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All right—kicking off another pop culture mission. I am gonna watch and rank all the Alien/Predator films. Popping on #Alien to kick it off. It’s up on HBOmax if you’re interested.
I recently read the Making of Star Wars book in which Ridley Scott specifically said he made this movie because of how inspired he was by Star Wars.
It very much runs with that idea of making sci-fi look loved in. I just saw a coffee cup and ashtray sitting on the control panel of the empty Nostromo.
Just to be clear, I’ve seen #Alien a bunch of times. I think I’ve seen 8 of the 12 Alien/Predator films. I am gonna watch them in release order.
It’s kind of hilarious how much smoking there is in #Alien. I find that a lot more amusing than the 1979 computer screens. It’s funny how much the future can change as we get closer to it.
Yep. This movie is pretty impressive.
I am trying to go into this with an open mind about the movies in the franchise I did not originally enjoy... but it’s hard to watch #Alien without letting memories of Prometheus seep in.
Ok, The War Doctor is WAY too unafraid of completely unknown living things that he can see squirming inside that egg. I know I am a bit of a coward but no way am I staying anywhere near that.
Do they make facehugger masks for the pandemic? To Google!
SO MUCH about #Alien is surprising and inventive, but the acid blood is so out of left field and such a crazy problem to have to deal with. I love it.
I really want to be able to watch #Alien and have a hot take where Ash is the real hero but I am not sure it’s feasible.
I just... WANT to like Ash. I just don’t know that there is any way to justify his actions, though, as good. He’s such a good actor though.
“The Company”.
Dinner time.
LOL just looking at last time I watched and tweeted about #Alien in 2012. https://twitter.com/cracksh0t/status/262771546748235776
I had some good thoughts. https://twitter.com/cracksh0t/status/262776942879731712
(Because the Purina logo is on everything, you see)
I don’t think 2012 was the last time I watched #Alien... when I got the Alien Quadrology blue rays I watched the 4 director’s cuts. But I didn’t hashtag it I guess.
All right, looks like it was 2016. So I watch this movie every 4 years? https://twitter.com/cracksh0t/status/691097899636277249
Dallas’s death is a great jump scare.
So... there is no reveal that Ashe is a roboman early on that I just miss is there? We just don’t find out until the end, yeah?
I stand by this, too. https://twitter.com/cracksh0t/status/262781909648699392
So Parker did not know Ashe was a robot. So none of them did? They talked about the Company subbing him in at the last minute.
“You two...get all the coolant you can carry.” Why is that? #Alien
So this #Alien on the Nostromo... he’s a drone. He can’t lay eggs, his purpose it to get hosts for facehuggers. I guess he gets born on this ship and is completely disoriented and out of his element.
Like, he’s meant to serve and protect a queen he cannot find and meanwhile these ugly aliens are making a lot of noise at him. I guess it’s not surprising he reacts with violence even though it’s needless.
He looks “scary” so it’s easy to ascribe viciousness to him. But he is a child with none of his own kind to guide him. He’s a feral child.
Do... do xenomorphs eat people? If so, it’s weird, because they need them to breed. If not... what DO they eat? And why do they kill people so much? Other than fear.
Ripley calling the computer a bitch and smashing it—I think we all feel that way about our computers sometimes.
Look—I get it. I am human, and the #Alien kills humans constantly. But I mean... is that it’s FAULT, or it’s NATURE?
Let’s change things up... can we get an Alien Vs Freddy movie next? I honestly don’t know who would win.
I am less interested in Jason vs Predator though.
I am less interested in Jason vs Predator though.
So the #Alien killed 5 people and the humans killed 1 alien so far.
#Alien is still great, definitely at the top of the quality list in my rewatch so far. It was first though, so it’s also at the bottom.
11 more #Alien/Predator films to go. Aliens is up next, which I traditionally have liked more than Alien. We shall see if that holds true another night. Maybe tomorrow?
Oh, PS, apparently the Director’s Cut of Alien is on HBOmax too, as an “extra feature” of the film. So if you want to see that, play Alien, pause it, and hit the down key to find it. I’ve seen that cut too but I want theatricals this time through.
Ok, popping on #Aliens which has always been my favorite of the series on previous views. I MAY cut my viewing short because this thing is long.
57 years was a good drop.
Folks have started recommending that I watch the director’s cut of #Aliens. I’ve seen it, and I was not into it—mostly because I didn’t like seeing scenes of the colony before Ripley and crew arrived. Discovering it with her works a lot better.
“These colonial marines are very tough hombres!”
What’s funny is in 2012 I tweeted about wanting to see what happened with the terraforming colony. Then I saw it and changed my mind.
Finding out that Bill Paxton directed the video of Fish Heads has made me like him even more than I ever did. And I already liked him.
Wait.
Is the thing about “Arcturian poon tang” them joking or have they had sex with Aliens? From what I recall of the Alien films there are no other aliens except the Engineers in Prometheus (if you exclude the AVP films which I have no seen).
