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Class Warcraft posted:Speaking of actual animals: not to get too political, but that is also why republicans don't like anyone
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Sep 2, 2021 00:31
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Mutant Headcrab posted:Re: The cat. That's bullshit. It's long been held that xeno reproduction requires a particular size/mass to the host to infect. Also it's a cute cat and probably the only decently drawn thing. I thought the cat was how the company knew everything, it was a spy. I guess the weird scars means its infected. It's...not a very good comic so far.
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Sep 2, 2021 01:17
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Azubah posted:I thought the cat was how the company knew everything, it was a spy. I guess the weird scars means its infected. Sounds like they ripped off Lily C.A.T., it's a bit boring in the middle act but has some good creature designs (even if some of it's just straight ripped from The Thing's final form) by Yoshitaka Amano. A lot of them were reused as part of the massive Neo X-Death boss in Final Fantasy V. Opinions of it vary wildly but generally I'd say it's worth a watch, there's worse ways to spend an hour: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wb_lkp58Jd0
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Sep 2, 2021 02:37
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Azubah posted:I thought the cat was how the company knew everything, it was a spy. I guess the weird scars means its infected. The scars are on everyone who has been face hugged. So yeah the cat too.
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Sep 2, 2021 03:18
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Neo Rasa posted:Sounds like they ripped off Lily C.A.T., it's a bit boring in the middle act but has some good creature designs (even if some of it's just straight ripped from The Thing's final form) by Yoshitaka Amano. A lot of them were reused as part of the massive Neo X-Death boss in Final Fantasy V. Wow what a callback. I remember watching that on VHS when I was a teen.
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Sep 2, 2021 03:49
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SidneyIsTheKiller posted:If we're really going to take the whole "Ripley is too good for Charles Dance" bit as seriously as a lot of folks seem to, I think it betrays a gross and frankly sexist attitude. Ripley can sleep with whoever the gently caress she pleases, thanks. She probably hasn't gotten laid in 57 years and I don't think it's odd at all she might be feeling lonely and seeking some form of intimacy after all she's been through. Dance's character has that stoic, cool-headed vibe Ripley seems to be attracted to and he's far and away her best option in her present surroundings. So she's settling in this instance, who cares? I get the impression that sex is just not that big of a deal in the timeline that the movies are set in, i.e. it's just physical pleasure. There's the mention of arcturian sex, I think one of the deleted scenes from Alien had dialogue discussing Ripley sleeping with Dallas, and the reference to Lambert being M2F trans in the dossier at the start of Aliens. Add on the casual sex between Ripley and Clemens in Alien3 as a spur of the moment thing being a man (not double-Y chromo like the inmates) and woman sharing some space so why not? Gender, sexual relations etc, are events and information, with not a lot attached to them. Maybe that goes for friendships and relationships in general, the Nostromo crew didn't seem awfully tight-knit - Brett & Parker were much closer than the rest of the crew as "outsiders" of sorts.
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Sep 2, 2021 12:14
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All that is true imo, but Alien 3 also takes place in a prison. Finding the least insane guy around and forming a relationship with him is pretty pragmatic
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Sep 2, 2021 13:49
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skasion posted:All that is true imo, but Alien 3 also takes place in a prison. Finding the least insane guy around and forming a relationship with him is pretty pragmatic The least insane guy that isn't, technically, celibate. Which is, like, three guys. Slim pickens out in space. Too bad the man passed in '83. Slim Pickens as Bishop. Your friendly W-Y synthetic, ride or die. Ride and die.
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Sep 2, 2021 17:22
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In Fireteam I really hate flamethrowers, because you can't see a goddamned thing when the other two pubbies just let loose on them. I will admit though that I like how when you're close to the flame there are nice little flourishes of condensation and soot around the screen, just like when the flamers came out in the movie 
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Sep 2, 2021 17:30
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So I'm really glad I did go to see T2 on the big screen. I've always held it as being good, but not actually great, but a combination of factors has really let it grow in my affections it seems because I came out of that going "nope, actually great after all". The two biggest factors in turning this around for me was the last time I saw T2 was the extended cut, and while I will defend The Abyss and Aliens extended cuts as being essential and definitive, the extra stuff in T2 made the middle act super baggy and really hurt the pacing. For 15 years, that's been my memory of that film. Then last year I finally watched all of Terminator 3, having seen only bits of it previously. Wow that movie is not good at all. Someone a while back in this thread described it as being an "expensive movie that somehow manages to look cheap" and that was exactly it. But I'll say this, 4 bad Terminator sequels really makes looking back at T2 and realizing just how great it was and being thankful for it. God drat did Linda Hamilton kick some rear end in that movie. Of course the real reason I'm glad I went, is this is the screen where I'll be watching Aliens in two weeks and I wanted to know where the best seats are.
