The set by which all others must be judged

Boys and girls, 20th Century Fox loves us very much. How else can you explain this amazing 9 disc box set covering every aspect of all 4 Alien movies? With a running time of a little over 45 hours in its entirety, there is more information about these movies than most people would probably ever want to know.

Of course, is all this information really necessary? No, and most people probably won't care about all of it, and those who do will most likely already own the Alien Legacy set that came out several years ago and was an early DVD benchmark. Is it worth shelling out the list of $99 for this set?

Let's be perfectly honest here. There are two reasons to buy the Alien Quadrilogy set: 1) to get the brand new restored/remastered version of Alien and 2) to see the new version and to get the inside scoop on just what went wrong in the making of Alien 3. The other stuff is icing on the cake, but those two reasons are what will be moving the majority of these sets. If you're craving to see either of these sets, then by all means pick this up without hesitation. Everyone else should read on to see if this really sounds like their thing.

In the interest of not repeating myself, every movie comes with a theatrical version and an extended version on one disc, each with a commentary from cast and crew. There are subtitles which you can turn on for each film which will pop up a "deleted footage marker" letting you know when scenes that weren't in the theatrical version are on the screen. There is also a bonus disc for each movie containing a 2-3 hour documentary about the making of each film with tons of interviews from cast and crew. The 9th disc is a catchall containing a lot of promotional material and a final bonus documentary about the making of Alien.

Alien
As everyone is aware by now, Fox re-released a new "director's cut" of Alien in theaters this Halloween which was basically a precursor for the release of this set. I can say without a doubt that this is the greatest film restoration I have ever laid eyes on. This is essentially a brand new film and looks just as good (if not better!) as Alien Resurrection. Every speck of dust and grain has been excised, the colors have been cleaned up, the soundtrack has been completely redone in glorious DTS sound. Everything looks and sounds amazing. In fact it's impossible to fully convey how good this film looks. There is a three-dimensionality to the picture that wasn't there before. On numerous occasions I noticed things in the fore or background that I hadn't seen before. I have to assume they were there in previous cuts, but now things leap off the screen and the full glory of Scott's brilliant sets is conveyed.

To be perfectly honest, I think Scott's decision to do a "director's cut" was a poor one. Alien was just about perfect the way it was and the additions to the film (including the long lusted after cocoon sequence) don't really add anything. The theatrical version is the best, but hardcore fans will want to see the new cut. The documentary on the making of Alien is quite in-depth and gives a whole host of new information that I had been completely unaware of. A good number of new interviews have been done (as there was a shortage of vintage material filmed) and the participants are almost always lively and entertaining. It's a lot of fun to see exactly how certain shots were done or what the cast was thinking during the filming of particular scenes (chest burster anyone?) and this documentary delivers in spades. I highly recommend at least browsing the bonus disc even if you aren't normally into making-of features; there's bound to be something that will interest you.

Aliens
Sadly, Aliens doesn't receive the same restoration treatment that Alien does. This film looks pretty good but there is some dust and grain present. Supposedly it was cleaned up some from the Legacy release but I can't honestly say that I can see any difference. For the first time on DVD the theatrical version of Aliens is available which will please some purists. I prefer the increased action and back story available in the Director's cut and hold that to be the definitive release. Aliens does not have a new DTS soundtrack but the 5.1 Dolby Digital soundtrack is more than adequate.

I feel that Aliens got the short shrift when it came to bonus material. The documentary is of course very good but there just seems to be more information available for the other three movies. Maybe it's just that I'm most familiar with the making of Aliens though. The highlight of the documentary is getting to see Carrie Henn (Newt) all grown up and reflecting on the making of the film. There are some amusing anecdotes here, such as Sigourney Weaver not realizing she'd have to use a gun. For the first time ever, James Cameron provides an audio commentary for the film and it's probably the best extra available. It's great to finally hear his thoughts on the making of the film.

Alien 3
Let me get one thing straight: I'm one of the few people on earth who liked Alien 3 the first time around. I thought it was a bleak, atmospheric film that, while flawed, delivered reasonably well. Of course most people disagree and are dying to see the new workprint cut of Alien 3 that adds roughly 40 minutes to the runtime. For those of you hoping to find a completely different movie untouched by studio manipulation, you're going to be disappointed. While the new cut does add a lot more depth to the inmates (not as faceless here), provides more information as to how the colony works, and completely ties up all the loose ends, it isn't a completely different movie. The alien's introduction is better and the ending isn't quite so lame, but the CG alien still looks poor and the story isn't radically different.

The production of Alien 3 has become famous as to what can go wrong when a studio meddles too much with the making of a film. The documentary about Alien 3 attempts to show exactly what went wrong and why and because of this it is completely enthralling. David Fincher might have been a relative newcomer to filmmaking but he wasn't about to let the studio compromise his vision without a fight. Unfortunately Fincher was unwilling to comment publicly on the making of Alien 3 and so he is the only director completely absent from these films. There are several vintage shots of him standing around on set and on every one he looks like he's about to start crying or screaming. It was obvious to all involved that his vision wasn't making it to the screen and everyone agrees that the production was troubled. Sadly, the studio flacks are all to willing to pass the blame to others while they defend their actions as "best for the picture". The involvement of Fincher here would have been wonderful, but sadly it wasn't to be. Even more frustrating is that this documentary has been censored by Fox, thus removing almost all of Fincher's comments from the set making this even more one-sided. The director of the commentary was so upset that he removed his name from it. While Fox's censorship is upsetting, it should be noted that this documentary is still wonderful and well worth watching for any prospective filmmaker.

Alien: Resurrection
Resurrection is the most recent of the films and the one in least need of revisiting. Juenet did not do a new director's cut for the film, but he did make some changes, creating a special edition. Sadly the film isn't really altered at all, the only real changes are a new opening credit's sequence and an ending where we get to see earth for the first time in the series. This film does look great and still sounds wonderful with it's DTS soundtrack.

While this is a terrible film, the documentary still manages to be interesting. The cast all seemed to get along wonderfully with each other, and everyone is quick to compliment each other and Jeunet. It's funny how no one seems to really realize how truly bad the film is (it's hard to imagine it working even outside the Alien mythos) and all seem genuinely proud of their work. The most interesting part of the documentary is also the film's best moment, the underwater swimming-aliens scene which was incredibly complex and dangerous.


Is the Alien Quadrilogy worth buying? The material here is uniformly excellent. I do take issue with the packaging which is sadly pretty cheap looking and I have a feeling won't do very well over several viewings. The discs are on plastic backings glued to cardboard which folds up into a space around the same size as the Alien Legacy set. While it doesn't take up much shelf space it just seems too cheap. The ninth disc does contain another interesting documentary on the making of Alien, but its contributions for the other three films are mainly just trailers. While this set seems like a steal if you're interested in all four movies, those who aren't will be pleased to find that Fox will be releasing each film in two-disc sets with what I would guess can only be better packaging. You won't be able to buy the 9th disc, but it's not worth all that much anyway.

It's hard to imagine a better set than this being released for any set of films this old, and as such Alien Quadrilogy gets the highest recommendation I can give. I leave it up to the individual reader to determine for themselves whether buying the movies separately (and only the ones they want) is a better option.