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 Three

On to Disc Five

Disc Four - Superior Firepower: The Making of Aliens

Extras Rating: A

Pre-Production - 57 Years Later: Continuing the Story featurette (11 mins), original treatment text by James Cameron, Building Better Worlds: From Concept to Construction featurette (13 mins), conceptual artwork gallery (organized by subject), multi-angle previsualizations (3 mins - 2 angles with commentary by miniature effects supervisor Pat McClung), Preparing for Battle: Casting and Characterization featurette (17 mins), cast portrait gallery, Production - This Time It's War: Pinewood Studios, 1985 featurette (19 mins), production photo gallery (organized by subject), continuity Polaroids gallery, The Risk Always Lives: Weapons and Action featurette (15 mins), weapons and vehicles photo gallery, Bug Hunt: Creature Design featurette (16 mins), Beauty and the Bitch: Power Loader vs. Queen Alien featurette (22 mins), Stan Winston's Workshop photo gallery, Two Orphans: Sigourney Weaver and Carrie Henn featurette (14 mins), Post-Production - The Final Countdown: Music, Editing and Sound featurette (15 mins), The Power of Real Tech: Visual Effects featurette (28 mins), visual effects photo gallery, Aliens Unleashed: Reaction to the Film featurette (12 mins), film "finish and release" photo gallery, Easter egg: A Boy and His Power Loader featurette (9 mins), Easter egg: DVD production credits, animated film-themed menus with sound effects, separate "play/view all" option for featurettes, artwork and photos, languages: English (DD 2.0), subtitles: none

As with the Alien supplement disc, the material here can be navigated individually, or through separate "play all" options for the video material, the art galleries and the photo galleries. Again, the disc is divided into Pre-Production, Production and Post-Production sections. The heart of the disc, running through all three sections, is a series of eleven video featurettes that together form another 3-hour documentary, entitled Superior Firepower: The Making of Aliens. As with the previous supplement disc, the featurettes are all in full frame, while the galleries are anamorphic.

The Navigation Options page for this disc contains another Easter egg of DVD production credits. It's in exactly the same place as Disc Two, accessed with the same procedure. Once you've entered the page, use the number pad on your remote to enter the U.S. theatrical release date for Aliens (it's 7-18-86). Still kind of lame, but what are you gonna do?

Starting with the Pre-Production section, we begin with 57 Years Later: Continuing the Story, which describes the way the sequel came together as a viable project. The film's producers had wanted to do one right away after the success of the first film, but a series of regime changes at Fox delayed it for a number of years. Along came James Cameron, whose script for Terminator had impressed David Giler and Walter Hill. During a pitch session, they suggested the idea that Cameron tackle the Alien sequel. We learn that Fox, interested in Cameron's treatment for the Aliens, decided to wait for Cameron to finish making the Terminator before launching the sequel. His being allowed to direct would hinge upon the commercial success of Terminator. We also learn how Sigourney Weaver was convinced to take on the role again. New interviews with Weaver, Giler, Gale Anne Hurd and others, along with archival interviews with Cameron himself, flesh out the narrative.

Included in this section of the disc is the complete text of Cameron's original, 1983 treatment for the film, then titled Alien II. It's presented in blue text on a black background - you page through it with your remote.

In Building Better Worlds: From Concept to Construction, we hear from designers Syd Mead and Ron Cobb in brand new interviews with both. They talk about how they were pulled into the project, how they approached the production design and their ultimate contributions to the film. It's illustrated with many of their drawings of the ships, props and vehicles, including some designs that went unrealized. Of particular note here is a closer look at the nose art on the Sulaco's dropship, which was designed by Cobb. It read, "Bug Stomper: We Endanger Species." Also interviewed here is production designer Peter Lamont, talking about how the crew was able to realize many of these designs on a budget.

To better illustrate the production design on the film, we're given a gallery of artwork by Cobb, Mead and James Cameron. It's broken down by subject, including the film's locations, vehicles, weapons and finally the aliens themselves. There are some cool drawings in here that detail fans will love.

Also illustrating this section are a short series of video animatics produced by the special effects team to help block out complicated effects shots. This is in multi-angle format, allowing you to view the animatic itself, or the animatics compared to the final shots from the film. You can also choose to listen to commentary by miniature effects supervisor Pat McClung. You'll be surprised at how closely these animatics parallel the final footage.

Next up is Preparing for Battle: Casting and Characterization, which describes the difficult process of finding the right actors for the film. We learn that Hurd and the casting directors by rule had to look at every single member of the North American registry of the British Actor's Equity before they could look at anyone else - three thousand people in all. We also see new and vintage interviews with many of the cast members, talking about how they came to the project, how they approached their roles and what impact the film had on their careers.

Rounding out the Pre-Production section is a gallery of cast and crew portraits taken to promote the film.

The Production section of the disc begins with the featurette, This Time it's War: Pinewood Studios, 1985. This includes tons of on-set video and candid photographs, some outtake and alternate take footage from the film, and both new and vintage interviews with many of the people involved in the production. We learn that the film had two different directors of photography. The first didn't work out because of chemistry problems with Cameron. The second, Adrian Biddle, had actually worked on many of Ridley Scott's TV commercials. We learn that Michael Biehn was a last-minute addition to the film, replacing another actor. We see some of Cameron's on set irritation with the crew, including an amusing bit of him trying to shoot a leaping facehugger. There's also discussion of the tension between the Canadian-American director and the British production crew (let's just say that tea time came at all the wrong moments). It's good stuff, and funny too.

