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

cafink

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Thanks for posting those screen shots. I always enjoy seeing different releases of a movie compared to one another.
 

Carlo_M

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I agree Robb, especially since, while LD was cutting edge at the time, the masters made for it were not always necessarily the best possible, or truest to the original source film. But it is interesting to see the history of it on home video.
 

Cinescott

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Alien is a definite major upgrade from 2003 on BR, but Aliens is a revelation. I'm noticing so much in this title I've literally never seen before. Details on the spacecraft, facial detail, color and depth. The end result seems very "organic," very film-like and pleasing. It's a rather long startup on my Sony S570, but worth it.
In the "making of"doc for A3, Sigourney Weaver says she didn't like the fact that James Cameron had so many aliens in the film, preferring the approach in Alien 3. I found that interesting, given the huge drop-off in quality from 2 to 3.
 

Lord Dalek

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With increase in technology comes an increase in color accuracy, so comparing this to the old laserdisc master is going to create a fair amount of discrepency. The original poster didn't help his case when he went all "ANGRY WHITE BOY STAR WARS FAN RAWR!" originally to boot.
 

So what is the consensus on the framing differences with Alien from the original dvd release? The original looked stretched up and everyone thin. This one makes everyone look fatter. Could that be why there is heavier cropping?
 

robbbb1138

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Originally Posted by Eric Scott Richard
So what is the consensus on the framing differences with Alien from the original dvd release? The original looked stretched up and everyone thin. This one makes everyone look fatter. Could that be why there is heavier cropping?
I don't notice anyone looking fatter when I watch the movie.
 

Nelson Au

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Glad you guys like the screen caps! They are fun to look at. Can't comment on the cropping either. The laserdisc does appear to be not cropped and full frame, in spite of Ridley Scott's participation on that release. The DVD's are probably cropped as per Ridley Scott. But your guess is as good as mine.

EDIT: I've added some blu-ray screencaps to the grabs on my post #117 and 118. I happen to find them on the DoBlu.com review and thought that it would be fun to compare since 3 of them are almost identical. If this is not cool to use the caps, let me know and I'll remove them.
 

DVDvision

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Why is the corridor shot flopped on the blu-ray ?

http://www.hometheaterforum.com/forum/thread/305210/a-few-words-about-alien-anthology-in-blu-ray/90#post_3746811
 

Jason Charlton

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It's not flipped - it's a different scene altogether (see how much farther the BR hallway goes?), but since it's a different view of essentially the same "set", it provides at least some sense of comparison.

Thanks, Nelson! Can't believe how lousy LD looks compared to BR!
 

Nelson Au

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You're welcome!

Yes, that corridor shot from the blu-ray is about 5 or seconds later as the camera pans across the corridor. I was amazed the other 2 shots were identical!
 

WillG

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That's certainly something I noticed watching this release. It seemed to me like all new color temperatures.
 

GMpasqua

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Would like to buy both "Aliens" and "The Maginificent Seven" but waiting for single releases . The box sets are really expensive and I don't want all the other films.
 

Paul_Scott

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Nelson, thanks for taking the time to make and post the caps. I wrote up a post discussing them shortly after they first went up, but the software got wonky and I lost it.
Essentially, I'm surprised at some of the differences Illustrated here. For instance, while the Blu-ray hews closer to the 2003 remaster, in the scene in the galley the brightness/contrast on the Bd seems to be actually closer to the '99 release. I also have to admit that I went back and rewatched this scene shortly before you put these up and saw that I was in error in my characterization of the lighting. Behind Ripley''s head is a light, but sharply defined shadow seen. You wouldn't see a distinct shadow, even a faint one, like that in a setting where the light was general and diffuse.




With increase in technology comes an increase in color accuracy, so comparing this to the old laserdisc master is going to create a fair amount of discrepency. The original poster didn't help his case when he went all "ANGRY WHITE BOY STAR WARS FAN RAWR!" originally to boot.

No. The Blu-ray technology you are enjoying is not so spectacular that you are suddenly seeing hidden truths now revelead. The Director of the film went back and revised the look of it plain and simple.
Whether you like the new (Improved! Fresher Scent!) look is one thing. But the fact is, this release is more in line with other catalog title that have been 'tarted up' for Blu-ray consumers, rather than something pulled back to be more reverential and representative to the original, theatrical look of the film.

We can argue about the extent of it and how impactful it is, but that's going to fall down to subjective impressions.
Between a slow acclimation to the changes as well as some display tweaks designed to mitigate them, I hope to eventually just be able to kick back and enjoy this release. There is a lot to appreciate in the package, but also a lot to frustrate someone wanting a reverential as opposed to revisionist experience.

