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Well what's there to say about this latest Alien box set that hasn't already been said. I got it shortly after I told myself I wasn't going to get it thanks to an Amazon one day sale that made it cheaper than what I had originally paid for
Alien Quadrilogy (Alien/ Aliens /Alien 3 /Alien Resurrection)
and it seemed quite worth it at that point.
I was a bit disappointed after my viewing of the second film, not with the film it's self but with the quality of the transfer. Aliens was really buggy and had lots of flicker and grain, I don't really mind the grain and I can't figure out if the flickering is a problem with my display set up or with the actual transfer I'm guessing it's the former since I haven't seen any other complaints about it but honestly I was expecting a little bit better treatment for arguably the biggest film in the franchise. The DVD version on the Quadrilogy set didn't have any of this flickering in the darker scenes and holds up just about as well under scrutiny. Like I said, I don't mind grain in a film that's better than 20 years old but I've yet to find a reason for this weird flickering it does. Since I'm more fond of the theatrical version of Aliens as opposed to the extended version I was thinking maybe they were lazy and just used an old transfer for the theatrical and remastered the extended for Blu-Ray but upon viewing that version all the same problems are present. I've adjusted every possible setting and I can't get rid of this flicker, it's not a huge deal it's just kinda distracting. James Cameron mentions in the commentary some technical aspects of the film stock used for this film that was far to technical and involved for me to understand without a degree from film school but what little I could glean from the director mentioned something to the fact that the film used was very prone to grain and other problems, so I think that explains away some of the problems with this transfer. There's only so much the remastering process can do, I guess.
The sound on this film has always been one of the standout parts of the movie and it gets a really nice treatment in the HD 5.1, there's lots of subtle sound effects that are mixed to perfection and simplified enough so that even if you don't have a big whopper of a sound system it still sounds great on your regular TV output. This is usually something I'm concerned with since I watch movies mostly late at night and don't wanna keep the neighbors up listening to Alien Queens screeching.
This is one of the all time great sci-fi films and it's James Cameron at his best, in my humble opinion I just wish Fox would have spent a little money restoring it for this particular release. I'd also like to mention that it has one of the most entertaining commentary tracks I've ever heard and if I'm not mistaken it won some kind of DVD award back in '03
Ok the evaluation of the Aliens disc is over so I'm sure 75% people stopped reading that's why I went ahead and started with the second movie instead of the first.
Alien, is a fantastic looking transfer it looks totally new. If Sigourney Weaver weren't running around looking like a doe-eyed teenager through the whole film I'd think it came out this year. I mean someone put some serious work into this, although this transfer is not exclusive to this disc, it's the same one used from the Quadrilogy set. If you remember the film was released back into theaters shortly before or after the Quad set came out, I can't remember exactly but I know the film was restored from the ground up for this anniversary event this Blu-Ray just features the highest possible quality of that particular transfer/remaster. The sound is as good as I've ever heard for this particular film, I've noticed a lot of little sound effects and even been able to discern some words out of the muttering a lot of the characters did in the film without having to crank my sound system up to 40 (it only goes to 30) just to make out what they're saying. I guess that has something to do with the HD audio as opposed to the now standard 5.1 mix. I've watched both versions although I'm more fond of the theatrical version again.
Alien 3, is a sharp looking film, seeing it in high def brings a new appreciation to the beautiful sets and art direction, at least it did for me and I've seen this movie a million times... Alien 3? You know the one with the Alien eating all the baddie baldies that no one cares about and holy cow Ripley has also become a baddie baldy and oh no there's a Alien in her too what should we too, how about we all commit suicide by alien just because we hate the company that much. I admit it's not the greatest film in the world but it does have some shining moments here and there. I like it, I still think it was a solid sci-fi flick if only for the mood it created and taking the established Alien series staple of a "used future" to the most extreme of extremes. David Fincher is one of my favorite directors because he seems to pay extra attention to the atmosphere subtle background noise can create and in the HD 5.1 mix it really comes out. Also concerning the sound, people who've already bought the Alien Quadrilogy will be happy to know that all the audio in the "Workprint" version has been fixed and it plays just like a normal movie instead of something Fox stole back from the internet and slapped on a DVD.
The picture on this film is quite crisp and sharp looking I don't have any complaints about the visual or sound on this disc. It may in fact be the best looking film in the whole set if you can stand the unbelievable crap of the story of the film, it's a pleasure to look at though and exceptionally sound designed.
