The Alien series hits Blu-Ray in October and while the first film is my favourite of all the Alien films, I'm most excited about seeing Aliens on Blu-Ray. Aliens has always suffered from a dark, grainy image on DVD so it will be interesting to see how the Blu-Ray will handle it... Since the announcement of the Alien series hitting Blu-Ray, I've been listening to the group commentary from Aliens. This is the second time I've tuned in to this commentary and it's a good one - lots of fascinating insights into the production of the film from James Cameron along with the cast & crew.
Incidentally, the teaser trailer for Aliens remains my favourite trailer of all time. This one dispenses with dialogue (which the other trailers for Aliens have) and instead features a brilliant montage of clips from the film set to a terrifying atonal score. It must have been quite an experience to see this in cinemas in the Spring of '86. If you have the Alien boxset, the teaser trailer can be found on Disc 9, or check out the clip below...
So - how did the Blu-Ray edition look? I actually came to this film late - I was in Detroit Michigan when it came out (I think) visiting a long distance girlfriend. Consequently I only caught up to it on VHS after a long period of all of my friends beating me about the head and shoulders that it was the greatest movie of all time. You can imagine my reaction, right? Yeah, seriously disappointed. That's why I can't stand seeing movies later than everyone else if I really want to see it - heightened expectations from others' reviews will get me every time. I will happily say I have since revisited the movie many times and now fully appreciate its many and varied charms. Next up in the "built up too much on late initial viewing": Robocop (1987)!
ReplyDeleteThe Blu looks really good, I was very impressed considering the film has always looked a little bit tawdry in previous editions... I'm kind of different when it comes to seeing films as they emerge - I usually wait until a fine layer of dust settles on the film before I get 'round to seeing it... I must say I have waxed and waned when it comes to Aliens - when I first saw it on VHS back in the day I loved it of course, as every 12 year old boy should, but countless viewings later some of its magic began to siphon off, and I would proclaim Ridley Scott's film a far better work... but nowadays I'm not so sure and I would put both films are on an equal footing...
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