Poll: Alien or Aliens?

[Delicious Anathema]

Alien and Aliens are my favourite films of all time.

Alien is more original but Aliens feels like an adventure, Ripley's hair in Alien is better but in Aliens she tapes a pulse rifle and a flamethrower together.

I voted Alien, just because.

No option for useless people who sit on the fence. It depends entirely on my mood. I love them both.

Since you mentioned Alien 3, it is the most under-rated movie of all time. The only crappy thing about it was editing, some fool removed Paul Mcgann's final scenes. They are back in the directors cut, but that version also has the alien birthing from an ox, which spoils the funeral scene. That in itself is one of the most epic scenes ever. The death of the dog matches what is said, I love it.

It was too dark for some at the time it seems and it was quite un-American, which might explain why it did well in Europe but not in the States. One final comment, it is also an example of why people are stupid, they wanted another all out action epic like Aliens. Instead we got a very unexpected movie that actually brought a franchise full circle and finished it. Then we got a whole load of spin off stuff......

This.

Also, the extended intro and the falling on the furnace effect is much better in the director's cut. The only problem is the religion parts that are kinda silly.

 

[RedDeadFred]

A word of warning, the fourth Alien movie is pretty bad, and the second AvP movie is fucking awful.

I don't understand how people can consider AvP2 to be worse than the first crossover film.

But maybe it's just because of the wish fulfillment. I've always wanted Xenomorphs in an actual human city. Plus, the Predalien Queen was the first bit of proper originality the series has seen since Alien 3.

I actually liked the original AvP. Sure it was incredibly cheesy but it had much better action scenes than the second one. The second one had way too many night scenes. I could barely tell what was going on half of the time. Plus the ending made the whole movie feel kind of pointless.

 

[FalloutJack]

If asked, I would say Aliens. Alien is classic and suspenseful, but do enjoy the more blood-pumping moments of Aliens.

 

[Snotnarok]

I loved both but while Alien was an excellent horror movie I feel that Aliens not only did horror well...but also told an excellent story.

Spoiler

The marines go in all cocky and think Ripley won't be of any help. Ripley goes in unsure and just wanting to put and end to the nightmare but, in the end, Ripley turns into the leader and the little girl into the survivalist advisory.

Also while not wanting to sound like a snob I think Aliens hasn't really aged, it just looks damn pretty. Alien has some parts that don't look as good today.

That's not to say one is better than the other, they're both incredible. I just prefer Aliens.

 

[Brown_Coat117]

The majority of the characters in AvP2 were just the typical fodder found in Nightmare on Elm ST. or Friday the 13th, just supprised that someone hasn't mentioned this yet.

I had to vote Aliens, while I loved Alien, after the first few viewings it has lost most of it's effect, and most of my enjoyment in watching it comes from remembering those first few viewings and memories of watching it with other who were seeing it for the first time.

Aliens on the other hand has much more replay value to me. It's atmosphere is great, the action is very enjoyable, the characters for the most part are enjoyable, Newt does get on my nerves after a while. Also it's the best Vietnam War movie not about the Vietnam War.

 

[LiquidGrape]

Alien. It was just a wonderfully chilly psycho-erotic thriller.
Aliens was a loud, gung-ho action film devoid of any real noteworthy qualities apart from Weaver's performance.
It reduced the xenomorph to cannon fodder, and I've never forgiven Cameron for that gross crime against cinema. That sublime space terror deserved better.

P.S

However, I'd like to defend Alien: Resurrection. It was actually quite inventive, approaching the material as though it was darkly comedic and interweaving those scenes with some truly memorable surrealist set pieces, such as the sea of alien limbs.

Also, the soundtrack was fantastic.


D.S

 

[octafish]

I vote Alien for two reasons, Yaphet Kotto, and Harry Dean Stanton. Oh and I like the type of film is was more that the type of film Aliens was.

 

[JediMB]

A word of warning, the fourth Alien movie is pretty bad, and the second AvP movie is fucking awful.

I don't understand how people can consider AvP2 to be worse than the first crossover film.

But maybe it's just because of the wish fulfillment. I've always wanted Xenomorphs in an actual human city. Plus, the Predalien Queen was the first bit of proper originality the series has seen since Alien 3.

I actually liked the original AvP. Sure it was incredibly cheesy but it had much better action scenes than the second one. The second one had way too many night scenes. I could barely tell what was going on half of the time. Plus the ending made the whole movie feel kind of pointless.

Common complaints about the first AvP were that the actual AvP fights were too short, too zoomed-in, too dark, etc.. Never had any problems seeing what went on in the sequel, although I heard a lot of theaters suffered from bad contrast settings with that movie.

The ending? Pointless? It showed pretty well how humans are always willing to betray each other, and foreshadowed the rise of Weyland-Yutani and the original Alien movie.

 

[Andy of Comix Inc]

Aliens was ruined for me before I watched it because I heard that the man in the alien suit is just a really tall guy wearing a hat.

Grr. Go Aliens, then. Also, I really like the Space Marine aspects where they're basically just ballsing around, kind of makes it more funny when they're being snacked on by the giant black dildo society.

So we're not going to mention Resurrection?

You just kind of did.

 

[-Drifter-]

Alien was the better one for me. Not to say they weren't both great, but I liked the slow pacing and the sense of discovery from Alien better.

