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Totally agree. the scene where McReady (Kurt Russell) has the 'suspects' tied down to chairs, and testing their blood with the hot wire, is IMO one of the tensest, most hand-in-mouth moments ever put to screen. The ways it plays with the tension is just a masterful piece of horror.

And, that ending!

I haven't watched the remake because I know there is no way it can match that movie.

 Pacific wrote:
Totally agree. the scene where McReady (Kurt Russell) has the 'suspects' tied down to chairs, and testing their blood with the hot wire, is IMO one of the tensest, most hand-in-mouth moments ever put to screen. The ways it plays with the tension is just a masterful piece of horror.

And, that ending!

I haven't watched the remake because I know there is no way it can match that movie.

Honestly, as a huge fan of The Thing, the remake did a really good job. Check it out.

OK, I'll hesitantly say I will try and see it, on the basis of a recommendation from a fellow fan of the the Kurt Russell movie.

But, if the film does a 'Terminator 3' (by being bad enough to damage its predecessor) when I die my ghost will haunt you for the remainder of your days!

 Pacific wrote:
OK, I'll hesitantly say I will try and see it, on the basis of a recommendation from a fellow fan of the the Kurt Russell movie.

But, if the film does a 'Terminator 3' (by being bad enough to damage its predecessor) when I die my ghost will haunt you for the remainder of your days!

I feel confident. You probably won't like it as much as the original, but it's definitely worth watching.

I had considered watching it (The Prequel) and came across a scene where they were going to explain the crashing ship. It was basically an Alien Race that took samples of various lifeforms. The Thing was one of those lifeforms and killed the crew. This element was cut sadly and could have made the film worthwhile. Having looked at the reviews of the prequel I would suggest giving it a miss as it forgets to tie in the the John Carpenter one properly and is essentially just a bad reshoot. Avoid like the plague.

 Medium of Death wrote:
I had considered watching it (The Prequel) and came across a scene where they were going to explain the crashing ship. It was basically an Alien Race that took samples of various lifeforms. The Thing was one of those lifeforms and killed the crew. This element was cut sadly and could have made the film worthwhile. Having looked at the reviews of the prequel I would suggest giving it a miss as it forgets to tie in the the John Carpenter one properly and is essentially just a bad reshoot. Avoid like the plague.

Raising the old first hand knowledge flag - it is similar to The Thing, in that it takes place in an Antarctic station while an alien life form gradually kills/replaces the residents, but calling it 'essentially just a bad reshoot' is silly. How different could they have made it and still had it fit into the continuum established in the original? I would seriously recommend watching it, as at least then if you didn't like it you would be able to attack it from a position of strength.

 Bromsy wrote:

 Medium of Death wrote:
I had considered watching it (The Prequel) and came across a scene where they were going to explain the crashing ship. It was basically an Alien Race that took samples of various lifeforms. The Thing was one of those lifeforms and killed the crew. This element was cut sadly and could have made the film worthwhile. Having looked at the reviews of the prequel I would suggest giving it a miss as it forgets to tie in the the John Carpenter one properly and is essentially just a bad reshoot. Avoid like the plague.

Raising the old first hand knowledge flag - it is similar to The Thing, in that it takes place in an Antarctic station while an alien life form gradually kills/replaces the residents, but calling it 'essentially just a bad reshoot' is silly. How different could they have made it and still had it fit into the continuum established in the original? I would seriously recommend watching it, as at least then if you didn't like it you would be able to attack it from a position of strength.

Fine, I'm curious enough to watch it. If I can get it relatively cheaply I'll pick it up at the weekend and I'll get back to you!

I really don't mind Resurrection. I like the premise of the military doing cross species manipulation. I also liked the new and improved Ripley...definitely a more aggressive/predatory nature in her.

That, and I'm a sucker for Ron Perlman.

3 was...ok...not great...definitely the least of all the movies.

I always thought one of the cool things about The Thing was that they didn't really explain about the ship, where it had come from, what it was doing or what happened (other than speculation) - the sense of mystery is always so much stronger, and you could arguably say the same thing about Alien when the crew of the Nostromo first enter the ship and see the space jockey - it's a great moment! Opposite to this, is Jodie Foster crossing the galaxy to meet alien life for the first time and.. it's her dad.. !

In the spirit of all things Aliens at the moment, have just ordered the Nintendo DS game, Aliens: Infestation. Has anyone else played it?

I suppose that's why "THE THING" is still a great mystery, there is so much left unsolved.

Just watched it there and it's fantastic, despite having watched it several times it's hard to pin down who turns at which point.

Interestingly the director commentary towards the end basically hints at the mystery. Kurt Russell and John Carpentor speculate whether you know that you've become a "thing", whether the "thing" knows who else is infected and who if any of either men left at the end are infected.

