Alien: The Archive - The Ultimate Guide To The Classic Movies was published in 2014 around the time a couple of scifi classics were getting those types of ultimate books on their own (such as for example, RoboCop: Definitive History). With so many Alien books around, and so much material on home video releases, how does this book stand?
I had just re-read it right after reading both J.W. Rinzler's books on Alien (See HERE) and Aliens (See HERE), and so after such completely detailed, 300 page + books, reading Alien The Archive is like reading a brief summary or synopsis, however I have almost nothing but praise for this book
You can take a look at it from two perspectives: of a lifelong, diehard fan, or a passive/or new fan. Us diehards, know it all for decades, and after such detailed material like the fantastic documentaries on Alien Anthology blurays (or DVDs if you prefer) or StrangeShapes site (See HERE), there's very little if anything left for fans to know. And then of course, the huge Rinzler books which are the definitive books on the production of the two classics of the series. So what is there for a veteran diehard fan? For one, it's the fact that it's all three films plus one (I despise Resurrection and its very existence See HERE) together. The only time the production of all three was gathered together was in Titan's rerelease of the Cinefex issues (See HERE). So it's having them all in one book. Also, while we have many books on production of Alien and Aliens, we have none on Alien 3 (not counting the Japanese book), so there it is here. Plus the book is very rich in pictures, perhaps not very rare, but great nonethless and many of them did not appear in Rinzler's books.
As far as new fans, the book is all the extensive bluray features in a (bigger) pill. It nicely touches all the aspects of the film - a story of its genesis, bit on production, and its reception. In addition to that, there are many, many set photos, separate chapters for concept art, cast, props and Alien designs for each movie. So not only this is perfect for so called passive fans or "lighter" fans (which I call those who aren't into Alien as much as let's say, Star Wars fans are into SW), but it's a really good collection of all those things mentioned for hardcore fans and of course, the completists.
Go back to http://jamescamerononline.com/ALIENTRILOGY.htm
