Derelict

First off, may I say that this film is beautifully edited. The video and audio quality are superb and the gritty B&W works well and adds to the experience.

I especially enjoyed the inter-cuts between Prometheus and Alien in the third act, including the score music crossing over both. The pace is fluid and the parallels between the stories really play well off each other. Prometheus has been expertly cut down to only include the necessities, and I am relieved that some of the characters have been cut down.

Minor criticisms I make are the audio editing and narrative (although this can mostly be attributed to Ridley Scott). Around the 1:45:27 mark, it sounds as if a snippet of Lambert is heard over Ripley, and the score sometimes transitions a tad fast in scenes. I would also have liked a little more closure from Shaw, with some of her narration at the end too (although the film works without it).

Negatives aside (and believe me, there aren't many), I applaud the editing skill throughout the film (like the mixture of both opening credits), but my favourite scene has to be the finale, where the plots converge sublimely. An amazing film and brilliant piece of work.

Finally got round to watching this edit and thoroughly enjoyed it. I'm a huge fan of the original Alien, but less so of Prometheus and Covenant. Personally I just found the mythology that those 2 films introduces removes some of the shock and misfortune the crew in Alien would have felt.

Overall I found the black and white edit nicely, particularly in scenes with the alien making it more inline with the original Giger artwork, as well as providing a similar tone across the 2 films. The overall pacing works especially well for the first 90 mins, with scenes replicating between the films such as the waking up, landing, exploration etc. Its actually hard to tell if this down to purely good editing or if Prometheus is aping the flow of the original.

Later on however the pacing of Prometheus ramps up considerably, and the juxtaposition of films in the last hour can seem a little jarring, particularly between the more violent deaths of Prometheus vs the less is more of Alien. That said, there is a great transition between Weyland's awakening and Ripley's questioning MUTHR that was a highlight of the edit for me.

My only gripe with the edit is that it felt like it minimised some of Ripley's assertiveness, particularly over her colleagues by removing some of the more off the cuff and sarcastic dialogue with them. However overall it was a thoroughly enjoyable way of enjoying the 2 films and putting them in a new perspective. Definitely recommended for fans of the franchise.

This was pretty good, but didn't blow me away like I wish it had. The primary problem for me was there was too much cutting back-and-forth and it felt a bit disjointed. The B&W treatment looked beautiful though, props for that.

Soon after Prometheus was released, essays started to appear noting the similarities with Alien. Not that the latter film was a reboot or remake, but that there were structural and narrative echoes. The Derelict edit brilliantly aligns the parallel stories into one viewing experience.

Video - Inspired choice here of shifting both films to black n white. Greenish / bluish hues are gone. The deliberately vague transitions were another good move. Meaning, during several shifts it took me a beat or two before I realized we were back on Nostromo or Prometheus. This is not a complaint. It was unsettling and added to the uneasy tone of the movie.

Audio - 2.0 channel. No subs. The two music scores match nicely with each other. There seemed to be some bleed through of the Alien score onto a Prometheus scene and vice versa, which I appreciated. Ash’s final comments were difficult to comprehend, but they always are.

Narrative - With so much major cutting of plot, both narratives suffer. Each narrative, on its own, is barely more than a glorified pitch. There is no character development, no motivation, and the first half pacing drags slow. Part of Alien is about building tension, Prometheus more a journey of discovery. Tempo did pick up eventually, but I could imagine some viewers fast forwarding or cutting to the “big bits.”

Enjoyment - I liked this a lot. This edit is a clinic on detailing the mirrored elements of both films: strong females, corporate agendas, soulless androids. Similar interior designs - harsh exteriors. In the end, I wondered how much of the similarity was deliberate, how much was subconscious.

A provocative edit, though I suspect it won't be for everyone.

Derelict is an excellent edit for those who think Alien is too slow and Prometheus is underwhelming. Both movies look great in black and white and the editing is superb. This edit is great for those who know the Alien franchise well, definitely reccomended.