The forth and final film, so far, Ridley Scott has a forward written onto this box set that mentions a prequel film, I've been hearing about one of those since Alien 3 so I'm not going to get my hopes up too high. This movie looks only slightly better on Blu-Ray then the DVD for a film this new I would have expected it to be a little more sharp in HD. Darius Khandji's photography comes out really nicely though. The sharp contrasts and deep dark blacks show up really nicely although mostly this film just seems brown, everything is brown in this movie, even the Aliens are brown! I can't tell if this version is any better than the DVD because honestly I don't know how many different ways there are to convey the color brown regardless of it's encoding. The space shots, the underwater scene all look pretty good though and like I said where there is a contrast between brown and another color it looks really nice. I won't even begin to get into how crap this movie is, but I will say this, it's probably got the most spins in my PS3 since I bought this set mainly because it's the easiest movie of the lot to pick up since there's not much of a story and it's not a very long film.
This film is a shining example as to why your director should speak the same language as the cast. Jean-Pierre Jeunet has made some fantastic French films this is his only "bad" film and not really a bad film but directing actors through an interpreter had to be quite a hindrance. I can barely give directions to the nearest gas station when someone interprets into Spanish for me so I don't even want to imagine what getting a performance out of an actor was like for him. Not the greatest film ever but I think it's watchable and at it's lowest points nowhere near as bad as either AvP film.
I was really wanting to type up a short review before I left for work tonight, but apparently I've gotten a bit verbose I apologize to anyone still reading I really am trying to be as concise as possible.
This is basically a Blu-Ray version of the previous Quadrilogy set with a few added features, mainly short videos and images here and there, as far as the BRD exclusives are concerned. All of the commentaries and virtually everything is from 2003 so basically Fox just double-dipped the material into a more expensive package. The biggest bonus is that it's not such a hassle to open and get a disc out, everything is contained in a simple little book that holds each disc in it's own page. All the special features from the Quad are contained on one disc while every other stitch of Alien related media is on the final disc.
A bit about the Blu-Ray exclusives; "Disc-Unbound" is a pretty cool idea, a six disc set that also features "Muther-Mode" where you can select a list of related features throughout the course of a film and then after the film pop in the related disc and play those selections. Kinda a cool idea it's just a shame this is all stuff I have seen a dozen times watching the Quad set. Also all the different audio tracks, subtitled commentaries so if you want to watch the movie with it's audio playing and just read the commentary, which is what I usually do is pretty neat. Isolated scores and on some films totally alternate isolated film scores are also neat in a fanboy way.
I gave this set 5 stars for being the perfected version of the old Quadrilogy set which was a 4 star set at best. But in the long run you're not getting much more than the Quad in sleek new packaging with some neat new little gimmicks.
I'd like to mention a bit about the packaging, I've never seen anything so sleek and well thought out with the fans in mind. Where with most box sets they just slap a bunch of discs in a generic box and ship it out and sell it to the public. This has got to be one of the most unique designs I've ever seen, it features a book like layout and each disc fits into it's own page with a double wide splash page between each disc. It's a dream compared to all the unfolding and dropping that came with the folding cardboard nine disc layout in the old Quad set.
In closing I'd like to mention that if you're looking for the most bang for your buck the old Quad set costs about what this one does and has just about everything this set has to offer minus some minor bonuses, I recommend it if you've got the cash but at the same time the frugal person in me would have probably just bought the Quadrilogy instead. I'm sure they'll release the movies in individual form sooner or later so if you really don't want the third and fourth films I'd just wait for that.
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The Ultimate Alien set
The "Alien Anthology" may have taken some time to come to Blu-ray Disc, but it has been worth the wait. We received the set directly from Fox so are able to give readers an early sneak peek. The films themselves are presented in both their theatrical versions and extended "special edition" versions, Even Alien3 comes in a half-hour longer version here, and they've gone to the trouble of re-recording bits of dialog and sound effects to clean up the audio from the restored portion to match the rest of the film. It is nice to have the choice to watch either cut of all four movies, and the SE version of the second film really adds depth to the story and the characters making a great film even better.Each film gets the DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 treatment (the first two films' theatrical cuts are also available in Dolby Digital 2.0 and 4.1 channel mixes). Sound is excellent overall, though perhaps not quite as bombastic as one might expect from such action-heavy titles. It seems like more should be coming from behind us at times, and the low bass rumble of the weapon fire and explosions is lacking ever so slightly in deep extended bass. But these are fairly minor criticisms as the sound is clean, imaging is precise, and dialog is clear and articulate throughout. The video transfers are clearly superior to the DVDs that came before them with rich detail, nicely saturated colors and deep blacks. H.R. Geiger's creepy organic art on the derelict alien ship in the first film has never looked so detailed and