Alien (1979) was so perfect it didn't need fixing, and Ridley Scott's 2003 director's cut is fiddling for the sake of fiddling. Watch it once, then return to the majestic, perfectly paced original. Conversely, the special edition of James Cameron's Aliens (1986) is the definitive version, though it's nice to finally have the theatrical cut on DVD for comparison. Most interesting is the alternative Alien 3 (1992). This isn't a "director's cut"--David Fincher refused to have any involvement with this release--but a 1991 work-print that runs 29 minutes longer than the theatrical version, and has now been restored, remastered, and finished off with (unfortunately) cheap new CGI. Still, it's truly fascinating, offering a different insight into a flawed masterpiece. The expanded opening is visually breathtaking, the central firestorm is much longer, and a subplot involving Paul McGann's character adds considerable depth to story. The ending is also subtly but significantly different. Alien: Resurrection (1997) always was a mess with a handful of brilliant scenes, and the special edition just makes it eight minutes longer.

The Alien Quadrilogy offers the first and fourth films with DTS soundtracks, the others having still fine Dolby Digital 5.1 presentation. All four films sound fantastic, with much low-level detail revealed for the first time. Each is anamorphically enhanced at the correct original aspect ratio, and the prints and transfers are superlative. Every film offers a commentary track that lends insight into the creative process--though the Scott-only commentary and isolated music score from the first Alien DVD release are missing here.

Each movie is complemented by a separate disc packed with hours of seriously detailed documentaries (all presented in full-screen with clips letterboxed), thousands of photos, production stills, and storyboards, giving a level of inside information for the dedicated buff only surpassed by the Lord of the Rings extended DVD sets. A ninth DVD compiles miscellaneous material, including an hourlong documentary and even all the extras from the old Alien laserdisc. "Exhaustive" hardly beings to describe the Alien Quadrilogy, a set that establishes the new DVD benchmark for retrospective releases and looks unlikely to be surpassed for some time. --Gary S. Dalkin

'Alien' (average user rating: 4.6). If you haven't seen this classic film, then you must be living under a rock. The collection includes the original theatrical version (which I prefer) and the "Director's Cut", notable for its inclusion of the controversial captain-cacooned by alien scene (controversial because from the Alien mythology developed in later films, we know that only the massive queen can lay eggs). I prefer the original (which is actually 1 minute longer), and interestingly enough, it appears that Ridley Scott prefers the original as well. The making of featurettes are extensive and reveal Giger's extensive participation and how what was originally expected to receive a b-moive budget became one of the very few examples where Fox studios followed the vision with a classic.

'Aliens' (average user rating: 4.7). This is the only sequel I know of that is rated higher than the original. This time, the "Special Edition" version (also on the previous 'Alien Legacy' box set) is a superior experience and exactly is how upstart director James Cameron (who had written the script prior to the release of 'The Terminator') wanted to release the film, but was constrained entirely by time limits. The result is additional scenes featuring the colonists and Ripley's family lost to the time she spent in hypersleep. As with the first installment, the featurettes are interesting and thorough, although the Viet Nam War metaphor is not as thoroughly explored with Cameron as has been in other releases.

'Alien 3' (average user rating: 3.2). As a fan of the franchise, this was perhaps the most anticipated part of this new box set. The "working print" of the film (the longest of all the versions here, and complete with subtitles for missed sound editing), adds a depth to the film that was not in the original. That is, the arrival of Ripley and the characters are covered much more thoroughly, the alien creature is begotten by an oxen with a much more original look, there is an additional plot twist arising from the nature of the inhabitants (criminally delusional), and there is no riduculously-timed chest-burster scene at the end. Still, the film is a flawed masterpiece. The film is better appreciated in light of the bad situation first-time director David Fincher had been placed in - not the least of which is an incomplete script during production and a set that had already been constructed for the ill-conceived "wooden planet/monestary" vision of the previously assigned director. In this sense, the three production featurettes come across as almost an apology/tribute to Fincher. (NOTE: Fincher is the only director who is not interviewed on the box set.)

'Alien Resurrection' (average user rating: 3.0). What happens when you put the French director of 'Amelie' (Jean-Pierre Jeaunet) in charge of an alien movie? Well, foreign/art movies were all the craze in the last 1990s, so . . . Fox studios thought, "Why not?" In the end, many fans of the franchise did not appreciate the obviously satirical slant on this final installment. The opening scene and ending scenes (the only additions of substance) on the extended version make the film even more tongue-in-cheek. Despite the French director and crew's obvious regard for the original 'Alien' (as documented in the featurettes), armed with the return of Sigourney Weaver and the addition of superstar Winona Ryder, the director ultimately made a quirky, campy action film. But in the end, it was the last quarter of the script that makes this the weakest of all the installments by far. Postscript to Fox studios: if you had given Fincher this much creative freedom, you would have have a third masterpiece.