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Sep 2, 2021 18:15
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There's some things I liked in Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (mainly the idea Skynet is an AI that discovered the internet then decided we all needed to die & the really bleak ending), but it's execution was incredibly lacking. Also using Nick Stahl instead of Edward Furlong was not a great choice IMO. Claire Danes was good in it at least.
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Sep 2, 2021 18:22
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That might be the first recorded time someone ever lamented Edward Furlong not being in something.
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Sep 2, 2021 18:40
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Capt.Whorebags posted:I get the impression that sex is just not that big of a deal in the timeline that the movies are set in, i.e. it's just physical pleasure. In a lot of the extended universe stuff that's basically how sex is handled. Now, that might just be a result of the authors going "Well this is trashy paperback scifi so we gotta put some fuckin' in there" but I think it makes sense to some degree to use sex as a sort of counterbalance to the huge, empty loneliness of space, thematically. It could honestly also just be carried over from a million different sci fi novels as being "future-ey." Heinlein had a couple books that had incredibly casual attitudes towards sex and there's like an entire B-plot in Haldeman's "The Forever War" that was about how the space marines just casually gently caress each other all the time lol. The Dallas and Brett thing though is probably more of a nod to how commercial shipping crews (and naval crews, at least back in the day) work, where the bridge crew and the engineering crew are separated physically and in terms of command structure but are also often separated socially as a result.
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Sep 2, 2021 19:02
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I nearly brought up The Forever War because of those parallels, although I think it’s mandatory for the soldiers (at least the female ones) to gently caress anyone who wants to.
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Sep 2, 2021 19:34
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Torquemada posted:I nearly brought up The Forever War because of those parallels, although I think it’s mandatory for the soldiers (at least the female ones) to gently caress anyone who wants to. Aside from being pulled out of college to fight a pointless extra solar war the grunts in Forever War are also subject to a ton of experiments by the military. One being forcing the soldiers to all sleep with each other in a fixed rotation to avoid any particular attachments to each other. They also inject fake memories into the recruits to increase their motivation to fight and other hosed up stuff. It’s a wild book, and really captures the alienation returning vietnam vets must have felt.
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Sep 2, 2021 20:25
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That's right it was basically mandatory lmao, I guess it has been long enough since I read it that I blocked that part out!
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Sep 2, 2021 20:39
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Re-reading a bunch of Aliens comics. Newt's Tale is mostly a straightforward comic adaptation of Aliens, nothing special, but drat if the pages where Newt's mum straight up asks for a pistol just so she can shoot her kids rather than let them get facehugged hits right in the emotions. Also the way she gets given the gun no questions asked as they already know that's the right choice because things have gotten that bad already. That whole 6 page sequence that follows as the civilian redoubt is breached is pretty much all you need from that comic, but it's enough to justify reading that comic. Also, twice the book makes a point that the colony had livestock, to allow the numbers of aliens to be boosted beyond the 158 colonists. That's not supported in anything else I've read, but it makes sense that they would have something like that set up, and as it allows for more aliens without stretching credulity in any way, I'm all for it. Thinking about Aliens a bit more, I know some people don't like the Newt flashback bit in the extended edition, but oddly I feel like it really should have been part of the theatrical cut because without it there's a big reliance on viewers having seen Alien to know the whole egg -> facehugger -> chestburster thing. Ripley talks about it in the theatrical cut, but I do wonder how well that would land with someone who hadn't seen the first film. Having that flashback to setup the idea of facehuggers, then going to "we've lost contact with the colony" works so much better as a standalone film, I feel. But I'm an unashamed "the extended edition is perfect and definitive" defender so when people talk about any part of it not being necessary or good I stick my fingers in my ears and sulk for a bit.