And my comments were almost exclusively confined to Scotts film. These issues (both the positives and the negatives) become even more profound with the Cameron movie.
 

Carlo_M

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Just out of curiosity (and I admit this is a long thread so I may have missed it), is there definitive proof that Scott did this? It's clear the colors are different, that anyone can tell. But who is to say that the LD master, or early DVD master is the definitive and the new ones are revisionist?



Originally Posted by Paul_Scott
No. The Blu-ray technology you are enjoying is not so spectacular that you are suddenly seeing hidden truths now revelead. The Director of the film went back and revised the look of it plain and simple.
Whether you like the new (Improved! Fresher Scent!) look is one thing. But the fact is, this release is more in line with other catalog title that have been 'tarted up' for Blu-ray consumers, rather than something pulled back to be more reverential and representative to the original, theatrical look of the film.
 

Paul_Scott

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This is from the Digital Bits review of the 1999 20th Anniversary DVD release




The new DVD version of this disc is packed with both quality and features. The film has been given a brand new THX-certified, high definition transfer, by the Sony HD Center. It is presented in full anamorphic widescreen, and dozens of man-hours were spent digitally removing tiny flecks of dust, scratches and other print defects - more than 10,000 frames were cleaned up in all. The color timing was also corrected, to be more accurate to Scott and cinematographer Derek Vanlint's original intent (notice that Mother's computer access chamber now appears in more subdued tones, instead of the overly-saturated, yellow-gold hues of previous releases). The result of all this work is spectacular - simply the best home video presentation of this film to date.

My personal memories of this film in theatrical viewings were not that it was over saturated- so I have no problem with dialing that down- and some of the LD caps Nelson posted do seem to imply some oversaturation. But I also do not remember the abundance of sickly greens and teals you get now. This is new and looks to me like timing designed to rebrand the film as part of a franchise (where greens typically figure prominently in the marketing) rather than a singular vision from 30 years ago.
 

Italo

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Originally Posted by Steve Christou
Despite Cameron saying Aliens has been "de-grained" there is still grain on screen, ironically grainier than Scott's Alien which had very little grain that I could see. Aliens looks fantastic but of the two I'd pick Alien as the better transfer. The only extras I've checked thus far were the isolated scores, perfecto.
Maybe Cameron should have done Scott's transfer as well as 'Aliens' looks stellar. I've seen both movies theatrically as well as in their various video incarnations and while 'Alien' barely matches up to its original theatrical presentation, 'Aliens' far surpasses it and it's the real revelation of this set.
 

WillG

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Maybe Cameron should have done Scott's transfer as well as 'Aliens' looks stellar. I've seen both movies theatrically as well as in their various video incarnations and while 'Alien' barely matches up to its original theatrical presentation, 'Aliens' far surpasses it and it's the real revelation of this set.
Pretty much my exact thoughts. Watching Aliens right now. And yeah, revelation is the perfect word to describe it. It looks better than I possibly imagined. For example, during the Hadley's Hope scene, for the first time I noticed the volcanic fissures in the planet's surface. Whatever de-grain process they used is brilliant. Perfect balance between light grain and fine detail.

One thing though, as long as they were fixing the Bishop torso shot at the end, I kind of wish they somehow could have digitally fixed the company people smoking during the inquest. Not for PC reasons mind you, just because it horribly dates the film. Also the price of the Nostromo always bothers me a little too. $46 million in adjusted, 57 years earlier dollars, but still well into our future seems like an awfully small amount for a starship like that.
 

Lord Dalek

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I don't know if Aliens has been "de-grained" as much as it has been demacroblocked. The grain in that image is still pretty excessive for natural grain.
 

Italo

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Originally Posted by WillG

Pretty much my exact thoughts. Watching Aliens right now. And yeah, revelation is the perfect word to describe it. It looks better than I possibly imagined. For example, during the Hadley's Hope scene, for the first time I noticed the volcanic fissures in the planet's surface. Whatever de-grain process they used is brilliant. Perfect balance between light grain and fine detail.

One thing though, as long as they were fixing the Bishop torso shot at the end, I kind of wish they somehow could have digitally fixed the company people smoking during the inquest. Not for PC reasons mind you, just because it horribly dates the film. Also the price of the Nostromo always bothers me a little too. $46 million in adjusted, 57 years earlier dollars, but still well into our future seems like an awfully small amount for a starship like that.

Yes and apart from fixing the general blurriness and giant grain of the theatrical presentation Cameron also properly color corrected it. Gone is the general blue haze of the image and he's also 'fixed' the rushed special effects, I still remember the 'blue lines' around spaceships etc... which are now gone. Absolutely brilliant transfer, maybe Lucas can just ring Cameron on tips on how to do a proper remastering of a movie :)
 

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