InsidePulse DVD Review – Alien Quadrilogy

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Some compare this set to both the Ultimate Matrix Collection and Peter Jackson’s Extended Edition versions of Lord of the Rings, however unlike those two franchises this box set wasn’t planned. Those studio’s were working on their sets while the movies were still being filmed, where as Fox needed to start from almost nothing.

These movies have become a part of our pop culture, so I’m not going to be doing indepth reviews of the movies as more than likely you’ve seen them. Another reason is to avoid any spoilers for those that haven’t gotten the chance to experience these movies.

Every movie gave us something to remember, Alien gave us a fear of what we don’t know, Aliens gave us some of the most quoted lines in film, Alien³ gave us David Fincher and Alien Resurrection… well Resurrection actually made us lose IQ points.

For the sake of convenience I’ve decided that it would be best to review all nine discs in order, but seperate them by movie. So if your looking for a review of a specific title in the series and don’t feel like going through page upon page of other discs, here are links to each Collector’s Edition:

Alien: Collector’s Editon
Aliens: Collector’s Editon
Alien³: Collector’s Editon
Alien Resurrection: Collector’s Editon
Alien Quadrilogy Exclusive Ninth Disc


Disc One – Alien

Directed by:
Ridley Scott

Starring:
Tom Skerritt……….Dallas
Sigourney Weaver……….Ripley
Veronica Cartwright……….Lambert
Harry Dean Stanton……….Brett
John Hurt……….Kane
Ian Holm……….Ash
Yaphet Kotto……….Parker

The Movie
When it came to these four movies Alien is by far the hardest one for me to write a review for. What’s left to say about a movie that over 25 years since its release is still leaps and bounds ahead of todays movies? It’s a movie that re-defined a genre and has never been duplicated. It’s also the film that gave the world Ridley Scott a director who at the age of 68 is still churning out amazing pieces of work. Simply put, how do you critique near perfection?

Alien owes a portion of its success to George Lucas, because once studio’s saw the untapped resource of the sci-fi audience with his brain child Star Wars all of them were gobbling up every space property available. And Alien just happened to be the only scifi property 20th Century Fox had. Coming out right in the middle of the space craze, audience weren’t expecting the experience they received with Alien. Up to this point most movies that involved space had average special effects but more importantly, in all those movies the aliens came in peace. Not this time.

The movie doesn’t allow the audience to have a sense of security, it never gives them a hero to stand behind. Every time they imagine they found a person who’ll take them to safety is picked off one by one. Until the most unlikely of the crew steps up and faces off with the unwanted visitor. A fine tuned cast is what really puts everything in this movie together, in both acting ability and the actual personalities they portray on screen. All are well developed and in the short time we see them the writers find a way for us to bond with them. It’s really hard to find faults in this movie, it’s dark gritty and that’s just what a horror movie should be.

There are two alternate version on disk one, the theatrical release and a new director’s cut. Each one has it’s pros and cons, the theatrical still has an upper hand for an overall prospective. Where as the director’s cut really tightened up the flow of the picture, only in the end bring the story to a screeching stop and lose the momentum it had been building up.
Theatrical Release: 9.5/10
Director’s Cut: 9/10

The Video
(Presented in 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen)
When Alien was re-released in theaters about 2 years ago as a “Director’s Cut” it had received a brand new high definition transfer. And on the small screen it looks wonderful, there’s very little to complain about it, minimum grain no noticeable artifacts. Best this film has ever looked.
Score: 9/10

The Audio
(English Dolby Digital 5.1, English DTS and Spanish Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono)
The audio tracks here are beyond incredible, both tracks here are brand new and neither disappoint. It’s as if your on board the Nostromo walking down the corridors.
Score: 9/10

The Extras

Feature Length Commentary – This is a newly recorded audio track with director Ridley Scott and Dan O’Bannon, Ronald Shusett, Sigourney Weaver, Tom Skerritt, Veronica Cartwright, Harry Dean Stanton and John Hurt. They’re all split up as groups and recorded at different times then interlaced together. The way they were all placed keeps the commentary moving at a steady and enjoyable pace.

Disc Two – The Beast Within: The Making of Alien

Pre-Production
Star Beast: Developing the Story
(18 mins) – To kick off the mammoth amount of special features in this set it’s only fitting that we start at where it all began. Dan O’Bannon talks about the evolution of the story and characters from writing the screenplay while living in his friends living room to what was the first draft. Including the story behind how he came up with the title for the movie. It’s brought up that Alien was only days away from becoming a low budget Roger Corman movie. while listening you can sense a real disdain Dan has towards the studio and the producers.

