Which movie do you prefer - Alien or Aliens?

Aliens is the winner.

@uniform said:

@NTM said:

Does anyone here really think Alien is scary? I mean, the concept is quite scary, and if you're going to watch it as a kid, then maybe, but really, the actual picture on the screen doesn't scare.

I think it fits with any of the other early seventies-early eighties horror that constantly appear (often top 10) on "All time scariest films" lists. Whether it's The Exorcist, Halloween, The Shining, Alien, etc., you're going to have people with the "not scary" claims. I'm not going to assume your age, because that would be dumb, and it's quite possible you truly do not find it scary while considering other films of that time to be scary. That said, I find many of the "not scary" claims are said by a later generation having viewed the film too late. The reason for this being countless films have since used the same techniques to the point where they don't have the same impact. Basically the viewer has been desensitized to the scares having already seen them multiple times in newer films.

I agree, and I understand what you mean. Plus, while you may not be doing it, the way you're saying this makes it seem like I'm saying the film isn't great, and that's just not true. I've seen many movies, and this is by far one of my favorite films of all time. I'd put it high on a top five list. I fully realize why it's considered to be scary, but to me, it's just not that scary. I agree entirely with everything you said. I'm 22, but Alien and Aliens are films I've seen at an early age, so being desensitized didn't apply. I meant for this day and age though, the film shouldn't be all that scary, certainly to those that have seen the film many times; I didn't mean "Man, back in 1979, this movie wuh'int shite! It was never scary!" No, I don't actually talk like that.

@ImaTreee said:

@NTM: it was more scary back then because there were almost no movies like it.

I know that. Maybe I should have made it clearer and elaborated more than sounding... Condescending? I can't say in fact, because I just don't know for sure, but I'd guess that I'm one of the biggest fans of this film on this site, so I'm not trying to put this film down, or anyone else that does think it's scary.

Oh, and I think I've made this same exact poll a long time ago.

@benpicko said:

@Landon said:

Alien is such a boring movie

How so? There isn't a second of it that's slightly boring.

Well for starters the entire thing is full of uninteresting characters mumbling their uninteresting dialog until the alien actually arrives. I liked the part when they were studying it, but then the first guy dies from the chest burster (which then scampers away in the most un-horrific fashion possible) and the rest of the movie is them yelling at each other until they all die.

I watched the movie twice. The first time I didn't enjoy it, and the second time was over a year later. I sat down and really tried to get into the atmosphere and the tension of the movie, but I think it's mostly boring until the alien actually gets on the ship and I didn't find the rest to be interesting at all.

If your source of fear in a horror movie is murdering other characters, then the viewer should care whether or not those characters die. But when the characters in the movie don't seem to care when their crew starts to get offed, why should I?

I'm sure the movie was great when it was made, but today I find it to be overrated.

@Icicle7x3 said:

I cant stand Alien. Most of the characters annoy the shit out of me, but at least they die so it has that going. Aliens is fucking awesome, period.

the girl who keeps bitching pisses me off but none of the others do.....

they're both amazing so i cant chose which is better.

Alien is a fantastic, classic horror movie and a tense ride.

I just can't stand Aliens, though. The meathead space marines are too stupid to live, they get what's coming to them, and yet their constant "Hoo-ah!" attitude makes me want to beat my head against a brick wall.

Two different movies - Alien is all creeping dread and so grim; Aliens is more "set piece heavy" if you will but amazingly tense and my favorite sci-fi/action movie of all time. Both are great, but I like Aliens better.

Having watched both of these recently, Aliens holds up a lot better than Alien. Both are good but Aliens was just a better ride.

@Hailinel:

"Hoo-ah" would be the space Army. "Oo-rah" would be the space Marines.

Sorry! Pet peeve of mine. ;)

@Delta_Ass said:

@Apparatus_Unearth said:

Alien 3

This is wrong.

That movie is crazy underrated.

@AiurFlux said:

Alien.

I just find it more terrifying. A single thing kills an entire ships crew by systematically hunting them. In the other one they have 12 Marines that kill hundreds of aliens. They are different films but I'm more in love with the psychological horror of Alien than the balls out action of Aliens.

Couldn't have said it better.

Alien! Aliens was a good action movie, but I prefer the thriller/horror setting. That's why I also enjoy Alien 3 more than Aliens, even though many would probably disagree with me.

C. Because I like both of them.

Aliens has ultimate badasses

Definitely Alien. The xenomorph is just so much more interesting in Alien; that thing absolutely REFUSES to die. Then, suddenly, they swarm up and can be killed by a handful of bullets. Goddamned defense turrets probably wipe out a hundred of them at least.

Not to mention the imagery in Alien is significantly more iconic, which is not surprising because Ridley Scott's always had an eye for beautiful cinematography.

