How do you rate all the alien movies?
And yes, Prometheus IS an Alien movie.

Here's my view:

1.Alien
2.Aliens
3.Prometheus
4.Alien 3(director's cut only)
5.Alien Resurection
6.AVP Requiem
7.AVP
 

 That flute to turn on the apparatus was also in the Willie Wonka Movie.
That scene with the star chamber was too much for me. I was thinking at the time that less might have been more.

After leaving the theater I didn't have a huge desire to go see it again. I felt I learned all the main points and this was as much a mystery film as a SCiFi. That's what kept me interested on one level. Then there was just all the eye candy of the backgrounds,ships,skies, and creatures that kept me alert. I will see it again but maybe in 3D.

Did anyone see it in 3D and was it good like that?

Oh,  the last shot with the black alien coming out_ totally unnecessary. It seemed like they filmed it real quick with a spent budget. The story was done, and we all knew that Engineer was screwed and going to get the alien.

My creature design analogy using a Predator was me complaining about the "engineer" design. I guess that's what we call them now...


I thought it was probably the biggest copout design in the history of sci-fi.

Spoilers follow: (we need to set a date where we don't have to keep warning of spoilers anymore)

This movie is estimated somewhere around $120 million dollars isn't it? The best they could do was turn the space jockey into a spacesuit? The big reveal was that inside of him was just a giant ivory human with black eyes, no hair, and no facial expressions.

The space jockey was the greatest opportunity to expand on one of the coolest, most original ideas ever: a biomechanical being. How cool would it have been to actually see one walking around. Instead we get a couple holographs and are faced with...giant white people? Yeah...thanks. Nothing like that has EVER been done in science-fiction. Real groundbreaking. And then of course, instead of something interesting happening, the giant white man just gets angry and starts killing people with his massive strength. Genius.

Would you rather have the designers make an intellegent alien look less human? Thats what they did to the aliens in the 1950's movies. Men with masks or prosthetic make up.  This guy in Prometheus looked pretty alien to me. I also like to think that intellegent beings are going to be similar to our own design.

Plot Spoilers___"Forbidden Planet" and "2001" came to mind while watching last night at the midnight. The beginning was the same set-up as 2001 with the apes and the monolith. The ship nest to the dome was like FP with the dust coming off the buggies and flow of traffic between the two structures. Plus the idea of a lost civilization that was advanced  was found here.
   One big mystery in the movie is why that "engineer" was dropped off at earth and died. "In order to create you have to destroy?" Well his DNA sure broke apart. Maybe that was an accidental creation and they were mad about that after the DNA reformed and turned into humans. Doesn't add up much with torn up DNA.
   Also when that red laser ball found a life form at the end of the tunnels, the two guys ran the other way and found that room with the "white cobra-worm". Back at the other end, was that life form the Engineer in Hypersleep? Those engineers sure were strong as shown by the way that one almost got away form the Huge face-hugger.
5/5 Stars.

THe big question is what that woman asked. Why do they hate us?  I don't understand the beginning either with the guy on earth and his DNA breaking up. Is that how the human race was created? Don't make sense if the DNA is crap. I think the aliens were jealous of Earth because they didn't create us.  Or they wanted to take over the earth for their own use.

1) Why didn't the Alien attack Ripley at the end of Alien on the escape pod until she started pissing it off with steam? I don't get it. Was it dying?

It was obviously not in a hurry. A "perfect organism" doesn't die in 12 hours. I think its hogwash to think that. It was packed in there pretty tight too. It had good instinct on knowing where to be at the right time. Next time you watch that scene, look at the tail moving around while he's wedged in there. It adds a snakelike mystery to the look of it.

2) Why did it totally ignore the cat? Probably an irrelevant question, but I just wondered.
 
You have to remember that thin alien was new to life and very intelligent. He probably was curious about the cat and what it was. Everything had to be new to this creature like a child. If you notice the box is knocked over when Ripley comes back. I think the alien was knocking it around and gave up after a short time to go hide in the shuttle.

3) What exactly was that giant skeleton in the Alien ship?
 

) Are the AVP films actually canon? And are they worth watching as prequels to the Alien franchise?

AVP films are fun to watch but not serious story going on.

5) Do I buy Alien 3? I've heard it's not very good... Make sure you get the director's cut. Its much better.

Thanks a lot guys.
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I recently found that my copy of The Book Of Alien is worth upwards of $50.00. That was a pleasant surprise. I bought it in 1980 for $7.95! This new making of book seems to overlap some things. Does anyone think this thing will be hard to get in the future? I may get it if that's the case and live with the double pictures and stories.

The Muppets. Kermit  can play the banjo pretty good still.

I find it hard to believe I'm saying this, but I feel more at peace with the idea of The Big Baldy being a Space Jockey. He does resemble one of the fleshy humanoids from Giger's many beautiful airbrushed paintings, the skin tone is right, plus the stern but serene expression, from what we can see of his/her/its' face. The nose seems to run straight into the forehead at an angle consistent with the slope of the SJ helmet too, he also appears to lack clearly defined earflaps, so definitely isn't mammalian. Granted, we haven't had a very good look at the beings' face, so nothing can be said with any certainty - he could look less human than he appears at first glance.