The Visualists: Direction and Design (17 mins) – O’Bannon had written the story under the impression that he would be directing it. The studio however had other things in mind, they chose to go after every A-list director to helm to production. They aproached Ridley Scott after viewing his movie The Duelist and he agreed, and shared his thoughts on the movie. He first went and made story boards that took 3 months to complete and when he came back and showed his work he had managed to get the studio to double the budget. Also talked about here is H.R. Giger the man who envisioned the alien’s look. He’s a very strange man to say the least, one you would love to sit down and look at his artwork but not the kind of guy you want to get stuck in an elevator with.

Truckers in Space: Casting (15 mins) – When Dan and Ron first wrote the screenplay they had all the characters with unisexual names so that the studio could make it as commercially marketable as possible. They never in their wildest dreams imagined that Ridley would want to make the lead a woman, but that’s why he thought it fitted it most, it made the character stronger. This piece focuses on the casting, and talks about how Segourney almost never got the part because she went to the wrong casting call. They’ve managed to gather a nice collection of the original cast to talk about the movie here.

Production
Fear of the Unknown: Shepperton Studios, 1978
(24 mins) – Here we see production begin and it doesn’t take long for use to see the studio breathing down Ridleys neck on his style of shooting. Alot of the things used in the movie were the first time they hadn’t been tried so there were some kinks to still be worked out. One major kink was with the space suits they created, while being designed they overlooked any sort of ventilation for the cast. Another being the shot of Ash’s head in the movie where the prosthetic mold that was made began to shrink and caused the final product to look unpleasing. Something Ridley did that not many directors do anymore was give each actor a couple pages of back story for their characters.

The Darkest Reaches: Nostromo and the Alien Planet (17 mins) – Shown here are the set designs and how they went from sketches on paper to the final stage of building. The focus is mainly on the creation of the Nostromo and the alien ship. Mostly covered is the alien ship with Gigers talking about how the set was never what he fully imagined it to be but because of budget he had to make due with what he had. How many times must studio’s be reminded that you can’t rush genius?

The Eighth Passenger: Creature Design (31 mins) – Talked about in great detail here are the design and creation of the egg, face hugger, chest burster and full grown alien. But before all of that is talked about we’re treated to even more of H.R. Giger and the crews reaction to his work and personality. The only people that didn’t avoid him were director Ridley, Ron and Dan, so he was rather isolated from contact with others. Given here is just about every single detail you would want to know about the creation of the creature effects.

Post-Production
Future Tense: Editing and Music
(16 mins) – Here we see editor Terry Rawlings and composer Jerry Goldsmith talk about their work on the movie. Terry talks about how it’s important that an editor do the best he can to take all the film the director shot and put it together in a way that best represents the director’s vision. The first rough cut on Alien clocked in at around 3 hours and those who were very attached to the project let it be known the movie didn’t need to have such a slow pace. Goldsmith talks about him and Ridley butting heads alot on how the feel of the score should be.

Outward Bound: Visual Effects (19 mins) – As if they haven’t been talked about enough, the special effects are brought up once again. Only this time it’s about the miniature effects used for exterior shots of the ship and refinery. Listening to the miniature crew talk about their job and the hard task it is you can tell in their voice they truly have a passion for their job.

A Nightmare Fulfilled: Reaction to the Film (19 mins) – Almost everyone who was featured in the above features provide their closing thoughts on the movie and the craze it started. They all seem proud of what became the final cut of the movie. Some footage of the films premiere is shown with lines for tickets going on for blocks. This is a great piece to add closure to the disc.

Deleted Scenes – Seven scenes not available on disc one are included here, it’s brought to our attention that some of these were intended to be put into the director’s cut of the movie but Ridley had them removed at the last minute. All are fully restored and three include dolby 5.1 surround. All seven are worth your time to check out.

Also included on this disc are; the first draft screenplay by Dan O’Bannon, Sigourney Weaver’s screen test footage, poster explorations gallery, special shoot photo gallery, premiere photo gallery, set photo gallery, visual effects photo gallery, Ridleygrams gallery, storyboard gallery, conceptual artwork gallery, H.R. Giger’s Workshop photo gallery, production photo gallery, continuity Polaroids gallery, cast portrait gallery.
Score: 10/10


Disc Three – Aliens

Directed by:
James Cameron

Starring:
Sigourney Weaver……….Ellen Ripley
Carrie Henn……….Rebecca ‘Newt’ Jorden
Michael Biehn……….Cpl. Dwayne Hicks
Lance Henriksen……….Bishop
Paul Reiser……….Carter Burke
Bill Paxton……….Pvt. Hudson
William Hope……….Lt. Gorman
Jenette Goldstein……….Pvt. Vasquez

The Movie
Oh to reminisce of when sequels weren’t clauses in peoples contracts, and didn’t get released every two years… good times. Back in the 70’s and 80’s sequels meant something, they progressed the story, characters backgrounds were given more depth and more importantly they had a purpose for being made. Released almost 10 years after it’s predecessor, Aliens is one of a handful of sequels that took the ball from the original movie and rolled with it.

