A Few Words About A few words about...™ Alien Anthology -- in Blu-ray (1 Viewer)

[robbbb1138]

The packaging on this is really interesting. I'm assuming that there's no risk of scratching the disc as you pull it off the cardboard, right?

 

[Johnny Angell]

I just watched the director's cut of Alien. The PQ is just marvelous. On closeups of actors you can see the pores in their skin. I don't know why I've not noticed it before, but for the first time I noticed Lambert helping Ripley in the background as Parker is fighting the now revealed to be an android, Kane.

I watched it with the subtitles on and liked how they did it. If the actor speaking was in the frame, the subtitles were supered over the actor at the bottom. With two actors in the frame you would get subtitles on the left and right. I liked it.

With the subtitles on, I also noticed that after Dallas goes missing (I think) Lambert asks "could it want him alive" or something close to that. I never heard that before, I always thought she just asked could he be alive. I also finally know what Parker says just before he dies: "Get out of the room." Even as he knows death is imminent, he's thinking of Lambert. I have known for sometime there was something between them.

I also noticed for the first time (replayed it to check) that the Alien shoves the carrier containing Jonesy out of the way. I had never noticed that before. I'm pretty sure that the first time I saw Alien, I thought the Alien might have taken over Jonesy's body. The shove makes it clear that didn't happen.

I just watched it vanilla and it will be several days before I'll have the time to play around with this set, but so far, it's wonderful.

 

[Britton]

The shove is exclusive to the Director's Cut.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Johnny Angell

I also noticed for the first time (replayed it to check) that the Alien shoves the carrier containing Jonesy out of the way. I had never noticed that before. I'm pretty sure that the first time I saw Alien, I thought the Alien might have taken over Jonesy's body. The shove makes it clear that didn't happen.

 

[FoxyMulder]

I finished watching Aliens tonight, i agree with your assessment, both look and sound excellent, these are two of my favourite films and it's nice that Fox put a lot of effort into these.

I'm looking forward to re-visiting the isolated alternate music score, wouldn't it have been great if they could have mixed that back into the film, probably way too much hard work involved in doing that but still thats a great score as is the one they did use, Jerry Goldsmith was my favourite film composer and the film world is a worse place without him.

So many extra's that i won't get around to them until the weekend, tomorrow i'll watch Alien 3. ( theatrical cut since i dislike a number of scenes in the extended version )

Incidentally folks, stay right to the very end titles and keep watching, that THX trailer is amazing, my SVS subwoofer really kicked in and the house nearly collapsed.

Oh i have an Oppo BD-83 player too, it does zoom in but the workaround fix is simple, just press top menu and return to the play screen and then click play again, this time the zoom will be gone and it will play normally.

 

[Dave Scarpa]

I still have the quad DVD Set, I'll pick up the BR set after a healthy price drop.

 

[Steve Tannehill]

My PS3 with the latest firmware (3.5) just freaked out on the Alien Director's cut. At about halfway through the movie, after the extreme indigestion sequence, the player started skipping chapters. I ejected the disc, and it kept skipping (although the video was frozen). The disc was smudged along the outer edge, so I cleaned it...I reinserted the disc, it went to the end of credits, then went to the company logo screen, and froze. I restarted the PS3, now the disc appears to play fine.

But if it glitches again, it is going back to Amazon for a replacement.

 

[Sam Favate]

Put in the first disc last night in a PS3, and never loaded the menu. I hit 'stop' and tried again and it loaded okay.

Stunning visuals in the film. I have never seen it look this good, not even first-run in the theater in 1979 or for the anniversary release in 2003 (2004?).

 

[Matt Hough]

Originally Posted by Steve Tannehill
My PS3 with the latest firmware (3.5) just freaked out on the Alien Director's cut. At about halfway through the movie, after the extreme indigestion sequence, the player started skipping chapters. I ejected the disc, and it kept skipping (although the video was frozen). The disc was smudged along the outer edge, so I cleaned it...I reinserted the disc, it went to the end of credits, then went to the company logo screen, and froze. I restarted the PS3, now the disc appears to play fine.

But if it glitches again, it is going back to Amazon for a replacement.

I used a PS3 (fat) to review the box set and having seen the theatrical version of Alien many times, watched the Director's Cut to do the review. I had none of the problems you describe. It played flawlessly. Must be a defective disc (unless your PS3 is about to die; heaven forbid!)

