|
If
you go through video
games over the past
twenty years you can
see repeated
influences that
graphic designers
took from
Alien.
Half-Life,
Dead
Space
and tons of other
games have been
influenced by the
Alien
movies. Even your
precious
Halo
games, the swarm and
bugs have striking
resemblances to the
hatchlings from
Alien.
In movies, there are
tons of effects and
things being
influenced by
Alien
too. They’re just
not as memorable as
Alien
because they weren’t
done half as well.
Right before
Christmas, 20th
Century Fox released
the
Alien
Anthology
on Blu-ray in a
gigantic mu-th-ur of
a set. This Blu-ray
has all four movies
in pristine quality,
better than what
could have been
hoped for with the
first two movies,
and it bundles them
with tons of special
features including
commentaries,
introductions,
pop-up features and
trivia, tons of
making-of content,
and generally
anything you could
ever want to know
about Alien, Aliens,
Alien 3, or Alien:
Resurrection… that’s
all here.
What’s interesting
to me about the
Alien franchises is
how different every
movie is from the
others. These are
four very different
movies.
Alien
is the first one and
it’s a very
grungy/documentary
shot type movie.
Everything feels
slightly
claustrophobic and
even though the
futuristic
predictions are a
little bit off with
computers and that
type of thing, it
still feels fairly
real when you’re
watching it. It’s
that realism
captured by Ridley
Scott that makes the
movie so memorable.
Ripley (then an
unknown Sigourney
Weaver) is part of a
screw of eight young
space engineers.
They’re on their way
home, but on the way
they run across a
distress beacon and
by law they’re
forced to
investigate. While
investigating one of
the crew gets a bug
stuck around their
face, gets let into
the ship, an alien’s
born and all hell
breaks loose.
Aliens
is the follow up to
the movie and it’s
directed by James
Cameron. Where
Alien
was shot in an
ultra-realistic/documentary
fashion,
Aliens
is vastly different.
It’s an action
movie. James Cameron
captured what James
Cameron captures
best. People kicking
ass. After the
events of
Alien,
Ripley’s craft gets
stumbled upon by a
craft and they bring
her back to
civilization… after
57 years… The
corporation she
worked for has an
issue with the
planet where Ripley
and her crew
stumbled upon the
parasite years ago.
Only this time they
have an entire
colony set up there
making it into a
habitable planet.
When communication
between the
corporation and the
colony goes dark,
Ripley and a group
of marines go in to
investigate. Of
course that doesn’t
end well for the
marines, but Ripley
survives and heads
back to cryo.
Alien 3
is kind of like the
BBC mystery movie in
the franchise. I
mean we know exactly
what’s going on with
the aliens and
they’re going to
kill everybody but
David Fincher shot
the movie like a
drama. It’s a bit of
a mess for a variety
of reasons but even
it’s still not
without its merit.
After escaping the
colony and launching
into space, Ripley
crash lands onto a
planet that used to
be a prison and now
it’s just a work
camp full of
convicts turned
monks. The parasite
eventually makes its
way to the planet
too. Everybody dies,
Ripley’s dramatic,
and eventually she
has to make a huge
sacrifice so the
evil company doesn’t
get their hands on
the parasite.
Alien: Resurrection
takes place 200
years after Ripley
makes her sacrifice.
But people just
don’t know to leave
well enough alone.
So science advanced
and they managed to
bring Ripley and the
queen parasite
inside of her back
to life on a space
station. The alien
can’t be kept
captive, it has lots
of babies and a big
ugly one, people die
and Ripley lives
(again?)
Alien: Resurrection
is like the
film-noire movie in
the series. It’s
very dark and kind
of sexy in a creepy
way. It’s got a
great cast and
Jean-Pierre Jeunet
did a great job with
the movie. It’s not
a great movie, but
it’s better than
Alien
3.
As
far as bonus
features go in this
set…. There’s a ton
here. It’s a
remarkable package.
Each movie comes
with commentary and
an introduction
(kind of- let’s just
say David Fincher
and Fox might not be
on the best of terms
with
Alien
3)
and they each can be
shown in mu-th-ur
mode with bonus
features being
indexed and pop-ups
with trivia coming
up too. Then there
are two discs in
this six disc set
just dedicated to
bonus features. On
those discs there’s
tons of information
on everything
Alien
and even more about
making the movies.
As far as packaging
goes, this is
brilliant with tons
of bonus features.
Particularly the
bonus content with
the first movie is
impressive because
there’s so much
broken down in it
with scenes,
writing, art
direction, and more.
It’s a great set.
The bonus features
are great but the
video restoration on
these four movies is
brilliant. The first
movie looks better
than ever and more
brilliantly than
anyone could have
hoped.
Aliens
is so polished up
that it might be too
polished up, and the
other two movies
look like they were
made five years ago
and not 10 and 20.
The
Alien Anthology
is a must-own for
any fan of Blu-ray
and any fan of
science fiction
movies. The movies
look better than
ever here and
there’s a ton of
content assembled
here about
everything
Alien.
It’s a quality
bundle that’s a must
own for fans of the
franchise.
|