Cameron clearly had no intention of trying to duplicate Alien because he knew he could never capture what Scott had accomplished. So when he began writing the screenplay he knew that it had to be something true to the source but at the same time be its own entity. Jim approached the picture as a straight up action/vengeance flick, a bold choice. Aliens never tries to be Alien because no movie period could ever be able to over shadow such a film that turned the genre upside down, especially the sequel of the movie to do so. It’s just different, in a good way.

Perhaps the best thing Jim gave to the series was turning Ripley into the first real female lead action star. He made the character more compelling and in doing so earned Weaver an academy award nomination for her role. Of coarse the lead is only as good as her supporting stars and Segourney is joined by yet another marvelous secondary cast. Carrie Henn, Michael Biehn, Lance Henriksen, Paul Reiser and Bill Paxton Who all step their game up in the movie, well maybe not Paul Reiser but the rest of the cast is outstanding.

Like with Alien there are two available version of the film, the theatrical release and the special edition version released a few years back. For the first time ever the theatrical cut of the film is made available on DVD, and is a quick get to the action shoot em’ up with just enough of the story and characters to make it good. It’s lacking due to cut backs in editing for the sake of getting the maximum number of play times a day at theaters.

Which is where the special edition steps in, Cameron himself said the Special Edition is the definitive copy of the movie he envisioned. It keeps the audience in suspense, everyone knows coming in to a movie like this that only a hand full of the people in the movie were going to make it out alive. That’s just a given in horror movies, keeping them on the edge of their seats waiting and watching is what makes this version such a psychological suspenseful thrill ride.
Theatrical Version: 8/10
Special Edition: 9.5/10

The Video
(Presented in 1.85:1 letterboxed widescreen)
This DVD re-release of Aliens unlike Alien did not receive a new transfer for the set. Not the fault of the studio it’s just that Cameron has stated that the video transfer is the one he believes suits the movie the best, so why tamper with what the director considered the best version. There is a fair amount of noticeable grain and some dirt on the video but it is due to the film that was used to shoot the movie. They did go back and clean some of it up, it looks slightly better.
Score: 7.5/10

The Audio
(Presented in English Dolby Digital 5.1 and Spanish Dolby Digital 2.0)
Missing is a DTS track which this movie with its incredible sound track would have done wonders. The 5.1 isn’t anything to sneeze at by any means, but watching and listening to the movie one can only imagine what a DTS track would have acomplished. Alas due to disk space it was cut so the video quality would be the best presentation possible.
Score: 7/10

The Extras

Feature Length Commentary – By far one of the most entertaining and informative commentary tracks I have heard in a long time. Involved are writer/director James Cameron, producer Gale Anne Hurd, miniature technical supervisor Pat McClung, alien effects leader Stan Winston, cast members Michael Biehn, Jenette Goldstein, Carrie Henn, Bill Paxton, Terry Henn and Lance Henriksen, and lastly visual effects supervisors Dennis and Robert Skotak. The most notable fact given here is that Jim had written three scripts in a three month period, Aliens, Rambo II and The Abyss. Those are three of the best movies of the late 80’s, I was shocked to hear that all three treatments were written in such a short time. There’s a plethora of other facts given, but they will be covered in greater detail on the next disc.

Disc Two – Superior Firepower: The Making of Aliens

Pre-Production
57 Years Later: Continuing the Story
(11 mins) – 20th Century Fox had originally planned to go ahead with a sequel after the success of Alien, but changes in management kept pushing the idea to the side. Until one day things began to pick up and the studio contacted James Cameron to work on the script, to which he jumped at the chance. By the time the draft was due he was only 90 pages into it and the studio loved what he had so far they chose to hold off and allow him to finish it when his schedule opened up. They then to add to his excitement told him if Terminator were to be a hit they would allow him to direct the movie as well.

Building Better Worlds: From Concept to Construction (13 mins) – After Alien James didn’t want a ship that was like the Nostromo, so he had his designer come up with a ship more suitable to the military movie he wanted to make. Of coarse the design given to him wasn’t even in the ball park of what he wanted so they went back to the drawing board and came up with a ship that bared striking resemblance to a pulse rifle. Also discussed in here is the design of the tank used in the movie and how they came across it by going to the airport and buying one of the trucks that transport 747’s.