 

[ManW_TheUncool]

Originally Posted by MattH.
I used a PS3 (fat) to review the box set and having seen the theatrical version of Alien many times, watched the Director's Cut to do the review. I had none of the problems you describe. It played flawlessly. Must be a defective disc (unless your PS3 is about to die; heaven forbid!)

Don't know about actually dying, but my (fat) PS3 also started getting a little flakey and nitpicky about discs for a few months before it stopped reading *any* discs (of any kind) at all. I still haven't gotten around to getting it fixed, but there's good likelihood that it just needs the optics cleaned as that seems to be a common problem (at least for the fat versions, which have all these vent gaps/holes and require more airflow for cooling that the newer slim version does not). The optics cleaning is no trivial task though -- and I ended up picking up a Panny BD60 cheaply during the holidays at the end of last year -- so that's why I still haven't gotten around to doing mine yet. If I can't get mine fixed/cleaned, I may just buy another (slim) PS3 -- and then probably pass the Panny player to my mother so she can borrow (new) discs from me again.
_Man_

 

[Paul_Scott]

In the fewest number of words possible, this is a phenomenal set, that deserves the A++ that Bill gives it.

My hat is off to Charles de Lauzirika for yet another job done with class, elegance and perfection. Here is a man
who loves film and what he does.

I've had 35mm prints of both Alien and Aliens, and have seen Aliens in 70mm. What I can easily tell you about the set is that both Alien and Aliens are the best that I've ever personally seen, with audio that will test even the largest home theater's amps and speakers. Detail, black levels, color, densities and all else are letter perfect.
....

As a Blu-ray Event, It is a benchmark in all areas, and portends to be the Best Classic Release of 2010. This is the one to beat.

It is Extremely Highly Recommended.

Hmmm. Maybe when Sony gets around to releasing Lawrence of Arabia we can all hope that they radically change the color grading so that it doesn't look pre-historic (i.e. made the prior to mid 90's, when the almighty 15-35 demo first started coming of age) and has a look more consistent with a film like the recent Sahara or Three Kings. Jacked up contrast with crushed blacks should also be strived for apparently because just about everyone loves that look now too.

Yes I'm being facetious.

Very disappointed to see this film pushed farther from it's original, more natural and organic palate and towards a Lucas-style Franchise homogenization. And as disappointing as the colors are, the crushed blacks are infuriating. I see people complimenting this releases left and right and saying how more dimensional it is, and I just don't get it. Objects are now so high contrast that they lack volume. They 'pop' in the same sense as objects seen in a Viewmaster pop. The look pasted on different planes.
There are shots where the only elements discernible in Yaphet Kottos face are his teeth and eyes, for Pete's sake.

The character and spirit I associate with this film has been altered considerably for this release.
I know I should be happy and accept it because the director of GI Jane and Robin Hood likes it, but I just can't. That guy is a hack to me and I weep at losing the artist that originally gave us the film circa 1979 and having this one in his place. The film now looks much more like any other generic 2000 era sci-fi movie. Where is the joy in that?

Most disappointing release of 2010 to me.

 

[Nelson Au]

I'm no expert, far from one. But I'd curious what you are expecting Scott. I did look at the 2003 DVD of Alien. Just a few scenes a day after I watched the blu ray last weekend. So it was not an A-B comparison. But the things you noted, contrast, black levels, and color looked very similar to the blu ray me. Especially the long tracking shots at the beginning when the camera is flying slowly through the Nostromo bridge, galley and finally the hypersleep chamber. I was going to compare to the laser disc too when I have a chance. Sounds like the changes you are unhappy with go back to 2003 and perhaps further back.

I saw Alien in 1979. Partly from under the seat. It scared the heck out of me. To my recollection, it feels the same. Of course I can't remember the colors or amount of contrast. I do however remember Aliens having that blue-ish cast that films had in that era. So I cannot tell if the blu ray is any different from the original theatrical experience I had, but I thought the BD looked pretty fantastic.

 

[Paul_Scott]

After initially stepping thru the BD last night, and then spending some time going back through the same scenes and trying to dial in a better image with the display (dropping contrast and raising brightness helps eek out a little more volume in objects, but the picture still looks over processed- especially in things like the Mother room), I pulled out both previous DVD releases and went through those again.

