ooking for a better world, complete with insectoid monsters that go bump in the night? Then look no further than the friendly interstellar corporate giant, Weyland Yutani.
Although this fan site for 20th Century Fox's Alien series is named Weyland-Yutani (after the menacing corporation featured in the first three movies), there are few references to the company here. Instead, the site is filled with facts and stories--both common and rare--about the series. The Films section provides overviews of the four Alien movies, as well as two rumor-filled pages for the as-yet-uncompleted Aliens 5 and 6.
The site also features a robust Cuts section listing scenes that never made it into the first three movies, while the Vehicle section gives summaries of the major modes of transportation featured in the films. The Scripts section has screenplays for the first four films, and the site also features a fan story that asks the question "What happened to the Sulaco?"
False Nitpicking points out special effects and filming errors in the flicks, while Photos contains a gallery of stills from the films. The site also includes video and soundtrack sections. In the Video area, fans can download movie trailers in Quicktime format, and in Soundtracks, visitors can listen to selected tracks from the films' soundtracks via RealAudio. There's also a Movies section, which describes the various Aliens boxed sets that are available, as well as a short links page. Finally, those with related sites can apply for Weyland-Yutani's Aliens Award.
Searching for survivors
Gems are scattered through the site like lost humans trapped in an alien hive. The Cuts sections--which cover Alien, Aliens and Alien3--are fantastic. They provide tantalizing glimpses of footage that never made it into the films, such as Dallas cocooned in the first movie and the recovery of Ripley's hibernating form in the third.
The Trailers section is also excellent. It includes the original "coming attractions" for all four movies, which is a rare treat for anyone who missed them the first time around or who simply forgot how menacing the sneak peaks were. The trailers take a good long time to download, but they're worth the wait. Similarly, the soundtracks section is nicely done, and it's a real treat to be able to listen to tracks from Aliens3 and Aliens: Resurrection. The links page is short and sweet, listing about a dozen links to other Aliens Web sites.
Other parts of the site have potential, but need considerable work. The False Nitpicking section, which makes some excellent points, is marred by excessive spelling and grammatical mistakes. The Vehicles section has good write-ups, ranging from the Nostromo to the power-lifters, but the lack of attribution for this information is a major drawback. The attribution problem is spread throughout the site; it would be nice to see more indication of exactly where all these cool facts and insights came from. In the end, Weyland-Yutani is a fun site that has a lot of potential, but it definitely needs to clean up its act a bit.
