---

FLIGHT DATA
I most looked forward to revisiting the first film of the series. Its story, mimicked countless times since, begins when the computer of "The Nostromo," a deep space towing vehicle, intercepts a foreign distress signal and awakens the ship's crew of blue collar astronauts from hypersleep to check it out. "The Nostromo" touches down on the surface of a barren planet nicknamed "LV426"; there, Dallas (Skerritt), Lambert (Cartwright), and Cain (Hurt) happen upon a nest of pods. Cain observes a little too closely as one of them hatches--a squid-like organism springs forth from the pod and attaches itself to his head. Cain survives long enough for this "facehugger" to lay an egg in his body; the carnivorous baby that violently escapes from Cain's ribcage grows up quickly...and goes on a killing spree.

POSITIVE FINDINGS
Ridley Scott has thus far made three great pictures: this one, Blade Runner, and The Duellists. I always forget how expertly Alien was directed. Consider the establishing shots of "The Nostromo"'s interior: Derek Vanlint's camera tracks past fluorescent corridors and narrow catwalks--without a word of explanation, we learn immediately that there aren't many places to hide on this claustrophobic frigate. I also disagree with the popular opinion that Alien's characters are underdeveloped--this is a film about a crisis, so broad characterizations suffice. The facial expressions of his truly professional actors speak oodles of subtext. (Watch Holm as Ash--his eyes spill the beans on his character long before he's required to verbalize Ash's sinister plans.) What surprised me most about Alien this time around was how well the chestbursting scene holds up, even though Mel Brooks' Spaceballs parodied it memorably, even though one can purchase chestburster T-shirts at his/her local novelty shop. (Another great sequence: Ash's attempt on Ripley's life. Scott knows that a mundane object--in this case, a rolled-up magazine--makes for a far more chilling murder weapon than a gun or the like.) Finally, taking a cue from Jaws, Scott reveals a full view of his monster only in the final minutes of the picture. That may not have been his intention (he wanted to show the alien stalking Lambert in wide shot but it looked too much like a guy in a rubber suit on the prowl), but it heightens the drama significantly.

DOES NOT COMPUTE
How did these aliens reproduce before humans came along?

TESTING: VIDEO AND AUDIO
Alien wowed me on DVD, especially after years of tolerating a second-generation VHS tape. Presented in 2.35:1 widescreen (essential) and enhanced for 16x9 displays, the THX-approved image remains finely detailed throughout, even in the darkest scenes. Compression artifacts are barely detectable--the four films are presented on RSDL discs, allowing for generous bitrates. If I have one complaint about Alien's video quality, it's that the print occasionally "skips," a problem that appears to be the result of imperfect negative splices rather than poor mastering. The 5.1 mix is the same one that accompanied 70mm prints back in 1979, and while not as active as today's digital soundtracks, there is substantial rear channel information (I couldn't detect too many discrete effects) and the subwoofer has cause to rumble from time to time. (English and French Dolby Surround tracks are also available, in addition to English and Spanish subtitles.)

ADDITIONAL TRAITS

1. A feature-length commentary by Ridley Scott. A Criterion-worthy monologue, terrific, informative, and sincere. Scott lets us in on a slew of production secrets: for example, children dressed in spacesuits are standing on the landing bay in place of Skerritt, Cartwright and Hurt to exaggerate the size of the set. He also divulges his desire to make a "fifth or sixth" Alien.
2. Two isolated scores, both composed by Jerry Goldsmith. The first allows us to listen to the music without the intrusion of dialogue and sound effects, and the second includes his unused compositions plus production audio, ie. Everything the sound designers heard before they worked their magic.
3. Ten omitted scenes, mostly tail ends of existing scenes. The highlight, of course, is the eerie "cocoon" sequence in which Dallas begs Ripley for mercy, aped in every Alien film since, with the exception of part three.
4. Two outtakes that prove Scott did the right thing by swathing H.R. Giger's monster in darkness.
5. A still gallery of photos and drawings that is a must-have for Giger devotees and movie memorabilia collectors.
6. Cast and crew bios. (Shrug.)
7. Production notes.
8. The sophisticated trailers for all four Alien films, as well as Alien TV spots.
9. Finally, two Easter eggs. One of them takes us to Ash's findings on the species. You can access these eggs via the Myst-like animated menu screens.

MISCELLANY
116 minutes, English DD 5.1, English & French Dolby Surround, English & Spanish subtitles, CC, 1979; click here to get it at Amazon.com

---

FLIGHT DATA
A salvage crew discovers Ripley and her cat still in hypersleep fifty-seven years after narrowly escaping the venomous alien. She is successfully revived, and asked by the rueful "company" to give a deposition. The higher-ups do not believe Ripley's account of the Nostromo tragedy; later, they request her help in assessing the situation on the dreaded LV426, which they've been trying to make inhabitable for human life--contact has been lost with those working on the planet, and Weyland-Yutani fears the worst. Ripley returns to the bane of her nightmares with protection from the Marine corps, a randy bunch of musclemen (plus one musclewoman (Jenette Goldstein)) with bigger guns than brains, robot Bishop (Lance Henriksen) excluded. None of them possess the survival instincts of our heroine and her new companion, Newt (Henn), a little girl who took to hiding in air ducts after her family was wiped out by the monsters.

