Why Aliens is the best one in the series

[Tyrant]

It's here that my nerves started to fail. "Aliens" is absolutely, painfully and unremittingly intense for at least its last hour. Weaver goes into battle to save her colleagues, herself and the little girl, and the aliens drop from the ceiling, pop up out of the floor and crawl out of the ventilation shafts. (In one of the movie's less plausible moments, one alien even seems to know how to work the elevator buttons.) I have never seen a movie that maintains such a pitch of intensity for so long; it's like being on some kind of hair-raising carnival ride that never stops.

I don't know how else to describe this: The movie made me feel bad. It filled me with feelings of unease and disquiet and anxiety. I walked outside and I didn't want to talk to anyone. I was drained. I'm not sure "Aliens" is what we mean by entertainment. Yet I have to be accurate about this movie: It is a superb example of filmmaking craft.

And he's right.

 

[Colonel Kira's Left Tit]

Alien is better, but you had to be there.

 

[Dark Link]

That's it man, Game over man, Game over!

 

[Enkephalen]

Alien was more intense and frightening. I haven't been able to watch that movie in its entirety as the suspense is choking. But Aliens is my favorite. I liked Alien as the movie presented Ripley as a woman who fought her demons and won. She may have started out as a bit of a wimp, but she ended up a very strong character. Most movies make women out to be damsils in distress, but Aliens was the first movie to show that a woman (at least Ripley) could be strong, capable and carry a film. I've watched Aliens numerous time and loved every minute of it.

"They're dead - alright?!"

 

[Caedus]

Aliens is a kick ass horror/sci-fi flick that ranks up there with Die Hard in my most watched list but it doesn't top the masterpiece that was Alien. Ridley Scott was able to keep the suspense building all movie long from when the crew got jolted awake by the transmission to Brett's untimely end and the goodness that followed while keeping the Alien itself a mystery. In Aliens you saw every possible angle of every single form of the creature but in Alien you didn't really full grasp what the crew of the Nostromo was dealing with until Ripley harpooned it in the escape schuttle, Scott was able to have the Alien off Brett, Dallas, Lambert, and Parker while still managing to keep the audience from being fully able to grasp what Ripley and friends were up against.

 

[Volpone]

Alien is better, but you had to be there.

A few years back (shit, probably around ten) I saw this one in a classic moviehouse. The scene where Captain Dallas meets his fate in the airducts? Probably everyone in that theater knew what was coming and had seen the film at least three times. But up on the big screen, a 20 year old film that everyone had seen before still make everyone in the theater gasp and jump in their seats.

 

[Harry Balzac]

Fuck Sigourney Weaver.

 

[Gonad]

I've only seen these movies once; a self-imposed marathon one day/night in '99. More to follow, I've got an ice cream cone.

 

[Gonad]

The four movies together made an interesting ensemble piece. I appreciated the Ripley character. Alien was my choice for the best because it piqued my curiosity of the aliens' origins, and that alien ship was so damn cool.

I didn't enjoy the second one. It was okay at first, but once they introduced the kid it was all over. I read the kid's presence as an attempt to increase my sympathy for the good guys, and it didn't work. On top of it, the kid's presence turne Ripley, an otherwise decent action/horror/thriller character who just happened to be female into a mom-character. Can't have a female without grasping for one of the virgin/whore/mother angles, eh?

The third one was a relief, mainly because that damn kid wasn't in it. Otherwise, it left little impression on me.

I enjoyed the fourth movie. While I do not have a natural affinity for life sciences, I respect them immensely. The genetic engineering stuff was both visually and mentally stimulating. I especially liked this movie because for me, it redeemed the mother-role in the second movie, sort of turning it on its head.

I would really need to rewatch these if I want thoughtful, developed opinions.

What did everyone else particularly like/dislike?

 

[Agent 001]

Alien remains, to me, the greatest of the series and is perhaps the greatest sci-fi/horror film of all time.

It took the staid horror convention of the haunted house and put it in deep space. That's the beauty of this film. You see the "ghost" when it makes it fantastic debut, but you don't see the full-grown creature until the end. It's those shocking, disturbing, unclear glimpses of alien horror that truly terrify and unnerve.

I saw Alien was going for ten dollars the other day at Wal-Mart. I was going to get the big multi-disc set, but now I think I'll just get the original and the best.

001

 

[chucklemeister]

I remember seeing a special where they were talking about the chest burster scene in alien, and how they didn't let the cast know when it was going to happen. So the reaction we saw was pure emotion.

 

[Crosis]

I really, really enjoyed Alien, and Aliens as well.

Alien 3 was just more of the same to me, and Alien Ressurection gets points for trying to do something new, but it just wasn't as appealing to me.