Is Alien Isolation is the Best Depiction of the Creature?

[PainInTheAssInternet]

In the movies, a huge weakness is the reliance on the characters to be oblivious or idiots in order to get killed. This is especially true in Alien, where every death can be attributed to factors beyond the alien itself. I never felt that they were that much of a threat with the exception of facehuggers.

Alien (I don't know how to do the text on spoiler tags)

Spoiler

Kane: shouldn't have been so eager to stick his face near an unknown organism. Other crew members should have asked more questions about his conditions. In fact, there's a deleted scene where Ripley asks about a stain on his lungs and Ash responds with "It's blocking the scanner." Nothing comes of it.

Brett: Shouldn't have gone off on his own. In his defence, no one could have predicted how large the creature would have been.

Dallas: Lambert's tracker failed and everyone panicked.

Ash: Killed by crewmembers for obvious reasons.

Parker and Lambert: Killed because Lambert froze, preventing Parker from frying the bastard. Forced to rush it which got him killed and she just stood there.

Ripley: It fails to kill her a few times in the last 20 minutes of the movie. Worst it when she accidentally wakes it. It knows she's there and thus a threat, but apparently it can't be bothered to shake a goddamn leg. It also takes its sweet time attempting to kill her when she forces it into action.

In Alien, it's nothing more than an apex predator crossed with a parasitic wasp. Through various contrivances, it is never met with a credible threat to its well being until Ripley is finally able to compose herself.

Aliens

Spoiler

First encounter: The marines pressed on into an unknown and evidently hostile area effectively unarmed. Would have been worse if Drake and Vasquez didn't disobey direct commands and Hicks didn't carry around his personal shotgun. Also relied upon sheer incompetence of commanding officer.

Dropship: Takes Spunkmeyer and Ferro by surprise. They were never informed of what was going on.

If the aliens were half as threatening as they were supposed to be, everyone would have died. Instead, they run headlong into enemy fire and then get their ass handed to them by a civilian who just learned how to handle the hardware. She proceeds to defeat the queen with a glorified forklift.

Alien 3 was the first time I thought of them as a credible threat as it was going up against a violent prison population. Some of the deaths that do occur still are induced by obliviousness, though. Especially when

Spoiler

It grabs the guy with the flare, causing him to drop it so it ignites and sets alight the extremely flammable liquid that's coated everywhere. This conveniently cuts the survivors by half but they do end up capturing it. However, the alien is only freed from its trap thanks to one guy's insanity.

In Alien Isolation, though, your weapons are useless against it. This station was home to well over a hundred people yet this one creature managed to kill most of them and have the remainder cowering in the corners. It's clearly a very credible threat and one that demands respect. Even when placed toe-to-toe with people who are armed, aware and capable it comes out on top effortlessly. For this reason, I think Alien Isolation is the best depiction of the creature.

 

[Thaluikhain]

Aliens

Spoiler

First encounter: The marines pressed on into an unknown and evidently hostile area effectively unarmed. Would have been worse if Drake and Vasquez didn't disobey direct commands and Hicks didn't carry around his personal shotgun. Also relied upon sheer incompetence of commanding officer.

Dropship: Takes Spunkmeyer and Ferro by surprise. They were never informed of what was going on.

If the aliens were half as threatening as they were supposed to be, everyone would have died. Instead, they run headlong into enemy fire and then get their ass handed to them by a civilian who just learned how to handle the hardware. She proceeds to defeat the queen with a glorified forklift.

Don't agree about the second. They were informed that there's possibly lots of really nasty killer monsters running around. Even if (for some reason) nobody had talked to them about anything since the briefing in orbit, that should have been enough for them to pay attention to the...

Wait, cap is "weylan yutani"

EDIT: Anyhoo, yeah, the xenomorph (odd that that's become the creature's name, in Aliens it seemed to be a broad descriptor of bugs that get hunted) is just an almost apex predator, which should pose little more threat than a tiger or lion or other big beasties that humans are trying not to wipe out.

 

[Fieldy409_v1legacy]

Well, I dont know, I think Isolation might be god moding the creature a little. They must have killed at least a hundred aliens before blowing the place up in the Aliens move sequel, You think the one in Alien would have lasted long against the marines? It killed all those people because they were just untrained civilians without much weaponry, and in aliens after eating all the civvies there were too many for the marines. The creatures real danger is in its ability to spread like a plague if you let it, and the foolish corporations and governments of the alien universe seem all to keen to allow this to happen because they want to weaponise it.

 

[Casual Shinji]

In the movies, a huge weakness is the reliance on the characters to be oblivious or idiots in order to get killed. This is especially true in Alien, where every death can be attributed to factors beyond the alien itself. I never felt that they were that much of a threat with the exception of facehuggers.