Preparing for Battle: Casting and Characterization (17 mins) – This as many of you have guessed talks about the casting of the movie. James and his casting director looked at close to three thousand actors in England and only a handful were casted. So that left them to start bringing over other actors from the states to play parts in the film. After all that was settled they began a two week “boot camp” that gave all the soldiers time to grow a bond like many squads do in action and gave them time to develop their characters.

Production
This Time It’s War: Pinewood Studios, 1985
(19 mins) – Have you ever been working and giving it your all while feeling everyone around you was only giving 50%? Well apparently even James Cameron runs into that problem from time to time. Shown in the featurette is mainly all the struggles Jim had with his English crew who just looked at the production as another paycheck rather than wanting to make a great picture.

The Risk Always Lives: Weapons and Action (15 mins) – Here they talk about designing futuristic weapons. They tried achieving that by imagining what the top of the line firearms of today would look like in the future. Weaver tells us that she never knew the movie was going to showcase violence as much as it did, she felt awkward about it as she donates to anti-gun charities.

Bug Hunt: Creature Design (16 mins) – Stan Winston chimes in on the creature designs for the sequel here, sadly H.R. Giger is not involved with the production here. Stan bring up many minor alterations he’s done to the stages of the alien, like giving the chest buster more articulation. And how he built the full alien costume to be more durable since they were forced to produce numerous costumes for the movie and they couldn’t keep spending money to fix ripped suits. Camerons use or reverse photography is brought up here and it’s really a sight to be seen how he manages to just make things work with such little thinking effort, it all just seems to pop into his head.

Beauty and the Bitch: Power Loader vs. Queen Alien (22 mins) – In this piece they chose to talk about the design and creation of the queen alien effects. It’s really interesting watching them create the legendary creature, but it might have been best to include it in the “Bug Hunt” piece along with the other alien designs. It’s amazing hearing them say it could sometimes take up to 15 puppeteers to move the queen the way Cameron wanted it to. The power loader is also brought up here and they share how it was originally designed around having a stunt man hidden in the suit. Early test footage of both are shown along with crew talking about the challenge it was to have everything come together.

Two Orphans: Sigourney Weaver and Carrie Henn (14 mins) – In this piece we see a nice featurette about the onset relationship between Weaver and Henn. It’s a nice alternative to all the other parts of the disc, they’re all just loaded with information and are bombarding you with fact after fact. Here however it’s about the common bond between two stars.

Post-Production
The Final Countdown: Music, Editing and Sound
(15 mins) – Aliens had a tight production schedule, and sadly because of that Jim and editor Ray Lovejoy were left with little time to put together something that resembled a first cut. Luckily they managed to come together and make what later became a mapping of both the theatrical and director’s cut. Sadly for composer James Horner all the time they took for editing keep making him go back and re-write his score constantly so that it fit the new scenes they were putting in. What was planned to be a six week composing period turned into a two day crunch.

The Power of Real Tech: Visual Effects (28 mins) – Here’s another featurette focusing on the miniature aspect of the movie, it’s given a great deal of time to really flesh out and become a great watch. They talk mainly of three key things for the movie here, the ships, the colony city showing all the small details that were put into every street and side alley, and they also talk about the miniature alien queen and power loader.

Aliens Unleashed: Reaction to the Film (12 mins) – Just like with disc two this is for everyone to say their last word on the film and how the world reacted to it. Probably the most interesting thing brought up is when they’re talking about academy awards the movie could possibly be nominated for and how shocked they all were when Segoureny was nominated for best actress.

Also included on this disc are; the original treatment text by James Cameron, film “finish and release” photo gallery, conceptual artwork gallery, cast portrait gallery, production photo gallery, continuity Polaroids gallery, weapons and vehicles photo gallery, Stan Winston’s Workshop photo gallery, visual effects photo gallery.
Score: 10/10


Disc Five – Alien³

Directed by
David Fincher

Starring
Sigourney Weaver……….Ellen Ripley
Charles S. Dutton……….Dillon
Charles Dance……….Clemens
Paul McGann……….Golic
Brian Glover……….Andrews
Ralph Brown……….Aaron
Daniel Webb……….Morse
Christopher John Fields……….Rains
Holt McCallany……….Junior

The Movie
Alien³ is a prime example of how a rushed production can cripple a franchise. 20th Century Fox knew that the movie needed to be on par with the previous films, or at least be special in its own right. So they mothered the franchise and just refused change. They wanted a new perspective for part 3 but instead of allowing their director make his vision they were looking over his shoulder at every chance they got and second guessed all of his moves. They essentially were the cause of their own products demise.