I always thought the jockey we were seeing was its bones. I don't think he was wearing a helmet. He was kind of grown into a breathing tube on his face which might have been biomechanical. I don't know if he was grown into the chair permanent or could separate and walk around. The later seems more likely. He or they got in over their head and didn't want any other explorers to get in trouble too.
Seems like the bones had been there for years. Ten years? Twenty years? Fifty years? One hundred fifty? I thought the aliens came from the planet as natives. The planet sure looked like a place they would feel comfortable in. But where were they? Maybe he picked 'em up elsewhere and figured out he was impregnated and landed on the planet to warn and die. If he was able to operate his control telescope, there couldn't have been any man-size aliens walking around.
He probably had woke up after the facehugger left and had some time to send the signal.

Hello fellow movie experts.
I am Moonpatrol.  I have a degree in Radio TV Film from Texas back in '85. I read a lot of fiction and Science fiction. I am a Navy Veteran and currently do design and drafting for an engineering co. 
I saw the Alien Movie in 70mm when it came out in 1979. It was one I knew I would have to go back and see again. I wasn't surprised about the chestburster. I don't remember if someone told me about it before I went.  I do remember being told that in the shuttle craft the alien might be there. I would have figured that out.  The movie got scary when they left the Jockey and its face was in shadow. That was great filmmaking and I'm amazed at how in touch the makers were with the audience. Notice I said "makers" not Ridley Scott. This was a team effort and while Scott made the movie of his life, I think he was standing on the shoulders of giants. I was in high school and some guys were talking about the movie in the morning before class and I had not seen it yet. I asked one guy what the alien looked like and he paused and said it was too hard to describe. I edged him on and he came up with a sperm whale. Anyway I hope to make a post about things that could have been better in the movie. I hope it doesn't get people upset but I'm not attacking it just pondering some things like why Parker ran at the creature un-armed. Stay tuned.  Glenn

The shuttle doesn't actually reverse - it just fires it's retros to fly slower the the Nostromo, and the Nostromo flies away from it.

Wow, I see what your saying about the refinery continuing on its course while the shuttle "hits the brakes." We forget how fast that thing is traveling! Ripley was a smart astronaut to realize the quickest way to get away from the ticking time bomb was to jump off the train. It was pretty close according to the clock.

 In all the alien movies, it has been hard to escape these creatures and lots of people die before a way is found that works. It is usually thinking outside the box and quickness that does it. A good line from the movie is when Dallas says, "Parker I don't want any heroics out of you...OK.." This is still at a point when the crew thinks they are going to beat this thing. Its also a little bit of foreshadowing since he eventually charges the creature, unarmed, like a hero (and a fool). It also speaks about how well the captain knew the major personality traits of his crew.

     I don't have a problem with the refinery having some engines on the back, and it looks like it does from the plastic model. Maybe the tug somehow powers them.
     The location of the shuttle shows how large the Nostromo is. I had always thought the Shuttle was somewhere on the backside of the mother ship but it is under the armpit? It would be too long of a run for Ripley to go board the shuttle if it was back on the refinery. The Nostromo windows on both sides of the bridge area seem a little too large to fit the overall scale of the ship. If those windows are 15 feet high, then maybe it would make sense. I'll have to watch the movie again and see if the matte shot of the crew inside the window supports the size of the ship. I know in Star Wars Revenge of the Sith, the princess' silver ship is too small to contain all the elaborate spaces shown inside. It ruined the illusion for me. The only thing with the Nostromo is that it is much bigger than one would think.
     The shuttle escapes in reverse and must traverse out the backside of the refinery to have all that real estate to cover. The Nostromo is not so large that we would just be seeing the underside of it all that time. The best part of the scene is when the refinery shrinks into the distance and the stars stay still. If they had filmed it with the stars moving it would have ruined it.
     On another note about the shuttle , I believe the alien survived the blast from the engine, and was simply pushed out into the vacuum of space where it was totally screwed. I don't think the vacuum would kill, but it would starve or freeze. If Ripley had not blasted it, I think it would have torn its way back inside.

Where is the shuttlecraft? I have never been able to find a spot on the Nostromo that looks remotely close to where it sits ion the movie. Did the makers kind of just blow this detail off? Is the shuttle back on the refinery? I really don't see the connection and it has puzzled me a long time. The Nostromo also seems quite small to be towing that huge barge. The propulsion rockets have no room to fire when towing. The movie doesn't explain it.

Hell yes Ash knew there was something up at the dinner table. He is watching Kane closer than anyone else. He makes quick decisions by saying things that will not reveal himself and keeping the alien safe. "Don't touch it" is pretty ambiguous as to his purpose. It could go either way. Remember he was the one urging the scouting on, like the sunrise in 20 minutes bit, and monitoring from his blister to ensure they didn't quit. When I first saw this in '79 that Ash video feed and the scouts was pretty tense. He stops Ripley from going out after them..How stupid is his argument? I thought Ash was turning into an alien or something first time he started leaking white. I didn't know he was a robot till Parker called it out.

The gravity idea works for me. What we see in the film is a little bit of two separate events put together as if they were one. When Brett falls over in the alien hands he pulls the head down too. At this point the alien is inverted and his feet are up in the landing gear.  It's easy for it to pull him up and away with light gravity and firm grip with its feet. The other event is when the cat first notices the monster, we see the tail uncoil and fall behind Brett followed by the back-horns and head. This view to me is the alien touching the floor with his feet. It would be impossible to ascend without jumping from this position or having a free appendage. The combination event implied from the theatrical release is he lowered himself down with the tail and then jumped back up using the right hand to grab a chain with Brett carried with the tail and other arm.