NECA: Alien Movie Franchise Figures

[crows]

Although I respect the developers for attempting something different with the game (i.e. no guns, no swarms of aliens ala Aliens), I found the depiction of the alien in Isolation to be entirely at odds with the original Giger creature. I mean, the thing stomps around like a hyperactive Raptor, making huge amounts of noise in air vents and jumping out at the player like a cheap carnival trick. I understand the game required an alien that would be much more mobile and active than the largely static Giger monster, but in making that (major) concession the game misunderstands the tone and mood of the original film. The original Giger alien did the exact opposite of every monster in the history of the movies: it was slow, poised, studied and elegant, and was threatening in a deeply unsettling sexualized manner. Alien: Isolation observes none of this, and even if this is largely due to the demands of game dynamics, it's less Alien: Isolation and more Alien Resurrection: Isolation - the alien is a slobbering, growling, stomping monster with no subtlety or suggestiveness at all.

I also think the this new NECA Alien is wrong-headed in approach. The original Rambaldi mechanized head was used explicitly for extreme close-ups in Alien, and strictly via quick cuts (i.e. the killing of Brett, and later Parker). Indeed, the lips extracted in very tightly framed shots that only showed the mouth; seeing these oversize lips on a full-size model looks comical - because they were never intended to be seen like that. I think NECA have mistakenly translated what was clearly a very specific mechanized special effect that was carefully confined to quick edits onscreen to a general model, and it looks rather ridiculous as a result.

excellent post
randy from neca needs to see this

 

[ts124]

^ The Rambaldi head was not only restricted to tight frame shots though. As I said in my last post it is seen in the scene with Ripley on the escape ship and the scene where it is approaching lambert. The would be less problematic if they were a darker colour.

 

[Rotfish]

View attachment 197860

When was this taken?

Awkward indeed. Still more accurate than anything they've done, but there's a reason it never roared with its lips down in the movie. This guy will be displayed with his mouth closed for sure.

Would be nice for the lips on the final to be a tad more translucent, though.

 

[jye4ever]

Predators definately have a better dental denture plan.

 

[zuckuss77]

I'm a little confused about all those videos we saw about likeness randy was in and it's weird looking mouth. Is it possible we will get an update before they ship?

The dude has watched the movie and studied pictures, its not that hard to see a error

 

[Johnny6666]

^ The Rambaldi head was not only restricted to tight frame shots though. As I said in my last post it is seen in the scene with Ripley on the escape ship and the scene where it is approaching lambert. The would be less problematic if they were a darker colour.
View attachment 198345

That's a fair point, indeed: but still, even in the above shot, I'd suggest the mouth was very carefully lit and angled (away from camera), and was hardly the flapping pancake of xenomorph gum goo that NECA appears to think it is...

And in the shuttle sequence, I seem to recall we see the lips retracting and the tongue extending, but subject to lighting. Indeed, the lips are somewhat silver in colour (or covered in KY jelly that at least gives a shiny/silver effect due to the strobe lighting). The broader point being that the alien (and its head) was effectively created via editing, with any shots of the mouth/ lip area being either obscured by low lighting, or framed in extreme close-up. Now, NECA might argue that their new alien might be true to the Rambaldi head (and lips) design, in terms of how it looks in the flat, documentary lighting we see in the behind-the-scenes test footage. As fascinating as that imagery is, the creature we see on screen was born of painstaking lighting and editing - which is how Scott, Giger, et al. intended the alien to appear.

In some sense, the evocative nature of the original Giger alien (as it appears on screen) is very much akin to the modified Shatner mask in Halloween (1978): everyone's had a shot at trying to recreate it, both officially and (more successfully) unofficially. But the mask defies reproduction because, as Halloween's cinematographer Dean Cundey has noted, the mask was entirely the creation of lighting, editing and composition. It looks different depending upon the scene in question. I'd suggest the original Alien is like that too, even if we think we know what it looks like due to the endless sequels, merchandising and comics that have altered that original impression created back in 1979.

 

[Joda]

Thank you.

 

[shockwave]

View attachment 197860

Grandpa Alien and he's missing his chompers...

 

[taylerdurdem]

.

I also think the this new NECA Alien is wrong-headed in approach. The original Rambaldi mechanized head was used explicitly for extreme close-ups in Alien, and strictly via quick cuts (i.e. the killing of Brett, and later Parker). Indeed, the lips extracted in very tightly framed shots that only showed the mouth; seeing these oversize lips on a full-size model looks comical - because they were never intended to be seen like that. I think NECA have mistakenly translated what was clearly a very specific mechanized special effect that was carefully confined to quick edits onscreen to a general model, and it looks rather ridiculous as a result.

i completely agree!!!

 

[ts124]

Thats very true about the lighting. I believe that if they were much darker like we saw in the movie then they might look better. I also feel like that one shot with its mouth open is at an extremely bad angle and lighting. Im hoping the production piece has darker lips but I will be buying it either way.

 

[clutch]

Prototype alien had my hopes up. The shoulders and the lips are crazy on this thing. That being said, I'm going to buy it anyway...

 

[jye4ever]

I just want a release of their previous 1/4 so I don't have to sell my kidney to buy one on Ebay.

 

[ts124]

That one is still more inaccurate than this new 1/4 scale big chap. The dome is completely off and so is the mouth.

 

[Jester]

It's a little puzzling that people who love Alien and Aliens don't love Alien Isolation.

My feelings about Alien have always been rather "meh". It's a well-crafted piece of work, but if you think about the plot for too long it starts to become more and more evident that the whole thing is less "haunted house in space" and more "haunted house ride in space" with all of the clanking mechanical narrative convenience that that implies. While I prefer Aliens, that film, of course, commits many of the same sins, as Cameron's Marines must be made the personal chew-toys of whatever deity enforces Murphy's Law in order that the xenomorphs may still pose a threat in the face of the Marines' overwhelming firepower.