The low down   November 3, 2003
 53 out of 116 found this review helpful

List price: 99.98
Release Date: Dec 2
Info:
*Alien can be watched in the original version or the new director's cut now playing in theaters.

* The 1986 sequel, Aliens, is available on DVD for the first time, with director James Cameron's special edition as well.

* Alien 3 (1992) has more than 30 minutes of new footage.

*Alien Resurrection (1997) has alternate opening and ending scenes.


If all this isn't enough for ya, WHAT IS?   December 10, 2003
 52 out of 59 found this review helpful

There's a LOT of stuff in this box set. Almost too much, really. You could spend a couple of weeks watching and reading all the extras, commentaries, script drafts, etc. But by then you would have deconstructed the films so much that you have robbed them of whatever "innocent viewing pleasure" you enjoyed before you delved into the minutiae of the extra features.

So it is a double-edged sword: Learn more than you ever thought you would about the 4 "Alien" films, but suffer having to watch them from then on and forever more through the filter of "knowing too much behind-the-scenes info" & "curtain-pulled-back-on-the-Wizard" insider perspective.

That said, it is a real treat to have this collection, even though the fourth film was abominably disappointing. The packaging, which opens to a nearly five foot long foldout, is kind of neat but soon grows cumbersome and irritating. When you unfold it the first time, it is like "Hey, look what THIS thing does!". But after a while, when you just want to retrieve a single disc for some occasion, it has evolved to "Okay, okay, I get it - it's long. Just gimme the stupid disc already!"

For "Alien" fanatics, this is a must-have. I don't own the "Alien Legacy" set, so I can't compare them.

I especially like the DTS sound on two of the films. DTS always brings a new dimension to the listening experience that the still-great Dolby 5.1 doesn't.

Don't complain about the price, either. You get your money's worth in spades, and you save on tax and get free shipping if you order it online (from the right vendor). Besides, even if the price is a bit too steep for you, that amount of your money would have been lost to the sands of time soon enough anyway. Might as well spend the money and have something cool to show for it.


Finally!   November 11, 2003
 42 out of 73 found this review helpful

This incredible box set is, in my opinion, THE very reason that DVDs were created in the first place. Getting the never-before-seen director's cut of all four alien movies is worth the $70 alone.. but toss in a jaw-dropping 40 hours of special features, and you have the greatest DVD collection ever released.

It should be called the Tetralogy, but get it anyway   May 7, 2006
 38 out of 43 found this review helpful

The Alien series never broke out the way that Star Trek and Star Wars did--you don't see the presence of an Alien-worshipping subculture, the way you do with Roddenberry's and Lucas's franchises. However, the series has been far more inventive and varied than those two franchises. Explore the Alien movies (minus the abomination known as Alien vs. Predator) on this 9-disc set. Even though they are very different films which have little commonality, aside from the presence of those vicious monsters and the lovely Sigourney Weaver, they complement each other well, and collectors would be wise to pick up this boxed set instead of buying the movies piecemeal. Far from being simple horror films, the Alien movies are attempts to put into film the anxieties of the modern age, from the biological to the corporate, and the series is at its best when it exploits these anxieties.

This is what the first entry in the series, Alien, does best. Directed by Ridley Scott, whose other work includes Blade Runner and Gladiator, this 1979 film pits a group of commercial astronauts against a foe which cannot be killed and will not be placated. With a cast that includes Weaver, Tom Skeritt, Yaphet Kotto, John Hurt, Harry Dean Stanton and Ian Holm, this is probably the most impressively-acted of the bunch, and Scott has style to spare. Unlike most terror films, this movie derives its thrills not from continual pop-ups at the screen, but from building a sustained mood of dread--the alien could pop up at any moment. When it does come, it doesn't stay around for long. Perhaps the movie's greatest attribute is its allegorical simplicity--one is bound to reflect on what the alien represents? Perhaps it's a Rorshach Ink Blot to some extent, however, this movie is the perfect counterpoint to such movies as Independence Day--instead of taking off and kicking ass, in Alien, nothing we can do can protect us from the Alien. In our post-Iraq, post-9/11 nation, perhaps this film will have gained some resonance in its treatment of the subject matter.