powerful and you can practically count the pores on young Sigourney Weaver's face. There are still minor instances of murky blacks, some ringing and softness here and there due to mild use of noise reduction, but overall, the transfers are pristine, considering the age of the films. The first two films, though the earliest, look the most improved here - no surprise considering they have been painstakingly remastered at 4K resolution for this release. Only "Aliens" is presented in its original theatrical aspect ratio of 1.85:1 - nearly filling a standard 16:9 screen with thin black lines at the top and bottom. The rest of the films are presented in a CinemaScope 2.35:1 aspect.The extras are extensive, to say the least (be prepared to spend some time here), with special features available on each disc, plus two entire Blu-ray Discs packed full of additional extras: one with "Making Of" documentaries, interview segments and behind-the-scenes footage, and one disc featuring the "Archives," chock full of seemingly every last piece of material -- text, still photos and video -- supporting the films and their back story. A helpful "MU-TH-UR" mode (with its own tutorial) is included to help you navigate through the massive amount of supplements - even allowing us to go directly to specific chapters on other discs: just eject one and insert the other, and it will take you directly to the requested material. Pop the original disc back in and the player will remember where you left off, asking if you'd like to resume. A nice feature made possible via BD-Java.At least one commentary track is available for each film ("Alien" has two), with every director but David Fincher (Alien3) participating in the commentary fun. All four films also have isolated score tracks (in Dolby Digital 5.1), so you can appreciate the nuances of the film's scores without any distracting dialog or sound effects. Although much of the supplementary materials used here are re-purposed from earlier home video releases (DVD and laserdisc), we found many new and extended interview segments and snippets we'd never seen before. I'm sure die-hard fans will find hours of enjoyment in the set, and the audio and video quality alone is worth the upgrade. I know I can never go back to the DVDs. Highly recommended!UPDATE (10/24): Some early purchasers and reviewers have noted some compatibility issues with the set and certain hardware. We've tested the disc with twelve players so far (OPPO, Panasonic, Samsung, LG, Philips, Toshiba and Sony), with mostly minor compatibility issues noted. On the OPPO BDP-83, the "Director's Cut" of "Alien" begins playing zoomed in with only the top left corner of the image visible. Hitting "Menu" then "Play" restores the image to its proper size. Also a Samsung BC-C6900 plays Ridley Scott's intro video to the Director's Cut of "Alien" squished to 4:3 (should be 16:9). Similarly a Philips BD-P7200 played the Ridley intro in a tiny window at the top of the screen, but the film itself played fine in both versions. But otherwise every player we've tested seems to play the set without issues. Some players are extremely slow to load the disc (particularly older players), but this is to be expected from such a BD-Java-heavy title. BD-Java can use quite a bit of on-board memory and processing power once you get fancy (and boy are these discs fancy!). We've tested the set on the following players: Panasonic DMP-BDT350, DMP-BD85, DMP-BD60, DMP-BD70V and DMP-BD35, Samsung BD-C6900, LG BD390, OPPO BDP-83, Sony PS3, Sony BDP-S350, Philips BD-P7200 and Toshiba BDX3000.Please note: a more extensive review is available on our web site at BigPictureBigSound dot com, and a discussion of the compatibility issues is available on our forum.
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La caja está fabricada a manera de libro y carece por completo de plásticos ya que todo está hecho de un cartón grueso y de buena calidad. La impresión es perfecta y el arte está realmente bien cuidado poniendo varias de las escenas más icónicas de cada filme en las "hojas" correspondientes. Además de que la impresión de las pastas duras del libro como su "case" o funda de cartón están impresas con un acabado que parece cromo iridiscente, el cual le da un acabado muy premium. Y hablando de la funda, ésta trae adherida en la parte trasera una hoja con las especificaciones técnicas y de contenido de cada disco. Dicha hoja se puede retirar cuidadosamente para dejar al descubierto un huevo de xenomorfo que igualmente es icónico de la saga. Quizá el único punto negativo de todo el empaque sería que para sacar cada disco hay que ser muy cuidadoso para no maltratar el espacio que lo contiene.
Sin embargo, lo realmente importante son los filmes. Las 4 películas vienen en un blu-ray cada una contando con dos versiones a elegir: la versión original que se proyectó en cines o la versión del director o una versión especial, según sea el caso. La calidad de la imagen es Full HD y cuentan tambien con salida de audio en 5.1. Incluso vienen dobladas al español latino por si prefieren verlas así en lugar de con el audio original, sin embargo algo que hay que tener en cuenta es que la versión extendida suele tener dos doblajes en la misma película, lo cual rompe la inmersión. Esto es debido a que utilizan el doblaje que se realizó originalmente y para las escenas que se agregaron posteriormente en la versión especial o del director, se usó un doblaje diferente. También es posible ver los filmes con los comentarios de los directores, productores, escritores y actores involucrados en cada película así como con dos opciones de banda sonora en caso de ser elegible.
Además de los 4 discos de las películas, se incluyen 2 discos más con varias horas de material extra que son muy jugosos en cuanto a anécdotas y datos curiosos sobre cada filme, así como imágenes y documentales que muestra la evolución que ha tenido la franquicia.
Sin lugar a dudas, esta es una edición que no debería de faltar en la colección de los fans del xenomorfo y que incluso puede llegar enamorar a quienes apenas comiencen a acercarse al universo de Alien.
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