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3 Review »

1. 

   So, finally watched it.

   First of all I want to apologize if I sound harsh, I don’t want to be rude, but Aliens is one of my favorite movies of all time – so I am very sensitive when something is cut and I may overreact about some scenes that were left out.

   So, I’ll split it into the three movies:

   Alien:

   This is the part I enjoyed most, while Alien is a cinematic masterpiece it is a movie that “takes time” there is nothing wrong with this, it works in the movie that’s what makes alien great, but your cuts didn’t harm the movie in my opinion. The vital information was there. The flow until the chestburster scene was perfect, but there was one odd thing: when the facehugger falls off from Kane we see the scene of Dallas listening to music in the glider when Ash calls. Problem: We are still on the planet, so the scene is totally out of continuity. I understand why you changed the two scenes, because of the message Ash says to Dallas, but it would be better if you just used the audio of ash talking to Dallas and keep the original scene, it just messes with the movie

   The hunt for the alien is also pretty enjoyable, Ash’s attack comes a bit abrubtly, but that’s all
   The finale was very good, also the two time explosion was a thing that improved the scene.
   Transition to Aliens was fine and not drastic at all – maybe skip the 57 years later part and just let burke tell Ripley that it was 57 years ago

   4 out of 5

   technical there were no real problems

   Aliens:
   Well this was a very very reduced cut, I understand Newt and Ripley’s daughter being cut after all they weren’t in the theatrical release and your intention is to make a good flowing story. The cutting of the breakfast scene seemed to be a very good choice to me at first, because we go from waking up to dressing up, to dropping down. A lot of Ripley’s explanation were cut for the good because this is no standalone movie.
   When the Aliens first attack the editing problems start to unfold – James Cameron (in my opinion) created a brilliant piece of storytelling where nothing just happens because of plot needs – even the explosion at the end probably is a result by the marines firing with explosives – in your edit there is no such thing like “only flamethrower” so the big explosion from the guy who collected the ammo is just a guy exploding and therefore it looks like a typical action movie stunt, not something motivated by necessity and rational choice.

   Then we escape from the aliens, plan a little bit, the automatic guns are introduced but the plotline goes nowhere, then abrupt jump forward: explosion is about to happen
   And then Bishop pops out: “he does the job” … and by the way he is a robot – do you see my problem? A fanedit should stand on its own feet and vital information like bishop is an android should be introduced properly like in the original movie not mentioned when it may be important (again one of those things i adore about aliens, it introduces facts early on so the audience doesn’t feel cheated, in this edit an unknowing viewer would be like “wtf why is he an android now?)

   Bishop leaves and we cut to the aliens cutting the power – from a fanediting standpoint whose intention is to have a decent running time this makes sense, but from a story point of view it was like a nail in the coffin – we have no build up no tension, no chemistry between Newt and Ripley which is more or less the heart of aliens. ALiens is a masterpiece because unlike most horror movies it makes you care about the protagonists and because the aliens are a danger to the people we get to like – so the fan-edit turns into a big shoot ‘em up session (which is awesome but yeah..) and there are a lot of other problems:

   the power cutting scene occurs when burke tried to “impregnate” ripley so Hicks etc. are pissed of. In the edit Hicks has Burke for no reason when the lights go out – then Burke becomes a traitor with more or less no motive – we had the discussion about leaving the aliens alive but still the “unknowing audience” has no idea what just happened.

   Next scene – Newt gets abducted – what does Hicks do? “We can track her with that.” What the… ? suddenly Hicks has a plot device to get ripley to newt? There was no scene showing Newt getting the wristband so we feel cheated again because hick’s tracker seemes like deus ex machina

   The Alien Queen’s lair: i understand that pacing and cutting was an important factor, but why cut the revelation of the alien queen, one of the most breathtaking and scary revelations – we just see ripley look at eggs, using the flamethrower and then we see the head of the queen screaming – the queen is not seen until she falls down from the ceiling which ruins the bizarre majesty of the alien queen.

   Cutting ripley leaving the elevator and trying to climb the ladder was a good decision
   So we get towards the ending of aliens were ripley fights the queen and again i do understand why you cut the hide and seek with newt, but reducing the fight Ripley/Queen didn’t improve the scene at all

   Also at the end, the “can we dream now” (or something along these lines) makes no sense because the scene of newt telling ripley about her nightmares was cut, so another pivotal thing is missing – transition to alien 3 works fine

   2 out of 5

   Alien 3
   Well I’m not very harsh on that movie because I don’t love it that much as Aliens and because in my eyes it is no untouchable masterpiece
   So Alien 3 has no problems from the faneditor but from the movie itself.
   Killing Newt and Hicks was a terrible decision from the filmmakers, but what i missed in the edit was a little more reaction from ripley towards newt (autopsy scene) I know the sequence didn’t further the plot and didn’t tell the audience anything but it was a little characterscene for ripley.
   I like that this edit just gets down to the nitty gritty – the alien is here, there is no endless “but there is an alien” “no there isn’t” “yes there is” “no” “yes” – it happens rather quickly which is fine.
   The scene where ripley states that she has an idea where the alien is and that she will go down to meet it seems a little of, because Ripley doesn’t do anything like this in the edit.

   after all: 4 out of 5

   And finally: The “twist” ending:

   Please don’t put something like that in bold letters when there is no real “twist” – i was watching the whole thing really looking forward to an experimental new ending (like the ending of CBB’s War of the Worlds which is a different ending than the original) what we get here is no real twist but one of those “it was all a bad dream” which is no real ending, but a slap in the face of the audience – dream sequences are annoying because they make everything that has happened pointless – everything after aliens therefore becomes a trip that didn’t do anything to the character, it just well.. was no real twist but a gimmick – I am sorry to be so harsh on this little scene, but it really annoyed the hell out of me after looking forward to a new take on aliens.

   Again I apologize for sounding like an a-hole, I just wanted to mention my problems and maybe when a ripley saga 2.0 comes those will be gone

   Review by Sunarep — February 6, 2009 @ 6:58 pm

2. 

   Starts good, but then gets confusing, at least for me. (4/10)

   Review by dop — February 26, 2009 @ 2:34 pm

3. 

   I agree to the above comments. Weak. A major disappointment.

   Review by r8s8fr8 — November 27, 2009 @ 8:34 pm

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