Alien vs. Aliens

[Deleted member 110072]

I've seen both films countless times.

Aliens - My favorite movie of all time. It's the perfect combination of SciFi, Horror, Action, and Suspense, adding to great 1-Dimentional characters played by very likable actors, saying lines that are still quoteable to this day. Aliens is the #1 most quotable movie of all time.

Alien - I could gush about this movie with endless praise, just like I did with Alien, but let me skip to the ONE factor that clearly makes it inferior to Aliens.

After the chestburster scene, it becomes a slasher flick.

Yes, I'm serious. From then on, the villian takes out the cast, one by one, until the main character defeats the villian and ultimatley is the lone survivor.

That's the plot of a damn slasher flick. Sorry to break it to you guys.

But, it's still a 9/10 film & a classic. But it ain't a GOAT contender as Aliens should be.

To me though a slasher is a film that's driven by constant fear of being attacked at any moment which I don't think Alien really is, at least not until very late in the film. After the chestburster you do have quite a lot of scenes were the characters aren't in immediate danger which I think tend to play into the depth of the film as more than just a monster movie.

I think the intension is as a takedown of the selfish careerist/capitalist mindset. The crew are all distant emotionally from each other and more concerned with their "shares" which gets shown by nobody having anything to say at Kane's funeral before we get the Ash/Special order plot revealing the same mindset they follow has traded there lives in for the bottom line.

Added to that of course the mystery behind the Alien itself and the obvious sexual references maybe playing into the atmosphere on the ship? Ash trying to stick a porn mag down Ripley's throat.

 

[TAK47]

I will never get why anyone would prefer Aliens over Alien...
Aliens is nothing but the cheesy action interpretation of a deep and mysterious SciFi-Horror masterpiece.
There is no relevance to the mystery what the alien is and where it came from, instead you get a generic crew of badass space marines incl. some jewish woman playing a hard latina...

 

[2GunTommy]

I mostly like Aliens... mostly.

 

[BisexualMMA]

I will never get why anyone would prefer Aliens over Alien...
Aliens is nothing but the cheesy action interpretation of a deep and mysterious SciFi-Horror masterpiece.
There is no relevance to the mystery what the alien is and where it came from, instead you get a generic crew of badass space marines incl. some jewish woman playing a hard latina...

Not that you'd give a shit, but she is Jewish and latin.

 

[TAK47]

Not that you'd give a shit, but she is Jewish and latin.

You mean because she has a brazilian-jewish background (among others, which I just had to look up on wiki)?
If you watch her interviews, she definitely doesnt / didnt consider herself a latina.
Anyway, this doesnt affect the quality of Aliens to a great extent IMO. She played it well, I just brought it up because Aliens feels so cliche-ridden with respect to the cast and story, compared to the original.

 

[n...not crazy]

You mean because she has a brazilian-jewish background (among others, which I just had to look up on wiki)?
If you watch her interviews, she definitely doesnt / didnt consider herself a latina.
Anyway, this doesnt affect the quality of Aliens to a great extent IMO. She played it well, I just brought it up because Aliens feels so cliche-ridden with respect to the cast and story, compared to the original.

As I recall from the director commentary, Cameron basically let the marines do their own characters and choose their 15 pieces of flare on the uniform. So these characters happened organically for the most part. And don't bag on Vasquez because she is one of the coolest characters ever, and when I was 12 idk if I wanted to follow her into battle or fuck her. Anyways, I care zero about the actress and 100 about Vasquez. Hudson? Apone? How could anyone bag on these characters? They're legendary.

As for the story? Idk. It was 1986 and it worked for me. The Paul Reiser "character" is a cliche I guess. Redlettermedia brilliantly pointed out the fact that Cameron always depends on unreal, simplistic, impossible characters to hold his stories together. This makes you go hmmm, for sure. It's a definite weakness of his.

But Alien depended on a corporate robot. Same thing really.

 

[Scerpi]

Tough choice.... Love both of these fucking movies.

Alien gave me nightmares for years after I watched it late one in the 2nd grade on HBO when my parents explicitly told me not to... 1980 I think. Though I still loved the movie.

I was excited and kind of worried when I watched Aliens later in life, though we all went on opening night. However, it was like immersion therapy with aliens fucking everywhere and it actually helped me get over my Alien fear. My favorite memory was the whole theater going crazy and cheering when Ripley showed up...

RIP Bill Paxton...

 

[astrozician]

Alien - a better-than-average Slasher: People make dumb decisions, are ambushed one at a time, and while sexual innuendoes abound, the "virgin" at the end survives. Overpowered monster needs 2 hours to win (almost). Contains one of the best jump-scares (Dallas Death) in all of cinema.

Aliens - upper-echelon 80's action flick. Essentially a retelling of the first movie, but expands into a movie that better fits its 2+ hours run-time.

Winner: Aliens. Game over, man.

 

[DM1982]

Alien is better

Prefer Aliens

 

[esum80]

GAME OVER MAN!

 

[DM1982]

Aliens is the coolest movie ever made

Nope

T2

 

[BisexualMMA]

GAME OVER MAN!