Alien (I don't know how to do the text on spoiler tags)

Spoiler

Kane: shouldn't have been so eager to stick his face near an unknown organism. Other crew members should have asked more questions about his conditions. In fact, there's a deleted scene where Ripley asks about a stain on his lungs and Ash responds with "It's blocking the scanner." Nothing comes of it.

Brett: Shouldn't have gone off on his own. In his defence, no one could have predicted how large the creature would have been.

Dallas: Lambert's tracker failed and everyone panicked.

Ash: Killed by crewmembers for obvious reasons.

Parker and Lambert: Killed because Lambert froze, preventing Parker from frying the bastard. Forced to rush it which got him killed and she just stood there.

Ripley: It fails to kill her a few times in the last 20 minutes of the movie. Worst it when she accidentally wakes it. It knows she's there and thus a threat, but apparently it can't be bothered to shake a goddamn leg. It also takes its sweet time attempting to kill her when she forces it into action.

I know the arguement of 'You're missing the point' is generally seen as smug and condescending, but... you're missing the point. The Alien in the first movie is not just some monster that is rushing out to get everyone, it's something that is just there and you don't know what it wants. That's why at the end the Alien sits there in its hiding spot seemingly just looking at Ripley as she's looking at it. Which is way scarier than something that just lunges at you.

As for the way the crew acts... This can all be attributed to Dallas being a lazy captain and Ash being... who he is. Sure, you can blame Kane for being too curious, but at no other point does the crew act dumb just for the sake of getting murdered. Ripley tries to prevent Dallas and Lambert from bringing Kane onboard, but Ash opens the door anyway. Parker states that they should just freeze Kane to keep whatever danger he might hold in check, but before they have a chance to do that he wakes up and has a last meal. Once the chestburster pops up, Parker instantly goes for the kill, but gets stopped by Ash in a manner that (falsely )suggests danger.

 

[Erttheking]

Eh...I'm not a fan of how it's absolutely invincible. Don't get me wrong, it serves the purpose of the game brilliantly in that it truly makes you fear the thing when you can't see it but...you know, it's been established that aliens die when shot and set on fire. Really I feel like Isolation shouldn't have given the player guns and it REALLY shouldn't have given them a flamethrower. They could've let them kept the wrench though, because anyone who tries to fight an alien with one of those is asking to get their face ripped off.

 

[SunlightHeart]

In the movies, a huge weakness is the reliance on the characters to be oblivious or idiots in order to get killed. This is especially true in Alien, where every death can be attributed to factors beyond the alien itself. I never felt that they were that much of a threat with the exception of facehuggers.

Alien (I don't know how to do the text on spoiler tags)

Spoiler

Kane: shouldn't have been so eager to stick his face near an unknown organism. Other crew members should have asked more questions about his conditions. In fact, there's a deleted scene where Ripley asks about a stain on his lungs and Ash responds with "It's blocking the scanner." Nothing comes of it.

Brett: Shouldn't have gone off on his own. In his defence, no one could have predicted how large the creature would have been.

Dallas: Lambert's tracker failed and everyone panicked.

Ash: Killed by crewmembers for obvious reasons.

Parker and Lambert: Killed because Lambert froze, preventing Parker from frying the bastard. Forced to rush it which got him killed and she just stood there.

Ripley: It fails to kill her a few times in the last 20 minutes of the movie. Worst it when she accidentally wakes it. It knows she's there and thus a threat, but apparently it can't be bothered to shake a goddamn leg. It also takes its sweet time attempting to kill her when she forces it into action.

In Alien, it's nothing more than an apex predator crossed with a parasitic wasp. Through various contrivances, it is never met with a credible threat to its well being until Ripley is finally able to compose herself.

Aliens

Spoiler

First encounter: The marines pressed on into an unknown and evidently hostile area effectively unarmed. Would have been worse if Drake and Vasquez didn't disobey direct commands and Hicks didn't carry around his personal shotgun. Also relied upon sheer incompetence of commanding officer.

Dropship: Takes Spunkmeyer and Ferro by surprise. They were never informed of what was going on.

If the aliens were half as threatening as they were supposed to be, everyone would have died. Instead, they run headlong into enemy fire and then get their ass handed to them by a civilian who just learned how to handle the hardware. She proceeds to defeat the queen with a glorified forklift.

Alien 3 was the first time I thought of them as a credible threat as it was going up against a violent prison population. Some of the deaths that do occur still are induced by obliviousness, though. Especially when

Spoiler

It grabs the guy with the flare, causing him to drop it so it ignites and sets alight the extremely flammable liquid that's coated everywhere. This conveniently cuts the survivors by half but they do end up capturing it. However, the alien is only freed from its trap thanks to one guy's insanity.

