The Nerds discuss the work of director, writer, and undersea explorer James Cameron.
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In which we talk about bad movies that had amazing trailers.
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Hey there dear readers, Kevin Sutorius here. I come to you today with a new series, entitled Best o’ Boxes, covering some of my favorite and well-made box sets of movies and tv shows. Since there are a lot of box sets, I want to share with you the ones that make a difference.
For this first edition, I’m covering the Alien Anthology (which does not include Prometheus) on Blu ray. Although this set came out in 2010, this is a box set worth talking about, even today.
Before I jump into the review, I wanted to share something to give you a little perspective: It slightly bothers me when I hear people complain that it makes no sense to buy old movies on blu ray because “they’re not shot in HD.” When old movies (made before HD or digital cameras) are released on blu ray, they all go through a remastering process of some kind, and some are done MUCH BETTER than others. Alien, Aliens, Lawrence of Arabia, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Jurassic Park, and Jaws are some of the best examples of how remastering can improve and enhance old movies. Now with that small tangent aside, here we go.
The Alien Anthology set includes remastered editions of:
•Alien (1979) theatrical release and Director’s Cut (2003)
•Aliens (1986) theatrical release and Special Edition (1991)
•Alien3 (1992) theatrical release and Special Edition (2003)
•Alien Resurrection (1997) theatrical release and Special Edition (2003)
•Special Features include: Audio commentaries (for all movie versions), deleted scenes, featurettes, archival documentaries, test footage, and more.
I obtained the Special Edition DVDs of Alien and Aliens when they came out in the early 2000s and had seen both versions of each film more than once. Most of the special features that came with those two movies are included in this set, but there are a lot more this time around. I only rented Alien3 and Alien Resurrection and watched the theatrical editions a couple times. I wasn’t really able to connect to such different entries to the Alien franchise.
The set comes designed like a book, with glossy card stock paper and a strong binding to keep the collection together. The collection sits comfortably in a cardboard sleeve to contain it and the size fits relatively well next to other blu rays. 20th Century Fox has been outputting the same design/layout like the Alien Anthology set with their other saga collections like the Star Wars Saga (which will DEFINITELY be covered soon) and the recently released Die Hard 25th Anniversary Collection.
Alien
The presentation of this movie in both versions is flawless (a vast improvement compared to its DVD predecessor). Expertly remastered in both picture and sound, this is truly an immersive experience, and nothing like you’ve experienced before. The picture contains no artifacts nor any flaws of any kind throughout both editions; the color levels are excellent and the color black is used to perfection with even tones and texture.
My father was one of the VERY FEW who got to
see this in a theater in 1979 San Francisco, with the first public THX sound system. This was a time when THX was still in the testing stages and Alien was their first film. He told me of the immersive and suspenseful experience he had, watching the movie with something close to 2.1 stereo surround sound. The story he told me about experiencing Alien then is akin to my experience of watching this on blu ray. The THX-certified 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio surround sound is perfect for any home theater setup and the picture quality is astounding. The atmosphere of the Nostromo is exemplified by the sound, which creates a very haunted and deserted ship. With subtle creaking sound effects coming through the rear speakers, it really sells the loneliness of space. Why, even the Xenomorph’s purr is so well done, it’s quite bone-chilling and goosebump-inducing.
Now you can’t compare an old remastered movie, that was shot on film, with something more modern like Prometheus (since that was shot digitally), but the benefit here with Alien is that it doesn’t really feel like a movie that was made in 1979; it feels more like a low-budget movie and I love that. I myself enjoy the Director’s Cut because it adds more elements and plot points to really connect you to the characters and the awful situation they’re in.