Is the thing about “Arcturian poon tang” them joking or have they had sex with Aliens? From what I recall of the Alien films there are no other aliens except the Engineers in Prometheus (if you exclude the AVP films which I have no seen).
Now they are talking about “bug hunts”. Does #Aliens take place in the Starship Troopers universe?
Ok I just looked it up, and Alien took place in 2122 apparently, so #Aliens is in 2179, 200 years after the original film was made.
The drop ship they took to the surface is called the “Bugstomper”.
You know what? I STILL think you could make a good movie about what happened to the terraforming colony. I just think it should be it’s own story and not be what we saw in the extended cut.
Yeah, look... Alien is great, it really is. But I think #Aliens draws me in more and keeps things moving. It feels like an escalation, which it is. It grew something out of the great seed of the first one.
Oh yeah—meeting Newt as a feral child and needing to wrestle with the idea that she was a normal child works a lot better to me than seeing her in her normal life first.
Ok—I officially do not think the Director’s Cut scenes of Alien count based on Ripley no knowing what the deal is with the Alien-secreted resin in #Aliens.
Guys I think you could just TELL the troopers that if the fire there the place will explode instead of just giving the order to disarm with no explanation.
Again—I super think if the Dallas scene happened in Alien, Ripley would have mentioned it. Clearly #Aliens liked the idea and used it, but I don’t think both happened.
Ok, here we go. Look—it’s true that The Company is evil. They want the xenomorphs for shady, nefarious reasons. To make them into weapons, probably.
But.
But.
I mean. We really SHOULDN’T wipe them out, right? They are just living the way they know how. They are a parasitic species... but we don’t eradicate entire species on purpose, right?
Plus, the movies to show them to be pretty intelligent. Maybe not human level. Maybe. But smarter than dogs. Maybe ape level at worst?
Ok—Ripley just put Newt to bed. There is about an hour left in #Aliens. A little less. I am gonna follow Newt’s lead and go to bed. I will try to finish tomorrow night.
Ok, it’s a day later. Time to finish #Aliens.
Yep—worth millions to the bioweapons division. Of course, given that it’s 2179, that’s probably... hundreds of dollars in today’s dollars.
I am very happy we do not spend a lot of time with Bishop in that tube because thinking about it is very uncomfortable. I am not claustrophobic except if I REALLY think about it very hard.
They put the display telling you how many rounds left in the guns on the side of the gun—perfect for the cameras to see but terrifically awkward for the soldiers using them.
OH MAN—I forgot about the facehuggers loose while they sleep scene!!! This movie is great. #Aliens
Yeah, it would totally be ok to kill Burke.
“What do you mean, ‘they cut the power’? They’re animals!”
The “eight meters... seven... SIX” scene is so great and so tense. And the show of all those aliens in the ceiling crawl space is SO CREEPY.
That said, they thought to check for tunnels under the floor in the plans but not the ceiling?
That said, they thought to check for tunnels under the floor in the plans but not the ceiling?
Ok, Ripley is going to save Newt. We’re coming on the big stuff. This part has been... well ruined is the wrong word. Forever redefined by a teacher I had in college. I will never see it the same way.
Ripley suggests to Burke earlier that maybe it’s us who are the monsters since #Aliens don’t sell each other out for a percentage. And this is where we learn she is right.
The scene is clear. Ripley and the Queen meet. The #Aliens threaten Ripley & Newt. Ripley threatens the eggs. The Queen calls off her drones, letting Ripley and Newt go.
And they Ripley kills them all.
And they Ripley kills them all.
Yes—before she does, one egg starts to hatch. Are we to believe the Queen is hatching that egg as subterfuge? Or is hatching an autonomic response? Or a time triggered event? I don’t know. What I know is Ripley kills ALL the Queens children because of it.
The argument that justifies the humans actions towards the #Aliens isn’t just NOT moral, it’s ANTI-moral. It’s the argument that since neither species is BETTER than the other morally and cannot coexist, we can just go all out to preserve us over them.
It excuses itself from morality and favors self-preservation because, well, why not privilege the self?
Meanwhile, while the #Aliens killing the humans normally is removed from morality, the Queen coming at the end is coming for pure moral reasons—she is coming for revenge. Ripley betrayed their detent and killed her children. The Queen is a moral actor here.
Yeah—“Get away from her, you bitch!” is a power hero moment... but Ripley is also the villain of this scene. Especially in the power loader—she is as much of a mysterious foreign creature to the Queen as it is to her.
But you know what? This does not make me like it less—it makes me like it MORE. I like that it’s complicated. I am human so I cannot fully side with the Xenomorphs... but also, I don’t know that they are not as or more worthy of living than we are.
So anyway, look, I think @GerryDuggan will be unhappy with this decision, but #Aliens is a better movie than Alien. And, spoiler, it’s probably the best movie in this entire franchise.
Alien is great, but #Aliens is greater. Better paced, more engrossing, just... more enjoyable to watch. And that’s that.
Next movie on the docket is 1987’s Predator, which I have only seen once. Maybe tomorrow if I am not exhausted.