 Medium of Death wrote:
I suppose that's why "THE THING" is still a great mystery, there is so much left unsolved.

Just watched it there and it's fantastic, despite having watched it several times it's hard to pin down who turns at which point.

Interestingly the director commentary towards the end basically hints at the mystery. Kurt Russell and John Carpentor speculate whether you know that you've become a "thing", whether the "thing" knows who else is infected and who if any of either men left at the end are infected.

Which is why it is one of about 3 movies that ever actually scared me beyond a 'loud noises you jump' level.

Spoilering a comment regarding events in Aliens 3, in case you haven't seen it (I haven't):


Wait, what? Not sure I want to watch it now . I was really happy with Alien and Aliens, much more so than the Predator movies, so I don't want to ruin it...

I did enjoy Prometheus, though, and people don't seem to love that. But you're saying this about Newt, really? Hmm....

That spoilered point ends up being very important to the theme of the movie. If you watch Alien 3, please be sure to watch the 2010 version of the Assembly Cut.

Manchu wrote:
If you watch Alien 3, please be sure to watch the 2010 version of the Assembly Cut.

To distinguish further, this is the version sometimes known as Alien 3 Special Edition - runtime 2:24 - not the theatrical 1:54 version.

Both versions are on the Quadrilogy, which - this is really weird - often shows up on Amazon.co.uk for about 12 bucks USD and free shipping if you have Amazon Prime. I got this and although it obviously took about 3 weeks to arrive, this version is not region locked and plays back fine in the US. Thanks, Slickdeals!

What you linked ain't the Quadrilogy; that's the Anthology. (Here it is.) This is actually an important disctintion for Alien 3 because the Quadrilogy Assembly Cut has such poor audio in places that it needed to be re-recorded, which is what you get in the Anthology.

Manchu wrote:
That spoilered point ends up being very important to the theme of the movie.

But that theme requires gakking on the themes of the previous film. They paid too high a price.

 AlexHolker wrote:
But that theme requires gakking on the themes of the previous film.

Not at all; it's a logical continuation of the themes of the other films.

I didn't know about the audio differences - the poorer audio is more desirable?

No, the anthology has the re-recorded audio that is better.

 Pacific wrote:
Jodie Foster crossing the galaxy to meet alien life for the first time and.. it's her dad.. !

the feth you talking 'bout?


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 Bromsy wrote:

 Medium of Death wrote:
I suppose that's why "THE THING" is still a great mystery, there is so much left unsolved.

Just watched it there and it's fantastic, despite having watched it several times it's hard to pin down who turns at which point.

Interestingly the director commentary towards the end basically hints at the mystery. Kurt Russell and John Carpentor speculate whether you know that you've become a "thing", whether the "thing" knows who else is infected and who if any of either men left at the end are infected.

Which is why it is one of about 3 movies that ever actually scared me beyond a 'loud noises you jump' level.

watched snakes on a plane last night. I am ashamed to say I jumped, BUT ONLY ONCE.

 the shrouded lord wrote:

 Pacific wrote:
Jodie Foster crossing the galaxy to meet alien life for the first time and.. it's her dad.. !

the feth you talking 'bout?

Calm down mate. He's talking about Contact, the film. Basically the aliens in that just take on the form that Jodie Fosters character finds the most... familiar? I've not watched it in years and don't plan to anytime soon.



http://www.southparkstudios.co.uk/clips/103617/ice-cream-crapping-taco

So I was randomly reading this wiki page, and there was a snippet that was interesting.

Government
There is virtually no indication of government in any of the films, the Yautja are portrayed as operating in groups with clear leaders but no indication of how they the society functions is given. In Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem when a predator ship crashed it was shown there was a quick response to the situation, indicating a governing force that monitors the hunts.

I guess this means Gary Busey's plan to capture one in Predator 2 was probably doomed regardless of how the capture itself went.

On the other hand.. should anything in that film be regarded as 'canon' ?

Calm down mate. He's talking about Contact, the film. Basically the aliens in that just take on the form that Jodie Fosters character finds the most... familiar? I've not watched it in years and don't plan to anytime soon.

Yup that's the one! Was trying to make a point about de-mystifying things, and that a lot of the time its a disappointment.

Just got this game the other day for the Nintendo DS


All in all, a fun little game and would thoroughly recommend it. Gameplay wise its a side on shooter, with light puzzle and item-finding elements. Graphics/presentation are very cool, especially the character models. One cool element is that if one of your marines dies, they're out for the rest of the game! Of course, my ice-cool Hicks-type guy died first. I have been told that if you get taken out by a face-hugger, another character has a time-limit to try and get them (although all of mine have been killed by alien warriors so far so no chance to test that out!)

Think you can get it for about £5-6 though, so well worth the money for a few hours entertainment.

