4k-UHD/Movie Review: Aliens

 

Aliens is a 1986 Sci-Fi action/adventure/horror film written and directed by James Cameron as a sequel to the 1979 Ridley Scott film Alien. It stars Sigourney Weaver (reprising her role as Ripley from Alien), Carrie Henn, Bill Paxton, Michael Biehn, Lance Henriksen, Jenette Goldstein, Paul Reiser, Al Matthews, Mark Rolston, and William Hope. The movie is set 57 years after the events of Alien. At the beginning of the film, Ripley's spacecraft is discovered with her and Jones the cat still in stasis. We learn that the exomoon LV-426 has been colonized by a terraforming colony with no reports of hostile aliens. When Earth loses contact with the colony, Ripley is asked by a representative of the Weyland Corporation named Carter Burke (played by Reiser) to act as a consultant for a group of Marines sent to investigate the loss of communication. Once they arrive on the moon, they find the colony destroyed and evidence of an attack.

The 4k set is a three-disc set containing a UHD disc and two regular Blu-Rays. The UHD disc and one of the regular Blu-Rays just include the two versions of the movie (the theatrical edition and the 1990 remastered expanded edition). There are commentary tracks on each version of the movie by Cameron and members of the cast and crew. Some of the people providing commentary were recorded together, and some were recorded on their own, so the commentary jumps between conversations. The second regular Blu-Ray disc contains bonus features. The bonus disc has over four hours of extras. The most extensive is a three-hour-long making-of documentary (that can be watched in individual segments or in a play-all mode) that includes interviews with the cast and crew from the time the movie was being made, along with interviews made later on. There is also a discussion with Jim Cameron that was made very recently. Finally, there are some stills galleries, trailers, and TV spots.

Ultimately, the movie is very good, with a lot of action and suspense. The longer version of the film adds about 20 minutes of additional footage, mostly at the beginning of the movie before the team arrives on LV-426, which adds a bit more context for Ripley's motivations. The bonus content and commentary tracks provide a lot of interesting information, including the contentious filming process (Cameron, who has a reputation for being hard to work with anyway, butted heads with much of the initial crew that was forced upon him by Pinewood studio), how Weaver ended up getting a massive payday because she was not signed until after the script (which was centered around the Ripley character) was written, and how Cameron was only allowed to direct the movie after The Terminator was a hit. The A/V quality of the UHD disc is good. This movie looks grainier than many of Cameron's other 4k restorations because of how the movie was shot. Cameron notoriously hates film grain and uses a lot of digital noise reduction to make his older movies look like they were shot digitally with today's cameras, which some people hate. But because of the equipment they used to film Aliens, some of the grain is left in (although it is much less grainy than the VHS or original DVD release). Since CGI was not a thing back in 1986, in the UHD format, you can definitely tell when models or matte paintings were being used to create effects, and some of the effects do look a bit cheesy. Even so, the movie is still very enjoyable and well worth the time to watch.

4k-UHD/Movie Review: Alien

 

Alien is the 1979 horror/action film directed by Ridley Scott that started the Alien franchise. It stars Sigourney Weaver, Tom Skeritt, Veronica Cartwright, John Hurt, Ian Holm, Harry Dean Stanton, and Yaphet Kotto. The story involves the crew of a space tug called the Nostromo being awakened from suspended animation while returning to Earth by the ship's computer when a transmission from a nearby moon is detected. The crew is tasked with investigating the source of the transmission, which turns out to be a large spaceship with a dead alien with a hole in its chest. While investigating the ship, one of the crew members is attacked by a creature that ends up being brought aboard the ship. From there, it becomes a fairly standard monster/chase movie.

The 4k set is a two-disc set containing a UHD disc and a regular Blu-Ray disc.  The 4k set was released in conjunction with the 40th Anniversary of the film. The A/V quality of the UHD disc is outstanding. While the film does retain some grain and noise from the transfer, the movie looks better than it has on any prior physical media release. The extras (which are included on the UHD disc), however, are limited. There are two different versions of the movie, the Director's Cut and the theatrical version. There are commentary tracks on each version of the movie. On the Director's Cut, there is a commentary track that included Scott and all of the crew members that was recorded in 2003. The commentary track on the theatrical version was recorded by Scott in 1999. Then, you can watch the theatrical version of the movie with two different scores. One is the theatrical isolated score, and the other is Jerry Goldsmith's original score, which was heavily changed for the movie's release. Then, there are a handful of deleted and extended scenes. If you own the Alien Quadrilogy on DVD or Blu-Ray, that set has a lot of extras that were not transferred over to this release. So, if you are a person who is a fan of bonus content, you will want to keep that set. Ultimately, the movie is good but dated (as the newer movies in the franchise have proven). The physical release is very good (aside from the fact that not all the prior bonus content was included) and is definitely worth the pickup.  

4k-UHD/Movie Review: Alien Covenant

 

Alien Covenant is a 2017 horror movie directed by Ridley Scott. It stars Michael Fassbender, Billy Crudup, Katherine Waterston, and Danny McBride. Noomi Rapace, James Franco, and Guy Pearce all have minor roles. The movie is a sequel to Prometheus, set a decade after the events of that movie. We discover that Shaw (Rapace) and David (Fassbender) found a planet full of Engineers and crashed there. I will not give anything more away because to do so would spoil it, but essentially, the crew of the USS Covenant finds the planet, and what you would expect to occur does.

