Alien or Aliens?

[CriticalCarrot]

I was wondering which one of these films you guys prefer?

For me both of them have their merits but I'd have to choose Aliens, I feel like the franchise would have gotten stale very quickly if they followed up Alien with another atmospheric horror film, changing it to a more action oriented film was definitely a good call.

 

[Vince W]

I would say Alien rates slightly ahead of Aliens, but it's difficult to compare the two since one is a horror film and the other is an action film.

 

[Elckerlyc]

I prefer Alien. It has the advantage.
a. It was the first of the Alien franchise and would have lived on as a standalone perfectly well. I am not a horror fan, but this one worked for me.
b. Aliens, strong as a movie it may be on itself, still draws a lot of its strength and magic on what we by then know about the Alien(s) and the established character of Ripley.

 

[Brian G Turner]

Definitely prefer Aliens - I'm not much a fan of horror, and Aliens is one of those films you can watch over and over again and it still remains entertaining.

 

[Foxbat]

I like both equally. One is a horror classic, the other is a SF classic. Of all the films in the franchise, these two top the lot by a massive margin.

 

[Toby Frost]

I like them both a huge amount. I think Alien is a better piece of art, overall, and Aliens is more enjoyable, but both are excellent.

 

[P.J. Greystoke]

Aliens is one of those films where the sequel is actually better than the original. Christopher Reeve Superman 2 being another. Of course this is entirely subjective.

 

[P.J. Greystoke]

I like both equally. One is a horror classic, the other is a SF classic. Of all the films in the franchise, these two top the lot by a massive margin.

Nice division of horror and sci-fi between the two films. Never thought about it like that before.

 

[svalbard]

Both. Can't separate them. It was all downhill from those two.

 

[Pyan]

I like both equally. One is a horror classic, the other is a SF classic. Of all the films in the franchise, these two top the lot by a massive margin.

Spot on.

 

[Rodders]

I agree with Foxbat, they are too different to be compared. Both are superb examples of film making, but for completely different reasons.

I’m going to add that I thought Alien 3 was underrated. A few minor tweaks and it could’ve been a classic too. I still think it holds up.

 

[DLCroix]

Aliens. Definitely. And that I saw it when it was already a classic and Alien Resurrection had been released recently. Then I knew it was the fourth in a series; But when I saw Cameron's movie, I said, "Wow." By far the best for me.

 

[StevenF]

Aliens was my favourite (and still is). Also agree that I find it more entertaining from start to finish, but most of all, for the look of the aliens in Aliens. To me they looked more vicious, angry even, despite only getting fleeting glimpses of them most of the time. The facehugger attack sequence in the med-lab has always been one of my favourite movie scenes and still feels very intense and looks flawless to this day.

 

[Toby Frost]

By and large, I think the alien in Alien looks better than the ones in Aliens, but the facehugger scene is excellent. The effect of the facehugger running across the floor towards Ripley is brilliant. I'm still not sure how it was done.

 

[Astro Pen]

Alien. It was mould breaking. You didn't have a clue what was coming and the Freudian subtext gave it a unique spin.
Aliens, while enjoyable, reverted to "Rambo takes on the bug eyed monsters and saves the kid". It was predictable that the Hollywood suits would destroy any semblance of art. I'm not saying I didn't like Aliens, but on it's own term, not as a sequel to a masterpiece.
For a few Dollars More showed how to a sequel should be, stylistic integrity with A Fistfull of Dollars, and it paid dividends.

 

[Narkalui]

So I have just rewatched these two, and I didn't change my mind: Both.

I'd forgotten how intense Alien was, I was actually shaking, not from fear but just from the intensity of it. The part when I nearly spilled my coffee was when it came for Parker and Lambert...

And Aliens was a more emotional intensity because there was an orphaned child and a grieving mother involved. I've not actually seen this film since becoming a parent, and the difference was very noticeable.

@Toby Frost I don't know about the entire scene, but you know the shot where (I thinks it's Ripley's POV) the facehugger runs toward the camera leaps onto the leg of an upturned metal chair and then leaps right at the camera? (Pretty sure that's when it nearly gets Ripley at the end of the sequence.) Well that shot is actually 3 shots, facehugger runs towards us, facehugger jumps onto chair leg, facehugger jumps toward the camera. The second of these was actually filmed in reverse.

 

[Toby Frost]

That's very clever. I could well believe it: there's some smart camera trickery in Aliens, including mirrors to make rooms look bigger and slow-motion to make vehicles look bigger than they are (I don't know how this works, but apparently it does). The overall result is brilliant.

 

[paeng]

It's hard to compare the two because they have different subgenres, and the second couldn't repeat suspense for obvious reasons, so it used action.

 

[Swank]

Alien. Easily one of best SF films ever made - it was original in both story and design. Timeless.

Aliens just annoys me with Cameron's never ending "corporate greed" hokum.

 

[paeng]

Alien. Easily one of best SF films ever made - it was original in both story and design. Timeless.

Aliens just annoys me with Cameron's never ending "corporate greed" hokum.

FWIW, the "hokum" appears prominently in the first movie, as the main cause of the crew's problems involves the same company requiring them to land, special orders, etc.