Honestly, as an Alien fan, I didn't even really like Aliens all that much. It's a decent action movie, but nothing in it stands out as noteworthy to me. I'll agree that Ripley is actually a more fleshed out character in Aliens, though.

I'll qualify this with the fact that Alien and Aliens are two of my favourite movies ever.

Which do I prefer? They're totally, tonally different.

Alien broods for the majority of its run-time, before wiping everyone out in the space of about half-an-hour, and plays like a movie version of a haunted-house. Aliens does the right thing, and, instead of replication the formula established in the original, turns it into an action spectacle.

I will say, though, that there are gripes I have with both films.

Alien feels especially dated when Ash loses his head (figuratively and literally), and rolls around the room before being decapitated. Aliens reduced the title creatures to insects and it's characters don't feel as 'real' as the working-class truck drivers of the first-film.

Alien is one of the very few horror films I like. So that.

My tastes for action usually don't involve aliens. I'm more of a gangster/assassin/spy/coldwar fan. So Aliens is pretty meh in my book.

Alien. Then, as has been said, the highly underrated alien 3.

Then aliens, which I find straight up bad.

Alien is a better film, Aliens is more fun to watch.

But, its the difference between a horror movie versus an action film.

Alien is a FAR more realistic/mature film than Aliens.

I like the horror aspect of Alien far more than the action in Aliens. It's way more thrilling to see dudes getting picked off one by one by one lone xenomorph in a small environment.

I choose both.

Both great movies, Alien is scarier but I prefer Aliens, more action packed!

Aliens, easily. I still like Alien, but people exaggerate to high hell what happens in that movie. The alien is only involved in about 3 or 4 scenes in the whole movie, and most of the casualties are a result of the crew going looking for it, not because it was hunting them down. Not to mention, no one even tries to fight back or run until the very end. The Alien never really feels like that big of a threat. The movie has superb atmosphere and tension, with a great build-up, but what that all leads to is kind of lackluster.
 
Aliens is balls-out awesome from beginning to end. It has one of the best final battles/one-liners ever put to screen. Nothing can top that shit. The way it fleshes out the universe is great, too.

Only one I've seen is Aliens, so, Aliens.

Aliens because they mostly come out at night, mewstly.

That atmosphere in the first was great...have to be Alien

Aliens.

@Cincaid: Alien 3 is a fantastic movie, I think most people don't like it because it's not Aliens 2.

Alien.

But I wish Giger had been allowed more power in the production stage. I've heard bits and pieces about how they had to scale down his initial concepts, due to time constraints. I wonder what kind of depraved, twisted, art-house madness we would have ended up with if he had been allowed to run wild. I haven't seen Prometheus as of yet, but I imagine it isn't as strong as Alien was visually.

Aliens.

I just prefer the action feel over the horror feel. They are both really good in their respective genres but if I had to pick one it would be Aliens.

@thegoldencat7 said:

They're not really comparable. Ones a horror film, ones an action film. I love them both.

@CatMeat: Alien 3 was a good movie, when they finally had the proper Fincher cut.

Alien 3's original theatrical release was a mess of a movie, editing out major plot points, and themes.

Its too bad that Fincher's cut of Alien 3 is pretty much only available in that Alien Anthology. I wouldn't call it a great movie, but Fincher's original cut is a very good film. 20th Century Fox were idiots for messing with that film when it was released.

I like Aliens way more than Alien. Colonial Space Marines ftw! SONIC ELECTRONIC BALL BREAKERS!

Which one has Harry Dean Stanton. I think you know the right answer.

Alien.

I love both movies, but if I had to pick, I'd choose Alien because it doesn't have an annoying child as a main character.

@CatMeat said:

and Newt has to be one of the most worthless and annoying characters in an action movie. I was so happy at the beginning of Alien 3 when her and Hicks were offed in the opening credits.

I wasn't going to say it, but since you've said it, I'll agree with everything there.

Alien. Fuck, I gotta watch that again.

Love Aliens to death but Alien I think slightly edges it out. That movie personifies what makes the creature so terrifying.

@flindip: I think one of the reasons I love Alien 3 so much is I had read the novelization before I saw the movie (which I did see in the theater), and the book was based on the shooting script which included all the scenes from the Fincher cut and I kind of filled in the gaps on my own. Also, the visual style and tone of the movie appeals to me greatly.

Alien, because horror.

Also, I fucking love Alien 3, and its almost universal hate kills me. Yeah, there were some incredibly ... questionable... choices made in the making of 3, but still. I can agree that Resurrection was a hot pile of shit, though.

@ShaggE said:

Alien, because horror.

Also, I fucking love Alien 3, and its almost universal hate kills me. Yeah, there were some incredibly ... questionable... choices made in the making of 3, but still. I can agree that Resurrection was a hot pile of shit, though.

Hell yes. Alien 3 doesn't deserve the crap it gets, it's amazing Fincher was able to finish that movie at all with all the crap that happened during that production. Great movie. Also agree that Resurrection is hot garbage.

