition” on one side and theatrical on the other. Since I couldn’t remember if I wasn’t supposed to watch the “special” “collectors” or “directors cut” of each film I decided to stick with the theatricle releases. That’s probbally why those two plot-holes weren’t explained.
I seriously want to know more about that freaking crashed ship! Grrrrrrrrr.
I’m surprised too that they’ve not done any company-type spinoffs in the alien universe. The mythos seems to be rich enough that I think they could successfully pull off a story without having any “aliens” in it. …man I still want to know more about the company and how it works. grrrrr.
Thanks for all the details. Your reply is a HUGE help in answering a lot of the questions I had left over from watching the first two films.