Score: Presentation-5 out of 5 / Movie-5 out of 5
Aliens
Like Alien, this presentation in both versions is also flawless. There is some part of me that thinks Ridley Scott supervised the remastering of Alien and James Cameron supervised the remastering of Aliens because they seem like they would and both of these films helped shape both of their careers, but I have found no evidence of the sort. The THX-certified 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio surround sound is glorious, really enhancing the atmosphere of LV-426 and the abandoned colony there. The most notable sound that is better enhanced with this edition is the sound of the pulse rifle whenever if fires. The howl and screech that gun makes is really amplified to the point where it seems loud enough, like you’re actually firing the weapon yourself. The color tone is consists of mostly blue accents throughout the film, much like Alien was accented by the color black. The color range, although subdued, is still exemplary. Again, much like Alien, the visuals and special effects are really well preserved with this remastering, and still really holds up to today. Alien andAliens are two different genres of story, but they compliment each other so well, that is seems like Aliens is a natural progression in terms of story and action. I also prefer the special edition because it sets up and expands the Alien universe so well, that I was actually intrigued to learn more and more about what was going on in their world.
Score: Presentation-5 out of 5 / Movie-5 out of 5
Alien3
Now then, onto what many claim to be the unworthy successor, to put it politely. There is one thing to note about this film: David Fincher, the director, was so turned off by the experience while shooting that he quit and abandoned the film altogether, thus forcing 20th Century Fox to edit the movie the way they wanted from the footage Fincher shot. That aside, onto the review of the presentation…
The first two movies of the franchise have very definitive color palates, Alienbeing black and Aliens being blue. Alien3 really has a warm and soft palate, with colors in the range of tan, beige, brown, and orange. Most notably, the end scene in the refinery really sells the orange color with true clarity and saturation, but sadly, it’s the only scene with real color range. The whole movie is supposed to evoke the imagery and environment of Alien in terms of an abandoned area, but there isn’t much dark and foreboding scenery like the Nostromo had.
The 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio, although not THX certified, still works really well, selling the point that the characters are in a prison, with a mix of both subtle and, sometimes, loud echoes coming from all the speakers. When it comes to the special effects, the film did suffer from subpar imagery compared to the previous two, but the remastering does help improve the visuals. Unfortunately, the film’s effects don’t really hold up today as well as the previous two. In terms of natural progression with the story and franchise, I see what the studio wanted, but I don’t think it’s what the franchise needed. Instead of having a story expanding the Alien universe & mythology, like Aliens did, the story was really contained, only really advancing in the last five minutes, which seemed forced. I didn’t really notice much difference between the theatrical and special editions of the movie, so I can’t comment on that. However, I will say that I am a sucker for director’s cut/special editions/expanded editions to see what the film could’ve offered.
Score: Presentation-4 out of 5 / Movie-2.5 out of 5
Alien Resurrection
Oh my… this movie. If I ever get to meet Joss Whedon, I want to have a conversation with him on what story he set out to tell and what the studio forced him to change. I really love the concept but I think the execution was a little lackluster. It was what the franchise needed, like I mentioned earlier, but it seemed to play more on the politics rather than the overall story.
When it comes to this fourth entry, it really presents and plays on an industrial color palate. For example, there are more shades of grey (no, not 50) than the oranges, yellows, and greens. The picture is quite good, considering they had better film cameras to shoot with compared to Alien3. Plus, for the first time in the saga, the special effects were enhanced with CGI and it shows, although this was one of the first films to have creature-based computer animated images, apart from Jurassic Park obviously. Apart from the CGI, which doesn’t hold up as well as the effects from the first two films, the physical effects are still quite impressive and the visual presentation helps sell the texture of the creatures without applying a huge level of gloss on screen.
The 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio, like Alien3, does not get the THX certification, but is solid all around. The echoes of the various ships and containers really helps create the environment and the Xenomorphs finally seem to have more than two sounds than a growl and a purr. Again, like Alien3, I don’t remember there being a big difference between the theatrical release and the special edition, so I can’t really comment on the preferred version, but I am a sucker for special editions, whether it was the director’s choice or the studio’s.
