Neeum Zawan wrote:
> Darren New <dne### [at] sanrrcom> writes:
> 
>> Better character development.  OK, I can see that, sure.
> 
> Somehow, I'm feeling you're saying that in jest.

No, I was actually 100% serious. Unless the point of the movie is character 
development (i.e., the characters develop noticably during the movie) it's 
not something I tend to remember 10 years later about a movie. :-)

> It was, however, a very quotable movie:

That's always good. I think movies (and to some extent books) turn into 
culture in direct proportion to their quotability.

I think Wizard of Oz still wins on that front, tho.

-- 
Darren New, San Diego CA, USA (PST)
    Eiffel - The language that lets you specify exactly
    that the code does what you think it does, even if
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Bill Pragnell wrote:
> (my biggest SF gripe with the Alien series: what
> on earth does the critter eat, to get man-sized in a matter of hours/days?)

See, that's exactly the kind of thing I was talking about. You don't see it 
happen, so you complain. (Not the personal "you" there.)

Clearly the alien got into the food stores that were stocked away for a 
multi-year mining mission. It wasn't eating the people, so where else would 
it get food?

I liked how the human shape was explained as the alien taking on some of the 
characteristics of the host, tho.

-- 
Darren New, San Diego CA, USA (PST)
    Eiffel - The language that lets you specify exactly
    that the code does what you think it does, even if
    it doesn't do what you wanted.

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Darren New <dne### [at] sanrrcom> wrote:
> Bill Pragnell wrote:
> > (my biggest SF gripe with the Alien series: what
> > on earth does the critter eat, to get man-sized in a matter of hours/days?)
>
> See, that's exactly the kind of thing I was talking about. You don't see it
> happen, so you complain. (Not the personal "you" there.)

Yeah... sorry :)

Still, I say 'big' gripe, it's not really a big gripe cos I love the first 2
Alien movies!

> I liked how the human shape was explained as the alien taking on some of the
> characteristics of the host, tho.

Yeah, I didn't really get that until the dog-like alien in the 3rd movie. And
*that* alien, at least, did appear to eat people.

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Bill Pragnell wrote:
> Yeah, I didn't really get that until the dog-like alien in the 3rd movie. And
> *that* alien, at least, did appear to eat people.

Because they weren't dogs, and hence useless for reproduction.

(To be fair, I am not sure I got it in the first movies either. I think some 
out-of-band explanation was offered me.)

-- 
Darren New, San Diego CA, USA (PST)
    C# - a language whose greatest drawback
    is that it's best implementation comes
    from a company that doesn't hate Microsoft.

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Darren New <dne### [at] sanrrcom> wrote:
> Bill Pragnell wrote:
> > Yeah, I didn't really get that until the dog-like alien in the 3rd movie. And
> > *that* alien, at least, did appear to eat people.
>
> Because they weren't dogs, and hence useless for reproduction.
>
> (To be fair, I am not sure I got it in the first movies either. I think some
> out-of-band explanation was offered me.)

Good point though... what was the creature's motivation in the original?
(ignoring the deleted scenes with two cocooned crewmembers!)

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Bill Pragnell wrote:
> Good point though... what was the creature's motivation in the original?
> (ignoring the deleted scenes with two cocooned crewmembers!)

Well, I wasn't ignoring that. :-)

-- 
Darren New, San Diego CA, USA (PST)
    C# - a language whose greatest drawback
    is that it's best implementation comes
    from a company that doesn't hate Microsoft.

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On 6/24/2010 4:46 PM, Darren New wrote:
> Jim Henderson wrote:
>> I thought the second was better than the first, but I think the first
>> could be counted as better Sci Fi.
>
> I don't know why people really thought that. There are few movies where
> the sequel is as good as the original, and I'll grant Aliens held its
> own. But I didn't like it as much as Alien. Perhaps it was just because
> I was at the right age for Alien and too cynical by the time Aliens came
> out or something.
>

The comic relief was a point against it.


I felt the (fourth?) movie with Wynona Ryder was low quality the first 
time I saw it. I thought the characters were caricatures straight out of 
comic books. But I watched it again recently and sort of liked it.


-- 
http://isometricland.com

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On 6/24/2010 4:48 PM, Kevin Wampler wrote:
> Also, even though they're not movies, I think there's been some very
> good science fiction television shows recently. Firefly and the remake
> of Battlestar Galatica come to mind.

Don't forget Farscape!


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SharkD wrote:
> On 6/24/2010 4:48 PM, Kevin Wampler wrote:
>> Also, even though they're not movies, I think there's been some very
>> good science fiction television shows recently. Firefly and the remake
>> of Battlestar Galatica come to mind.
> 
> Don't forget Farscape!

I actually have never seen it, although it seems that I should remedy that!

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SharkD wrote:
> I felt the (fourth?) movie with Wynona Ryder was low quality the first 
> time I saw it. 

It helps to remember that Weaver always wanted to be a comedian, and that 
the fourth movie was therefore supposed to be funny.

With the most realistic horrible monsters ever invented.

Kind of rough, there...

-- 
Darren New, San Diego CA, USA (PST)
    C# - a language whose greatest drawback
    is that it's best implementation comes
    from a company that doesn't hate Microsoft.

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