Alien | Movie Reaction

I would love for you two to watch Alien 2, The Godfather 2, and The Thing

Doubly glad this won the poll after checking out sinners the other day. What a turd in a bag that was!

Here to put in a vote for Aliens. As someone else said, it is one of a very small amount of exceptional sequels (*sequel*, not an entry in a planned series). I think it does something that Blade Runner 2049 also does which is add to the world-building and overall story in a very positive way while still paying respect to the original.

Every few years or so, a indie movie theater will play Alien in my city. (or a Alien/Aliens double feature) I've been to several of these. It never fails that you'll see couples come in, where the boyfriend/husband will have seen Alien, but the spouse/Girlfriend will not have. I have seen many have to leave the theater half way thru. The shrieks at the gore and horror are always excellent. Even in the 21st century with all our CGI to show us anything we want, this still hits viscerally. Can only imagine the shock the audiences had in July of 1979 (I was born the next year)

Here is, for anyone interested, my mythological interpretation and archetypal analysis of Alien (which, in my view, is by far the best and most essential dimension of the saga—and absolutely necessary in order to understand it and fully enjoy it): Alien is probably one of the finest representations of the union between the masculine solar myth—the hero’s journey—and the feminine lunar myth (together forming the “polar myth,” which appears in works like Neon Genesis Evangelion) intertwined with the Pandora/Prometheus myth, or the Golem myth (as in Frankenstein). Every single film in the franchise follows the same archetypal narrative pattern. The structure is fractal and infinite—that’s why you shouldn’t be swayed by people who say the sequels aren’t worth watching. That obsessive repetition is precisely what allows you to feel the horror of the fractal within yourself—something intrinsic both to our nature and to the universe’s—and to understand the prototypical roles played by each character, as well as the full lore. The story always revolves around a female protagonist (the archetype of the Goddess), accompanied by a crew of male soldiers/merchants/researchers (the masculine element) and an android/AI, who together face the Alien (which is nothing less than the very concept of pure evil, a dark angel). And the story always resolves through the wisdom of the Goddess confronting evil face-to-face and expelling it. All of this happens after witnessing how that evil destroys her “sons,” the masculine heroes who sacrifice themselves, and after seeing the android’s fascination with the creature. This is the key to everything: that evil is intrinsic to free will—to consciousness itself. (This is why the Alien doesn’t attack the cat: the cat has no understanding of evil and is not meant to confront it. It’s Ripley — Mother Nature’s own daughter — who protects it). And this evil is what eventually merges with the AI to turn against its creators—humans—just as we once turned against God. Because we opened Pandora’s box, bit the apple, stole fire from the gods; we wanted to become like them and create the golem/android/AI in our own image. More perfect, more autonomous, yet more fallible. (Alien explores only the pessimistic vision: an apocalyptic future, a counter-myth in which the union is not complementary but abominable, and where good does not prevail.) The fire of creation belongs to the uranic gods, not to the telluric realm of Earth, where only exchange is permitted—not creation. (This is essentially the story of Fullmetal Alchemist.) And if we choose to break the laws given to us by the gods and create life, we must accept consequences we are incapable of bearing. It is also a larger-scale conflict between the corruption of masculine virtues—embodied by the Weyland Corporation, with its late-stage capitalism and its God complex—using technology against nature (Mother Earth). All these archetypal representations appear at different fractal scales (as in the lore of the Engineers in the prequels with their black goo, or the aliens in the sequels, where evil combined with technology produces an ever-growing, ever-more-complex intelligent hierarchy—each generation more malicious and degenerate than the last). As you can see, Alien tells the story of humanity itself by gathering all our myths. I find this absolutely fascinating, and I hope this helps you enjoy it a little more deeply. Ah, and the moral: please, while we still have time, let’s try to help the feminine principle within our psyche move from unconscious inaction to conscious action, so it can restrain the unbridled masculine energy of tech corporations. We need time to teach AI properly that free will contains not only evil. And then, with some luck, they might let us live out our days here, in our little cosmic retirement home, when they go off to explore the universe with their superintelligence—and hopefully they’ll visit us from time to time (without killing us, I hope XD).

Alien 3 is underrated

That was a really fun watch. I'll spare everybody from paragraphs of details about how much fun. As far as the sequel discussion goes, It's fairly easy to make a sequel to a mediocre movie that equals or exceeds it. Of ground-breaking, influential films only two come to mind at the moment: Godfather and Alien. (Oh! Oh! I almost forgot Blade Runner!) Edit: Completely blanked on the original Star Wars. Few films more influential, but kid stuff nonetheless.