Unlike the first two installments, Weaver is forced to carry the entire movie on her shoulders, the supporting cast she has here is almost non existence. She manages to do a superb job at taking her Ripley character to yet another level of emotion. In this movie you really have to feel for the character she plays, through all she endures she is forces to live with this creature, it’s become a part of her. Everything she comes to love or come in contact with is taken away because of it.

The original theatrical cut was just plain horrible, essentially it was just a bunch of bald white English men that looked and sounded exactly the same who when on screen seemed to only be running through tunnels screaming alot. That was the movie in a nutshell, well at least that’s what most people got from it and the reason most dislike the film. The brand new “assembly cut” is an entirely new movie with 30 minutes of material added in giving us not only answers to the countless questions presented in the first cut, it gives us an entirely new sub plot with new insight to characters.

Director David Fincher who has disowned any association with this movie does one hell of a job for a first time director, in this one movie he shows that he was destined for bigger and better things. The new extended “assembly” version does alot right for the overall flow, but it also does alot wrong. The first third of the movie is very slow paced, I suppose it was intended to give us time to adapt to the new environment and characters and build anticipation like Alien did. However no matter how much time or effort they put into it the characters just aren’t relatable. It’s hard to feel for murderers and rapists who happen to find god in their darkest times.

Fox chose moving along with the production with no director, no complete working script and sets they created that may not even be of use anymore taking a substantial cut from the budget. You have to wonder how things could have panned out with this movie if it was just given room to grow instead of a forced production simply to hit a specific release date.
Theatrical Release: 4.5/10
Special Edition: 7/10

The Video
(Presented in 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen)
For the condition the old footage was in this is a huge step up, but there is still noticeable grain on the print. The high def transfer did wonders for the movie and the only time the movie looks bad are the exterior shots that have purposeful debris flying through the air that looks horrible.
Score: 8/10

The Audio
(English Dolby Digital 5.1 and Spanish Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround)
Some of the newly added scenes have some audio troubles, where mics weren’t able to pick up certain actors dialog so they put in subtitles to fix the problems. I can’t understand if they could get all this footage that was assumed lost, restore it to blend into the movie seamlessly, that they couldn’t go into the audio track and re dub a few lines or adding a few sound effects to take out those annoying subtitles.
Score: 7/10

The Extras

text introduction to Special Edition

Feature Length Commentary – Terry Rawlings spends the majority of his time on the track acting as the voice for Fincher, everyone else seems to only bring his name up a handful of time and trying to avoid him as much as possible. The effects guys talk alot about the alien effects and how the technology used in the movie was right on the cusp of CGI so it would have probably looked better had the movie been made a year or two later, instead they were forced to use modern ways of bringing the alien to life. Involved are cinematographer Alex Thomson, editor Terry Rawlings and Alec Gillis, Tom Woodruff Jr., Richard Edlund, Paul McGann and Lance Henriksen.

Disc Six – The Making of Alien³

Pre-Production
Development: Concluding the Story
(17 mins) – The studio had a real issue when it came to Alien³, they set such a high standard for themselves with Aliens they didn’t know where to begin, first and foremost they didn’t want to drastically change anything since the formula was proven to work. The real problem is they were too stubborn to allow writers the freedom to try anything new. Both Renny Harlin & Vincent Ward were brought on to the project and gave their vision of the third instalment Fox even signed off on Wards’ treatment, only to demand he basically change the entire premise that both parties had already agreed upon.

Tales of the Wooden Planet: Vincent Ward’s Vision (13 mins) – Wards concept for the film is very intriguing, it involved a group of outcast people who have no interest in technology who have crafted a planet of their own out of wood. They’re basically 13th century monks who make buildings and cathedral out of wood and harvest wheat for food with the most simplistic of agricultural tools. While I type this description the premise does seem way out of left field, but while Ward describes it, it seems so logical. What it would have done to the series is any bodies guess. From there Fox wanted just about everything changed in Ward’s screenplay and neither side would back down so Ward left the project.

Pre-Production: Part III (11 mins) – When Ward left the movie the studio had already green lit production of sets and a start date for filming. Rather than postpone production the studio went ahead with no director a script nobody wanted and sets being made for scenes that could ultimately be cut all together. The story that Fox wanted is very close to the final product, first they wanted the wood planet scrapped for a mining colony, then change the monks into prisoners. We get introduced to David Fincher (Fincher declined any participation on this set) who the producers cast and everybody else involved can’t stop glowing over.

Xeno-Erotic: H.R. Giger’s Re-Design (10 mins) – The Giger is back. Our favorite excetric artist was contacted by David Fincher who wanted Giger to help bring the industrial concept back in to the alien. A big thing Fincher wanted was an all new four legged alien design. However with the schedule conflicts alot of Giger’s work was ignored which lead to him removing himself from the studio all together.