There's another pair of photo galleries at this point. One features production photos and the other includes all of the continuity Polaroids taken on set. The production photo gallery is broken down by subject and scene. You'll see a lot of interesting set detail in close-up - stuff that's barely visible in the final film - like the name tags on the Sulaco's hypersleep chambers.

The next featurette, The Risk Always Lives: Weapons and Action, deals with designing the futuristic Marine armaments, training the actors to use them, and how the battle scenes were staged on the set. Real guns were selected that would fire blanks in the most visually spectacular way on film, and then the futuristic mechanisms and detail was built up on top of them. We get to see all of the original and final weapons up close, we get to see test footage, and the cast working with the weapons during filming. Sigourney also talks about how she had to overcome her own personal feelings about guns, and the other actors tell how they each adjusted to handling live weapons. There's also discussion of some of the on-set close calls and accidents that happened during filming.

For completion's sake, there's another gallery here that just features close-ups and detail of all the weapons and vehicles in the film.

In Bug Hunt: Creature Design, we get interviews with Stan Winston, Alec Gillis, James Cameron and other technicians talking about their approach to following up on the alien designs from the first film. We learn that they attempted to refine the look and functionality of each creature, making it more specific to the sequel, while remaining true to the original spirit of each design. The chestburster and facehuggers are both addressed, and we see that several different versions of the facehuggers in particular were created to do different things on camera - grasping, running, etc. We also see how the warrior alien designs were simplified so that multiple suits could be created to fit normal-sized stuntmen, and how they were shot to best effect on the set.

Continuing this topic to the ultimate alien lifeform, Beauty and the Bitch: Power Loader vs. Alien Queen examines the difficult effort to design and create a functional, life-sized queen. There's test footage of early mock-ups. We see the sculpting and rigging that made it all work. We learn that it's basically a massive puppet/marionette, and we get to see how it was operated on the set. Additionally, we're shown how the queen's attack on Bishop was staged, and how the power loader suit was actually built around a stuntman. The loader was then lifted by various cranes and support lines. There's more discussion of the tensions between Cameron and the team working on the power loader suit, and we get to see them screen testing the movements of the final design. There's also a funny moment with Sigourney talking about being in the suit with the stuntman.

At this point, there's another gallery of shots taken at Stan Winston's workshop, in which we get to see even more close-ups and detail of the new creature designs. Included are shots of the various pieces of 'organic' armor that made up the new warrior suits and more.

The last featurette in Production is Two Orphans: Sigourney Weaver and Carrie Henn. This is a cute piece in which both actresses discuss the trust and friendship that developed between them set. For much of the final few weeks of shooting, everyone else had already finished filming their parts, so it was just the two of them. The tension of the scenes was also greatly increased, so it was hard, physical work - the two bonded a result. There's lots of photos and footage of the two on set, working and hanging out together. It's a nice way to close out the section.

The Post-Production area contains another Easter egg. It's very easy to find - just navigate up from The Final Countdown featurette selection and you'll highlight an icon at the top of the screen. Pressing 'enter' will allow you to view Quadrilogy producer Charles de Lauzirika's featurette tip of the hat to fellow DVD producer Van Ling (whose work includes The Terminator: SE, T2: Ultimate Edition, Star Wars: Episode I & II, The Abyss and ID4). In A Boy and His Power Loader, Van reveals how James Cameron gave him his first break in the business, by hiring Van after he created his own custom-made power loader suit. We see Van and his friends building the suit out of foam core, learn how they won a costume contest to recoup their money, and in general watch them letting their inner geek hang out for all to see - it's pretty funny stuff.

The main part of this section begins with the aforementioned featurette, The Final Countdown: Music, Editing and Sound. We see an exhausted Cameron and editor Ray Lovejoy at work piecing the film together. This was in the days before the computerized Avid system revolutionized film post-production, so it was an arduous process. Composer James Horner describes how he came to England to begin working on the score, and found that there wasn't even a rough cut to score with yet. Add to that a seemingly impossible schedule - dubbing and scoring hadn't even started yet with just six weeks to go before the film's theatrical release - and you've got the makings of a brutally tough post-production effort.

The Power of Real Tech: Visual Effects looks in detail at the miniature effects work on the film. We get to see model construction and filming, we learn how the derelict ship was obtained from Bob Burns and restored for use here, we get to see the massive model of the colony complex and atmosphere processing station - you name it. There's test footage, plate photography elements, animatic clips, shots of the radio controlled APC bring run and much more. It's still more cool stuff for detail fans.

There's also an additional gallery of photos taken of the visual effects process, which provides even more detail on the model work.

Aliens Unleashed: Reaction to the Film concludes the documentary look at the making of Aliens. Hurd describes how Cameron came up with the logline "This Time it's War," and how the studio rightly decided to sell the film as a combat picture. Each of the actors recalls their reaction to the final cut. We also learn that there were no test screenings of the film, simply because there wasn't time. Fortunately, Aliens was an immediate hit, loved by critics and audiences alike. We also learn that Cameron and many of his production crew members went around to various midnight screenings of the film to savor the reactions of die-hard audiences, and that everyone was surprised when Sigourney garnered an Oscar nomination for her role (genre films had long been slighted by the Academy).

Finally, rounding out Disc Four is yet another gallery featuring photos taken during the music recording sessions, photos taken at the film's premiere and photos done for a special publicity shoot with the actors.

So that's Aliens. Still with me? Good, because now we come to the film that fans of this series have been waiting the longest to see receive elaborate special edition treatment on DVD... David Fincher's Alien³.

On to Disc Five