Ive broken my reweiw of the ALIEN QUADRILOGYinto four sections. The review of ALIEN can be found here. The second review, which will run on the site today, handles the ALIENS discs. The second part of my review covers ALIEN 3 and then ALIEN RESURRECTION discs, with the bonus ninth disc of supplemental material also covered. Got it? Good.

2. ALIENS: This time its war (for your free time)

It is a safe thing to claim that James Camerons sequel to ALIEN, the 1986 film ALIENS, has a unique and exceptionally rare distinction in its Hollywood genes: 1) it is a sequel that can stand alone but that also impressively expands upon its predecessors mythology, and 2) it is the only sequel of its kind to have the same sort of influential impact upon a film genre as the first ALIEN, except in the case of ALIENS, a completely different genre (namely action.) Trying to determine which film is the better or more important of the two is pointless; its like trying to figure out if water or air is more important for your body. Camerons contribution to the ALIEN films is no less as important as Ridley Scotts film, even though obviously one couldnt exist without the other first. That is one of the major strengths of this franchise and why both films remain as powerful and entertaining as they were when they were fresh and new.

By now you should know what ALIENS is about. Ripley, the last survivor of the Nostromo, is retrieved from her rescue ship. Fifty-seven years have passed, leaving her alone save for the companionship of Jones the cat and the ever-present nightmares of her encounter with the Alien. When all contact is lost from the human colony now in place on the world where the Space Jockeys ship was discovered by the Nostromo, Ripley and a team of Colonial Marines are sent to investigate. There they find the colony has been overrun by a horde of Aliens, the colonists all killed except for one frightened little girl. And then things really hit the fan.

Lovingly digitally and audio remastered for the ALIEN QUADRILOGY, this is the best version of ALIENS to appear on home video yet. ALIENS has always looked a little grainy due to the kind of film stock Cameron used to shoot the picture with, and on the QUAD you still see some of that but the superior colors, shadows and image quality are now abundantly clear. James Horners now-legendary score, used for just about every action films trailer since (and that's how complete this set is people: it's even acknowledged in here!), blares triumphantly as do the sound effects of the pulse rifles and the roar of the dropship as it descends through LV-426s cloud cover.

For the QUADRILOGY the ALIENS Special Edition cut is included showing 16 more minutes of footage that was previously seen on the laserdisc and ALIEN LEGACY disc, though the new material has now been reinserted into the film proper. I feel that most of the deleted scenes didnt need to be in the theatrical cut of ALIENS and if youre watching the film for the first time, the sequences showing Newts parents discovering the derelict or the scenes at Hadleys Hope take away from the build-up of tension in the first act of the film. The one scene that should have been left in, the revelation that Ripley left behind a now-deceased daughter, cant be changed anyway but its still good to see a version where its been fitted into the flow. Ultimately for me the ALIENS Special Edition is like the difference between reading a novel and watching the film: theres extra stuff that happens in the book and if you liked the film, youll enjoy it more but it isnt critical to the movies success.

Theres now a commentary included for both versions of ALIENS featuring 12 individuals including Cameron himself, producer Gale Anne Hurd, special effects designer Stan Winston and actors Michael Biehn, Bill Paxton, Lance Henriksen, Jeanette Goldstein and Carrie Henn. For impressionable 16-year-olds like myself who stood in line to see ALIENS on opening day and never regretted the dozens of hours since then watching the film again and again, this is the best Christmas gift we could get this year.

Disc two. Oh man, disc two

Again, ALIEN QUADRILOGY producer Charles de Lauzirika and his team have done the impossible and constructed an ALIENS experience that will amaze everyone. Im no slouch when it comes to having my brain crammed full of ALIENS information; I bought all the magazines, have the Alan Dean Foster novelization, even remember that essay Cameron wrote for Starlog answering readers letters that had been published in the magazine (how cool is that?) Apart from one thing that I know is missing (Cameron wrote bios of all the Marines and gave them to the actors for background info), this thing is stacked with every bit of ALIENS knowledge that I knew of and more.

Once again the material is divided into three sections (pre-production, production, post-production) and features over three hours of brand new featurettes containing new interview material and older material culled from the release of the movie. Theres no way that a review could do justice to this disc; it has to be experienced, and when you watch it youll discover why. For example, among all the conceptual footage, special effects construction video, overview of the films weapons and creature design and such, the one section that stands out is "The Final Countdown: Music, Editing and Sound". Here we see a very frank James Horner, the composer hired to score ALIENS early in his career, discuss the absolute clusterfuck that he suffered through. Horner showed up ready to start work and discovered Cameron didnt have the movie ready yet. That was the way it remained until Horner literally had three weeks left before everything had to be locked and delivered for making prints and when he confronted producer Hurd, was told that if he couldnt hack the pressure theyd find someone else. This is a perfect example of why the QUADRILOGY is an ALIEN fans wet dream: the bad and the good are presented in a fair manner. With almost two decades of water under the bridge the participants can look back with humility and see where they made mistakes and own up to them. We might see ALIENS as a flawless film but the QUAD breaks down the wall and shows how our favorite toy got to be made, warts and all.

Other goodies on the second disc: Camerons original treatment for the film; cast portraits; conceptual artwork; tons of photos of the characters, sets, weapons, behind-the-scenes work, scoring of the films music, making of the visual effects, the premiere and so on; and pre-visualization videos with optional commentary by the filmmakers. Theres hours of discovery awaiting your eyeballs here.

Im giving ALIENS a near perfect score in the extras department, dropping the grade down from A+ to A simply because its missing those character bios and really and truly, thats a judgement Im making to show how near-perfect this edition is. Ultimately it demands a spot in every ALIENS fans collection.

Next: ALIEN 3. You won't believe your eyes.