Derelict

This is the first fanedit I've watched after discovering this site recently. I spent quite a while looking through some of the most popular ones to get me started. After reading a lot of the reviews for this one I was very excited to check it out. I have to say that it didn't disappoint. Firstly it being in black and white really does add something to it.
This wasn't just a simple edit adding back in deleted scenes etc. There was a clear vision of a story that the editor wanted to tell by interweaving the two films like they did... And I thoroughly enjoyed it, the editing was top notch. I look forward to checking out some of JobWillins other edits after this too... Most likely the other Alien series offerings first.

Thank you very much for all of you work that clearly went into this.

Wow, I didn't expect this to work that well, but I'm glad I was wrong, this was absolutely phenomenal. Some of the transitions between the two films were ingenious.

As a massive fan of the original and iconic series starter Alien, and the less thrilling but still enjoyable Prometheus, I was very excited to see how JobWillins could interweave the two stories.... Exceptionally well apparently. I love the fact that this edit is in black and white, while it was done out of necessities sake I think it adds a unique visual style to the scifi genre, which is usually bursting with colour or dreadfully dreary. The interwoven narrative, cutting back and forth between the Nostromos and Prometheus missions works flawlessly... Because the story cuts back and forth, we see the parrallels between the two missions and the characters that inhabit them. The subtle cuts and tweaks to Prometheus like, for instance, the reduction in showing the deaths in favour of implying them, works in the films favour. This is one of the truest Alien concepts I've ever had the pleasure of watching, it stays faithful to the lore and it brings out the finest qualities in Prometheus whilst also making it a truer Alien film as well.

Thank you so much for this amazing edit.

This was a much better experience than either film. It is a challenge of patience to watch Alien through a modern lens, given how slowly it progresses. And Prometheus had far too much happening, from bizarre side stories to forced storytelling mechanics (like taking off your helmet on a foreign planet). Derelict does a great job of minimizing the quirks of the original films, while weaving them together with real artistry. The choice of black & white really sets the mood for this excellent fanmix. I love the side-by-side comparison near the end, of the Xenomorph hanging in the doorway struggling not to be sucked into space, and then the Engineer hanging in the doorway struggling not to be consumed by the trilobite.

Not all fan edits exist to simply extend a film or fix some perceived problem with its story or pacing. Sometimes, an editor wants to make a work of art. An interesting mix of elements from different films can be combined to create an incredibly unique experience, and that is just what JobWillins has done here with Derelict, a combination of Prometheus and Alien.

Obviously, it isn’t as easy as sticking both films together at the ends and calling it a day. JobWillins’ vision calls for a marrying of both films’ stories, shifting back and forth between each film. This creates a unique dual narrative structure that increases the mystery element in each film and heightens the dread surrounding each cast of characters.

Roughly 30 or so minutes of Prometheus has been cut and replaced with an hour of Alien, staggered at varying intervals according to how well each scene fits. Beginning with David aboard the Prometheus, Derelict aims for maximum ambiguity: without the beginning of time opening or the Isle of Skye scene, the voyage and David’s role in it become a mystery, one that only heightens when the ship reaches its destination, only for the film to jump 30 years later to the Nostromo.

The unknown elements of Alien gain even more of a sinister edge with this approach. The repeated beacon that calls the Nostromo is now implied to have something to do with the Prometheus mission. The derelict vessel becomes an even bigger enigma once the Juggernaut is revealed. David and Ash become even more intrinsically linked. All of these new revelations aren’t specifically stated by the edit, just implied by the new ordering.

The best bits of this edit are in how the films transition into each other. The touchdown of the Prometheus cuts directly to the Nostromo’s rocky landing from inside the cockpit. Shaw, Holloway, and David’s escape from the storm cuts directly to Dallas and Lambert with Kane at the Nostromo airlock. An excellent montage of Weyland’s group entering the Engineer pyramid plays over Ash’s speech on the perfection of the Alien. And don’t get me started on how tense the new, combined climax is. With each cut of three decades, this edit’s legitimacy as FanEdit.org’s Fan Edit of the Month gets more and more solidified.

As mentioned before, large swaths of both films have been cut. Dropped is most of Prometheus‘ first act, sadly losing some of the better character moments between Shaw, Holloway, and Vickers (poor Vickers suffers the most from the cutting). Gone too is some of Alien‘s better bits of banter between Brett and Parker and some of the third act scares, but it’s all in the name of creating a pacing that fits in both stories effectively without turning the project into a 4-hour monstrosity. Two deleted scenes from Prometheus are also used.

Video and sound are presented at the internet standard of 15 mbps, at 720p resolution with a 2-channel soundtrack. Presented in high contrast black-and-white to cover the obvious differences between the films’ visual styles, Derelict does a great job at emphasizing Ridley Scott’s use of light and shadow. Sound is dynamic enough for a stereo mix and quite adequate.

Derelict is an example of the talent that exists outside the Hollywood system. Taking two films separated by 32 years and combining them into a single, flowing story is not an easy feat, let alone making it a unique and entertaining venture when both films have been pored over to death. JobWillins makes the project look easy-peasy. Highly recommended.