And that, I think, really leads into the crux of the matter of why Colonial Marines was so strenuously denounced and why Isolation was received with such embarrassingly fulsome praise despite the former not being all that bad and the latter being afflicted with a rather noteworthy suite of problems of its own (partly touched on by Johnny6666). The real core of the controversy is not so much the relative merits of the games qua games, but in how they presented their titular creatures and player interactions with the same. As can be determined from many of the reviews and web-chatter for Isolation, there's a significant undercurrent in the Aliens fanbase that wants to see the eponymous extraterrestrials as unstoppable destroyers of all that stands in their way, defeated only with the greatest of difficulties (and/or elaborate plot contrivances) by whatever human character has made it to the climax alive and in one piece. The game-play experience of Colonial Marines, on the other hand, is essentially the internal logic underpinning Cameron's film taken to its logical conclusion, and that is that, when faced with heavily-armed, not-particularly-frightened soldiers, the big bugs just don't really present all that much of a threat, regardless of how creepy/rapey they might look.

As for Alien: Isolation, my reasons for staying well clear of it are as follows:

1: It's "survival horror", a genre which has always struck me as being more like a mild form of self-abuse than recreation.

2: The main enemy type is unkillable by normal means.

3: It has a female player-character, which is a fairly reliable method of ensuring that I will neither buy nor play a particular game.

4: It's (roughly) set in the Alien time-frame of the Aliens universe, which doesn't particularly interest me.

5: The protagonist is yet another character walking in the footsteps of Ellen Ripley (right down to being, in-universe, her genetic reproduction), who at this point is in some ways less a character herself than a persistent meme infecting not only the Aliens franchise but also that of Predator, starting with Dark Horse's ridiculous Machiko and continuing into the AVP films.

 

[scarrviper]

Jones by scarrviper, on Flickr

Time to Go by scarrviper, on Flickr

Custom Alien 1979 Cat Carrier by scarrviper, on Flickr

Built a cat carrier for Jones.

 

[jye4ever]

Jones is the Terminator of lolcats.

 

[Johnny6666]

Built a cat carrier for Jones.

That's really nice! It must be so difficult to work in that scale. The muted khaki tone looks great - and is that a custom background? Care to show some more photos of it (or link me to some)? Thanks!

 

[scarrviper]

That's really nice! It must be so difficult to work in that scale. The muted khaki tone looks great - and is that a custom background? Care to show some more photos of it (or link me to some)? Thanks!

Thanks! Here's a better look at the background I built -

Wall 4 by scarrviper, on Flickr

 

[ts124]

My feelings about Alien have always been rather "meh". It's a well-crafted piece of work, but if you think about the plot for too long it starts to become more and more evident that the whole thing is less "haunted house in space" and more "haunted house ride in space" with all of the clanking mechanical narrative convenience that that implies. While I prefer Aliens, that film, of course, commits many of the same sins, as Cameron's Marines must be made the personal chew-toys of whatever deity enforces Murphy's Law in order that the xenomorphs may still pose a threat in the face of the Marines' overwhelming firepower.

And that, I think, really leads into the crux of the matter of why Colonial Marines was so strenuously denounced and why Isolation was received with such embarrassingly fulsome praise despite the former not being all that bad and the latter being afflicted with a rather noteworthy suite of problems of its own (partly touched on by Johnny6666). The real core of the controversy is not so much the relative merits of the games qua games, but in how they presented their titular creatures and player interactions with the same. As can be determined from many of the reviews and web-chatter for Isolation, there's a significant undercurrent in the Aliens fanbase that wants to see the eponymous extraterrestrials as unstoppable destroyers of all that stands in their way, defeated only with the greatest of difficulties (and/or elaborate plot contrivances) by whatever human character has made it to the climax alive and in one piece. The game-play experience of Colonial Marines, on the other hand, is essentially the internal logic underpinning Cameron's film taken to its logical conclusion, and that is that, when faced with heavily-armed, not-particularly-frightened soldiers, the big bugs just don't really present all that much of a threat, regardless of how creepy/rapey they might look.

As for Alien: Isolation, my reasons for staying well clear of it are as follows:

1: It's "survival horror", a genre which has always struck me as being more like a mild form of self-abuse than recreation.

2: The main enemy type is unkillable by normal means.

3: It has a female player-character, which is a fairly reliable method of ensuring that I will neither buy nor play a particular game.

4: It's (roughly) set in the Alien time-frame of the Aliens universe, which doesn't particularly interest me.

5: The protagonist is yet another character walking in the footsteps of Ellen Ripley (right down to being, in-universe, her genetic reproduction), who at this point is in some ways less a character herself than a persistent meme infecting not only the Aliens franchise but also that of Predator, starting with Dark Horse's ridiculous Machiko and continuing into the AVP films.

I was was fine with this until you said that you wont play a game with a female playable character... why?

 

[WesMordine]

I was was fine with this until you said that you wont play a game with a female playable character... why?

Yeah... it takes away validity from the other reasons. It seems to say "its a whim of mine. The game just isn't what I like". Which is ok, but not a strong reason to take merit away from it.

Amanda is (or becomes) a strong woman. So, if women are strong as Ellen was in Alien, that's a negative because it's been done before? Hmmn...

Not to mention A:I adds an interesting extra layer of speculation to ALIENS. Was the Company telling the truth about Ellen's daughter dying at 63 (or 65, I can't remember), or did they make that up to cover up something else?