POSITIVE FINDINGS
This is the series most adrenalized entry, courtesy of Cameron, who is indubitably a master of the edge-of-your-seat, cotton-in-your-ears climax. (See Titanic, Terminator 2, and True Lies.) One leaves Aliens close to cardiac arrest. The director's cut (154 minutes) isn't quite as breathlessly paced as the theatrical version (137 minutes), but it's a better movie, fleshing out Ripley's character (her virtual adoption of Newt is a reaction to the news that her only daughter died of old age) and adding layers of suspense to act two. Weaver received a well-deserved Best Actress nomination for her second performance as Ripley; Henn is also very good, a precocious adolescent who sidesteps Macauly Culkin-isms.

NEGATIVE FINDINGS
It's not necessarily a bad thing, but Aliens feels more dated than its predecessor, not only because of Paul Reiser's new wave collar and bouffant hair (not to mention his trés-eighties mispronunciation of the word "nuclear"), not only for the conservatively estimated cost of "The Nostromo" ($42 million), but also a guerrilla attitude that pervaded many action films of the Reagan years. (It's not incidental that Cameron wrote the screenplays for Aliens and Rambo: First Blood Part II simultaneously.)

DOES NOT COMPUTE
Why on Earth would Weyland-Yutani want to colonize a windy, gloomy planet like LV426? Why doesn't the highly corrosive alien blood eat through the wheels of the Marine vehicle after it runs over--and cracks open--a particularly juicy exoskeleton? What was the significance of Bishop accidentally nicking his thumb during his famed knife trick, other than to unveil his android identity to an embittered Ripley?

TESTING: VIDEO AND AUDIO
Collectors were concerned that the 'director's cut' image would look as grainy as it did on Laserdisc, but the DVD is crystal clear by comparison. (I, for one, am rarely bothered by grain, anyway--it's the nature of the beast known as celluloid.) Aliens is presented letterboxed at 1.85:1 and 16x9 enhanced. Flesh tones appear more natural than they have in previous video incarnations, and contrast is definitive--gone are the wishy-washy greys and dull whites that marred the 1991 LD box set. Again, there are three soundtrack options: Dolby Digital 5.1, English Dolby Surround, and French Dolby Surround. I listened only to the 5.1 mix, which is lively if a bit shrill. There is much more low end than I had predicted, which lends force to the many explosions. James Horner's score, which has been used in several trailers since, really resonates. This is his best work outside of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.

ADDITIONAL TRAITS
This special edition DVD really is a retread of said box set, with a twelve minute James Cameron interview of 1986 vintage, nine short making of videos (combined, they really subvert the illusion of the finished product), a wealth of storyboards, sketches, and production notes (which take forever to step through), trailers for all four films (plus the "Alien Resurrection" video game), and tonally perfect animated menus. An Easter egg accesses tech credits.

MISCELLANY
154 minutes, English DD 5.1, English & French Dolby Surround, English & Spanish subtitles, CC, 1986; click here to get it at Amazon.com

---

FLIGHT DATA
The getaway ship of Aliens crash-lands on Fiorina 161, a remote prison colony, and only Ripley survives--a bold move that almost invalidates the second film. (Indeed, this depressing plot point soured many fans on the series.) Ripley, weaponless, must contend with the locals--murderers and rapists--as well as the latest monster, a canine-alien hybrid. This new creature cruelly devours Ripley's lover, a mild-mannered doctor (Dance); after sixty years or so without a boyfriend, she deserves some booty!

POSITIVE FINDINGS
Fincher's debut feature (he eventually made the astonishing Se7en) is stylish, and his direction of the funeral sequence (which makes marvelous use of a three-way splitscreen) is nothing less than spectacular. The chase scenes generally exhilarate, though the novelty of those distorted alien point-of-view shots wears off quickly. Weaver's melancholy performance here is the best of her four turns as Ripley. Elliot Goldenthal's music captures or enhances beautifully (I have yet to decide which) the downbeat mood of the picture.

NEGATIVE FINDINGS
Offing the doctor so early was a mistake--he added a much-needed warmth to the proceedings. The film never quite recovers from his departure. As well, the second half is repetitive.

DOES NOT COMPUTE
Why does the chestburster wait so long to exit an infested Ripley?