Aliens might be decried by some as a pure action film, but it is a bit more than that. James Cameron logically extends the concepts in the first film, and while it lacks the atmosphere and creepy suspense of the first movie, it is an extremely exciting and emotionally satisfying film. In this film, Ellen Ripley returns to the beast's planet with a squad of marines, which includes such personalities as the humane Cpl. Hicks (Michael Biehn), the freaked-out Pvt. Hudson (Bill Paxton) and the macho Pvt. Vasquez (Janette Goldstein). Also in the mix are Paul Reiser as the personification of corporate malfeasance, and Lance Henriksen as a sinister-seeming android. Trivia note: Henriksen would be the only actor (aside from Weaver) to appear in more than one Alien film. Ultimately, this is a movie where the thrills come from stuff popping out at you, but if you are willing to suspend disbelief a little and come along for the ride, it is actually quite good for a genre picture, and became the benchmark against which the later pictures were compared.

Alien3 is a film which never got a fair chance. Consider: a script which underwent more than a few major revisions, several changes in directors which actually produced the perfect man for the job (future Fight Club auteur David Fincher), a meddling studio and fan expectations which could not possibly have been sated. It was, in retrospect, a recipe for disaster, so one should not complain about how flawed it is, but rather realize just how good it is. Fincher manages to create a wholly convincing atmosphere of dread in a prison planet populated by monk-like inmates. It takes up the allegorical mantle again, but rather than the open-ended allegory of the first, this installment has overt religious parallels that anyone even remotely familiar with Western Civilization should be able to pick up on (even though some of the imagery is subtle). This set notably includes the Assembly Cut, billed euphamistically here as a "Special Edition", which is far closer to the movie Fincher intended to make. While there are any number of legitimate complaints against the film--the most sympathetic character dies halfway through, many of the inmates never really stick out, the final action sequence is too disorienting, high on gore but low on scares, etc.--it is actually a rather compelling film in its unedited form. Not perfect, but in terms of the plotting, main characters, and its insight into the mindset of the religious isolationist mindset, it is more than adequate. In terms of visuals and mood, no installment of the Alien series has been better. In my book, it's a good film with flaws rather than a flawed film with some good parts. The beginning and ending are contentious--watch the film and you will see why--but both serve the story, and the ending in Fincher's version is a surprisingly powerful one, as opposed to the theatrical version, which might have some Biblical undertones (the story of Jacob, specifically) but it feels more hollow. Overall, with this restored version, hopefully the movie will see an end to the backlash that has been pervasive since its release in 1992.

Alien Resurrection is the final film in this group, and while it is less polarizing than Alien3 among fans, it is also less memorable. If the original film was about a post-Vietnam set of anxieties, then this film is about a post-Berlin Wall set of ironies, and it cannot be displaced from the culture from whence it came--a culture which prided itself on being so "over" everything. Yet another director, this time Jean-Pierre Jeaunet of Amelie, brings a different twist to the franchise. Armed with a screenplay by TV wunderkind Joss Whedon, and game performances from Weaver, Winona Ryder, Ron Perlman, et al. The fundamental problem is that the viewer never really connects with the characters, and thus isn't invested in their fates. This being the case, the movie then becomes a series of action setpieces which don't quite add up to anything. The visual style is surprisingly lacking here as well: I once heard Amelie described as a David Fincher take on a Meg Ryan film, so I expected memorable visuals. I instead discovered that Roger Ebert was right when he said there was not a single shot to inspire the imagination. While the production values are high, the grotesque violence, fast-paced editing, camerawork and lighting all come together to make one feel as though in a video game, and while that might work for fourteen year-old boys, it's a far cry from the film's heritage. On the other hand, the satirical aspects of the film are enjoyable, and it somehow was much more beloved in Europe--maybe I'm missing something. Ultimately, the film is either a standard-issue thriller or a savvy satirical deconstruction of a standard-issue thriller--I'm not entirely certain.

The bonus features are interesting--commentaries on all the four films, featuring directors, cast members, and production staff. I guess that, given the amount of commentary tracks punctuated by uncomfortable silences, the folks over at Fox decided to cut to different conversations at different points during the films. There is a constant stream of information, some interesting and enlightening, other parts are funny (Bill Paxton's contributions especially), but the only one that is tough to sit through is Alien3's, which is unbalanced in favor of the technical side of the production and only has about 15 minutes of Henriksen and another actor. The documentaries go into great detail about all the films, essentially from the germination of the story all the way through to critical reception. Overall, it's a good collection of special features.

Overall, as far as franchises go, the Alien films are one of the better bets out there. As a receptacle for millenial anxieties, a proving ground for new and talented directors, and just plain scares, this is a series which should appeal to most and I highly recommend this set.