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Alien: Bonus Disc (Quadrilogy Box Set)
Fox // Unrated // December 2, 2003
List Price: $99.99 [Buy now and save at Amazon]
The Movie:
The final disc of the 9-DVD "Alien: Quadrilogy" box set offers viewers additional bonus features that give a greater look at the making of each of the four films. Although things start off well with the "Alien" section, which offers a fair amount of information and the text archive from the laserdisc, there's very little else included here; the trailers and promo spots that fill up the sections for the last two films feel like they would be better off with the films themselves than filling space here.
The ninth disc is broken down into four sections, covering each of the films. The "Alien" area starts off with "Alien: Evolution", a documentary that is slightly over an hour in length and provides a good overview. We get to hear from director Ridley Scott, the film's co-writers, producers, creature designer HR Geiger, the film's editor and many of the actors.
The documentary takes the viewer through the process of getting the film together, going into some additional detail about the status of the screenplay and how it came to the attention of the film's producers. There's also more about the design and creation of both the ships and creatures. Yes, a lot of this was gone over elsewhere, but there's a little more detail given to each subject here.
Experience in Terror: The film's original, 1979 promotional featurette. Although not particularly informative, it's interesting to see these early interviews about the film.
Ridley Scott Q & A: Filmed after a screening that took place a couple of days after 9/11, this Q & A is subdued but informative, as Scott answers the questions in a frank and honest manner. We learn more about what sparked his interest in the project, his experiences on the film and his responses to a couple of interesting questions from the audience.
The Complete Laserdisc Archive: This is a complete port of the library of informative text screens that were included on the special edition LD.
Aliens: Unfortunately, there's not much in the way of supplements for "Aliens": while we do get a similar Laserdisc archive worth of text material for the sequel, all that's left are the film's trailers. While a nice inclusion, I was hoping for a bit more.
Alien 3: Not much better - all we get are the film's short promotional featurette, TV spots and trailers.
Alien: Resurrection: Just the film's TV spots and trailers.
Also: A documentary on one "Alien" fan's passion for collecting a museum's worth of memorabilia from the series (the guy built a 3,000 square foot addition to his house to house all of the stuff), Dark Horse still gallery and DVD-ROM script-to-screen comparisons.
Final Thoughts: The "Alien: Quadrilogy" box set packs an exhausting, amazing amount of information across the set's main eight discs. The bonus disc may be a little minor when up against the massive scope of the rest of the set, but it's a nice way to top off the set and does include some worthwhile information, including the hour-long documentary and LD archives. The set is easily one of the year's finest DVD efforts and is, once again, a must-see for any one who's remotely a fan of the series.
The final disc of the 9-DVD "Alien: Quadrilogy" box set offers viewers additional bonus features that give a greater look at the making of each of the four films. Although things start off well with the "Alien" section, which offers a fair amount of information and the text archive from the laserdisc, there's very little else included here; the trailers and promo spots that fill up the sections for the last two films feel like they would be better off with the films themselves than filling space here.
The ninth disc is broken down into four sections, covering each of the films. The "Alien" area starts off with "Alien: Evolution", a documentary that is slightly over an hour in length and provides a good overview. We get to hear from director Ridley Scott, the film's co-writers, producers, creature designer HR Geiger, the film's editor and many of the actors.
The documentary takes the viewer through the process of getting the film together, going into some additional detail about the status of the screenplay and how it came to the attention of the film's producers. There's also more about the design and creation of both the ships and creatures. Yes, a lot of this was gone over elsewhere, but there's a little more detail given to each subject here.
Experience in Terror: The film's original, 1979 promotional featurette. Although not particularly informative, it's interesting to see these early interviews about the film.
Ridley Scott Q & A: Filmed after a screening that took place a couple of days after 9/11, this Q & A is subdued but informative, as Scott answers the questions in a frank and honest manner. We learn more about what sparked his interest in the project, his experiences on the film and his responses to a couple of interesting questions from the audience.
The Complete Laserdisc Archive: This is a complete port of the library of informative text screens that were included on the special edition LD.
Aliens: Unfortunately, there's not much in the way of supplements for "Aliens": while we do get a similar Laserdisc archive worth of text material for the sequel, all that's left are the film's trailers. While a nice inclusion, I was hoping for a bit more.
Alien 3: Not much better - all we get are the film's short promotional featurette, TV spots and trailers.
Alien: Resurrection: Just the film's TV spots and trailers.
Also: A documentary on one "Alien" fan's passion for collecting a museum's worth of memorabilia from the series (the guy built a 3,000 square foot addition to his house to house all of the stuff), Dark Horse still gallery and DVD-ROM script-to-screen comparisons.
Final Thoughts: The "Alien: Quadrilogy" box set packs an exhausting, amazing amount of information across the set's main eight discs. The bonus disc may be a little minor when up against the massive scope of the rest of the set, but it's a nice way to top off the set and does include some worthwhile information, including the hour-long documentary and LD archives. The set is easily one of the year's finest DVD efforts and is, once again, a must-see for any one who's remotely a fan of the series.
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