Review Detail

Personally, I like the theatrical cut and my ultimate preference would be an extended cut with only some minor trims to certain character moments. All the same, I don't deny that the narrative is convoluted and it's no surprise that many assumed it was meant to directly tie in with the first Alien film. TMBTM runs with that in fan-mix form and makes changes that allow for this interpretation.

This was enjoyable as an alternative experience. TMBTM is a very creative editor and it's always fun to see what kind of tricks he uses to pull off a concept - this edit doesn't disappoint in that regard. There are some nice visual and narrative tweaks to not just make things suit as a direct prequel, but also to just make it a unique watching experience.

Visual/audio quality is pretty good ( I watched a file, rather than the blu-ray). Black and white is well rendered (I have seen another edit where Prometheus is translated to black and white and it did not look anywhere near as good). I think the only time I found it to be a problem for the edit was when Holloway gets sick and you can't really see how messed up his eyes are, like Shaw can; so the scene loses some impact as a result.

The subtitling of the engineer was well utilised for the concept, but the dialogue itself comes off as a bit clunky due to the lack of punctuation.

I felt that some visual cuts were a bit too quick/unnatural as a result of some narrative trims. Literally only a handful though.

Audio:

The TED talk being watched by David on the ship screen is another example of a cool and unique change, although the audio editing here needed more IMO. It sounded like there was only the audio from the TED clip, when we could have done with some general ship/room ambience to sell the effect of David watching it.

The movement to deleted scenes is generally not bad, but it's noticeable. I watched the surround track, so it may sit better in stereo. With "A king has his reign" extended scene - there is quite a drop in both audio quality and volume here which is a bit jarring. I didn't notice this with any of the other deleted scenes (other than a difference in sound mix).

There are some clever dialogue tweaks, but some didn't work for me - such as Fifield saying he's going back to "gigantic rocks" - it sounds odd from an audio editing perspective, and also seemed like an odd thing for him to say. Given the scenario, he would want to go back to the ship... it's logical. I understand toning down his tantrum, but why change that dialogue?


Narrative is generally nicely trimmed and tightly paced. There was a sequence early on where things felt a bit rushed, but this was short-lived. Some qualms:

- Because Millburn and Fifield are no longer shown to be lost, it doesn't really make sense why they continue to stay behind wondering around while the rest have evacuated. The dialogue change saying he's gone back to "gigantic rocks" doesn't really cover this IMO.
- Eliminating the sex scene is an odd choice given Shaw's pregnancy remaining. It just eliminates foreshadowing and makes the plot point feel a bit sudden.
- Moving David visiting Weyland/Vickers confronting David to after the deleted scene with Vickers feels like an odd choice and didn't really feel natural for the character. It also robs the film of foreshadowing

The climax is the best part and some very creative and skillful visual editing is used to aid the new narrative, which I wouldn't want to spoil. To be nit-picky, I'm not really a fan of the choice of re-scoring (the sparse sound design during the ship crash in the theatrical is awesome), nor the repetition of the line "the trick is not minding it hurts". I don't think it's really used to all that great affect, and given that David is an android it doesn't really make a whole lot of sense to me when used at the end. All the same, the ending is a neat, dark twist and the whole edit is an interesting alternative that's well worth checking out.