So yeah, I caved. The sun speech should've gone back in, because it helps drive home that it's a film about exploration a la Forbidden Planet moreso than a monster-on-a-ship movie. I also think the Holloway/Shaw substitution was a mistake, after seeing this one. There is a gorgeous, incredible shot in the theatrical sequence of the rose slipping through the holographic screen which is up there with any iconic image Ridley Scott has ever created, but the angry version of the scene is better and tells us more about both people, more bitter and coarse a la BR and Alien. The angry sex also inserts that layer of disturbing, uncomfortable sexuality the films have always played in. At the same time I know that if the scene had gone in there would be people calling Scott a misogynist online.
The Vickers/Weyland scene, I liked some of the sparse silences in the original version. But there are some great lines here, especially "you used to have so much grace."
I have really no quibbles about the casting. They all do what they're supposed to do. Holloway is who he is. "They're all dead. So that means that we are all alone." He wants to stand next to the gods because he wants very much to feel himself breathing in their rarefied air. In the end he gets that, but not in the way he would have hoped. I love Rafe Spall and just want more of him, but I want more of him in everything he's in.
Kate Dickie never got enough. That's my only real complaint, character-wise. I understand why the film was cut down to do more daily and make more money, and it did that. And neither Alien nor Aliens ran much longer than 120 in theatrical release, so I understand the precedent and I think this is the third best in that series. But I think that after years in the wilderness and one financially successful revival, the sequel can afford to go for a longer-running time for P2. Or so I hope.
