Alien-Ate

Excellent work done by TMBTM here. He couldn’t quite save this movie in my eyes but it’s a heck of a lot better. As far as his editing skills on this I would easily rate 10/10 (watching the doc on your visual effects work was quite fascinating). Sadly, the movie itself is still such a phenomenal snooze-fest, although his unique ending was pretty sweet.

I give it an 8/10. Great execution/editing, but the film isn’t worth watching again.

Year Later Jedit: Upped the A/V and narrative score.

[SPOILERS]

Resurrection is a horrible film. Each time I've seen it I've gone in with a vague memory of it being bad, but thinking "it can't really be as bad as I remember it, can it?". Yup. It's a really bad film. From the opening scene with that horrible CGI insect, to that overblown and abysmally acted chest-burster scene, to the finale where we see the most disgusting thing you can think of (crossed with the second most disgusting thing you can think of, turned inside out) sucked through a space vacuum as its entrails float into the eternal void like vomit, this film is a true horror film. It's just nasty.

So, well done to TMBTM. He's taken a horrible, overblown mockery and transformed it into what it is now: a watchable, but distinctly average and unnecessary Alien sequel. Normally when I watch Alien Resurrection I want to rush to the bathroom and throw up, but this time I actually thought parts of it were okay. Most of the setup was decent and, bar some really stupid scenes (like Christie overreacting and attempting to bash Ripley's head in with a large metal object), I actually found myself being optimistic and thinking "hey, maybe he's made this half decent". Well... Not quite half decent... but, better.

Video/audio quality was as good as I'd expect a DVD to be.

Editing was top-notch all round. No noticeable cuts, and the various subtle effects throughout are well done. They don't feel out of place and they serve the edit. Started watching the featurette included on the DVD, but haven't finished it yet. Enjoyed what I saw!

Narrative is generally fine. Some characters were underdeveloped, but I can't remember what they were like in the original film. The new twist I wasn't so sure about, although it probably makes more sense than what the film did before. Rather than just randomly having this Alien/human hybrid get introduced right at the end of the film, TMBTM has made it so that Ripley IS the hybrid, and many of the added special effects serve to develop this plot element. I'm not sure if I like it, but it's done well. Personally, I think the Alien/human hybrid is the very worst thing about the film and I can't stand the sight of it. I'd much rather it just be completely cut out. Job Willins does this very well in his "Ripley" edit, which combines Alien 3 and Resurrection, but I don't know if this would work as well without the material from Alien 3.

Enjoyment is low because I hate this film. But this edit does make it much more watchable. The theatrical is 1/10. No redeeming elements. TMBTM has bumped it up to 4. Although I consider the actual film a 4, the enjoyment of the release as a whole is a 6, mostly due to it being an interesting and educational ride. The featurette also helps to bump this up.

It's still bad, but it's better than it was before. Would I watch it again? Not if you put a gun to my head. Would I recommend it? Yes… Sort of. If you haven't seen Resurrection and you feel the need to watch it as a fan, then this is the version you should watch. Stay the hell away from the theatrical.

Audio/Video Quality: 9
It's standard-Def but that aside it's a nice encode and a well put together DVD. The blue regraded look is much more in keeping with the rest of the franchise. The making of feature on the DVD was genius.

Visual Editing: 9
This is very impressive indeed, with the extra footage (From other movies) not just integrated well but for the most part, seemless (The FX work towards the end is amazeballs!). Having just re-watched AR, I was impressed at how easy TMBTM made some of the removals look. However, there was one spot where I thought the removal of Ripley's "F*ck" line was awkward. An excellent FX fix was applied but the edit didn't work for me because of the clearly mismatched line delivery from Brad Dourif in the next shot. I didn't see the need for it's removal, so I felt if it couldn't be removed safely, it should have been left in.

Audio Editing: 9
Mostly this was invisible but a few moments stood out but those largely felt like sounds that were added for fun rather than to be perfect. The extra little sounds and refrences to the other films were much appreciated.

Narrative: 8
I don't much care for the original film as the plot is all over the place. With a quarter removed, there is less to get frustrated with, and it now clips along at a new "boredom resistant" pace. However, the stripped down story only serves to highlight the nonsensical elements of the plot, and the silliness of the whole setup. I've found this with other fanedits that do such a great job stripping out the offensive stuff, that you are able to see the film underneath clearly for the first time and find the problems go even deeper than you imagined. But I wasn't expecting those deep-rooted issues to ever be fixable, so for me the narrative was improved overall. Also, the new ending is much, much better in pure story terms, even if I'm not sure I would have liked what was done with (Or to) our favourite heroine, if this had been the original cut.

Enjoyment: 8
It's still several leagues below the quality of Aliens 1-3 but I can say for the first time ever, I actually enjoyed this film. With the source material as it is, I don't think a better version of this movie could be put together. In future, when I feel the need for an Aliens marathon, I'll be putting this disc right in after the workprint of Alien3. Thanks TMBTM

9 out of 10.
I’m probably in a minority that never hated the original version of Alien Resurrection, but I have to admit to never actually missing any of the footage TMBTM excised to create this fan edit. I also found the change of direction at the finale to feel completely natural, and I didn’t notice where there were new fx added until I watched the featurette. I’m impressed. The film moves along at a much faster pace now but never feels like there’s anything missing, there’s no obvious jarring video or audio edits, to my eyes, drawing your attention to themselves, and as much as I liked the surreal touches in the original, I never felt like they were missed. I watched the AVI and would say the video and audio quality was as good as the format can deliver, so no disappointments there. I liked this fanedit a lot. It won’t replace my original version but it’ll probably get watched as much, if not maybe a little more

Like many, I disliked the original. Was enjoying up until the final act, until the Ripley rip.
Great edit here. Audio was solid and well focused. Nice incorporation of video materials from AVP.
Thank you also for the Making Of. Very helpful to friends who are shooting their own videos.
I passed this film on to others.
Great job, TNBTM.