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"ALIEN" DVD Reviews
Alien
Aliens
Alien 3
Alien:Resurrection

DVD Article: The "Alien" Series:
Fox has already provided us with one series("Die Hard") that certainly had great moments on disc(the first and second films looked and sounded great, the third film looked fairly poor in comparison), but none of the discs in that series were anamorphic and certainly didn't have as much as they possibly could have in the way of extra features.

Now we're faced with another "series" and how does it fare?

Well, the "Alien" discs certainly have their pros and cons and I would have liked to have seen more even distribution of the extras, but the transfers on each disc are certainly wonderful. The first disc is incredibly impressive, providing the viewer with a massive amount information, giving a wonderful history to the series. The commentary is also informative and entertaining. But in terms of extras, it goes downwards from there. The first disc is the only disc with a commentary and that's unfortunate. I've just watched the work of four different directors and their takes on the "Alien" series. It would have been really enjoyable to hear how they went about bringing their vision of the series to life. I can slightly understand if David Fincher was reluctant to provide a commentary for the 3rd film, but since he's making films for Fox again(the upcoming "Fight Club"), but there had to be someone who was willing to provide a discussion of the film. Same with "Aliens"; James Cameron may not have wanted to do a commentary, but I'm sure there's enough people who would enjoy discussing the aspects of the film. "Resurrection" would have been an interesting commentary, listening to Jean-Pierre Jeunet talking about his views on the films. But it seems as if the first two discs were the focus here and the last two were a distant second in focus. You can even see it in the menus; the first two look like they must have taken months to build, the last two are just stylish, but certainly not nearly as detailed.

All of the discs have wonderful audio/video transfers and certainly are worth picking up if you're a fan of the series, but if you're interested in the best of the series, the first two discs are highly recommended. Fox has done a really nice job here, providing at least a great version of the first two films and at least, technically nice editions of the last two films.

These are Fox's first tries at anamorphic enhanced discs and they are certainly excelllent looking. Hopefully, this will continue with their normal titles from now on. Their recent non-anamorphic titles("The Siege", for example) have been great, but with anamorphic enhancement, Fox can certainly be a major force in DVD. This series is an example of what they can do and hopefully, this will be the kind of work they want to do in the future.