Alien-Ate

Spoiler maybe:

This is a hard one to review or rate for me. I love most of the changes to the film, but I can’t ignore my intense dislike of the original film. My problems with it are soaked right into the fabric of the film in a way that no edit could wash out completely. TM and I talked several times about the difficulties of editing this film, especially the ending. The original finale is very weak, and the absurdities ruin whatever little good actually was there. TM has made a clever (if potentially controversial) change to the entire last section of the film. I don’t know if it’s better, but it’s certainly bold. And that’s kind of what the film needed, a big bold decision that Fox would almost certainly never have allowed. The film can now properly be the self-contained bastard stepchild of the Alien trilogy that it always was at heart.
Ellen Ripley is dead and gone. Ripley 8′s story starts here, and more importantly it now ends here, as it should be.

I usually rate on my enjoyment level of the film, regardless of other contributing factors like source material and so on. But this time I feel compelled to rate on the more ephemeral reactions I had to the edit. Clever, bold ideas. New effects to tell the changed story. Joy at some of my most hated elements from the original being gone. And in one case, the same kind of in-joke injected approach to editing that I try to do myself. Let’s see how many people spot it.

The film will probably never rate better than a low 6 for me, but I have to give the edit a strong 9 out 10.

P.S. TM, thanks for taking my feedback in the spirit it was intended rather than being insulted by it.

Well, there's not a whole ton to say here except it's better than the original. Not that I hated the original or anything but it did have a slew of problems, mostly stemming from weirdness, strange dialogue, and odd twisting camera shots. This edit removes most of that stuff, which is good. There's still some left, but I guess it'd be hard to fix all of it. At 90 minutes, it's pretty brisk, but I think a few more minutes of stuff could have gone. I agree about shortening the water scene, also I think trimming the scene were Frank strays away would have worked better.

I liked the fact that this cut let Ripley go...thought the end bits with Call yelling "ripley!" for no reason was strange, and that one part could have been cut. Aside from the very minor stuff that could still be cut, I'm good with this version of the film.

I like the dirtiness and grit of this movie, but just something about it - even in this edit - feels too lighthearted and not dark/serious enough for an Alien film. When all is said and done, this cut is better than the original. I gave the original a 7/10 and this an 8/10. Now if only I could get it in HD...

This will almost replace the original theatrical version for me, which I did not like too much, though it had its strengths.

The extreme silly stuff is gone, the story is still intact and has a neat twist at the end, though I also could have lived with he original - but TMBTM usually tries to surprise us with creativity, and again he succeeds, IMHO.

Though I thoroughly enjoyed this fan edit, I did not get how the station soldier joined the space pirates group; maybe I was too tired … and unfortunately they still can hold their breath like a full 5 minutes in the underwater scene ...

This review is gonna be harsh, but I'm not going to blame the editor for this. Okay, I'll blame him for the ending, as it somehow managed to accomplish the impossible task of being even more ludicrous than the original. But with that exception, I'm not gonna blame TMBTM. He did what he could to try and fix this film. It's still bad, but it's not "as" bad. It's mediocre.

The reconstruction of the first act is fantastic. I'm not sure how TMBTM did it, because it conveys most of the same information that the original cut did, and yet it made the characters more interesting. I guess it goes to show that timing is everything.

Unfortunately, the rest of the edit goes in a downward slope after that strong beginning. There are still plenty of scenes that make no sense, and I'm not sure if it's even possible to cut them out. The underwater sequence is the scene that bothers me the most. In that one sequence, we get two poorly done character deaths, Christie's ridiculous geometric shooting skills, and a nonsensical plot twist revolving around Call. And while I respect the fixing of one of those deaths, it still doesn't change the other three problems.

The fact is that this is an edit of Alien: Resurrection. It's still going to be flawed. If you choose to watch this, keep your mind wide open. It's still nothing when compared to the first two Alien movies, but if all you want is a less cringy version of A:R, then give it a watch. Just don't expect Citizen Kane. You're bound to be disappointed if you do.

Overall Comment: A film made bearable.

Audio/Video Quality: Quality with regards to the DVD format, can be a loose-and-goose specially with today's advancing TV models but once I've exported it to a format of the best quality possible, everything came to light, The cut looked grainy and huddled with colors that didn't aged well, although the lighting was well supported with good color corrections.

Visual/Audio Editing: Subtle changes made on the cut was very satisfying to see, in addition to the well transitioned scenes. I've got no qualms on the audio presentation, the additions of sound effects were well blended with each and every scene.

Narrative: With the restructuring of the narrative, the cut came to a fast and progressive pace, the removal of certain scenes made scenes run fluidly with the structure without any signs of stopping, and corrections on some gave characters a true and on-point purpose.

Enjoyment: I love this cut, it made the film bearable and engaging, whilst the original was a total disappointment, this however gave it hope and a chance.