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Sep 2, 2021 21:29
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Re: livestock, I’m not sure if that comes up in the River of Pain novel that also recounts the fall of Hadley’s Hope. I do know the book has some references to Newt’s Tale sprinkled in it, which is pretty neat.
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Sep 2, 2021 22:17
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Parkingtigers posted:Thinking about Aliens a bit more, I know some people don't like the Newt flashback bit in the extended edition, but oddly I feel like it really should have been part of the theatrical cut because without it there's a big reliance on viewers having seen Alien to know the whole egg -> facehugger -> chestburster thing. Ripley talks about it in the theatrical cut, but I do wonder how well that would land with someone who hadn't seen the first film. Having that flashback to setup the idea of facehuggers, then going to "we've lost contact with the colony" works so much better as a standalone film, I feel. 
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Sep 2, 2021 22:22
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madeintaipei posted:The least insane guy that isn't, technically, celibate. Which is, like, three guys. Slim pickens out in space. This reminds me of an account I read of life at McMurdo in Antarctica (it may have even been an Ask/Tell here). Relationships are more problematic & drama ridden when in an isolated environment. Casual hookups tend to be a better option. And the women/man ratio was definitely in favour of women, but as one of them lamented "the odds are good but the goods are odd".
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Sep 2, 2021 23:27
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I just rewatched Resurrection, and boy is that a dumb movie that seemed a lot cooler when I was a kid. I still love the part where the general rolls the grenade into the last escape pod and then salutes and gets eaten  e]I also thought clone Ripley started off as quite a cool idea where she seemed a lot more alien and hostile, like there was way more of a vibe of her being almost like an Alien mind in a human body, struggling with the human part of her kind of tempering her pure hostility somewhat. But then it just pivoted instantly to her basically just being Super Ripley with psychic powers 
Radical 90s Wizard fucked around with this message at 00:09 on Sep 3, 2021 |
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Sep 3, 2021 00:05
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Parkingtigers posted:Re-reading a bunch of Aliens comics. Newt's Tale is mostly a straightforward comic adaptation of Aliens, nothing special, but drat if the pages where Newt's mum straight up asks for a pistol just so she can shoot her kids rather than let them get facehugged hits right in the emotions. Also the way she gets given the gun no questions asked as they already know that's the right choice because things have gotten that bad already. I always liked the flashback as well, it's rather cool to see how things were and how it all began. I like that. There being livestock on the world does make sense, it's largely been terraformed and they would need to start getting animals use to the new digs. That and you'll always have people who want the real good stuff and not cream corn in a can every other day. When it comes to Ripley she was always living on borrowed time once she began to encounter them so often, most people would be. Yeah she was a bad rear end in Aliens but a person can only do so much before their luck runs out. The third movie would have been better if it included a new cast and a new outbreak as it happens. She could have shown up by having recordings of what she experienced being played as the new group learned what they were dealing with. Also once more, gently caress the fact that the Aliens were so defined into an insect like structure akin to ants. It really robbed them of the potential to be so much more.
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Sep 3, 2021 01:06
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Parkingtigers posted:Thinking about Aliens a bit more, I know some people don't like the Newt flashback bit in the extended edition, but oddly I feel like it really should have been part of the theatrical cut because without it there's a big reliance on viewers having seen Alien to know the whole egg -> facehugger -> chestburster thing. Ripley talks about it in the theatrical cut, but I do wonder how well that would land with someone who hadn't seen the first film. Having that flashback to setup the idea of facehuggers, then going to "we've lost contact with the colony" works so much better as a standalone film, I feel. 100%. A lot of people in here talk about "pacing." I don't get that. I don't see how it affects the pacing of the movie. They are short scenes that provide more information. I'm not affected by that at all and like more backstory. Basically all of the extended scenes are excellent and add more to the story. You and I are in the minority and I don't understand why. edit: Someone will probably explain why and I won't agree. Pennywise the Frown fucked around with this message at 01:40 on Sep 3, 2021 |
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Sep 3, 2021 01:33
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The pacing of the extended cut is just so much better in so many ways. Like all the little bits and pieces on the dropship and leading up to entering the colony. Just enough linking scenes that gives it all more of an almost documentary feel as you follow the marines in. Yes it takes a little longer, but there's more immediacy and closeness so I feel more part of it than just observing. I just realised that in a couple of weeks when I go to see Aliens on the big screen, it'll be the first time I've seen the theatrical cut since the extended edition came out. I saw that version once, and decided I never needed the shorter version ever again. Just a perfect movie.