Made on a smaller budget than Timecop, which produced this wobbly piece of shit.

 

[TAK47]

As I recall from the director commentary, Cameron basically let the marines do their own characters and choose their 15 pieces of flare on the uniform. So these characters happened organically for the most part. And don't bag on Vasquez because she is one of the coolest characters ever, and when I was 12 idk if I wanted to follow her into battle or fuck her. Anyways, I care zero about the actress and 100 about Vasquez. Hudson? Apone? How could anyone bag on these characters? They're legendary.

As for the story? Idk. It was 1986 and it worked for me. The Paul Reiser "character" is a cliche I guess. Redlettermedia brilliantly pointed out the fact that Cameron always depends on unreal, simplistic, impossible characters to hold his stories together. This makes you go hmmm, for sure. It's a definite weakness of his.

But Alien depended on a corporate robot. Same thing really.

It really comes down to the type of scifi you prefer.
Alien is one of the movies I can rewatch a few times per year because - to me - it is just perfect, like Heat.

The story is gripping, youve got the space jockey stranded with his ship on a remote moon - where does he come from? (I know Ridley Scott has shit all over this arc with Covenant...)
And of course youve got the face hugger and the xenomorph + a dark corporate conspiracy.

The score is just brilliant and
complememts the mystery of the plot.
The visuals are minimalistic and due to that have aged very well - whereas all the plastic shit in Aliens turns me off because nowadays it looks like a b-movie.

So when it comes to scifi I prefer mystery / mindfuck over action but I can totally understand if someone has the opposite POV.
I just cant understand how someone wouls prefer Aliens over Alien

 

[n...not crazy]

The story is gripping, youve got the space jockey stranded with his ship on a remote moon - where does he come from?

When the jockey fades back into dark, that is the creepiest and most fascinating shot in the movie for me.

whereas all the plastic shit in Aliens turns me off because nowadays it looks like a b-movie.

To say this is a little bit ridiculous. I figure in 200 years, body armor will be plastic anyways. That's how I always took it.

There's fire everywhere, there's metal everywhere, slime, acid, steam, they filmed half of it in a frickin power plant. C'mon man. If Aliens is a B movie, Alien is a C movie.

Anyways I like 'em both big time.

 

[Agent Mulder's Hair]

However, it was like immersion therapy with aliens fucking everywhere and it actually helped me get over my Alien fear.

I think this was deliberate on Cameron's part and I almost never hear it mentioned about Aliens. Nice catch!

It's obviously meant to be immersion therapy, given the clues that Cameron gave us. Ripley is having PTSD about the alien. Newt can't sleep and obviously has PTSD about the aliens. At the very end, Newt says " is it safe to sleep now" or something like that, and Ripley says "yes."


There's something to be said for the human impulse of taking that otherworldly, rapish, thing-of-nightmares-creature....and sicking a bunch of machines and marines on it. And just plain beating the ever loving shit out of them (it) at the end.

Imo that was totally one of the themes of that brilliant screenplay. And nobody ever seems to pick up on it. So bravo, sir!

 

[TheRuthlessOne]

I used to like the extended aliens version but after many years I have discovered its simply too long

Its adds questionable scenes like me staring at a bullet counter for 5 minutes

I think its needs another recut to really find that perfect balance

 

[panamaican]

Aliens because I saw it before I saw Alien.

 

[Scerpi]

I think this was deliberate on Cameron's part and I almost never hear it mentioned about Aliens. Nice catch!

It's obviously meant to be immersion therapy, given the clues that Cameron gave us. Ripley is having PTSD about the alien. Newt can't sleep and obviously has PTSD about the aliens. At the very end, Newt says " is it safe to sleep now" or something like that, and Ripley says "yes."


There's something to be said for the human impulse of taking that otherworldly, rapish, thing-of-nightmares-creature....and sicking a bunch of machines and marines on it. And just plain beating the ever loving shit out of them (it) at the end.

Imo that was totally one of the themes of that brilliant screenplay. And nobody ever seems to pick up on it. So bravo, sir!

Those early scenes had me grabbing my chair in terror. When the marines were looking for the colonists and found that one trapped in reactor.... Ripley grabbed her chest and I probably did the same. Then they got slaughtered and I wasn't able to relax until Hicks grabbed the wheel from Ripley to get to her to stop.

When I watch the movie these days, it doesn't have the same impact as that first time.

So good

 

[n...not crazy]

There's something to be said for the human impulse of taking that otherworldly, rapish, thing-of-nightmares-creature....and sicking a bunch of machines and marines on it. And just plain beating the ever loving shit out of them (it) at the end.

That's the thing. Aliens let the audience frickin unleash on those bastards. Let those pent up emotions go. You can't just play suspense and dudes looking for cats for 2 more hours. Mooooorrre suspense. Mooorrre!!!

No. We had that, now it's time to blow shit up and nuke the site from orbit. UNLEASH

 

[Gene Tunney]

I like the serious tone and bizarre isolation of Alien; I like the campy tone and the esprit de corps of Aliens.