DVD Review - The Alien Quadrilogy

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page created: 11/3/03

The Alien Quadrilogy
1979-2003 (2003) - 20th Century Fox

review by Bill Hunt, Editor of The Digital Bits

Back to Disc Two

On to Disc Four

Disc Three - Aliens

Film Ratings (Special Edition/Theatrical): A-/B+

Disc Ratings (Video/Audio): B/B

154 mins (Special Edition), 137 mins (Theatrical Release), R, letterboxed widescreen (1.85:1), 16x9 enhanced, THX certified, single-sided, RSDL dual-layered (layer switch at 83:06 in chapter 24 for Special Edition; 70:52 in chapter 16 for Theatrical Release), dual versions available via seamless branching, introduction to Special Edition by director James Cameron, audio commentary (with director James Cameron and Gale Anne Hurd, Stan Winston, Robert Skotak, Dennis Skotak, Pat McClung, Michael Biehn, Bill Paxton, Lance Henriksen, Jenette Goldstein, Christopher Henn and Carrie Henn), optional deleted footage marker for Special Edition, separate deleted and extended scene access for Theatrical Release (8 scenes), THX Optimizer, animated film-themed menus with sound effects, scene access (44 chapters - Special Edition; 32 chapters - Theatrical Release), languages: English (DD 5.1) and Spanish (DD 2.0 Surround), subtitles: English and Spanish, Closed Captioned

"This time... it's war."

More than a half a century after the events in the original Alien, Ellen Ripley (Sigourney Weaver), the sole survivor of the Nostromo, is rescued from deep freeze in her drifting escape shuttle. Upon returning to Earth, she's made to face the wrath of a Company that is none too pleased with her having destroyed an expensive space tug and its precious cargo. No one will believe her story, about how the Nostromo landed on an uncharted planet and encountered a deadly alien lifeform, which killed the rest of her crew. Ripley is told, to her horror, that the planet she claims to have landed on has been settled by terraforming colonists for years... and no one there has ever reported encountering aliens like the ones she describes.

Poor Ripley is black-listed, and finds herself doing menial work in civilian life, all the while suffering nightmares from her experience. That is, until contact is lost with the colonists on the very same planet, and the Company suddenly needs her help. An executive named Burke (played by Paul Reiser, pre-Mad About You), makes her an offer - the Company will reinstate her commission if she agrees to go back to the planet to advise a squad of Colonial Marines, which is being sent to determine what happened. Hoping that a little alien ass-kicking will cure her post-traumatic stress, and save the colonists in the process, Ripley agrees to return. The result, of course, is more than two hours of sheer terror, in which the bugs always seem to have the upper hand.

Cameron's approach to the sequel is refreshing, in that he didn't simply try to copy the classic horror tone of the original film. He approached Aliens as a straightforward combat picture, and crafted a script that's filled with a different kind of tension in addition to lots of action. There are some fun performances here, by actors that would later become fairly well known, among them Bill Paxton, Lance Henriksen, Michael Biehn and the aforementioned Paul Reiser (whose mid-80s haircut is the only thing that really dates this film). The creatures appear far more bug-like in this movie, which plays on the deep-rooted, unconscious fear of insects that many people harbor. All of the mayhem was created with just six alien costumes (not counting the Queen), surprising given that the impression is that hundreds of the creatures are on the attack at once. And with the Queen itself, Cameron managed to break new ground, showing us the final stage of the creature's life-cycle, unseen in the original Alien. The concepts and designs here are very true to, and respectful of, the work of the original film's artists. Whether you like Cameron's approach or not, this is great production design. Aliens isn't better than the original - far from it. It's just different. And it really works.

