UHD Review A Few Words About A few words about...™ - Panic Room -- in 4k UHD (1 Viewer)

[TravisR]

The subjectivity of film appreciation. Furthermore, for a 30-year-old directing his first movie, I thought he did pretty good compared to most other great directors in their first movie.

In fairness, my problems with the movie are related to the script rather than the direction.

 

[Lord Dalek]

I assumed that Joel is referencing Alien 3. If not, it's the one I'm talking about.

I was. Since Fincher has disowned it.

 

[Lord Dalek]

In fairness, my problems with the movie are related to the script rather than the direction.

The whole movie doesn't make any sense. How could an egg get on board the Sulaco if the queen had lost her sack and was effectively sterile at that point? And don't get me started on the fact that the face hugger somehow had TWO embryos in it, crawled off Ripley, managed to escape in the same escape pod, and then impregnated the dog/ox. IT BOGGLES THE MIND how little Walter Hill and David Giler seemed to know about their damn movie franchise.

At least Resurrection is funny (even funnier in the long cut).

 

[Robert Harris]

The whole movie doesn't make any sense. How could an egg get on board the Sulaco if the queen had lost her sack and was effectively sterile at that point? And don't get me started on the fact that the face hugger somehow had TWO embryos in it, crawled off Ripley, managed to escape in the same escape pod, and then impregnated the dog/ox. IT BOGGLES THE MIND how little Walter Hill and David Giler seemed to know about their damn movie franchise.

At least Resurrection is funny (even funnier in the long cut).

Which is why Resurrection was in the Comedy or Musical category for the Globes.

 

[JoshZ]

The whole movie doesn't make any sense. How could an egg get on board the Sulaco if the queen had lost her sack and was effectively sterile at that point? And don't get me started on the fact that the face hugger somehow had TWO embryos in it, crawled off Ripley, managed to escape in the same escape pod, and then impregnated the dog/ox. IT BOGGLES THE MIND how little Walter Hill and David Giler seemed to know about their damn movie franchise.

At least Resurrection is funny (even funnier in the long cut).

Obsessing over questions like "How did the egg get on board the Sulaco?" misses the point of Alien 3. The film is a waking nightmare for Ripley. Nightmares don't bother to explain the details of their plot-points. Just because we don't see it happen doesn't mean there weren't countless ways for that egg to be deposited on the ship during the events of Aliens.

Ultimately, it doesn't matter how the egg got there. It IS there, because Ripley can never escape her fate. The Alien would always find a way back into her life. Nothing she does can stop it, not permanently, not without taking her with it. They are tied together and cannot be separated. By the end of the film, Ripley resigns herself to this reality, and must kill herself to stop the alien from killing others. That was always her destiny.

This is an incredibly nihilistic direction for the franchise, much darker than the prior two installments. I can understand why it didn't appeal to a mass audience that preferred the "Hoo-rah!" kick-ass heroics of the second film (which I love as well). But it is a valid artistic take, written with thought and purpose, intended at that time to bring closure to the story.

And as a young director just coming out of music videos, Fincher had a clear vision for how to depict and tell that story. Unfortunately, studio interference prevented him from fully realizing it.

Accusing the two men who actually wrote the screenplay for Alien (even if they weren't allowed to take credit for it) of not understanding the movie they'd created... Well, that's bold.

If anything, Aliens is the outlier in this trilogy. Alien 3 is more of a direct sequel to the first film. It opens with Ripley in cryo-sleep, just as the first movie left her. Killing off Newt and Hicks right away was just a matter of tidying up the plot and getting rid of characters who weren't in Alien.

If the story had jumped straight from Alien to Alien 3, nobody would have questioned where that egg came from. The first movie told us nothing about how or when the alien lays eggs. The concept of an insect-like queen was James Cameron's invention for the second movie.

Anyway, sorry for getting side-tracked on a tangent that isn't about Panic Room. I just didn't want it to seem like I have some grudge against everything David Fincher does. I quite like most of his movies. I just don't like his revisionism when he makes unnecessary changes to them after-the-fact.