Score: Presentation-4 out of 5 / Movie-2.0 out of 5
Special Features
According to the packaging, I have spent about 20 out of the possible 60+ hours with the all the documentaries, and all the featurettes of all four films. While the featurettes were on the DVD releases of all four films, the documentaries are all new. Each one clocks in about 2 to 3 hours long and they’re all fascinating. To hear from all the directors (except Fincher), major producers, and writers was very engaging for an Alien fan like me. The presentation mixes with standard definition footage from all four films and high definition of the interviewees, while the audio is a standard 2.0 track, with clips from the movies in remastered form added in between behind-the-scenes footage every now and then. As someone who loves special features, 20th Century Fox went all out and made some great additions to an already impressive box set.
Score: Presentation-5 out of 5
This collection is a great one. Although 2 out of the 4 movies are not nearly as good, the special features should win you over with the plethora of knowledge and interesting production stories that shaped one of the most well-known sci-fi franchises of all time. I spent about $40 when I bought it, and now, amazon.com is selling it for $33.90 (as of July 16th). If you have a PS3 or a blu ray player, along with a nice HDTV and surround sound system, this is a solid collection to share with fellow movie fans, friends, or family to experience terror because, “In space, no one can hear you scream.”
Score: Presentation-4 out of 5 / Collection: 4 out of 5 / Recommended!!
(Read Part 1 Here!)
The planet Earth is a noisy and active place. Full of radio transmissions, pollution, bustling cities, and billions of people making it all happen. Assuming that in our universe, we are accompanied by other highly developed intelligent life forms, they most likely would be doing something similar on their worlds. If that is the case, then we should have a very clear picture of what to look for during our search. Last time we looked at humanity’s willingness to accept the concept of alien life. Now we examine our efforts to find it.
Listen Up!
Radio Telescope. Two words most people do not associate together. Yet today there are more professional instruments listening to our skies then there are (in the truest sense of the word) observing them. Since 1896 when Nikola Tesla first proposed listening for signs of alien life, have we been turning our receivers to heavens. In some of his early experiments with his now famous Tesla coil, Tesla picked up signals from space that to him seemed deliberate and of intelligent design. Being that Mars had long captivated the imagination of writers and scientist alike, it instantly shot to suspect number one. For the next 30 years, both amateur and professional radio sets would eagerly turn an ear towards the red planet, only to hear nothing surprising.
The sounds Tesla had heard in his experiments were absolutely extraterrestrial, just void of any intelligent design and most certainly not from Mars. Cosmic rays travel throughout the universe emitting from every corner of the cosmos, some right in our solar system. Stars and nebular gases exciting molecules of hydrogen and burping them into space like a case of bad gas. This is what Tesla picked up and this is what is mostly commonly heard from space. Yet not all signals are gassy in origin.
Karl Jansky in the early 1930’s provided the next (all be it unexpected) leap forward in the fledgling field of radio astronomy. While working as an engineer with Bell Telephone Laboratories, he noticed that the large directional antennae being used for his experiments was picking up unknown and very regular spikes in intensity every 24 hours. He first assumed that the signal was cosmic rays emanating from the sun, coming in contact with the array every 24 hours due to the rotational period of the earth. However, after closer scrutiny, it was clear he had a bigger puzzle on his hands. Rather then being exactly 24 hours the signal always repeated on the 23:56th minute. What was going on? After consulting with specialists in the field astrophysics it was discovered that the antennae was receiving its spikes precisely when the densest part of the Milky Way passed overhead. This heavily crowded area of our galaxy is home to a wide verity of stellar phenomenon all emanating a verity of different signals.
Soon astronomers would hear and learn the sounds of our universe, from pulsars to red dwarfs, our universe is a noisy place. Everything heard so far has been natural, but what if we heard something deliberate – a message for example. That’s what early SETI pioneer and astronomer Frank Drake set out to do in 1960. Using a radio telescope 26 meters in diameter, he examine the stars Epsilon Eridani and Tau Ceti. Even though nothing of extraterrestrial origin was discovered, it did encourage many others around the globe to perform their own experiments. The following year in November of 1961, ten of the world’s leading authorities in astronomy, physics, biology, and neurology would meet in the first ever SETI conference. The decisions made that day impacted our search for ET to this day. Thanks to spokesmen like Carl Sagan, SETI gained popularity, and the world started to invest in the pursuit.