My review of the game back from launch:

http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/403714.page

Nice review, yes agree with that completely. 'Metroid-esque' is also a pretty good way of describing the game.

Boss battles in this are hard! Couldn't work out what to do with the 2nd encounter with the Queen and ending up going down to a single marine!

Ive just watched Prometheous. It was the most horrible, useless waste of 2 hours in my life. The film was poorly played, the acting was bad and the storyline non existent. I really cannot believe that anyone enjoyed it. I mean, what was with those weird worm things? And that huge as feth face hugger monster squid thingy? And the weird proto alien at the end was both sequal bait and B-A-D. Even 3 was a better watch.

I like the first 2 Alien films and the first 2 Predator films (and the first 2 Terminator films). But that's where they should have ended. I've pretty much refused to watch any of the followups. Seeing Alien 3 was bad enough.

Aliens didn't leave room for another film in the same vein as the first 2. The next would have to expand the universe and not focus on the very obviously eliminated threat from LV-426, but instead they went the worst possible route they could think of: diabolus ex machina. There's no justifying the beginning of that film. In a bubble, Alien 3 would be surprisingly good considering the trouble they went through to make it, but as the 3rd Alien film and a direct follow up to Aliens, it's terrible.

And speaking of Avatar...it's amazing how Cameron could fall so far. He went from Heinlein worship with Aliens to pissing on Heinlein's grave with Avatar (and I'm probably the one person on the planet who noticed that the "twins" plot setup in Avatar is probably "inspired" by a Heinlein story). Rocket across the galaxy to easily eliminate an alien threat with orbital bombardment? Ain't got time for that! Let's push a makeshift bomb out of a slow moving aircraft at low altitude against an enemy that we know can zerg us! And let's send a completely useless ground attack force, because ROBOTS.

 Pacific wrote:
Totally agree. the scene where McReady (Kurt Russell) has the 'suspects' tied down to chairs, and testing their blood with the hot wire, is IMO one of the tensest, most hand-in-mouth moments ever put to screen. The ways it plays with the tension is just a masterful piece of horror.

And, that ending!

I haven't watched the remake because I know there is no way it can match that movie.

Just to note - it's not a remake, it's a prequel. it's about what happened to the station that found the Thing first, and ends exactly where the first movie starts. Aside from better creature effects, the visuals all blend in as well. I was pretty impressed with how they managed that. The only downside is there's almost zero tension.


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 master of ordinance wrote:
I really cannot believe that anyone enjoyed it.

How dare people have their own opinions! What's this world coming to?

 master of ordinance wrote:
Ive just watched Prometheous. It was the most horrible, useless waste of 2 hours in my life. The film was poorly played, the acting was bad and the storyline non existent. I really cannot believe that anyone enjoyed it. I mean, what was with those weird worm things? And that huge as feth face hugger monster squid thingy? And the weird proto alien at the end was both sequal bait and B-A-D. Even 3 was a better watch.

You will actually be hard pressed to find anyone who enjoyed it. Anyone who went in expecting greatness ala Bladerunner or Alien wanted to assemble a mob and burn down RIdley Scott's mansion. After all, the video vignettes of Weyland and Fassbender's character were epic. its like Ridley Scott snorted heroin instead of cocaine or something and the vomitous filth he vomited up became a movie.

 -Loki- wrote:


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 master of ordinance wrote:
I really cannot believe that anyone enjoyed it.

How dare people have their own opinions! What's this world coming to?

I never said that. I meant that I disliked it to the point of disbelief. But if you take away its link to the Alien universe then I am sure it is a very good stand alone film. I just happened to hate it.

I also loved The Thing. The original has such an amazing atmosphere as people are trying to stop the monster from expanding. Sadly the prequel did have some bad points, including the fact that the ship was actually entirely unearthed by the scientists, where as in the prequel they dig a tunnel to it.
Also, in the original the spaceship appears to have taken off, where as in the prequel it never does.
Apart from that, it is still a good film.


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 Frazzled wrote:

 master of ordinance wrote:
Ive just watched Prometheous. It was the most horrible, useless waste of 2 hours in my life. The film was poorly played, the acting was bad and the storyline non existent. I really cannot believe that anyone enjoyed it. I mean, what was with those weird worm things? And that huge as feth face hugger monster squid thingy? And the weird proto alien at the end was both sequal bait and B-A-D. Even 3 was a better watch.

You will actually be hard pressed to find anyone who enjoyed it. Anyone who went in expecting greatness ala Bladerunner or Alien wanted to assemble a mob and burn down RIdley Scott's mansion. After all, the video vignettes of Weyland and Fassbender's character were epic. its like Ridley Scott snorted heroin instead of cocaine or something and the vomitous filth he vomited up became a movie.

Consider me a part of that mob. I just pray he never makes a sequel to it. I actually preferred AvP:R to it.