Production
Production : Part I
(18 mins) – It shows alot of the cast and crew very upset at the beginning of the featurette, but never cover in detail anything about it (I assume that the production section took the biggest blow when edits came around). Everybody involved stands up for Fincher talking about how much respect and admiration they have for him with all the pressure on his shoulders. It’s noted here several times that the production should have been pushed back for the sake of the script, set designers and director but I guess we’ll never know what could have happened had the studio listened.

Adaptive Organism: Creature Design (20 mins) – One of Alien³’s biggest issues has always been the creature effects involving the marionette alien, they always seem to take the viewer out of the movie experience and that’s never a good thing. They touch a little bit on that here but the majority of the marionette shot discussion is in the post production section. The “super” face hugger that was made for the movie is shown here, it’s only shown in the special edition version of the movie and even then it’s only shown for a few seconds.

Production: Part II (14 mins) – Part II discusses the hault of production to allow David to put together his first rough cut. He had a 3 hour cut ready for the executives to see and none of them were happy with what they were witnessing. The entire point of the editing was to get a sense of what scenes are needed and what re-shoots have to be filmed. Little to Fincher’s awareness the studio already was planing the final cut of the film behind his back.

Production: Part III (8 mins) – Part III is a closing thoughts on the troubled production, present are most of the producers and executives at the time. Originally planned was to use old stock footage to let David’s view on the movie be heard (since again he declined to work on the box set) but just about all of it has been cut. Leaving the final word to the people who were against him since the beginning of the movies production.

Post-Production
Optical Fury: Visual Effects
(23 mins) – Here in great detail the F/X crew talks about the effects used in the film. It runs for just over 20 minutes. The marionette alien is brought up the most, they came up with the idea so they could be able to film scenes in ways that could not be captured on film with a man in a suit.

Music, Editing and Sound (15 mins) – Interviewed are Composer Elliot Goldenthal and the film’s sound editors, talking about how the score and sound mixes clashed due to the scores industrial inspiration. Elliot shows some real disdain for what the theatrical score turned in to, and how complicated it was to score scenes, because of most the film taking place in cramped little corridors.

Post-Mortem: Reaction to the Film (8 mins) – Here just about everyone involved with the movie say their final thoughts. This is where Fincher is missed most because people keep saying “I think David…” or “David had problems with…”. Giving everyones two cents on what was going on in his head except the one person who’s opinion matters the most, Fincher himself.

Also included on this disc are; conceptual artwork gallery, storyboard gallery, conceptual art gallery, furnace construction time-lapse sequence, production photo gallery, A.D.I.’s Workshop photo gallery, visual effects gallery, special shoot photo gallery.
Score: 8.5/10


Disc Seven – Alien Resurrection

Directed by:
Jean-Pierre Jeunet

Starring:
Sigourney Weaver……….Lt. Ellen Ripley Clone #8
Winona Ryder……….Annalee Call
Dominique Pinon……….Vriess
Ron Perlman……….Johner
Gary Dourdan……….Christie
Michael Wincott ……….Frank Elgyn
Kim Flowers……….Sabra Hillard
Dan Hedaya……….Gen. Martin Perez
J.E. Freeman……….Dr. Mason Wren
Brad Dourif……….Dr. Jonathan Gediman
Raymond Cruz……….Vincent Distephano
Leland Orser……….Larry Purvis

The Movie
After Alien³ one would assume the story was over, tell that to Fox who believed they could pop another one out of the series and make a quick dime. Problem is, when you leading lady is killed off there really is no place left to go in the journey, you pretty much have written yourself in to a corner when it comes to another sequel. Until Joss Whedon walked in to their office one day with an idea for their fourth instalment.

Why Sigourney signed on for this is anyones guess, well I imagine that 11 million dollar contract offer had something to do with it. The supporting cast is enjoyable, the only problem is that they’re all one dimensional. Not once do we care when one of them get killed off because character development is nowhere to be found in this movie. there’s the generic tough guy (Perlman), chick number 2 (Flowers), token black guy (Dourdan), whiney guy (Orser) and the android (Ryder) none of them are treated as anything other than what they’re labeled as.

Jean-Pierre Jeunet has said himself that he never wanted to direct the movie and he only accepted the job because Fox was so determined to get him. He has an incredible eye behind the camera which is proven with his films City of Lost Children and Amile. One problem that he made was he took the movie in to a “summer blockbuster” feel, gone is the psychological aspect of the Alien series it’s all cheap scares with no pay off and CGI aliens. But that aspect of the movie is only the directors fault up until a point, which leads me to the next problem of the flick. The script…

The movie is riddled with plot holes from beginning to end, for instance when Ripley is genetically cloned how did they get a blood sample? Or the idea that they cloned her and she was born impregnated, I don’t know what kind of science books they have in the future but come on it’s illogical that Ripley is cloned and already has the alien in her. Another story contradiction is the crew goes on a shooting rampage against the aliens, but as we learned with Alien the acid blood would have melted straight through the ships hull and that fact is only brought up in Resurrection when it’s convenient for the plot.

