Recently watched movies!

[MekaGojira3k]

[EricDent]

[lhb412]

Wild, Wild Planet

A cool visual style and general weirdness make this a fun '60s B-movie. Kinda has a Star Trek feel, but a year earlier and everyone's Italian.

The Pirates! Band of Misfits

It's not Wallace and Gromit caliber, but Aardman's reliable charms and a great cast elevate it over the usual animated fare. Tons of injokes hidden in the background details.

[MekaGojira3k]

[Green Dragon]

[Tom R VanSlambrouck]

[Thomas]

Just watched The Omega Man for the second time ever (I missed seeing it as a kid) and man is that movie great. First time I saw it I was maybe expecting to much, then I decided to watch it again cause it's on Amazon Prime Instant viewing, which has finally diversified it's content away from Netflix's offerings, and my appreciation of the film is way up.

[Reaper G]

They Live

Visually and musically, the movie reeks of 80s-ness, but the story is more relevant than ever, and Roddy Piper will always rule (even if he doesn't come off as particularly homeless).

[MekaGojira3k]

[MouthForWar]

[MekaGojira3k]

[lhb412]

Passage to Marseille

Hey, this is the follow-up to Casablanca! Not a sequel, but another film with mostly the same cast, same director, and an exotic locale with a plot revolving around German occupied France - an attempt to capture the magic and success of the previous picture. Although it isn't as good, it's still a winning flick and it's different enough (more of an action picture) that it's transcends being a mere rip-off.

Also, any kaiju fan will appreciate the nice model work in the third act.

[MouthForWar]

Alien 3- I think I'm warming up to this movie a lot. Once I got over the fact that it wasn't nearly as good as Aliens, I think I was less cranky. I still have my problems with it, but it is a good send off for Ripley and I love the bleakness of the whole thing (I'm not one of those whiners that complains about Newt and Hicks dying, as this whole movie is about Ripley's loss and sacrifice). The biggest problem for me is that the truly great character and story stuff all happens within the first hour. Ripley dealing with her loss, her relationship with the doctor, etc. I wish they drew those elements out, but instead they kill the doctor and then the second half is just another cat and mouse game with the alien. Also, call me crazy, but I watched the assembly cut and I think might be in the minority in that I might prefer the theatrical version. I watched it with the deleted footage marker and 80% of the extra stuff was stuff I couldn't have cared less about. And it added the subplot about the crazy inmate, who I CAN'T STAND. And the whole thing with the alien being trapped and the crazy guy releasing him really draws the second half of the movie out, which I think is why I always felt it got so boring. I haven't watched the theatrical in a loooooooooooong time, but I'm gonna watch it soon, cuz I think a lot of my complaints about the movie becoming so boring might be eliminated in that version.

It isn't a great movie by any means, but its certainly a good one, and it wraps the saga up very nicely... or at least, it SHOULD have. If Alien is a 5/5 and Aliens is a 4/5, Alien 3 is a 3/5... average. Its one of those movies that isn't NEARLY as bad as the people that hate it say and isn't NEARLY as good as the people that love it say... it falls right in the middle. Basically, its the Halloween 4 or Halloween H20 of the series in that it isn't a great movie, but its a decent sequel... if you really wanna see what happens next, here ya go.

I still wish they either went with Vincent Ward's script or the original idea of having Hicks take over the series. It would have been interesting to see how that played out.

Next up, Alien Resurrection... this is where things get sh*tty.

[king_ghidorah]

Alien 3 is great man. Not perfect...not as good as the other 2 films but pretty good. For a complete arc for Ripley's character it's actually almost perfect come to think of it.

I think I'd prefer a combo of the director's cut and the theatrical. Somethings I like in the director's cut (more fleshed out characters) but other things I'm just meh about...the bull alien thing doesn't make sense as the xenomorph in the film is decidedly dog based. Also, if I remember correctly, the queen doesn't burst out of Ripley's chest in the director's cut and I actually like that it does in the theatrical cut.

[MouthForWar]

[king_ghidorah]

[MekaGojira3k]

[king_ghidorah]

Sector 7

Didn't enjoy this movie at all. Pretty bad.

Ok, there was one cool element concerning the monster's link to oil and what that would mean for the world. Very interesting delimna

[MouthForWar]

Alien Resurrection- Unlike Alien 3, I haven't been able to warm up to this one. I hated it when it came out and I hate it now. Aside from catching bits and pieces on TV, this is the first time I've seen the whole thing from start to finish since it came out on VHS.

If Alien 3 is the Halloween: H20 of the series, Alien: Resurrection is the Halloween: Resurrection (funny how that worked out, huh?) Everything about this movie is wrong. So now Ripley is back as a clone that spouts one liners, Weyland-Yutani has been bought out by Wal-Mart, and we get the most pointless android in the series played by a grossly miscast and confused looking Winona Ryder. I like Sigoruney Weaver, but I think making her co-producer on the series was a bad idea... the insistence that Ripley be in all of these just to try and draw in crowds is a bad idea and her arc wrapped up fine in the third film. Clone Ripley has no point to her, there is nothing interesting about her at all. This clone thing was a lame way to bring her back to the franchise. Ultimately, this movie is a weird, awkward, f*cked up parody of the Alien movies... an idea that could have worked with a clever enough script, but this ain't it, not by a long shot. I like both Joss Whedon and Jeun-Pierre Jeunet, but Whedon's snappy, winky dialogue and Jeunet's over the top theatrics do not belong in an Alien film and never seem to gel with the world this is supposed to take place in... hiring both these guys from the start was a bad idea. Ripley being a clone, the genetic experiments, NONE of the stuff in this story ever pays off... this movie literally feels like it has no point. No interesting questions are raised, no characters are developed or are even the slightest bit interesting, and the newborn is the sh*ttiest looking creature in the series, by far. The only pros to this film are Perlman, Dourif (who cracked me up), the part where Ripley finds the aborted clones, and just how great the movie looks (as is expected from Jeunet, and the Blu-Ray looks fantastic), but that's all that's IT.

The story itself feels like a fan-film or something out of the crappy Dark Horse comics. This is where the franchise takes a MAJOR nose dive and I ultimately blame this film for the two AVP films that follow. This movie did better at the box office than Alien 3, so Fox probably figured a brain dead comic-booky story was what audiences wanted, and they'd just give us more of that bullsh*t with the AVP films.

Say what you want about Prometheus, but screw the haters. I'm SO GLAD Ridley Scott took this series back and put a level of class, subtext, and original ideas back into it. Even those that didn't like Prometheus should be grateful of this. Thanks, Ridley.

So that's it or my re-visitation of the Alien series (no, I WILL NOT watch the AVP movies again). Here is my ranking of the series, in order and with my ratings. Aside from Prometheus in slot #3, they go in the order they came out. From the first Alien up till AVP:R, you literally see each movie get worse and worse before your very eyes.

Alien- 5/5
Aliens- 4/5
Prometheus- 4/5
Alien 3- 3/5
Alien: Resurrection- 2/5
Alien vs Predator- 1/5
Alien vs. Predator: Requiem- 0.5/5

[kiryugoji04]

Naturally, I loved Resurrection!

[MouthForWar]

[kiryugoji04]

[EricDent]

[king_ghidorah]

[MouthForWar]