The 4k set is a two-disc set containing a UHD disc and a regular Blu-Ray disc. The movie looks and sounds great in 4k, as you would expect. On the 4k disc, you just have the movie with the option to play it with or without the commentary track by Ridley Scott. The extras are all on the regular blu-ray and include deleted scenes, some of which set up the movie, and some are extended scenes from the movie. There are also some shorter behind-the-scenes featurettes and an almost hour-long making-of feature titled "Master Class with Ridley Scott." Finally, there are some trailers and photography stills. So, this release includes a lot of good material for those who like a lot of extras.

This movie is definitely tied to the storyline from Prometheus, but it is not guaranteed that your feelings about Prometheus will carry over to this movie. For example, if you hated Prometheus because it was not a direct prequel to Alien, which many were expecting, this movie may be closer to what you would have liked that one to be. Just be aware that this is still not a direct sequel to the original movie, either. On the other hand, if you liked the direction that the story in Prometheus went, especially giving more backstory to the Engineers, this movie diverged from that quite a bit, so it may disappoint you. Since Ridley Scott has taken over the franchise again, so the movie has a very similar feel and tone to the others he has been involved with. He is reportedly working his way through a series of movies that will eventually lead to the direct prequel to Alien. So, looking at this as a piece of a much larger overall story, I think, gives it the context it would not have as a stand-alone movie. While the movie is not perfect, it is definitely worth watching.

Blu-Ray/Movie Review: Prometheus

 

When this movie was announced a lot of fans of the Alien franchise of movies (at least those that came before the whole Alien vs. Predator thing) thought that they were finally getting a direct prequel to Ridley Scott's original Alien movie. Without spoiling anything too much, that is definitely NOT what this movie is. The movie is set in 2093, several years after a star map is discovered by scientists Elizabeth Shaw (Noomi Rapace) and Charlie Holloway (Logan Marshall-Green) that hints at the origin of human life as created by "The Engineers", a race of superhuman aliens. Peter Weyland (played by Guy Pierce), the elderly CEO of Weyland Corporation (the same corporation from the original movies), funds an expedition, aboard the scientific vessel Prometheus, to follow the map to the distant moon LV-223 (which is not the same moon from the movie Alien). The ship's crew travels in stasis while the android David (played by Michael Fassbender) monitors their voyage. When the ship arrives at the moon, mission director Meredith Vickers (played by Charlize Theron) lays out the mission to find the Engineers and not to make contact without her permission.

The movie is what I would call hit and miss. Some things worked well, others require massive leaps in logic, beyond the typical suspension of disbelief that Sci-Fi movies often require. Plus, the characters make some deeply stupid decisions throughout the movie. Like B-level horror movie stupid decisions. That said, the visuals are absolutely stunning in HD, and Fassbender and Rapace deliver great performances. I like that the Engineers were not really totally fleshed out and we did not learn everything about them in this movie.

The extras include two different commentary tracks on the movie; one features director Ridley Scott, while the other features co-writers John Spaihts and Damon Lindelof. Then there are just under forty minutes of deleted, extended, and alternate scenes that allow the option to play commentary by editor Pietro Scalia and VFX supervisor Richard Stammers. Then there is a collection of Internet Promo Clips that run just under twenty minutes called The Peter Weyland Files which reveal a few interesting character moments and fleshes out the story a bit.

I would say if you go into this movie wanting a direct prequel to Alien you will be very disappointed. If you look at it as a movie that is introducing the "world" of the Alien franchise and clearly setting up additional movies to come after it that will (hopefully) eventually lead to a direct prequel to Alien, then I think it can be enjoyable, even if it is not as good as the original movie or the sequel Aliens. It is definitely as good, or better than the other sequels, however. So, I recommend it if you set your expectations accordingly.

DVD Review: Alien Quadrilogy

 

This is the set of original Alien films starring Sigourney Weaver, the one that started it all, directed by Ridley Scott, the very good follow-up Aliens, and then the two that kind of delved into the "hot garbage" category, Alien 3, and Alien Ressurection. All of the movies got an upgraded version of the movie and a TON of extras per movie. The best of which, in my opinion, was for the first movie. Those included the Director's Cut with an introduction by Ridley Scott, and a deleted footage marker, so you can see what was not in the theatrical version of the movie, a new commentary track that included Ridley Scott, many of the actors, and one of the producers and the editor. And then you get a bunch of making-of features, storyboards, stills, the original draft of the script, a creature design featurette, and more.

Aliens received a similar treatment with a special edition of the movie being included, along with the theatrical version. The special edition had an intro by James Cameron and a commentary track that included Cameron and many of the cast and crew members. Then it got a ton of behind the scenes and making-of features, a large production gallery of photos, visual effects features, and more.

Alien 3 also got a special edition, but the director, David Fincher, refused to participate in the re-release, so he was not involved in anything. Hence, the commentary track just included a few of the crew members and a couple of cast members. There were still a ton of making-of and behind-the-scenes material, stills galleries, deleted scenes, and the like for this one.

Alien Ressurection also received the same kind of release, with a special edition and a theatrical edition, a new commentary track on the special edition with the director, some cast members, and some crew members, and then a ton of behind-the-scenes material.

So, each movie has two discs devoted to them, then the final ninth disc just has more special features those include documentaries, laser disc archives (the extras included on the laserdisc releases of the films), original trailers and TV spots, and even more stills, for each of the various movies.

Overall, this set is wonderful. I have heard that some of the transfers to the Blu-Ray version of this, Alien Legacy, were kind of so-so. Because of that, I have never upgraded, because I love the DVD set that much. If there is ever a 4kUHD release of this set, I may bite the bullet and upgrade, but until then I definitely recommend this to anyone who is a hard-core fan of the Alien franchise and loves DVD extras.