Disc Three of the Quadrilogy features two versions of Aliens - the original Theatrical Release and the previously released Special Edition - once again using seamless branching. Most of you should, by now, be familiar with the differences between the two cuts, but for those that aren't, one of the biggest additions to the Special Edition involves seeing the colonists finding the derelict ship and bringing an alien facehugger back to the colony, thus triggering events that Ripley and the Marines will have to deal with later in the film. There's about 20 minutes of new material in all. When you select the Special Edition, you'll get an audio introduction with Cameron, who explains why he prefers the longer version. After you see it, I think you'll agree that it's definitely the better version of the two, as the story is more intense and well-developed.

In terms of image quality, the footage for both versions of the film are presented here in good looking anamorphic widescreen video. It's worth noting that this is the same film transfer that was seen on the previous DVD release (a new transfer wasn't done because Cameron was happy with the existing one). The difference here is that the film isn't competing with other extras for disc space, so the video bitrate is higher and compression is more efficient. I should also tell you that the video was put through additional digital clean-up passes, so you'll notice fewer print artifacts (dust and scratches) than you did on the previous DVD release. Contrast also seems slightly improved, with better overall clarity and shadow definition. You're still going to see moderate grain throughout the film, but that's a product of the original film stock used at the time. So if Aliens doesn't look as good as the first film on the Quadrilogy, it is at least better than the previous version. Again, the new footage blends perfectly with the original material in terms of quality, and the branching is virtually invisible.

The Dolby Digital 5.1 audio mix you get here is also the same one that was featured on the previous DVD. That means that it's a bit flat sounding, with a strong bias to the front hemisphere of the soundstage. Low frequency reinforcement is good, the dialogue is clear, and composer James Horner's thrilling score is well blended (if you can say that about this aggressive score) in the mix. This isn't overly-immersive surround sound - while there is some use of the rear channels, there's not nearly as much as I would have liked. Still, it's a solid track and largely does the film good service. There is no DTS 5.1 audio option on this disc, owing to the film's extended length. Including DTS would have required making a compromise in the video quality. Some fans will probably be a little disappointed by this, but there's only just so much you can squeeze on a single DVD disc. I think the right decision was made.

The menus on Disc Three feature the same basic scheme as the first two, this time highlighting the facehugger stage of the alien life-cycle. I should note here that whenever you insert one of these movie discs in your player, you're immediately given a choice of which version of the movie you want to view. Don't worry, because once you're made the choice, the menus allow you to go back out and select the other version at any time - you don't have to restart your player.

As with Disc One, Disc Three includes a newly-recorded audio commentary track featuring many of the cast and crew. The participants include James Cameron, Gale Anne Hurd, Stan Winston, Robert Skotak, Dennis Skotak, Pat McClung, Michael Biehn, Bill Paxton, Lance Henriksen, Jenette Goldstein, Christopher Henn and Carrie Henn. I'll say it right now - this is arguably the best commentary in this box set. It's also, in my opinion, the best commentary James Cameron has given yet. He delivers some really interesting thoughts on the film, including how he convinced Sigourney Weaver to reprise the role, the choices of film stock, camera lenses and aspect ratio he used for this film and why, his feelings about the other films in this series - it's all fascinating stuff. Fans should be grateful to have Cameron here. His portions were recorded only at the very last minute due to schedule conflicts. As with the Alien track, several of the participants this time were recorded together, including Hurd and Winston, as well as all the actors who played the Sulaco crew. The result is great camaraderie that really shines through the track. Biehn, Paxton, Henriksen and Goldstein are really having a great time here, joking and laughing through the whole film. Fans are going to love this - it's a fun listen.

As we saw with the Alien Director's Cut, when you select the Special Edition here, you have the option to activate a deleted footage marker. When viewing in this mode, the words "SPECIAL EDITION" will appear on the bottom right portion of the screen to indicate the new scenes and extended footage in the cut. Conversely, when you've chosen the Theatrical Cut, there's a portion of the supplement menu that lets you access all of the new material from the Special Edition version separately. You'll find a description of the new footage, and you can opt to view each bit in turn. Finally, if you need to calibrate your display, you get another THX Optimizer.

The majority of the extras for Aliens are on Disc Four, so click to the next page and I'll tell you all about them.

On to Disc Four