Alien Timeline Updated

[[cancerblack]]

Pretty sure I've seen an Italian throw eggs on there at least once, honestly. My preference is for Sicilian style bread with American style toppings, though.

[Necronomicon II]

If there's no oregano or fresh basil the pizza deserves an assembly cut. Some more Golic bread too.

Goes in the sauce. Along with red chili and yer crushed Golic.

Aye.

Mystery iggs, depends, I like pineapple 🍍.

Regarding TC and AC of A3, I re-watched the TC, and while I think it's still an issue that casual audiences won't relate and barely discern any differences among the prisoners, for me that issue contributes to the overall queasiness. While we can't root for these scum, Ripley's reckoning provides an opportunity for redemption, and even the likes of a revolting rapist like junior can have that opportunity. Therefore the AC helps to emphasise that theme a little more than the TC, even if it's only a little. Furthermore the AC does do better at establishing the setting; Clemens wandering the wastelands is stunning and also establishes his loner characterisation with no hint of exposition, that alone is a demonstrable improvement over the TC. That's not mere fat from a storytelling perspective, to a fox executive wanting to satiate American audiences craving xeno action however it would be. That it's enough for even casual fans of the franchise to prefer the AC, shows that there's obviously something that is resonating there.

Clemens likes anchovies on his pizza btw.

[Corporal Hicks]

I'm fairly sure there's already a pizza thread in the Rec board somewhere...let's take it there and not disrespect the thread.

[SiL]

Furthermore the AC does do better at establishing the setting; Clemens wandering the wastelands is stunning and also establishes his loner characterisation with no hint of exposition, that alone is a demonstrable improvement over the TC.

The TC establishes he's a loner just fine by showing him almost never interact with any of the others. All the exposition in the TC is in the SE, plus more.

If one's problems with the TC are that there's only one Alien, indistinguishable one note characters, no Hicks and Newt, little action, and that you're almost forty minutes ahead of the main character through the first half of the movie then the AC fixes nothing.

If one's problems with the TC is feeling like it lacks some mood or fleshingg out then the SE fixes a lot.

[BlueMarsalis79]

But the Assembly Cut literally does give more characterisation to the prisoners, you can not argue that fact, Junior and Golic come to mind.

Whether you think it is effective or not comes down to opinion.

[Necronomicon II]

It's not a great deal more but those small beats do help. Ah well, better to have Golic and Junior die in the flames eh, makes for a tighter piss on the wall, call it Alien 3, who cares. 😂

[Engineer]

I agree that the AC tells a more cohesive story overall, and fleshes out some of the characters a bit more...

... but honestly, using a dog as the host was much more gut wrenching and emotional to me than any of the added content in the AC. For that reason, I still prefer the TC.

[SiL]

But the Assembly Cut literally does give more characterisation to the prisoners, you can not argue that fact, Junior and Golic come to mind.

I can argue that only Junior actually gets more character development through his mini redemption arc. Everyone else is just more of the same as what's established in the TC.

There are lots of nice little beats in the AC that the TC could benefit from, but the full 40 minutes of extra footage is largely extraneous- and was never meant to improve anything.

One day I'll finish my middle cut...

[Cosmic Incubation]

I honestly feel like there's a perfect cut somewhere between the two.

I love the extra characterization and atmosphere that the assembly cut gives, but I think some differences like the dog chestburster scene work work better for me in the theatrical cut.

I typically prefer the assembly cut, but there are pros and cons to both for me.

[SiL]

Somewhere in the middle there's something that has all the extra fleshing out the AC provides but without a lot of the fat that was rightfully trimmed. Getting rid of the capture subplot loses Golic, for example, but also stops the movie hitting a brick wall halfway through.

[BlueMarsalis79]

I will take that over him just disappearing, and I like the breather personally, I think it needs that before ramping up for the bombastic finale and creates a much needed respite before going downhill.

Also I prefer the Assembly Cut opening because it is not quite as mean to the people in the EEV (and thus reflects better on Clemens' character), alongside just better cinematography.

As for which Chestburster, I think the Ox looks better (the setting, the imagery, religious undertones of it) but get the view for the Dog being more impactful... but only on a surface level... I would honestly argue that just makes the emotional energy of the scene all messed up, in the Assembly Cut I am focused on Ripley's grief, in the Theatrical Cut it's so distressing what happens to the Dog that I think the emotional focus ends up in the incorrect place.

The only thing I prefer about the Theatrical's the score not being messed up during the sacrifice scene.

I don't even really enjoy the Threatrical Cut, I can't tell you exactly why but it's just not the same to me, it's a combination of all of the above. 

[Necronomicon II]

I just like the scene-setting better in the AC; we see the lice on the washed up Ripley, again, no exposition, beautiful world-building.

(Am aware it's not actual lice 😂, fury's got super large chungus lice.)

[SiL]

I will take that over him just disappearing, and I like the breather personally, I think it needs that before ramping up for the bombastic finale and creates a much needed respite before going downhill.

Breather from what? The film takes almost 50 minutes to go anywhere and then just stops for 20 minutes while the main threat is completely neutralised.

It was absolutely the right idea to cut the subplot out completely.

100% the opening of the AC is better though.

[BlueMarsalis79]

Go anywhere? Where it is I like... lol.
A respite from The Alien. Maybe it could do with being trimmed down but the vast majority of it I dig.

[SiL]

Again, respite from what? The film just gets to the point where everyone is aware of it, and then they promptly lock it in a room.

We have 50 minutes of people sitting around thinking there's no problem interspersed with attacks, then almost half an hour of people thinking there's no problem - and being right.

It's not great pacing.