Just finished watching your extended hybrid cut of ‘Alien.’ Overall, I thought it was a solid job with only a few noticeable editing flubs, mostly not your fault. I really liked the additional scenes. I’ve always felt that while the pacing and tone of the longer cut is a bit off and, perhaps, a little less tense, it’s a great must-have edition for fans of this classic series. If nothing else, it adds more depth to the characters, giving most of them small, but noteworthy, character-archs.

My only real disappointments of this edit were minor, at best. The first is two missing scenes from the D.C. I love the shot of the alien dangling in the rafters before Brett gets killed. Newcomers don’t notice it, but long-time fans get to see how the Alien preys on it’s victims. It’s so subtle and haunting–it’s terrifying. A true H.R. Giger moment.

Also, I love the alternate take of the Alien staring at Jones’ cage while Ripley retreats to shut off the auto-destruct sequence. In the D.C. the Alien then knocks the cage over. This explains why the cage is tipped over later when Ripley returns to grab it. I also like the subtle interactions the alien has with the cat, giving the creature a sort of higher intelligence–i.e. It knows what it should be hunting and discards the cat. Obviously, the idea of the alien just being curious of the cat is equally compelling stuff and I can understand if that cut was intentional.

I really love that you moved the cocoon sequence up as it, emotionally and pacing-wise, works much better where you put it. Unfortunately, it’s just not a smooth edit of the material. This is not entirely your fault, I understand. It’s an out-of-place scene that lacks a definitive establishing shot. That’s Ridley Scott’s fault. I felt that this could have, maybe, been reworked to integrate a little better. Maybe not though. I didn’t look at the material to see what was there. I thought the D.C. also included a better establishing shot of Ripley entering that shaft as well, rather than the static shot that exists in your cut. Maybe it’s just my imagination though. It’s a shame there aren’t more deleted scenes and outtakes on either DVD edition so fans could fix this goof.

Finally, personally, I love the longer version of the cocoon scene and wish, at least, part of it was here. I love the moment with Ripley nearly in tears, weeping at the site of Dallas and asking him “What should I do?” I love their relationship as pseudo ex-lovers and the dynamic there is tense and saddening. It’s Ripley at her weakest and it molds her hollow, but tragic, shell for the rest of the series. It’s a shame it wasn’t included in this extended cut. I believe this version exists on one of the DVDs.

Regardless, this is a fine edit and a wonderful addition to any fan’s ‘Alien’ collection. Thanks for all your hard work!! Great job! Kudos for logging the time to make this edit!

~R.L. @ DVDFuture