Problem with Synthetics: Episodes 1 & 2, The

I must start this by admitting that I find both "Prometheus" and "Alien Covenant" a slog to sit through. Any possibilities they might have, and they did have them, were weighed down by sluggish pacing, uninteresting characters, bad lines, and sillier-than-silly moments (I consider the Idris Elba/Charlize Theron seduction scene, thankfully gone in this edit, to be the absolute worst seduction scene I've ever seen outside of "Shark Attack 3: Megalodon" and "Samurai Cop"). I've seen edits of "Prometheus" in the past (not of "Covenant" due to my long absence from this site) that did improve the film quite a bit, but weren't still there. I just got a little less bored and a little less unengaged.

And then this edit happened. Suddenly, the first episode turned "Prometheus" into... something I actually like! By centering the narrative around David, it allowed the film to drop all the dead weight, and it allowed me to be able to concentrate in the stuff from the film that I always liked, namely the core themes, the production design, and Michael Fassbender's remarkable performance. Now it has a wonderful pacing and comes across as a lot more of a horror movie (which the original "Alien" of course was, one of the greatest horror movies ever). This one is a perfect 10 all around. Episode 2, though, while still very good, worked a little worse for me. Partially because the material doesn't seem to allow for this approach as flawlessly, and partly because a few things that I detested in the original cut had to stay here for narrative reasons. For instance, the flute sequence, which is so blatantly a sex scene hidden in plain sight that the lines come across a lot like something from a bad porn ("Blow to the hole gently", "Watch me, I'll do the fingering". LOL!!!), and the way the outcome to the David/Walter fight is filmed, which makes it obvious if it was the "good" or "bad" android the one who survived... exactly by trying too hard to hide it (to be fair, this does work better here than in the original as a side effect of the removal of the xenomorph, meaning less android heroics). But, as I said, the narrative needed these to stay, and it's not the editor's fault at all. Though they force me to detract one point from the enjoyment scale, as they still are what they are.

Editing was top-notch all through. I'm particularly impressed by the new title graphics. I would love to know how they were achieved. Visual quality was flawless in Episode 1, though interestingly presented a bit of artifact in Episode 2 (I did watch the version that had separate files for each). I must admit I'm a bit disappointed by the lack of subtitles, I always appreciate them and the fact that the previous Wakeupkeo edit I watched (Dick Tracy) did include them, made me somewhat expect them here too.

I also love the fact that Wakeupkeo presented this as an open series for other editors to contribute with episodes, which is both brilliant and generous. I'm still thinking what I would like to do for an episode, as I'd prefer something outside the obvious candidates. Will keep considering ideas.

Despite faults deeply ingrained in part of the source material, this is a tremendously remarkable edit. Apparently JobWillins' "Paradise", which I haven't seen so far, was the inspiration for this and might be even better, which means I should most probably be checking it out as well. In the meantime, this is highly recommended (and how is it possible that I'm the first person to review it? Come on!)

As much as I, like wakeupkeo, admire Job Willins' masterful edits, I struggled with the latter's non-chronological Paradise edit of Prometheus/Alien Covenant due to there just being too many characters, too many Fassbenders, and too many grey spaceship interiors to keep track of. This "anthology" cut is the perfect remedy to my problem, clarifying the themes and virtues of Scott's prequels, and successfully making the protagonists more likeable and less dementedly stupid. One quibble: I was a little bit fuzzy on Charlize Theron's character's fate at the end of Episode 1, some re-sequencing of that particular sequence might be a suggestion for a future revision. However, the tremendous re-working of the end of the Episode 2 adds so much resonance to this project and the Alien franchise as a whole, that nitpicks are easily forgotten. One of my favourite "rescue edits" to date, I'll be going back to this fanedit each time I rewatch my beloved xenomorph movies.

This is my to go version from now on ! Originally both movies were to me cheesy ... and slow.
You rly did a great job , My only suggestion would be instead of credits in the middle to put "10 years after black screen" and put all credits at the end ! And why not leave as much scenes as possible from the alien race (humanoid) , they are very cool !

In any case thank you so much for this !

You had a wonderful source to work of thanks to JobWillins :) He did an amazing job. Although i personally had trouble with the way he told the story, it was too much jumping around for me personally.

Your re-edit fixed that and i was able to wholeheartly enjoy this masterpiece. I couldn´t think of any major/minor negative :)

Thank you for this

Was a very good edit. When the first part was over I asked myself "what does he cut from the original ?" cause nothing is missing. I love the chronological construction here. Great work