Matthew Chmiel

Before the Goldbox Deal yesterday, Amazon actually had it at $39.99 ...

... which is the same price it's sitting at right now.

RobLutter

I got the UK set for something like $27 earlier this year. Region-free. In a regular case.

Moopher

I had seen that...but that wasn't enough for me to justify buying another two movies I've never seen for $20 (not to mention hearing awful things about) and the extra features that I'll never end up watching.

But securing it for $30 and then talking to an Amazon rep about the 70% flub, I was able to grab the set for $24, glad I waited.

Solid Snake

wait what?

Trevor

From the Amazon deals thread:

Solid Snake

ah. I will now contact amazon now.

how'd you guys talk to them about it? Cuz the way I figure is that I'm going to have to break out a calculator and talk a lot.

EDIT: NVM...got it.

Moopher

Lol sorry I didn't respond sooner. It was fairly painless to ask them, if they denied me, I would have easily called it fine. Especially since $30 is a deal, no less $24.

Solid Snake

Yeah, guy named Vikram checked it out for me. He was confused but then he saw wtf I was talking about. Yay for DVDtalk!

d2cheer

That is a great deal. I would have jumped on it as well but got the UK set for about $25.00 some time ago.

Considering I paid about $80 for the f'n 8 DVD set years ago....

I was able to sell it for a whopping $13.00 on Amazon though... that is not even worth smiling about.

Solid Snake

I first got the DVD set when it was crazy as fuck cheap on Amazon. What was the price that time?

Cellar Door

Got my set in the mail today! The case/book and sleeve are very nice, though I generally don't care much about that stuff. Going to try to watch each of these again before catching Prometheus some time next week.

Solid Snake

Got it today in my mailbox on campus. Now...to never open it cuz I've nowhere to see it or even play it...or hell a friend who has a BD player.

Also...I was slightly surprised that it was...much slimmer than I imagined. Being so used to the Anthology's interesting size on DVD I expected it to be bigger. How pleasant that it's actually much smaller.

bub2000

Alright guys, don't kill me, but... I haven't really watched the Alien films. I've only seen Aliens once, but that was at a friend's house and they had a newborn w them. (I understand AvP doesn't count).

So. With Prometheus coming out, should I watch that first, and then the Alien films, or watch Prometheus after I'm done with all the Alien films?

Solid Snake

Doesn't matter. Prometheus is it's own beast.

islandclaws

I watched Alien again last night, first time for my gf seeing it.

Goddamn, such a spectacular image. It's really astounding how great they polished it up.

Mr. Cinema

I won't see Prometheus until this weekend, so I can't comment on anything about that film. You can probably see it without any previous dealings with the other films. However, I'd probably watch Alien before seeing Prometheus.

bub2000

Sounds good... It looks like it will be a Ridley Scott weekend then.

Giles

looks even better than the 70mm print I saw.

Josh Z

Don't watch Prometheus at all. That's my suggestion. Ugh.

Sorry for the threadcrap. Just saw it last night. Needed to vent. If you want a more dispassionate answer, Prometheus is a prequel that has a lot of beat-you-over-the-head tie-ins with the original Alien. You'll understand a lot more of those references if you watch Alien first.

Also, much like the Star Wars prequels, the main intent of Prometheus is to demystify all of the interesting ambiguities and mysteries about Alien. In the same way that Midichlorians are used to "explain" the Force, or that we learn that Darth Vader was really a petulant teenage douchebag with mommy issues, Prometheus provides a lot of really lame answers to questions about where the alien came from, what the "Space Jockey" is, etc. Watching Prometheus first will really detract from the experience of watching Alien.

Definitely watch Alien and Aliens first. The next two sequels are up to you. (Some fans like them, others hate them.) Prometheus last, if at all.

Prometheus explicitly ties into the first Alien. It does not have any direct connections to the other sequels.

Solid Snake

Tie-ins, yes..but it doesn't affect whatever happened in Alien at all.

Watching Prometheus won't actually do anything at all cuz we still need more. We're left w/ an opening to something next. You'll be left w/ a huge ass gap in story if anything. They're unrelated though they inhabit the same space so far.

Josh Z

Nonsense. Not even remotely true.

spartickes

To be fair though, if you've watched the extras on the various DVD editions through the years, pretty much all that was explained anyway. I've only read one or two of the "expanded universe" comics but I'm sure they've touched on some of the same things as well. As far as the DVD extras go though they've discussed the plot point that the xenomorphs were a biological weapon that got out of control. That's why WY is so intent on getting their hands on them in the later movies. They have the hubris to think that they can actually tame them. Also I'm pretty sure they've talked about the idea that the "space jockey" was from a race of giant extra tough humanoid creatures, and that each xenomorph impregnation is basically a new evolution. They take on certain characteristics of whatever they gestated within (the "dog alien" in Alien3 for example). Therefore the strain of xenomorphs that we first encounter are extra tough and vaguely humanoid. So to stretch that backwards to the actual origins of not only the xenomorphs but also humanity as we know it, isn't so much a mystery "spoiled" or changed (midichlorians) as just made explicit in movie form.

Solid Snake

That doesn't do jack to Alien. The mystery of those things was never important to Alien and we're still left w/ some mystery. It had it's own situation that was more relevant to the story. From Prometheus we get side story of intent and purpose...that's it. And we already knew what the xenos were in intent. They sure as hell weren't pets.

bub2000

So I watched Alien & Aliens this weekend. Great, as advertised.
Then I watched the making of documentary for Alien³ . Holy crap, what a clusterfuck that was. Very interested to watch part III now. There's no way it can be as bad as the doc implies...

Doctorossi

I disagree completely; I'm fully with Josh on this one.