So Either We Die or it Says Hi
For many years, SETI’s focus lay heavily on the use of radio telescopes. Listening for ET seem like the most logical way to make contact. Considering how many signals emanate from our own planet, it really isn’t a bad idea. The problem is, with the number of naturally occurring signals and in addition to the interference caused by our own atmosphere, finding and differentiating a deliberate alien message is very difficult. To this day, no such signal has been identified. This has discouraged many of the governments who funded these project from contributing further. By the late 1990s, SETI was nearly dead in the water.
Supporters of SETI turned to private investors and the community alike to continue funding for the larger projects planned or already in existence. Keeping them afloat was important, but to do so required sacrificing numerous other small scale projects. What SETI needed was a fresh approach to win back investors. That came finally when propionates of optical SETI had at last had their voices heard.
From the 1960s onward, only a few individuals in the SETI community were performing any serious research into optical SETI projects. The idea is that if a technologically advanced and intelligent alien species did want to contact us, they may use a visual means to so. Despite the logic behind it, the idea didn’t catch on. That was until SETI projects got into a rut and needed to reinvent themselves. These days optical SETI is the direction they’re going. Even telescopes at University of California Lick Observatory (somewhere I know very well) are engaged in optical SETI research. The likelihood of seeing an alien message might be just as probable as hearing one, but the chances of misinterpreting it are far less, making it seem a lot more worthwhile then its radio counterpart.
We can see a good amount of the observable universe, much more then in years past. Radio interferometry is the next step in radio astronomy, giving us the ability to “view” through the gasses in the universe and generate images from a multitude of signals all over the electromagnetic spectrum. Space telescopes of this nature can show us in detail one of the most destructive forces in existence, Gamma ray bursts. These highly violent phenomena (the brightest in the universe) are the result of dieting stars. Some have gone as far to suggest that if an alien civilization wanted to get noticed, engineering the death of a super massive star would do the trick. Let’s just hope they don’t point it at us; I’d hate to die of radiation exposure just as we learn we aren’t alone.
Destroying Our Planet: Not Just For Humans
We may not know if intelligent life exists outside of our solar system, but we know a few places it might be hanging out. We once thought that planetary systems like ours were scarce and sparsely scattered throughout the galaxy. Now with both ground and space based telescopes discovering planets around other stars in great frequency, the concept of a very habitable universe in now coming into view.
What the scientific community as a whole wants to find are planets like Earth, small and rocky with lots and lots of water. What SETI would like to find are planets also like ours, full of lots and lots of pollution! It stands to reason that some alien civilization is going to be at least as advanced as our own. If so then it’s likely to produce as many pollutants as ours. Toxins and radiation leave behind very specific signatures, by measuring their concentrations in an atmosphere we can discover the probability of whether or not a technologically advanced species inhabits that world.
This may sound like science fiction, but experiments are underway currently that will pave the way for this type of research. High powered spectrographs can already tell us the composition of stars and gas Giants. It’s only a short time before Earth like planets will be examined too. This may be the best method for discovering alien life, but how do we talk to it?
Time To Pitch
It’s only a matter of time before we either hear from an alien civilization, see a signal be sent out into the universe or identify a seemingly inhabited planet. Considering the distances between objects in space, it would be likely decades or centuries before communication could be established with any of these. So why not start now? We should be sending radio signals and making visual attempts at communication to every earthlike planet we have discovered thus far. In the event that we do identify any of them as planets with atmospheric conditions that support life, then we will have already taken the first step.
ET might very well be listening and looking just as, if not more, intently than we are. I think it’s high time we do a better job of saying hello. We might be surprised who is listening.
Eric Bricmont
Do you want to support SETI? Go over to [email protected] website and see what you and your personal computer can do in the pursuit of the search for extraterrestrial life.
Stephen “The Roast” Rosenberg from Motion Picture Meltdown joins the Nerds for a chat about Arnold Schwarzenegger’s best decade in film… the 1980s.
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