 

[keideki]

I like the first three well enough, with Aliens being my fav, although I have to say I have much contempt for Resurrection and the AVP movies. I dislike the way they played around with the reproductive methods of alien in those movies (First AVP not included although I dislike it for different reasons). I prefer my alien separate from my predator.

 

[NickCaligo42]

I think the main reason Alien 3 get's so much hate (besides the fact that it's not very good) is that it was following Alien and Aliens, that's a tough act to follow and Alien 3 sure was a letdown.

Well, then there's the fact that Alien 3 starts by IMMEDIATELY killing the sense of redemption that came at the end of the second film, rendering its events mostly pointless and tarnishing the whole experience with that sense of disappointment. Any time you follow up a movie that already had a reasonable conclusion by going "psych!" and dragging that spent conflict out further, you hang a sense of emptiness and pointlessness on the very foundation of the storyline. The film itself may be entertaining and technically well-crafted, but it's beyond all help and will never be truly satisfying.

Many sequels rather unfortunately suffer from this problem, failing to create self-contained stories in themselves or explore new issues and conflicts with the old characters but instead trying to re-tread previous iterations' conflicts. Terminator did it with Terminator 3, Pirates of the Caribbean did it with Will and Elizabeth's romance shtick, trying to make it into something way bigger than audiences cared to see and dragging a boorish wet blanket across two enormously long sequels. If we want to go into more famous examples, well, there's always the Highlander films, each successive iteration of which seems to have the express purpose of retconning (read: shitting on) the resolution of the first movie. Each case of it is rather annoying at the very least, and I wish filmmakers would learn this very simple trait of storytelling formula.

 

[CAPTCHA]

I love Aliens, but I think the franchise went WAY downhill after that one, I had this idea for a long time, an alien3 reboot

1. Newt and hicks didnt die they went back to earth
2. a alien ship is found somewhere and aliens are starting to take over the earth

That's kind of where the comics went after the second film. Newt's grown up and a psych patient, Hicks is a disgruntled outcast marine. There's a greedy corporation trying to breed the alien and a religious cult bent on worshiping it. Things fuck up and the earth gets overrun.

OT: Aliens for me. Just the more interesting film. Added some great characters and expanded the lore. Great soundtrack. Great quotes. When you think of the Alien films you think of the second.

 

[Kevonovitch]

i liked alien over aliens and alien3 myself...and i perfer to pretend alien ressurection didn't exist. XD

 

[KrubixCube]

Aliens was a good sequel, but there were just too many things about it that bugged me.

- First and foremost, the Aliens were made less alien by linking their nature to that of bees and ants. In the first movie the Alien was just that; Alien. You didn't know what it was, where it came from, or what it wanted. All the alien beings from Alien truly felt like they came from a vastly different universe then ours, and most of that is lost in the sequel.

- I don't care how much of a corporate sleazeball you are, you're not going to fuck over your fellow man just for "a Goddamn percentage" when you find yourself in a situation where you're facing an unstoppable alien force that's out to murder you. It felt like a stupidly forced anti-corporate message.
Alien also had an anti-corporate message, but it made sense there because the traitor in question was an android who was not only simply following his program, but who also developed an admiration for the alien.

- That little girl was mostly an annoying little twit, mostly.

Alien will always be the better movie for me.

Pretty much this. n addition, I'd say the atmosphere of the first one had something special where the second one was just...kind of generic. Not a bad film though.

 

[Matt-Sama]

Alien is a very good film but Aliens really is the cream of the action/sci-fi/horror crop. So intense, plenty of character developement, awesome characters and ofcourse Bill Paxton.
Alien 3 is very underrated and I think is a very good movie but the directors cut is far far superior. Resurrection is trashy but fun I suppose, only watched it twice.

 

[Casual Shinji]

Aliens was a good sequel, but there were just too many things about it that bugged me.

Alien will always be the better movie for me.

Pretty much this. n addition, I'd say the atmosphere of the first one had something special where the second one was just...kind of generic. Not a bad film though.

I know what you mean.

In an interview, Ridley Scott said that he basically wanted to take The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and 2001: A Space Odyssey and merge them together.

Aliens is still a very good sequel, because it does what a good sequel should do; Take the original concept in a different direction. But it's those annoying little James Cameron clichés that keep buzzing around it.

 

[Spade Lead]

Aliens.

That film still scares the shit out of me.

I thought Aliens was more tense and had more surprising moments than Alien, which was more eerie than truly scary.

 

[Spade Lead]

I enjoy reviewing really bad movies. And I can't just watch/review all of the rest of them and skip one of the films. That would just look bad!

That is funny, so do I. Is there a certain genre that you prefer? I am an Action-adventure connoisseur. Films like Drive Angry make my month...

If I may suggest you avoid the cinematic cancer that is Alien Resurrection... it's not only the worst movie in the series, it's one of the worst movies ever made. And I've seen my fair share of cinematic crud. But that movie is on a whole new level of "bad"...

Skip it. Please. I'll never be able to un-see it, but I might avoid someone making the same mistake I did.

If THAT is the worst movie you can think of, you are one lucky man... Crank 2 was so bad I shut it off about half an hour into it. Then there is Death Race 2000, that movie had one redeeming moment. Look up "Death Race 2000 Hand Grenade" on youtube. Skip the rest of the movie. I can probably name thirty movies that were worse, made since then...