From: ccoprdj@prism.gatech.EDU (Jorge Diaz)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.movies
Subject: Re: I Liked Alien 3
Date: 5 Nov 92 13:42:29 GMT
Organization: Georgia Institute of Technology

In article <3176@nlsun1.oracle.nl> gbradley@uks197.Berkeley.EDU (Gary Bradley) writes:

>   Whoa, hang on! I was NOT commeting on the INTELLIGENCE of the
>creatures as portrayed in the film, simply how easily they died. There
>is a world of difference you know.

Yes, there is a difference.  But, when talking about something with at least
some degree of intelligence, how easily it dies, and its intelligence are
usually inversely proportional.

The Alien in A1 didn't make dumb mistakes like rushing into a room full of
people.  Not even the Alien in A3 made dumb mistakes like rushing into a
room full of people.  The Aliens in A2 did.  This resulted in their being
slaughtered.  Survival rate and intelligence are related, so how can you say
that commenting on how easily they were killed is not commenting (at least
indirectly) on their intelligence?

>I was commenting about the people on
>this net who maintain the Alien in A1 is almost indestructable, while
>those in A2 are easily killed en masse. The point being that nothing
>like a pulse rifle was fired at the A1 alien...nothing was fired at it
>(except the grappling hook) so why insist it was almost indescructable?

The reason that the Alien in A1 was 'indestructible' is not because the
crew didn't have pulse rifles.  The Alien was NOT indestructable.  The
Alien was smart enough to cover it's ass.  That makes it seem indestructable.
And, as you point out, they don't have any big weapons, which helps. ;-)

>   Says who? This strategy is exactly what every army ever has adopted
>when it grossly outnumbered the enemy. Why? Because some cruel commander
>safely placed miles from the action ordered his troops to adopt that
>strategy. It is the quickest way to win in the situation (as well as the
>most expensive in terms of troops). And the "wreckless commander" in
>"Aliens"...the queen! Big difference to "Alien", there's a queen in
>command and her troops grossly outnumber her enemies.

Here, you've managed to take the two biggest problems with Aliens and use
them to justify each other:

the Queen
the hive culture

Obviously the Queen would order her troops to do that.  Yeah, OK, except
that the idea of the Queen is just as bad as the idea of Kamikazi Aliens.
It's worse, because it justifies the idea of Kamikazi Aliens.

And, considering what we saw in A1, the Alien is not impatient.  So, the
arguement that "it's the quickest way to win the situation" doesn't hold.
They don't need to win quickly.  They just want to win.  Remember, they
can't reproduce without hosts.  Which means that every member of the hive
that gets killed is not replacable.  You can't go around getting them all
killed, or you're screwed.

Where's the logic in getting 50 or 100 of your hive killed, for 15-20 new
hosts?

>    Agreed, mostly because of the one fact you overlook: they didn't
>dare fire any kinetic weapons at the Alien because they were in a space
>ship.

This is true as well.

>   No. Brett gazes at the thing for a few seconds, in awe. And he was
>unarmed and not expecting the thing to be that big. Had Brett been a
>Colonial Marine with a pulse rifle AND Ripley's detailed files AND
>standing safely on LV246, I expect the Alien would have been blown away.

You're right.  However, would the Alien just stood there looking at him,
had he had a weapon?  Possibly.  Can it recognize a weapon?  Probably.
If so, chances are that it would NOT have.  And remember one thing:  that
scene was not only Brett's first glance at the Alien, it's also the
audience's.  Brett had to stand there in awe, just so *we* could get a look
at the thing.  A little dramatic liscence.

>Again, it's the opposition that is weaker, not the alien that is stronger.

And smarter.  It came up behind Brett.  It didn't walk up to him, so he could
see it coming.

>    Dallas acted incredibly stupidly.

Agreed.

>   Replace Lambert with an armed, forewarned marine not in a spaceship,
>and the Alien is dead.

Again, the Alien came up behind Lambert.  It could have killed her before
she knew it was there.  Why didn't it?  Dramatic liscense?  

>Similarly, with Parker. In fact he was ready to
>kill, but as you say the weapon he had would have fried Lambert too.
>Replace the spaceship with a planet and give Parker a pulse rifle, and
>the alien is toast again.

This is the one that I will concede.  Yeah, Parker probably could have killed
it if he hadn't worried about Lambert.  The Alien didn't sneak up on him, and
it gave him a lot of time.

-- 
Jorge Diaz                       | "I want you to remember, Clark... in all
Georgia Institute of Technology  |  the years to come, in your most private
Office of Information Technology |  moments...my hand at your throat.  I want
ccoprdj@prism.gatech.edu         |  you to remember the one man who beat you."