In Alien Isolation, though, your weapons are useless against it. This station was home to well over a hundred people yet this one creature managed to kill most of them and have the remainder cowering in the corners. It's clearly a very credible threat and one that demands respect. Even when placed toe-to-toe with people who are armed, aware and capable it comes out on top effortlessly. For this reason, I think Alien Isolation is the best depiction of the creature.

To be fair, Alien Isolation and Aliens is pretty much how the song and dance goes. A single Alien plays it safe, they are waiting to morph into a queen and build a hive. That one alien has an IQ of like 200 something and can easily ruin everything.

As for weapons being useless, that is fairly accurate as well. Remember, the marines had to disarm their primaries because they all used AP explosive tipped ammo and they were fighting under a nuclear reactor. Those types of weapons are the only thing that gets through a mature xenomorphs carapace. Remember when Gorman's pistol rounds just ricocheted off the alien's head?

Yes, the marines can kill them in droves, but every hive extermination operation where they go in on foot has a casualty rate of over 85% and that's with them only going in to set a bomb. Most never see a queen or the more mature castes of xenomorphs. And that's assuming that the bomb even goes off. An old xeno queen who's defended against many marine incursions may actually be smart enough disarm the bomb, have other disarm the bomb, or move the bomb to far enough away not to wipe them out.

Alien 3 was another good one. It shows just how hard they are to kill when you don't have the Marine's weaponry. So, I think that all the movies are good depictions. Even in Resurrection, 12 xenos took over an entire military station. They personal chose to abandon ship, rather than deal with the threat. That says a lot.

 

[SunlightHeart]

In the movies, a huge weakness is the reliance on the characters to be oblivious or idiots in order to get killed. This is especially true in Alien, where every death can be attributed to factors beyond the alien itself. I never felt that they were that much of a threat with the exception of facehuggers.

Alien (I don't know how to do the text on spoiler tags)

Spoiler

Kane: shouldn't have been so eager to stick his face near an unknown organism. Other crew members should have asked more questions about his conditions. In fact, there's a deleted scene where Ripley asks about a stain on his lungs and Ash responds with "It's blocking the scanner." Nothing comes of it.

Brett: Shouldn't have gone off on his own. In his defence, no one could have predicted how large the creature would have been.

Dallas: Lambert's tracker failed and everyone panicked.

Ash: Killed by crewmembers for obvious reasons.

Parker and Lambert: Killed because Lambert froze, preventing Parker from frying the bastard. Forced to rush it which got him killed and she just stood there.

Ripley: It fails to kill her a few times in the last 20 minutes of the movie. Worst it when she accidentally wakes it. It knows she's there and thus a threat, but apparently it can't be bothered to shake a goddamn leg. It also takes its sweet time attempting to kill her when she forces it into action.

In Alien, it's nothing more than an apex predator crossed with a parasitic wasp. Through various contrivances, it is never met with a credible threat to its well being until Ripley is finally able to compose herself.

Aliens

Spoiler

First encounter: The marines pressed on into an unknown and evidently hostile area effectively unarmed. Would have been worse if Drake and Vasquez didn't disobey direct commands and Hicks didn't carry around his personal shotgun. Also relied upon sheer incompetence of commanding officer.

Dropship: Takes Spunkmeyer and Ferro by surprise. They were never informed of what was going on.

If the aliens were half as threatening as they were supposed to be, everyone would have died. Instead, they run headlong into enemy fire and then get their ass handed to them by a civilian who just learned how to handle the hardware. She proceeds to defeat the queen with a glorified forklift.

Alien 3 was the first time I thought of them as a credible threat as it was going up against a violent prison population. Some of the deaths that do occur still are induced by obliviousness, though. Especially when

Spoiler

It grabs the guy with the flare, causing him to drop it so it ignites and sets alight the extremely flammable liquid that's coated everywhere. This conveniently cuts the survivors by half but they do end up capturing it. However, the alien is only freed from its trap thanks to one guy's insanity.

In Alien Isolation, though, your weapons are useless against it. This station was home to well over a hundred people yet this one creature managed to kill most of them and have the remainder cowering in the corners. It's clearly a very credible threat and one that demands respect. Even when placed toe-to-toe with people who are armed, aware and capable it comes out on top effortlessly. For this reason, I think Alien Isolation is the best depiction of the creature.

To be fair, Alien Isolation and Aliens is pretty much how the song and dance goes. A single Alien plays it safe, they are waiting to morph into a queen and build a hive. That one alien has an IQ of like 200 something and can easily ruin everything.

As for weapons being useless, that is fairly accurate as well. Remember, the marines had to disarm their primaries because they all used AP explosive tipped ammo and they were fighting under a nuclear reactor. Those types of weapons are the only thing that gets through a mature xenomorphs carapace. Remember when Gorman's pistol rounds just ricocheted off the alien's head?