I had forgotten how dramatically the 2003 release changed the timing on this, and then it all came back. At the time, I appreciated the virtues of the release, which was a much tighter image with far better rendering of detail than the '99 and was willing to accept the color shift in exchange. It wasn't as disconcerting, or as cliched a look, as I find the Bd to be.
The Bd pushes the film even farther in this other direction- too far for me now. Its the straw that breaks the back. These tones, along with the crushing of shadow detail, really flatten this film out now. The Space Jockey set used to look deep, and the Jockey itself was more white/pale flesh colored in the middle of this set of cold greys, purples and blacks. It was humanistic and creepy. Now it's another object in the same wash of blues and teals as the rest of the set.
If anything, the Bd should have been the opportunity to veer the look of the film back to what it was originally (of which the '99 is clearly the more correct, if not perfect, representation of). Instead Ridley Scott has apparently become enamoured with it sharing some kind of franchise look/style.

Kotto fares the worst in this release. Many times the crushing of shadow detail renders his face like a cartoon exaggeration of a racist caricature. Most of the time he just looks like white eyes and teeth in a black face. This is just way too over the top revisionism for me.

 

[Nelson Au]

I will have to look at my Alien Legacy DVD and laserdisc from before that.

 

[Cinescott]

I think I may be collecting Social Security before I get through the supplements on this one. Incredible. Great set.

 

[Paul_Scott]

I no longer own the LD so I would be curious to hear how you think that compares to the original DVD.

A couple scenes I would suggest checking- the reveal and inspection of the Space Jockey, and the scene of Ripley, Brett, Parker and Dallas discussing Kane and being informed by Lambert of the delay in getting back home.
The latter scene on the Bd now looks like it is lit like some kind of Noir scene- with very dark shadows, even though they are in an area with abundant, and mostly diffused lighting.

 

[Scott Merryfield]

I watched the first film, ordered from Amazon.uk, on my Sony BDP-S350 tonight. The disc played fine, and the film looks and sounds fantastic. I checked the discID via DVD Profiler on my PC, and it matches the discID for the U.S. version in Profiler's database. So, it appears that the set available through the U.K. contains the exact same discs as in the U.S. version. The only difference is the packaging.

Anyone waiting for a price drop on the U.S. version should consider buying from the U.K. I paid about $57 shipped -- it will probably be a long time before the U.S. package reaches this low price.

 

[Nelson Au]

"Ash, Mother's deciphered part of that message..."

I didn't expect this, I took a look at the Alien laserdisc from 1992, the DVD from the 1999 Legacy set and the 2003 Quadrilogy set. I only looked at the Space Jockey scene.

The 1992 laserdisc is a box set, 3 discs and widescreen. I quickly took a look at the Space Jockey scene. The image is brighter then the blu ray and I see more of the chamber background they are in. The Space Jockey's body is a warm bone color.

I then played the 1999 DVD. Wow, the menu looks so crude today! The DVD looks pretty much the same as the LD in terms of brightness and color. I would call the back levels good and contrast is not as high as the 2003 DVD

The 2003 Quadrilogy DVD is definitely darker and the blacks are blacker. The space jockey's body is still a warm color, but not as warm as the 1999 release and the chair and chamber walls do look darker and not as warm in tone. Which matches to my eye, the blu ray.

I stand corrected Paul. Now I don't know what is really "right". I will try to put up some screen shots of the LD if I can get the hardware set-up later. But if that doesn't work, I'll do the 1999 DVD. The initially shots in the Nostromo galley and bridge also look brighter and a bit warmer in tone on the LD. I have not seen this LD in ages and it looks so much like video tape!

 

[Nelson Au]

"I admire it's purity."

Here are my very poor LD captures followed by the DVD from 1999 and 2003. I think the 2003 DVD looks the most like the blu ray, to my eye.

EDIT: Just for grins, I came across some blu-ray screencaps and thought I'd add them for comparison. These caps are from DoBlu.com's review of the Anthology, so if it's not cool to do this, I'll remove them.

1992 LD

1999 DVD

2003 DVD

Blu Ray

1992 LD

1999 DVD

2003 DVD

Blu Ray

This shot of Mother is pretty warm!

 

[Nelson Au]

"You have my sympathies"

The color of each release does get cooler and cooler in tone.

EDIT, I've added a blu-ray screencap of the Space Jockey

1992 LD

1999 DVD

2003 DVD

Blu Ray

1992 LD

1999 DVD

2003 DVD

"What is it?"
1992

2003 DVD

For what it's worth, submitted for your review.

 

[robbbb1138]

These comparisons are fun to see. I don't know which color set is better or worse, since someone approved the look in each case.