Alien Resurrection

The history of the Alien series has been a mixed one both in terms of box-office success and critical acclaim, and this is perhaps unwittingly reflected this in Fox's treatment of The Alien Legacy Box Set. The first two films of the series were revolutionary in their own way, each breaking some sort of new ground (Alien is still the film to which all other monster/survival films are compared), whereas the last two were seen as merely run-of-the-mill sci-fi horror films. Consequently, the first two discs of this set are packed with extras, while Alien 3 and Alien Resurrection are almost identical in their lack thereof. This disc contains theatrical trailers for all four Alien films, as well as a short making-of featurette, all of which can be accessed by very nicely done, clean, animated menus. The positive side of these similarities is that Resurrection shares Alien 3's technical superiority. This is an absolutely pristine transfer which serves director Jean-Pierre Jeunet's direction well. The visuals have an almost European, arthouse sensibility to them, and to present them poorly would have been an injustice; fortunately, that is not the case. There are three audio tracks: French Dolby surround, English Dolby surround, and a very strong English 5.1 mix which makes good use of all channels to produce a distinctive atmosphere. As with the previous disc, don't expect a lot of extra information with this one, but the quality of the presentation is top-notch.