It seems as if Joss Whedon watched the previous 3 instalments and said “Well fans liked it when Alien took place on a ship so that will be my environment. And they like the marine crew from Aliens so why not change the company in to a military that wants the aliens now. And why not throw in a little bit of religious symbols like Alien³. But wait Ripley is dead how can I bring her back? I know I’ll clone her. GENIUS! it all makes sense now!” all that thrown in with gallons of KY Jelly a few small tongue in cheek references to the other three films and you get one of the most unoriginal sequel ever.
Theatrical Release: 3.5/10
Special Edition: 3/10

The Video
(Presented in 2.35:1 letterboxed widescreen)
The third film to get a high definition transfer for the set is Resurrection. Blacks seem to be a little bit too dark in some scenes but every thing else is flawless. Seemless branching much like the previous movie discs are unnoticeable. A very well done transfer.
Score: 9/10

The Audio
(English Dolby Digital 5.1 and English DTS 5.1)
In most cases I would say that DTS is by far the best choice when it comes to watching a movie, however the Dolby Digital track here is just as good if not better then the included DTS. That’s always a good thing for all you who’s DVD player doesn’t have DTS encoding.
Score: 9/10

The Extras

Feature Length Commentary – with director Jean-Pierre Juenet and Hervè Schneid, Alec Gillis, Tom Woodruff Jr., Pitof (yes THAT Pitof), Sylvain Desperetz, Ron Pearlman, Dominigue Pinon and Leland Orser. The track is a newly recorded one but it makes no real difference since the movie that is being talked about is arguably the worst of the four. What is talked about in the track is repeated several times through the movie which makes listeners begin to lose interest. Joss Whedon is missing here which is a bit of a downer since he was offered to participate.

Disc Eight – One Step Beyond: The Making of Alien Resurrection

Pre-Production
From the Ashes: Reviving the Story
(10 mins) – While Whedon was absent from the commentary track for the movie he is dominantly present here. Talking about how somebody at Fox wanted him to do a treatment for Alien 4, which as a fanboy he leaped at the offer. Once he got his chance I’m sure it began to set in that there isn’t really a story for him to write. But he did manage a version that Fox liked alot, however now they wanted him to re-write it with Ripley coming back. Alot of the crew from the previous films were surprised when they received the phone call for returning to the franchise, It’s clear here that only Fox was itching to put out another sequel.

French Twist: Direction and Design (26 mins) – In this piece it’s mostly all of the crew that Jeaun-Pierre brought over from France to work on the picture talking about how great he is to work with, and what an impeccable eye he has behind the lens. A very interesting thing brought up here is that Danny Boyle was originally approached for directing, only to decline the offer. Note that through this disk all of the Fox execs and producers are practically non existent, even all of Segorney’s segments are just edited interview pieces from 1997 (who takes this film WAY too serious if you listen to her).

Under the Skin: Casting and Characterizations (13 mins) – Just as the title implies, Fox allowed Jean Pierre to cast the film at his will, he brought in a few familiar faces from his previous projects most notably Dominique Pinon & Ron Perlman. Each actor is given about 2 minutes for discussing their character and what they believed they added to the movie.

creature, make-up and costume test footage (12 mins) – with optional commentary by Alec Ginnes (which I highly suggest), a real cool behind the scenes look at modifications made to the eggs, the air lock scene with the “newborn” alien and alot of physical effects of the movie, most of it is like the title says, test footage so it’s just a bunch of effects crew members using handy cams to shoot possible props.

Production
Death from Below: Fox Studios, Los Angeles, 1996
(31 mins) – The longest featurette for Alien Resurrection clocking in at just over 30 minutes. Covered here is the under water scene that took 3 weeks to shoot. That’s alot of time wasted for what wound up being a 4 minute scene in the movie if you ask me. But the onset footage shown shows how difficult this all was for the cast. Since the underwater scene was an enclosed tank there was no way to swim up for air, they needed to rely on their diving partner underwater to give them oxygen when they weren’t shooting.

In the Zone: The Basketball Scene (7 mins) – An interesting piece to add, showing and discussing Weavers attempt at making the very hard over the head basket shot in the movie. Easily skippable, the only saving grace for it is Ron Pearlman’s comments on the day of shooting.

