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Alien Quadrilogy
01/03/2004 . Source: Geoff Willmetts 
Pub: 20th Century Fox F1 25231 BGB. Price: varies from £70 to £54.99 (UK) - shop around for the best price.) check out website: www.fox.co.uk
When I had my first video recorder, the first film I bought to run on it was 'Alien'. 'Aliens' quickly followed.
Now that I've finally got a DVD player, a pretty little and relatively cheap Matsu DVD225, I could hardly resist a box set that featured not only those two films, but also 'Alien 3' and 'Alien: Resurrection'.
Actually, calling this a 'Quadrilogy' is a bit misleading as there are actually 8 films here as they all come with Director's Cuts. Having to decide what to watch, I opted for the later and after watching all the extras for each film, saw the original cut with commentary so getting the best of both worlds.
Even so, it's taken nearly 2 months to watch and absorb all of this material and if you're a fan of these films, then you'll be doing like me and taking your time to savour all the information. I hardly need to go over the films as they should all be familiar with you.
Of the Director's Cuts, this was the first time that I've seen 'Alien' this way. A couple scenes from it, where Lambert hits out at Ripley outside the Med-Lab and where Ripley and Parker see Brett being hauled into the air-shaft would have done much for the original cut. I agree with Ridley Scott that Ripley discovering the cocooned Dallas did not, but that was more from an element of poor acting as much as anything. Interesting commentary from Ridley Scott that he and Sigorney Weaver were prepared to play her last scene naked but got nixed by the studio and here was I thinking that the underwear was a bit risqué!!!
What was interesting from all the scriptwriters' commentary is how working out the stories was pretty much trail and error. 'Alien' scriptwriters Dan O'Bannon and Ron Shusett slaved over areas where a proper SF writer would have had the answer in seconds as reflected in the nearest thing they had in the form of artist Ron Cobb gave them the reason they couldn't kill the alien cos of acid for blood would melt through the hull.
Ridley Scott admits that he isn't that familiar with Science Fiction as well, saying if it's SF it's self-justified like with why the alien egg in Kane didn't inhibit his breathing. Considering how the facehugger preserved Kane's life once could well imagine the embryo doing a similar thing to keep him going until it burst free.
Another Director's Cut that I'd never seen was 'Alien 3' which I thought vastly superior to the standard cut. If you've ever read the novelisation then you'll appreciate this version far better. Saying that, I couldn't see much difference between either version of 'Alien: Resurrection'.
Oddly enough the fourth film also seemed to be short-changed somewhat in the extras department which is odd considering someone could have thought of putting in the TV 'Making Of' if other material wasn't available.
Considering the extras included interviews with directors, production crew and cast, not to mention screenplays, screen-tests and all and sundry, this is a pot pourii for loving the alien.
If I have to be really critical, then I wish someone had thought to consider to include a session of humorous out-takes although whether brevity would have seen out of place is debatable. Then again, seeing director David Fincher giving direction to the alien in the Med-Lab scene in 'Alien 3' gave a wry grin as to what motivation he was being asked to give. Likewise, watch out for a couple similar pictures of Ripley blinking at you as you go through the stills.
Until a fifth film is made and another special edition of all the 'Alien' films is released on DVD, this has to be regarded as the definitive collection.
One thing I do hope is that some enterprising publisher is going to look at the storyboards, photos and other more 'static' presentations here and pump to get them out in book form so they can be appreciated away from the screen.
GF Willmetts
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