An interesting thing happened whilst I was watching the Alien Quadrilogy.
I adored the first film, as I always have. Alien is one of those magical films which just fascinates and amazes me whenever I watch it. And each time I watch it, I'm blown away by different things (this time it was the naturalism in the acting, particularly during the first few scenes of crew interaction).
I managed to get some more goodness out of Alien 3, it's a flawed film, but the Director's Cut at least gives it a sense of order and makes it into a far grander, near operatic, end to the series.
Even Alien: Resurrection was vaguely amusing. It's seriously a good song and dance number away from being a musical, horrendously awful but blessed with this wonderful visual panache which almost counterattacks Whedon's abomination of a script.
But Aliens, Aliens left me cold.
It just seems like such a juvenile piece of work, a masterpiece for the emotionally stunted. It's overbearing fascination with technology and its inability to deal with any emotions which don't fall under the flight or fight principle make the film utterly frustrating. It's interesting that the female characters in the film are either made masculine (Newt and Vasquez are both tomboyish, despite Newt's high pitched screaming) or maternal.
Why Cameron thought that following up a film which was famous for its slow build of tension and claustrophobic horror, with a sequel that was never particularly scary or tense is beyond me.
When I was a teenager I used to think that the Marines were the coolest characters ever, but watching the film now nobody aside from Ripley really seems all that human. They're all one note caricatures and cartoons, more suitable for comic books than celluloid.
I also find that Cameron in this film is quite irritating as a director, he keeps trying to ape other directors or at least visually reference his peers but by doing so he shows off his limited abilities as an artist (The Shining Reference in the Special Edition is a prime example of shooting yourself in the foot as a director).
I adored the first film, as I always have. Alien is one of those magical films which just fascinates and amazes me whenever I watch it. And each time I watch it, I'm blown away by different things (this time it was the naturalism in the acting, particularly during the first few scenes of crew interaction).
I managed to get some more goodness out of Alien 3, it's a flawed film, but the Director's Cut at least gives it a sense of order and makes it into a far grander, near operatic, end to the series.
Even Alien: Resurrection was vaguely amusing. It's seriously a good song and dance number away from being a musical, horrendously awful but blessed with this wonderful visual panache which almost counterattacks Whedon's abomination of a script.
But Aliens, Aliens left me cold.
It just seems like such a juvenile piece of work, a masterpiece for the emotionally stunted. It's overbearing fascination with technology and its inability to deal with any emotions which don't fall under the flight or fight principle make the film utterly frustrating. It's interesting that the female characters in the film are either made masculine (Newt and Vasquez are both tomboyish, despite Newt's high pitched screaming) or maternal.
Why Cameron thought that following up a film which was famous for its slow build of tension and claustrophobic horror, with a sequel that was never particularly scary or tense is beyond me.
When I was a teenager I used to think that the Marines were the coolest characters ever, but watching the film now nobody aside from Ripley really seems all that human. They're all one note caricatures and cartoons, more suitable for comic books than celluloid.
I also find that Cameron in this film is quite irritating as a director, he keeps trying to ape other directors or at least visually reference his peers but by doing so he shows off his limited abilities as an artist (The Shining Reference in the Special Edition is a prime example of shooting yourself in the foot as a director).