Unnatural Mutation: Creature Design (26 mins) – What’s here covers about 75% of the creatures & make-up piece that I touched lightly upon about a page up from here just in greater detail. Alec Gillis and Tom Woodruff, Jr discuss the modifications needed for the alien warrior suit, most of them were needed for the under water sequence. Also focused on here is the design for the “newborn” alien at the end of the movie. ADI has done the creature effects for the past 3 movies in the Alien series.

Post-Production
Genetic Composition: Music
(13 mins) – composer John Frizzell talks about how he would put his spin of the fourth instalment. He also talks greatly about how much he admires the works of the previous 3 composers work. We’re shown footage of the orcestra composing the score here too.

Virtual Aliens: Computer Generated Imagery (10 mins) – Talking shortly on the visual effects of the alien in the movie Pitof speaks about how most of the CGI was needed for make the shot Jeunet wanted. It’s a very small piece and the only real use of CG in the movie is the under water scene.

A Matter of Scale: Miniature Photography (23 mins) – Miniature work in films are becoming more and more scarce as the years go bye, everything is being over taken with CGI these days. Even films like Sky Captain and Sin City have effectively gotten rid of the need for a set thanks to CG. Fans of this stuff will love what they see here. With a run time of about 23 minutes it’s something very enjoyable to watch.

Critical Juncture: Reaction to the Film (14 mins) – There’s alot of reaction to the script, effects, lighting, music and direction here but very little reaction to how the movie was overall or where it’s place in the Alien saga is. They talk about how reaction in France was very good, mostly in part because Jeunet directed it. the reaction part of the feature is cut pretty short here, and instead we hear where most people would like to see the franchise go if an Alien 5 is ever made. Some interesting ideas, but I think most people would agree with me that it’s time this series is put to rest.

Also included on this disc are; the first draft screenplay text by Joss Whedon, character design gallery, conceptual art gallery, storyboard gallery, production photo gallery, A.D.I.’s Workshop photo gallery, visual effects photo gallery, special shoot photo gallery.
Score: 9/10


Disc Nine – Alien Bonus Disc

Disk nine is basically a catch-all for the set, every little piece that had no real place on any of the other eight discs finds it’s home here. This disk features the final stage of the alien life cycle, the queen. This DVD is only available in this nine disk set. There isn’t anything earth shattering discussed here but let’s move on shall we.

the Alien section kicks off with Alien Evolution a 64 minute documentary, originally produced for channel 4 over in the UK presented in anamorphic widescreen. It doesn’t really talk about much stuff we havn’t already covered from other discs but it has alot of very interesting interviews well worth your time. Experience in Terror was Made by the studio to help promote the movies opening in 1979. Included are some interview clips not available on disk two. Next up is a Ridley Scott Q&A. The Q&A was filmed on September 14th 2001 at a screening of Alien in LA. Very informative on it’s own, only after watching both discs one and two the discussion becomes repetitive. Included is the entire 1992 Alien: Special Widescreen Collector’s Edition laserdisc archive accessible though chapters or the good old fashion way of watching it all one after another. 2 theatrical trailers 2 TV spots

The Aliens section has the 1991 Aliens: Special Widescreen Collector’s Edition laser disk archive. Of cours the stuff presented here pales in comparison to the other four discs of bonus material, but it gives all of you out there who own the laser disk copies the option to final retire them or put them on eBay and make back some of the money you spent for this set. Rounding out the Aliens part of the disk are 4 trailers (teaser, theatrical, domestic and international) and one TV spot.

The Alien³ & Alien Resurrection sections get the shaft when it comes to disk nine, all that’s here is an advance featurette for Alien³ which is you basic studio produced promotional piece. 5 theatrical trailers and 7 TV spots, all 5 trailers are widescreen. Resurrection however doesn’t even get a fluff studio piece just 2 trailers and 4 tv spots.

Aliens in the Basement: The Bob Burns Collection is a 17 minute bonus feature (I’m not sure there can actually be bonus material FOR bonus material) about Bob Burns a film prop collector/historian who has been storing film history for 20th Century Fox. Consisting of mostly Alien artifacts Bob has amassed almost three thousand square feet of film history. All of it was simply signed over to him by Fox for free on the grounds that he never sells or gives away anything.

Finishing up the DVD (and the collection) are Dark Horse Comics cover gallery with issue credits and a quick summery of what the story of the comic book is about. Script-to-screen viewing options for all four films in this series for DVD-ROM users, this works on both Macs and Windows PCs.
Score: 5.5/10

Currently residing in Washington D.C., John Charles Thomas has been writing in the digital space since 2005. While he'd like to boast about the culture and scenery, he tends to be more of a procrastinating creative type with an ambitious recluse side. @NerdLmtd