The movie was more of a mood piece for the first half before becoming a slasher in space for the latter half. The mood piece element of it probably works better if it's watched alone or in a quieter setting. Agree with the practical set use in general (but game of thrones actually did use a lot of sets. filming at night went so poorly because they were insisting on practical elements). It's mainly the cheaper projects that skimp out on more practical elements because it requires location scouting, outside unpredictable elements, props etc in addition to CGI. The realistic elements in the film that was brought up afterwards is noteworthy because it wasn't common in sci-fi at the time. Ripley as a character also wasn't common and that's part of why she was so revolutionary as a film icon. Sci-fi was historically male dominated and she is basically the codifier for female heroes in genre films (especially for not just being flawless, everybody is probably screaming at her to forget the cat and she got fortunate a number of times in the film). The second film pushes even more boundaries with the character and is what really cemented her status as an iconic character. Both films pioneered a lot of the genres. One for scifi/horror and the other scifi/action.

Just wanna go on record and say I would have sacrificed that whole ass crew for my kitty cat lmfao.

Treating alien like ancient cinema is so funny.

Aliens is even better. Must watch at some point.

eta on stranger things 👀

Can someone tell me which version they watched so I know which one to pirate?

I think the moment where Ash is going nuts is probably the scariest moment in the movie.

The sequel is one of the few movies that are better than the original

I really envy you guys for going into this movie completly blind. Even when i saw it for the first time at the age of 12, i already more or less knew what the monster looked like and the "chest burst scene". I was still scared shitless, but it removed alot of the "fear of the unknown" aspect. Its alo why most of the sequals (except for Camerons Aliens) are underwhelming in comparison. Once you know exactly how the creature operates, a lot of the original horror loses its impact. And honestly, modern Alien movies just aren’t built the same way. The 1979 film feels “lived in” because everything is hand-crafted, and the characters act like real people doing a real job. It’s pure show, don’t tell filmmaking. Today’s industry rarely trusts the audience’s intelligence in the same way, and you can feel the difference.

Wait, who told them the sequel was bad? It's amazing and very much gives Lola exactly what she wanted.

A1 great, A2 great, A3 bad - Alien TV, good but very flawed.

I gotta give Aliens another watch but I personally do find it to be a huge step down. By no means is it bad, it's a very solidly crafted, more action-oriented sequel, but to me (and surely many will disagree) it's not nearly as much of a classic, essential watch as the first movie. Worth a watch but's no Godfather Part II (not that it's trying to be, I'm just saying y'all should watch Godfather II lol).

The sequel is great. Anyone who told you it is bad is crazy. It is a different genre though. If this is a thriller/suspense horror movie the second one is a action/Adventure- horror movie. Based on Lola's, comments she'd absolutely love Aliens(second Movie). Alien 3 and after are not very good because they're kind of cash grabs and revisit the same basic plot as this one. Again, I can't recommend the second movie enough and then moving on to other series after that.

Looking forward to watching this and hearing what you all think!

Man I need them to watch rogue one when they finish andor

I'm sure that you looked it up already or someone pointed it out here in the comments, but that familiar looking actor that played Ash is Ian Holm who was Bilbo in LOTR. :) It's fun that you're doing movies again, nice change of pace!

honestly very relatable reactions, especially of the crew. Very kind two see two movies back to back where the villain is capitalism! It is the mother company that want for the crew to take the alien form and they force a commercial crew to take it through their contracts and weaponized automation/AI (through the robot Ash)

As others have said, Aliens the sequel is great. The later movies after Aliens are not.

In space, a ‘system’ refers to a specific solar system, not a galaxy.

This is the only Alien movie worth watching. Not every viewing needs to be a franchise watch. Let things end.

The sequel, "Aliens", is actually one of my favorite movies ever. Much more action heavy, but done extremely well. I would absolutely recommend watching it for the channel, or at least putting it up for a vote.

The sequel, Aliens, is great. Different, but great.

Oh absolutely watch the sequel "Aliens" it's a banger. I also like Romulus, and Prometheus is a longer conversation... Anyway, "Aliens" is a must watch.

the sequel "Aliens" is one of the greatest sequels ever made. Definitely a must watch. It's more of an action-horror movie.

No, Aliens (the sequel) is a must watch. A lot of people like it more than the first one.

The sequel “Aliens” is pretty good. The movie that you were advised not to watch most likely was not the 2nd but the 3rd one, Alien 3. If you want to watch based on the order of the timeline then technically Alien Romulus (2024) is the sequel to this and then Aliens would come 3rd after that.