I watched Alien a couple years ago for the first time and was really underwhelmed. People talked about how dark and suspenseful that movie is, which I didn't get at all. And while I was rather bored, I can totally respect, that for its time, it was a really good movie.

I plan on watching Aliens soon.

@CatMeat said:

@flindip: I think one of the reasons I love Alien 3 so much is I had read the novelization before I saw the movie (which I did see in the theater), and the book was based on the shooting script which included all the scenes from the Fincher cut and I kind of filled in the gaps on my own. Also, the visual style and tone of the movie appeals to me greatly.

Yeah, its got a great visual look. It has great use of natural lighting(almost to its detriment at times). My only real problem with Alien 3(talking about the Fincher cut, not the theatrical one), is that it has the unfortunate situation of following Aliens. Its pretty obvious that Fincher was FAR more influenced by Alien, and wanted to make a sequel to the first film. But it seemed that he was kind of forced to put in kinda gimmicky action sequences to drive the narrative.

At its core, Alien 3 is a character driven film in contrast to Aliens plot driven narrative. Which makes the cuts Fox made utterly baffling. They completely eliminated any character depth from the supporting ensemble. In the Fincher cut they are FAR more fleshed out.

@Little_Socrates said:

Definitely Alien. The xenomorph is just so much more interesting in Alien; that thing absolutely REFUSES to die. Then, suddenly, they swarm up and can be killed by a handful of bullets. Goddamned defense turrets probably wipe out a hundred of them at least.

Not to mention the imagery in Alien is significantly more iconic, which is not surprising because Ridley Scott's always had an eye for beautiful cinematography.

Honestly, as an Alien fan, I didn't even really like Aliens all that much. It's a decent action movie, but nothing in it stands out as noteworthy to me. I'll agree that Ripley is actually a more fleshed out character in Aliens, though.

To be fair, there weren't any conventional weapons aboard the ship in the first movie. They had a flamethrower-type thing and that's about it - there was no way to see what sort of effect high-powered, military-grade weaponry would have on a xenomorph and, apparently, weapons work pretty well. Without something of that sort, though, you're fucked.

I guess a good argument could be made for Aliens making the individual creatures less threatening. Ash calls them the "perfect organism" or something of that sort, a statement rather hard to believe after they get killed by the dozens in the second movie.

@believer258 said:

@Little_Socrates said:

Definitely Alien. The xenomorph is just so much more interesting in Alien; that thing absolutely REFUSES to die. Then, suddenly, they swarm up and can be killed by a handful of bullets. Goddamned defense turrets probably wipe out a hundred of them at least.

Not to mention the imagery in Alien is significantly more iconic, which is not surprising because Ridley Scott's always had an eye for beautiful cinematography.

Honestly, as an Alien fan, I didn't even really like Aliens all that much. It's a decent action movie, but nothing in it stands out as noteworthy to me. I'll agree that Ripley is actually a more fleshed out character in Aliens, though.

To be fair, there weren't any conventional weapons aboard the ship in the first movie. They had a flamethrower-type thing and that's about it - there was no way to see what sort of effect high-powered, military-grade weaponry would have on a xenomorph and, apparently, weapons work pretty well. Without something of that sort, though, you're fucked.

I guess a good argument could be made for Aliens making the individual creatures less threatening. Ash calls them the "perfect organism" or something of that sort, a statement rather hard to believe after they get killed by the dozens in the second movie.

The thing people have to understand, that 1979 you had NO idea who the main character was. Alien has no real main character, its mostly an ensemble. In fact, for a good portion of the film we believe the main character is Dallas. But then when he dies, it dwindles down until Ripley becomes the de facto main character in the third act.

The narrative structure is fantastic in that film, because you can't pin down who will live or die.

@flindip: Even though they weren't fleshed out, they characters in Alien 3 were given enough depth that you could infer who they were. I find that much more appealing to the, mostly, one-dimensional and generic characters of Aliens.

Its funny for the longest time I thought Aliens was amazing, remember watching it as a kid and it seriously scarred me as a kid. That scene where Bishop gets ripped in two seriously turned me off milk as a kid. While I always hold Aliens a special place in my heart I didn't watched Alien until I was at least in my early 20's. All I have to say is that movie blew my mind how Ridley could create a sense of atmosphere and tension in that movie without even showing the big bad monster till the end. Aliens is a fun ride, but the original Alien movie I am more in ah of the job Ridley Scott did directing that piece. I seriously don't think that movie would of worked without him.

Alien. Both are great but I gotta give it to Alien.

Alien hands down is the better movie in my opinion, man that chest bursting scene is soo fucked up and it still holds up today 30 years later .Aliens is also an amazing movie but only slighty less amazing that Alien.

love both but if my life depended on it... i'd say alien.