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Sep 3, 2021 01:40
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Parkingtigers posted:I just realised that in a couple of weeks when I go to see Aliens on the big screen, it'll be the first time I've seen the theatrical cut since the extended edition came out. I saw that version once, and decided I never needed the shorter version ever again. Just a perfect movie. 
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Sep 3, 2021 01:41
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The only thing I don't care for in the Aliens extended cut is showing what happened at Hadley's Hope. Letting it be a complete mystery creates an incredible amount of tension & IMO showing why the colony went dark earlier takes us away from being in the group's headspace when they arrive at LV426.
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Sep 3, 2021 02:00
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Android Apocalypse posted:The only thing I don't care for in the Aliens extended cut is showing what happened at Hadley's Hope. Letting it be a complete mystery creates an incredible amount of tension & IMO showing why the colony went dark earlier takes us away from being in the group's headspace when they arrive at LV426. To me it just makes me ask questions. Why are they going to this facility? Why is the premise of the movie even happening? Because they lost contact. Ok, big deal. Send some tech out there to fix it. Why do they need to send Marines? It might be just a downed transmitter. WY knew something was going on and we don't know at all because we just heard a couple of lines from Burke saying we need to send Ripley and two squads of Marines in. For no big reason. Just to be safe. With the extended cut we see exactly why it's such a big deal. And why the entire movie is happening. In my opinion it's almost vital. It's not of course, but it fills in some gaps that are missing. Pennywise the Frown fucked around with this message at 02:06 on Sep 3, 2021 |
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Sep 3, 2021 02:04
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Android Apocalypse posted:The only thing I don't care for in the Aliens extended cut is showing what happened at Hadley's Hope. Letting it be a complete mystery creates an incredible amount of tension & IMO showing why the colony went dark earlier takes us away from being in the group's headspace when they arrive at LV426. If you've seen Alien, it's not a mystery. If you haven't seen Alien, you need an introduction to how an alien infestation even works. I (genuinely) don't get that it takes away from the marines wondering what happened there. With or without seeing the colonists previously, it's still "where the hell is everyone?" as the marines enter the complex. At least these days both versions of the movie are available, and for those who desire the extended cut but without Hadley's Hope flashback it's one uninterrupted scene that could be easily and neatly sliced out of the film without any rough edges.
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Sep 3, 2021 02:11
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Parkingtigers posted:If you've seen Alien, it's not a mystery. If you haven't seen Alien, you need an introduction to how an alien infestation even works. This is a big point. Aliens is mostly a movie that can stand completely on it's own. And it's really good at being able to bring someone in without them having to know the entire backstory. But the extended cut helps bring them up to speed on what's going on if you haven't seen Alien. Which I'd imagine most of us in here have seen Aliens first due to our age and demographic.
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Sep 3, 2021 02:15
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I don't like the wildcat scene because Newts parents are annoying doofuses "OI GOVNA ON OUR WAY TO PROSPEC' SOME BLOODY ALIENS WE ARE" plus it introduces Newt as an annoying screaming kid instead of the badass capable survivor in the theatrical cut. the scene in operations is ok though. I like the fat foreman guy who is sick of WY's poo poo.
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Sep 3, 2021 02:56
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Class Warcraft posted:plus it introduces Newt as an annoying screaming kid instead of the badass capable survivor in the theatrical cut. I like the inclusion of that scene because at the very least it shows that she has an arc, that she became a hardened survivor due to what she’d witnessed as Hadley’s Hope fell apart around her and her family died one by one
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Sep 3, 2021 03:14
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Poo In An Alleyway posted:I like the inclusion of that scene because at the very least it shows that she has an arc, that she became a hardened survivor due to what she’d witnessed as Hadley’s Hope fell apart around her and her family died one by one Props don't need plot development
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Sep 3, 2021 03:25
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I saw Aliens before Alien and not knowing what was going on really did a number on me. What was going on? Not having things explained worked for me.