Yes, the marines can kill them in droves, but every hive extermination operation where they go in on foot has a casualty rate of over 85% and that's with them only going in to set a bomb. Most never see a queen or the more mature castes of xenomorphs. And that's assuming that the bomb even goes off. An old xeno queen who's defended against many marine incursions may actually be smart enough disarm the bomb, have other disarm the bomb, or move the bomb to far enough away not to wipe them out.

Alien 3 was another good one. It shows just how hard they are to kill when you don't have the Marine's weaponry. So, I think that all the movies are good depictions. Even in Resurrection, 12 xenos took over an entire military station. They personal chose to abandon ship, rather than deal with the threat. That says a lot.

 

[PainInTheAssInternet]

Snip

The marines make ver dumb mistakes which get them killed. They were made aware of the threat but didn't take it seriously even with proof positive of their presence. The creature is built up to be something entirely different from earth's predators, primarily shown through its excessive hostility. Though they are reduced to bugs in the second movie.

I know the argument of 'You're missing the point' is generally seen as smug and condescending, but... you're missing the point. The Alien in the first movie is not just some monster that is rushing out to get everyone, it's something that is just there and you don't know what it wants. That's why at the end the Alien sits there in its hiding spot seemingly just looking at Ripley as she's looking at it. Which is way scarier than something that just lunges at you.

As for the way the crew acts... This can all be attributed to Dallas being a lazy captain and Ash being... who he is. Sure, you can blame Kane for being too curious, but at no other point does the crew act dumb just for the sake of getting murdered. Ripley tries to prevent Dallas and Lambert from bringing Kane onboard, but Ash opens the door anyway. Parker states that they should just freeze Kane to keep whatever danger he might hold in check, but before they have a chance to do that he wakes up and has a last meal. Once the chestburster pops up, Parker instantly goes for the kill, but gets stopped by Ash in a manner that (falsely )suggests danger.

My point is the crew made many stupid mistakes which is the only way the plot could have progressed. The crew didn't put up a decent fight because the prevented themselves from doing so, most notably with Dallas, Parker and Lambert (Lamber being the primary cause of all three deaths as she induced panic). After seeing what happened to Kane, Brett shouldn't have wandered off on his own, especially for the cat.

That's another complaint. The damn cat. I went back through the movie and I noticed you don't see or hear of it until they find him in the locker for a cheap scare. Then towards the end, the group splits up for no discernible reason as they weren't under pressure of time. Ripley then goes back for the friggin' cat ALONE. When Ripley says "You, you piece of shit, are staying here." I thought it was Cameron saying he wouldn't resort to that, even though he did when we first find Newt.

 

[Thaluikhain]

Snip

The marines make ver dumb mistakes which get them killed. They were made aware of the threat but didn't take it seriously even with proof positive of their presence. The creature is built up to be something entirely different from earth's predators, primarily shown through its excessive hostility. Though they are reduced to bugs in the second movie.

Sure, they talk about them like they are something special, but they are just aggressive animals with teeth and claws that die if you put bullets in them. Now, there was the "they cut the power" bit, which makes them somewhat scary, but otherwise they need all the cards stacked in their favour.

GW took them, crossed them with Jurassic Park and got 'stealers and 'nids out of them, which were much legitimately scarier, at least back in the day.

Those types of weapons are the only thing that gets through a mature xenomorphs carapace. Remember when Gorman's pistol rounds just ricocheted off the alien's head?

Er...when was that? Both Vasquez and Gorman killed at least one alien each with their pistols in the vents.

 

[PainInTheAssInternet]

Sure, they talk about them like they are something special, but they are just aggressive animals with teeth and claws that die if you put bullets in them. Now, there was the "they cut the power" bit, which makes them somewhat scary, but otherwise they need all the cards stacked in their favour.

GW took them, crossed them with Jurassic Park and got 'stealers and 'nids out of them, which were much legitimately scarier, at least back in the day.

Those types of weapons are the only thing that gets through a mature xenomorphs carapace. Remember when Gorman's pistol rounds just ricocheted off the alien's head?

Er...when was that? Both Vasquez and Gorman killed at least one alien each with their pistols in the vents.

GW?

I recall Gorman's bullets hitting the front of the head from an angle at a distance which caused the bullets to bounce off. Vasquez was point blank, perpendicular and at the side with a more powerful pistol (if appearances were anything to go by, Vasquez' pistol was a higher calibre).

Anyways, back on point, Isolation is where I felt the creature was the biggest threat. Maybe it's inherent to the medium. In movies, everything follows a very set path while in video games you interact with each variable and change the outcome. You can die at any moment but reload so the narrative isn't dependent on your performance.

Perhaps Yahtzee was right about games being able to be superior to movies in terms of narratives.