Grabastic

***A FEW SPOILERS HERE***






i'm not sure if this belongs in this forum, so forgive me if this is out of place.

that being said, i have to admit that i was a bit let down by the new cut of Alien 3 on the Quadrilogy. why they would knowingly "restore" damaged footage into the movie is beyond me. for those that don't know, much of the new footage has a damaged audio track for the dialogue, resulting in a terrible hissing sound when certain characters speak. this was very distracting.

i also thought the new scenes were not as great as the filmmakers apparently thought they were. most of these new scenes the cast and crew consider so valuable were, for the most part, totally unnecessary. a few examples: the new opening on Fiorina was, IMO, not as good as the original montage sequence from the theatrical version. i also didn't like the ox/chestburster scene at all. i found the same scene done with the dog to be much more intense when spliced into the funeral scene for Newt and Hicks.

the scene showing what happened with Golic was good and kind of filled in a hole that existed in the theatrical version (namely what happens to Golic). though the whole capturing the alien bit was unnecessary and really only succeeded in robbing some of the tension from the ending.

i was also dissatisfied with Ripley's death in the new cut, as it totally removes the part with the chestburster coming out of her. i found the chestburster and Ripley's ultimate gesture to be quite symbolic of the running theme in all the Alien movies (namely, the Aliens' determination to survive and prosper vs. Ripley's determination to stop them). it was a much more appropriate way to rap up the series, had they actually done so with 3.

i did like the new footage that lengthened existing scenes from the theatrical cut. for instance, the added dialogue in the conversation between Ripley and Dillon in the cafeteria made the lifers' religion much more clear. these and other small additions to existing scenes were very good and made the movie all the more better. had the filmmakers not gotten carried away and made only small additions like these, instead of adding the major plot changing scenes, the new cut would have worked a lot better, IMO.

i usually find myself much more taken with director's cuts or extended versions. looks like Alien 3 is going to be the exception to that. =(

nemein

I guess each to their own... personally I thought the new scenes were good and filled in a lot of little gaps in character's personalities/actions. In fact, knowing I'll get a lot of grief for this, I think I like the new cut of Alien3 better than the original Alien now. WRT Ripley's death scene I always thought the chestburster coming out looked rather cheesy and frankly I'm glad to see it gone.

eddiekirk

A little OT:

Did you have a problem turning the subtitles off (some pop up during quiet scenes) only to get "Special Edition" in it's place during all SE scenes? If so, what player.

Judge Dredd

I didn't hear any hissing sounds, I enjoyed the extended version much better

Grabastic

i didn't have that problem. the intro to the movie tells you that you can turn off the subtitles if you don't want to see them. i can't speak for other players, but it isn't that hard to shut off the subtitles on my JVC DVD changer, since it has an on-screen menu for adjusting angles/subtitles/audio settings while playing a DVD.

Grabastic

I didn't hear any hissing sounds.

are you playing it in Dolby Surround with a 5.1 setup? that's how i'm hearing it and it was quite noticable.

TheKing

The sound wasn't "damaged."

Some of the scenes were never completed, meaning the sound was never redone in the studio. Instead, they had to use the raw audio that was recorded during the shoot.

The "hissing" you hear is the background noise in the scenes that could not be removed. A movie set can be loud, especially when the film is supposed to be taking place in a place with running machinery.

They included this footage to give people a look at what could have been if FOX had not taken the film away from David Fincher, and since he declined to be involved in the project, this was the best option.

mythmaker18

Me too! When I saw it, I found it quite laughable, because, if you have a twisted sense of humour (like I have), it almost looked like "Awww, Mommy's cuddling her lovely newborn squidling" rather than trying to keep it from escaping.

Grabastic

The sound wasn't "damaged."

the information provided before the movie begins suggests that certain audio tracks "could not be repaired" which seems to suggest to me that there was some damage or that they had simply been allowed to decay while in storage and were not totally recoverable.

meritocracy

I couldn't agree with this statement more. If I remember correctly, Fox demanded this be included and almost everyone associated with the film found it an absurd addition. I'm forever grateful that it's been removed as I've always found this scene to be an utterly laughable inclusion in a film that tried to present a much deeper level of subtext than the previous Alien films. This "forced inclusion" was nothing more than the studio simplemindedly pandering to the audience and feeling the need to tack on an unnecessary crowd-pleasing ending in a film which strived to specifically stay away from said pandering. After going through the supplements and viewing the new cut, I've come away with a new respect and appreciation for what Fincher was attempting to accomplish with the film. Is it a perfect? By all means no, but it's far and away a vast improvement over the theatrical cut.

Grabastic

frankly, i've never understood why people feel this way about the chestburster ending. i mean, if it was the filmmakers had decided to have the chestburster in the final scene, would you have balked as much? are you all just mad that the studio made them do this? is it that you don't like that Ripley having the chestburster? what? why is this so terrible?

it's not like it was much of a shock. you know way ahead of time that she's got an alien in her. she keeps coughing and acting like it's going to come out all the time. with the benefit of hindsight, you realize that they are actually building up to the chestbursting for almost the entire movie. so why is it that when it finally happens, it suddenly becomes such an atrocity?

meritocracy

For whatever it's worth (not much), I would still have issues with the scene even it was the filmakers intention. I do, however, feel a sense of delightful vindication simply knowing that they most certainly did not, and having always felt that it in some nebulous way cheated Ripley of her dignity in death. By appearences, the theatrical cut takes away from the focus of the scene which should be on Ripley and her alone. I certainly never felt the film was "building up" to a chestbursting scene as evidenced by the fact that it was only included after a heated debate and after principle photography had been completed. The fact that Ripley was infected with an alien was a plot device, and a good one at that, considering Weaver wanted her character to die at the end of the film.