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Sep 3, 2021 03:40
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Poo In An Alleyway posted:I like the inclusion of that scene because at the very least it shows that she has an arc, that she became a hardened survivor due to what she’d witnessed as Hadley’s Hope fell apart around her and her family died one by one She already had an arc. She went from a mute traumatized survivor back to being a kid again in the theatrical cut. We don’t need to see her being a kid at the beginning, ripley looking at her school achievement award in the air vents when they first discover newt says it all.
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Sep 3, 2021 04:32
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Pennywise the Frown posted:You and I are in the minority and I don't understand why. I'm not sure you actually are in the minority? I think most people don't really care, granted, but frankly I've always felt rather alone in my preference for the theatrical cut.
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Sep 3, 2021 04:34
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Class Warcraft posted:We don’t need to see her being a kid at the beginning, ripley looking at her school achievement award in the air vents when they first discover newt says it all. I prefer it that way, otherwise she's just that fuckin awful kid in whatever Jurassic Park sequel.
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Sep 3, 2021 04:45
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I honestly prefer the theatrical cut as well, although the scene where Ripley laments the death of her daughter is pretty important. One thing that bothers me is that they reuse shots of Aliens getting gibbed in the sentry gun scene. Bill Paxton is amazing, but I can get by without the extra Hudson stuff too.
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Sep 3, 2021 04:47
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I'm not sure what we're referring to re: mystery of Hadley's Hope. They're sending marines because they've lost all contact with a colony on the planet where that lady insisted were thousands of eggs of acid-blooded creatures that form a potentially existential threat to the human race and maybe she wasn't so crazy after all. They arrive and yep, sure looks like it got ransacked by acid-blooded monsters alright, they must have found the eggs. The Special Edition lets you see some specifics regarding the who and how but there's nothing fundamentally altered plotwise.
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Sep 3, 2021 05:42
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SidneyIsTheKiller posted:I'm not sure what we're referring to re: mystery of Hadley's Hope. They're sending marines because they've lost all contact with a colony on the planet where that lady insisted were thousands of eggs of acid-blooded creatures that form a potentially existential threat to the human race and maybe she wasn't so crazy after all. They arrive and yep, sure looks like it got ransacked by acid-blooded monsters alright, they must have found the eggs. The Special Edition lets you see some specifics regarding the who and how but there's nothing fundamentally altered plotwise. "Huh, looks like it was a downed transmitter after all. Welp, better go visit with the totally-safe colonists where we can have a symposium on the struggles of illegal immigrants. Community outreach!"
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Sep 3, 2021 05:56
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Parkingtigers posted:If you've seen Alien, it's not a mystery. If you haven't seen Alien, you need an introduction to how an alien infestation even works. Hmm, do we though? It's true that without the Special Edition there's no shot of a facehugger actually on someone's face and the first half relies on expository dialogue, but even an inattentive viewer can piece it together from key phrases like "EGGS," "PARASITE," "IMPLANTED AN EMBRYO." It helps that it comes in the form of a haunting testimony of a survivor who's seen some poo poo to keep it engaging. This isn't like 'The Thing' where the exposition is insufficient and misleading, it covers the story's needs. I just now realized 'Aliens' never actually spoils the chestburster. We can put two and two together that having an embryo implanted in you means it's gonna come out somehow, but the movie waits for us to see with our own eyes, "INDEED IT DOES BRUTALLY EXPLODE OUT YOUR CHEST WHILE YOU'RE STILL ALIVE BWAHAHA" (Edit: Wait a sec, there's that chestburster tease in the nightmare at the beginning. Woops!) And then 'Aliens' actually solves how a large scale xeno infestation works by Ripley raising the question "Who's laying these eggs?" and later we find out with our own eyes. In the theatrical cut, at least. In the Special Edition Hudson helpfully figures out it's a badass ant queen! Thanks, Hudson. SidneyIsTheKiller fucked around with this message at 12:01 on Sep 3, 2021 |
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Sep 3, 2021 06:30
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