TESTING: VIDEO AND AUDIO
Though a vast improvement upon the dropout-ridden Technidisc LD release, the DVD's aspect ratio is still an inaccurate 2.2:1--the first few letters of computer readouts are often lopped off. The transfer is otherwise astounding, with colours exactly as I remember them from the cinema. Gone is the artificial brightness of the LaserDisc, which highlighted ugly matte lines, particularly those present in the opening shots of the "Fury." Alien³ was mixed at the dawn of Dolby Digital, but the disc's 5.1 track defies its age, with a 360° soundfield that had me turning my head like an idiot more than once. I only wish that the dialogue was more evenly balanced with the sound effects--Fincher's characters tend to speak quietly, and I'm not fond of boosting the centre channel volume. French and English Dolby Surround tracks are also available.

ADDITIONAL TRAITS
How I wish Fincher had been privy to the production of this DVD. The only extras are some trailers and a 25-minute, highly superficial making-of doc. (In all that time, the creative differences between Fincher, the producers, and the studio go unaddressed.) The disc's full-motion menu is generic at best.

MISCELLANY
115 minutes, English DD 5.1, English & French Dolby Surround, English & Spanish subtitles, CC, 1992; click here to get it at Amazon.com

---

FLIGHT DATA
Ripley is genetically reproduced aboard a military ship, using strands of her DNA from Fiorina 161. A band of ne'er-do-wells arrive on said ship for a cargo transfer. One of them, Call (Ryder), fears Ripley when they meet; she somehow senses that this clone is not entirely human. What she does not know about are the dozen or so aliens hidden in the bowels of the vessel--military doctors are trying to teach them good manners. Must I write that their experiment goes awry?

POSITIVE FINDINGS
Alien Resurrection is aesthetically pretty like Fincher's film, and it contains some rousing gunplay, a la Aliens. (One showstopping setpiece unfolds underwater). Darius Khondji's (who shot Se7en) baroque cinematography is very attractive. The effects amply dazzle (the integration of puppetry and CGI is seamless).

NEGATIVE FINDINGS
Great art direction does not equal great filmmaking, and therein lies the problem: the most basic movie element--the screenplay--is the most crucial, and Alien Resurrection's jokey, tension-free script, by "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" creator Whedon, made me nostalgic for the original trilogy, which is not what a sequel should do. Jeunet has cast several colourful-looking people (a few of them veterans of his French pictures) in supporting roles only to hand them Independence Day-style dialogue. Also, the standard digs at capitalism (money-grubbing Company=bad, Ripley=good) ring hollow. Oh, and Ryder is miscast.

DOES NOT COMPUTE
Why does the story take place two-hundred years after the events of Alien³? Would the Ripley construct really retain the memories of her former self? Why is the queen still laying eggs if she has developed a human reproductive system?

TESTING: VIDEO AND AUDIO
The best transfer of the lot, probably by virtue of it being the most recent film. Alien Resurrection is one of the best-looking DVDs I've ever seen. Khondji's images translate surprisingly well to home video, mayhaps because of their high contrast. Presented in 2.35:1 and enhanced for widescreen TVs, this is one to show off the capabilities of the format--get ready to notice every nook and cranny of Dan Hedaya's cartoonish face. The 5.1 audio is quite aggressive and features a number of panning effects, but the mix is not as nuanced as one would expect. Again, English and French Dolby Surround tracks, plus English and Spanish subtitles, are included.

ADDITIONAL TRAITS
All but nonexistent supplemental material: each film's trailer, in addition to a five-minute promotional video that offers zero insight into the making of Alien Resurrection, though I must say I prefer Ryder's hair in the interview segments to the 'do she wears as Call.

MISCELLANY
108 minutes, English DD 5.1, English & French Dolby Surround, English & Spanish subtitles, CC, 1997; click here to get it at Amazon.com

---

There is a fifth disc, available through mail order, called "The Sixth Passenger", which documents the making of Alien in 66 minutes of interviews and archival footage. I have yet to view this bonus flick, but I think it's unfair that casual fans (an oxymoron?) must purchase the Legacy box to qualify for this DVD. No one should be forced to buy Alien Resurrection.

---

REPORT CONCLUSION
The first three Alien pictures, like the Body Snatchers adaptations, represent their respective eras (the Me generation; Reagan-omics; recession), which is why Alien Resurrection sticks out like a sore thumb. There wasn't enough of a gap between Alien³and its follow-up; consequently, Alien Resurrection had nothing interesting to say about Ripley's plight, and reflects a shapeless period in our history. Not to mention that Aliens and Alien³ exemplify a reworking of ideas--neither Cameron nor Fincher had any desire to rehash the previous film(s). Because Alien³ died at the box office, and Aliens didn't, the studio was eager to rekindle the latter's gung-ho spirit, to apologize for leading the series off the beaten path. What a mistake.

...END TRANSMISSION

-Bill Chambers