Alien-Ate

Going the extra mile… every now and then you experience a fanedit which reminds you how much you can actually alter a film and keep a coherent storyline intact. Such is the case for TMBTM’s Alien-Ate.

I’ve been a fan of his edits ever since I saw his infamous take on Spielberg’s Jaws and my respect grew further still with his quite excellent Harmonica, which for me is still one of the best fanedits out there. Turning his hand to the Alien franchise therefore certainly had me intrigued and excited to see what magic he could come up with this time around.

The fourth Alien movie has always fascinated me. Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s somewhat avant-garde visual style feels at odds with the Hollywood system which surrounds the picture. It certainly does not feel like a normal Hollywood movie and Joss Whedon’s quirky, if uneven script only contributes to this odd, but effective atmosphere. Sigourney Weaver is excellent as the Ripley clone, and there’s a fine support cast with notable turns from Ron Perlman, Michael Wincott and Brad Dourif, amongst others. And then there’s um, Winona Ryder… ah yes, well you can’t have everything.

Despite the positives outweighing the negatives however, Alien Resurrection still has enough problems to prevent it from being anywhere near as impressive as Ridley Scott’s Alien or James Cameron’s Aliens. Whedon’s script can’t seem to focus the action enough to engage the emotions of the viewer, the underwater scene almost kills the movie due to how long they are able to stay underwater with no oxygen, and Winona Ryder really is quite awful in a pretty key role. TMBTM, by trimming certain scenes and in particular by changing the ending of the film, attempts to lessen these problems as much as possible and in doing so he’s created a film which certainly outclasses the theatrical cut and leaves one almost applauding at the screen with the work which has obviously been put into the final product.

Video: Some impressive if subtle colour grading makes this appear more in tone with Ridley Scott’s Alien, which can only be a good thing in my book. 9/10

Audio: As is usually the case with TMBTM, there are no drop outs, varying volume level problems or anything like that. A nice punchy mix. 10/10

Editing: Excellent choices which get rid of some of Whedon’s more annoying dialogue moments, and the finale which involved a ton of work to change the way the story concludes is quite superbly handled and will have everyone wishing they had access to After Effects! However, I personally would have liked to have seen some trimming of the underwater scene. Making it shorter would have improved the plausibility no-end. Also, some of Winona Ryder’s annoying lines are still there for all to hear, but then there’s no way she could be successfully removed from the film entirely so I can’t really criticise too much for this. At the end of the day, these are personal annoyances to me, so I would still class this as a very strong 9/10.

In conclusion, Alien-Ate is another reminder if one were needed, that TMBTM is one of the very best fan editors out there. Any fan of the Alien franchise needs to see this as it totally revolutionizes the fourth Alien film for the better.

I’m already looking forward to seeing what he comes up with next. No pressure mind

Overall I would give Alien-Ate 9/10, whereas the theatrical cut I would give 7/10.

This is a creative fanedit. The material has been re-edited in a masterly fashion to create an alternative experience, and the effects work is first-rate. Overall, the color work was extremely well done. This, combined with numerous trims to dialogue and events, gave the film a new feel, closer to that of the original Alien. The result is one of the few edits than almost feels like a different film.

Entertainment: 9 out of 10 (theatrical 8 out of 10; extended 8 out of 10)
Editing: 10 out of 10
Video: 9 out of 10
Audio 10 out of 10
Presentation: 10 out of 10

Overall: 9 out of 10 — TMBTM delivers another unmissable edit.

I always look forward to editor TMBTM work, his imagative editing and use of FX are most excellent, and in some cases the endings are a total surpise.

Anyway moving on to the edit…..The clean up and use of extra scenes and edit cuts are seamless and I had no sound issues all very clear. Did i enjoy yes … the editing colouring change worked well because the original is so dark looking and slow, this has been tranformed in to a clearer viewing with a faster pace. Ok you can tell that some scenes are from elsewhere but it works. And the ending works also.

Thanks.

9/10…..

Like the Star Wars prequels I had the luck of watching Alien: Resurrection when I was pretty young so I never had this feeling of someone destroying the legacy of Alien with this movie – since I bought the VHS box in order to watch Alien: Resurrection because I had heard so much of it (i.e. coolest movie evar) I watched the series in order always in foresight of a fourth movie

But yes, there was something wrong with it – i liked it but despite me having not much experience with movies I found Aliens way more intriguing but I couldn’t place my finger on it.

So hearing that TMTBM would tackle this specific movie got me very curious and it was worth the anticipation. At this point it is pretty superfluous to point out that from a technical standpoint it is top-notch although we should never be too content to not appreciate the fact that there are faneditors who really make sure that everything fits.

Alien: Resurrection is the alien film with the least alien-action and whereas Aliens also has a lot of non-alien time their presence is always felt. Not so much in Resurrection where it feels more like titanic in space which happens to feature some aliens as well. Basically there is one encounter with them and the sub-water scene since I don’t count the human-alien-thingy at the end as an alien.
By inserting footage from alien vs. predator at least the aliens get more screen presence. Note that this still makes not much for the atmosphere but at least with those scene we know that there is an alien danger.

A lot of over the top action is removed in favor of tight action (see the fight after they escape the water) and while Call’s fate and revelation is handled differently it kinda works. At first I was thrown out of the movie a bit because I remember her falling into the water and opening the door from the other side, but it worked this time as well.

Generally a guideline for this edit should be (as of course it should be for any fanedit but it is so hard sometimes to forget the original) to just think about what happens on screen. Especially towards the ending I found myself wondering “but he has removed this line, so that will not make much sense afterwards” only to find out that TMBTM went to tell a different story and within this story it works.

THE ENDING – SPOILERS

Now at first I wasn’t too fond of the way the ending was handled.
Well as I said at first I thought about what was cut. I felt that removing the idea of the queen adapting human reproduction would be a problem for the consistency of the story only to find out that the human monster is no longer a human monster in this film – it is number 8 herself (btw now works brilliantly with the “beautiful butterfly” line)

But the good stories I guess are sometimes off-throwing at first but as soon as you return you find yourself realizing how much they fit
Making Ripley into the monster adds to the entire bizareness of the film and would have certainly been a bold move back then (although I guess fans would have torn it apart – as they always do with anything that’s different -had the filmmaker done that), but it makes more sense than Ripley hugging that disgusting thing and the whole being held in the alien’s arms stuff.
It is oddly “sad” – well as sad as a movie that you didn’t really care about in the first place can be. It ends the new story, the story of number 8 and the emotional impact is stronger than Ripley crying over a disgusting thing that appeared onscreen 10 minutes ago

SPOILERS END

The effect work is great, same goes for the color correction

Overall 9/10