 

[WillG]

The whole movie doesn't make any sense. How could an egg get on board the Sulaco if the queen had lost her sack and was effectively sterile at that point? And don't get me started on the fact that the face hugger somehow had TWO embryos in it, crawled off Ripley, managed to escape in the same escape pod, and then impregnated the dog/ox. IT BOGGLES THE MIND how little Walter Hill and David Giler seemed to know about their damn movie franchise.

At least Resurrection is funny (even funnier in the long cut).

The bigger hole for me was that Ripley didn’t sweep the Sulaco jettisoning the Queen for any eggs or other xenomorph matter before going back to sleep

 

[Robert Harris]

The bigger hole for me was that Ripley didn’t sweep the Sulaco jettisoning the Queen for any eggs or other xenomorph matter before going back to sleep

Where was the xenomorph in Panic Room?

 

[JoshZ]

Where was the xenomorph in Panic Room?

Sneaking one in is one of the new A.I.-enhanced revisions Fincher has made to the film.

 

[Robert Crawford]

I'm still waiting for my 4K/UHD to arrive, however, the 4K/Dolby Vision and Atmos digital on Apple is lovely.

 

[Matt Hough]

I just rewatched Panic Room on iTunes two nights ago after this discussion began, and I thoroughly enjoyed it all over again. I'm also satisfied with what I've got.

 

[Robert Crawford]

I just rewatched Panic Room on iTunes two nights ago after this discussion began, and I thoroughly enjoyed it all over again. I'm also satisfied with what I've got.

Check to see if your iTunes digital upgraded to 4K?

 

[JohnRice]

I just checked, and yes, it did. 4K DV Atmos.

 

[Robert Crawford]

Just a reminder, it will only upgrade on iTunes if you purchased the HD digital directly from iTunes.

 

[GerardoHP]

You can rationalize Alien 3 all you want but all I remember is leaving the theater with a knot in my stomach, angry that Newt and Ripley were killed. Hopeless, nihilistic and dark as night, and ultimately a complete betrayal to the franchise fans that no amount of DNA cloning could fix.

 

[Robert Crawford]

You can rationalize Alien 3 all you want but all I remember is leaving the theater with a knot in my stomach, angry that Newt and Ripley were killed. Hopeless, nihilistic and dark as night, and ultimately a complete betrayal to the franchise fans that no amount of DNA cloning could fix.

Okay!

 

[Stephen_J_H]

You can rationalize Alien 3 all you want but all I remember is leaving the theater with a knot in my stomach, angry that Newt and Ripley were killed. Hopeless, nihilistic and dark as night, and ultimately a complete betrayal to the franchise fans that no amount of DNA cloning could fix.

Okay!

Some of us enjoy nihilism, if executed properly.

 

[tenia]

The changes haven't been catalogued yet, but that doesn't mean they won't be. Due to its long unavailability on Blu-ray, most fans aren't as intimately familiar with Panic Room as they are with Se7en.

Examples are popping up online, and they're funnier than those from Se7en. If you thought those on / off lights was a bit too much, wait for the straightened curtains and changed walls and ceilings textures.
Also : added lens flares.
Also : the new Atmos track has clipping absent from the also-included 5.1 track.

 

[TravisR]

Examples are popping up online, and they're funnier than those from Se7en. If you thought those on / off lights was a bit too much, wait for the straightened curtains and changed walls and ceilings textures.
Also : added lens flares.
Also : the new Atmos track has clipping absent from the also-included 5.1 track.

I don't know if I am in awe of or terrified of someone that notices straightened curtains or a changed ceiling texture. He (and it's definitely a guy) is a much more hardcore fan than I could ever be.

 

[JoshZ]

Examples are popping up online, and they're funnier than those from Se7en. If you thought those on / off lights was a bit too much, wait for the straightened curtains and changed walls and ceilings textures.

What purpose could making changes like this possibly serve, even in David Fincher's mind? This is beyond OCD and is straight into mental illness.

David Fincher goes full Fincher on Panic Room 4K. Check out his odd fixes

David Fincher has updated Panic Room for 4K in some pretty unique ways, including ironing out curtains and showing off Coke cans.

www.joblo.com

 

[JohnRice]

I don't know if I am in awe of or terrified of someone that notices straightened curtains or a changed ceiling texture. He (and it's definitely a guy) is a much more hardcore fan than I could ever be.

Nothing counters obsessiveness like obsessively obsessing over someone else's obsessiveness.