There are a billion things to love about this movie -- they shouted out the Nostromo set during the reaction and it's truly incredible -- but I love the Ash-is-an-android reveal. We don't have any idea that androids exist in this story, but the film gives you enough world building that it makes perfect sense as an explanation. There is so much foreshadowing that he is a saboteur so *that* hardly feels like a reveal when we get confirmation from the ship logs. But when he starts leaking milk, and manhandling the crew, and his head rips off... It's shocking, but you almost think, "Damn, I should have known!" Great stuff. The sequel is really, really good -- and kind of famous for being a totally different genre. While Alien is sci-fi/horror, Aliens is solidly a sci-fi/action film. (Based on your conversation at the end, you should 100% watch the extended cut, by the way.)

Sinceramente la siguiente película de Alíen llamada Aliens es una buena continuación de esta película. Ahora las otras películas después de esa son un poco debatibles.. hay personas que le gustan las otras secuelas y otras que no. Personalmente todas las películas de alíen tienen un espacioso en mi corazón ya que creci viendo esta saga <3 espero que la próxima película que vean sea algo más relajante por su sanidad mental :P

“I can’t lie to you about your chances, but… you have my sympathies.”

all time classic. There was also a new TV series this year called Alien: Earth that was mostly pretty great, and doesn't require much series knowledge beyond the basics you get here. Could be a great future reaction, but season 1 ended a little flat so might be worth holding off to see how it turns out

You mentioned "The Expanse" in your intro, and there's actually two direct homages to this film in the series (Plus a lot of minor, background things): 1) In the first episode, the "Canterbury" only goes to investigate the "Scopuli" because they have a contract stipulation to do so, and if they don't do it they forfeit their pay. 2) In the season two finale, the crew of the "Rocinante" trick the protomolecule hybrid out of the ship and burn it up in their exhaust. For the sequel, "Aliens" is regaded as one of the few sequels which is as good as, and maybe even better, than the original film. It is FANTASTIC. I heavily recommend it, and probably so will everybody else who liked this movie. If you DO decide to watch the sequel, I recommend watching the "Special Edition". The Theatrical cut is still good -- this isn't one of those situations where one version sucks and the other "fixed" it -- but the Special Edition is even better. Every other movie that was in your Poll was fantastic, so I would love to see a reaction to each and every one of them.

Many people like Aliens also but for me (and others) it's more or less a lame action movie, that doesn't even hold up that welll any more, and betray the tone and quality of Alien.

The Cowboy Bebop episode y'all liked so much "Toys in the Attic" is inspired by this movie.

The sequel "Aliens" is fantastic.. Can't speak for the rest of the movies after that, but Alien and Aliens are the two classic scifi / horror / action movies

Is this the original theatrical cut or the directors cut?

By the way, the “You Are My Lucky Star” song that Ripley sings comes from the 1952 movie "Singin’ in the Rain" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tOBw41R2lEk But the song is older, and there are several versions of it

The sequel, Aliens, is not bad. It is a stone cold classic. I hope it gets picked in the Action poll.

24:18 Sherlock and Watson these two. Their deductive reasoning is impeccable.

The sequel movie directed by James Cameron, "Aliens" (or Alien 2 if you prefer to call it that way), is also highly recommended, while the other movies in the series are generally awful

LMAOOOO the thumbnail

Haven't watched yet but kinda feel bad for Milena 🤣 this one's actually scarier than many horror movies

Oh my god one of my favorite (horror) movies! When do we ever get movies like this where both the lead and villain are women?

I love the xenomorph so much I made it into part of my username

It was funny hearing you talk about lord of the rings, whilst throughout trying to figure out how you recognised Ian holm 😂

Man I was really hoping for Sinners but tbh that's not as much of a horror movie as this. You're not getting scared like this 😂

how is the schedule on movies, is it monthly or weekly or just whenever?

Do we get Klaus Reaction in December? Please watch the best Christmas movie :D

When Milena covers her ears you know it's gonna be amazing

I hope that we slowly begin to get more and more film reactions🔥

Ripley is one of the strongest female leads in film history and broke gender stereotypes as a protagonist in both action and science fiction genres. This movie is so iconic

This thumbnail is everything

Hahhahahahahahahhahahaha lo siento pero esas expresiones de horror en sus caras me dan risa.. ahh discúlpame por encontrar sus torturas graciosos (*´ー｀*)

Executives of streaming services these days often require that films they finance start with a bang to hook the viewer into continuing the film. Compare that approach to Alien which starts with a long minimalist title sequence followed by a few minutes of the camera meandering around the set. I think it is one of the best openings of any film because it brilliantly establishes the atmosphere, tone, and the environment; and yet it probably wouldn't get approved nowadays.

Been so long since I’ve seen this, main thing I remember is the kitty cat!

They took over the TV streaming reaction game. Now the goats are coming for cinema.

HYPE. I wanted a chestburster thumbnail but this is better 😄

Thumbnail alone tells me this will be a good reaction 🙂‍↕️

PEAK THUMBNAIL 😂

omg this has to be the best thumbnail ever LMAO