Review Detail

9.5 37 10
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FanMix September 13, 2017 17290
(Updated: February 23, 2018)
Overall rating
 
8.8
Audio/Video Quality
 
10.0
Audio Editing
 
8.0
Visual Editing
 
8.0
Narrative
 
8.0
Enjoyment
 
10.0
spoilers ahead

Overall, wow. I'll start with the "enjoyment" category (I give the highest marks there), and work my way up.
Why do I enjoy it so much?

Focusing on the synthetics works so nicely. While it's easy to wish for the suspense of the original Alien, this edit shows that a nearly equal feeling can be achieved through unease. Job gives that sense of unease throughout this movie by focusing on the (to quote Walter) "disturbing" performance of Fassbender. David is the most intriguing character to come out of the films, but is presented in a muddled way in the original films. The question of who David is and who we ought to sympathize with is poorly handled until placed in Job's hands.

That said, I think even more could have been aggressively cut to limit the confusion of multiple crews, plots, moralities, and creations. As such, the narrative still struggled with extra baggage. Moreover, the complete abandonment of Shaw's character and the Engineer plotline so that the movie becomes a more obvious Alien prequel makes for a lackluster story that fanediting can't redeem entirely. As far as the climax - for me it was the moment we realize with few doubts that David killed/mutated Elizabeth (why have a grave in the first place if her corpse is still in your bestiary?). Everything after that is a bit lackluster, reduced to a shoehorn for Alien.

For the most part I enjoyed the audio editing, especially the use of the "farewell elegy to Elizabeth" throughout the movie. That said, the Beatles use at the end didn't seem appropriate, particularly since Walter had already played the Beatles and we had just recovered from a synth switcheroo.

The visual editing had some masterful edits. As others have mentioned, the interwoven infection scenes is the highlight of this edit. However, some of the transitions between crews aren't paced as well.

As for quality, I watched the Vimeo stream at 720p with stereo sound. It looked and sounded lovely considering the source.

Well done Jobwillins! Thanks for sharing your labor of love!

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Yes
Format Watched?
DVD
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