[Grain Of Salt] Aliens/3/Resurrection 4K Remasters Inbound

[Prez]

That review is f**king shite, putting it politely.

Hahaha. Love the passion my friend but I will respectfully disagree. Bill makes the clear statement that this is a personal taste. Some won't mind the lack of grain and others will. And having read Bill's site for a long time, he's definitely not one to be a paid shill so he's not just saying it.

Ol Jimbo wanted a certain modern look for this grainy film. That's what it came down to. I think all the Avatar experience has led him down a visual style that he wanted for this 80s film.

As I said previously, my own personal opinion on seeing the digital version is that I actually liked it. The sharpness and clarity really hit me for good at times (and this was watching it on a high-quality display too). It took some getting used to. It's not garbage in my opinion but it's definitely a different tone and look for Aliens. I'm curious to see what it's like off physical media - maybe my opinion might change.


I'll be getting it as let's be honest, I want it in my collection.

[Nightmare Asylum]

https://twitter.com/steveasbell/status/1767680389005365438

Also, neat prop behind the movies.

[Stitch]

I have pre-ordered Abyss, will likely pick up Aliens when it's discounted. Might pick up True Lies used.
I already have the Aliens Blu-ray, and the Spanish release of True Lies. If the new transfers are going to be that bad, then I might just stick with them.

[Acid_Reign161]

That review is f**king shite, putting it politely.

https://i.imgur.com/RXkQxtV.jpeg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nqMiw8k07sU
Jaundiced with detail absent, replaced with edge enhancement, will look woeful when in motion on disc I absolutely guarantee it.

100% agree with everything you are saying Blue; this is, without a doubt, the WORST release 'Aliens' has *ever* received (and I have pretty much all of them) - it's not even the same movie anymore. Grain is scrubbed (which considering the video stock it was filmed on, means the movie details themselves are scrubbed) replaced with ridiculous amounts of oversharpening, then the revisionist colour regrade of the blu-ray has been further modified and revised to something different again, to the point that not one single scene looks anything remotely like how the movie ought to look anymore. It's just shockingly bad - and the fact there are people (not just casual viewers, but even here, on a fansite forum) trying to brush it off as "personal taste" is why we keep getting rubbish like this. When people will throw money at cheap churned out trash, they'll keep putting it out. We should absolutely NOT support nor accept this crap. And this movie deserves WAY better. It's shameful. (And I'm sorry, whilst I'm usually all about "each to their own", in this case those supporting this release are part of the problem).

It's like me snapping a picture of DaVinci's Monalisa, slapping a Snapchat filter on it, running it through FaceApp, sharpening it on my phone, printing it out on photo paper, displaying it in a museum exhibit and charging people to see my "superior restoration". It's a complete and utter joke. 

Sidenote: The cover is complete and utter shyte too, there's not one part of this release worth a penny when fans are putting out beautiful 35mm transfers for free.

[SM]

Setting aside the nonsensical 'It's the audiences fault' for a moment - I'm a casual viewer when comes to 4K (having neither owned nor watched a movie on 4K disk), so what are people genuinely expecting when it comes to transferring an old grainy movie?  Are they expecting it to still be grainy?  Would that fly with an audience in 2024?

[Stitch]

Setting aside the nonsensical 'It's the audiences fault' for a moment - I'm a casual viewer when comes to 4K (having neither owned nor watched a movie on 4K disk), so what are people genuinely expecting when it comes to transferring an old grainy movie?  Are they expecting it to still be grainy?  Would that fly with an audience in 2024?

A lot of 4K buyers are film fans who want to see what the film looked like in highest fidelity. Clean it up, remove scratches, make the print look as good as it can without sacrificing detail or changing too many characteristics of the film. So, yeah, in the case of Aliens, people want the grain. It was shot on grainy stock, so if you remove the grain, you remove parts of the film.

[Acid_Reign161]

Setting aside the nonsensical 'It's the audiences fault' for a moment - I'm a casual viewer when comes to 4K (having neither owned nor watched a movie on 4K disk), so what are people genuinely expecting when it comes to transferring an old grainy movie?  Are they expecting it to still be grainy?  Would that fly with an audience in 2024?

To clarify my perspective on that; whilst it's definitely the companies screwing us over, at the end of the day, If people know in advance that it's a poor release (which everyone here does at this point) and still proceeds to buy it 'just because it's Aliens', you tell the companies that "this is ok, I'll give you money for this trash" and they will continue doing it- look at the awful releases of 'Predator' on blu-ray; people were verbal about it, nobody would buy the first release once word was out that it was basically a DVD upscale on a Blu-ray Disc, they then churned out a waxy DNR mess, which again was slated and nobody wanted. They eventually realised and acknowledged that nobody would accept this, and we ended up with a beautiful 4k release. Money talks. This is Disney putting the feelers out to see if people will accept their cheap effortless A.I. Upscales. If it flops, we will get a better release in the future without a doubt, as they won't leave the cash cow unmilked. If it turns a profit however, then this is what we can expect to receive in future box sets for all the movies going forward. So yes, in that respect, it is, in part, the consumers fault too. They aren't forcing anyone to buy it, people choose to, knowing it's bad. I personally will choose to speak with my wallet (they sure as hell won't be reading my forum posts) and if enough others did the same, they'd get the message. 😅

But yes, as far as expectations; All I want is the best possible transfer of the movie as seen in 1986 (+1990 special edition). Correct colour grading, original film grain, a nice 4k scan from the negatives in UHD, with the original audio mix. No revisions.

[SiL]

I don't see how people have so much energy to get so upset about this.

[Prez]

I don't see how people have so much energy to get so upset about this.

Exactly. If you like it great. If you don't, well then good luck to you as well.

[SM]

Cameron approved these new transfers so it's not the company "screwing" anyone - isn't it Jimbob doing that?

I find it akin to the 'old effects were so much better than CGI' argument, as if Cameron didn't jump into (and help pioneer) digital VFX as soon as he could. He's going to want (and get, because he's James Cameron) the new editions of Abyss, Aliens and True Lies the way he wants them.

Once again, filthy 4K casual here, but sounds kinda snobby.

[SiL]

It's incredibly snobby.

For better or worse, this is what Cameron wants the film to look like. He never liked the graininess. He's clearly grown out of liking the colour purple and anything related to it. This isn't the studio making a shitty transfer, this is a filmmaker using new technology to make old work look closer to his modern sensibilities.

Which is a whole other kettle of fish.

[Prez]

It's incredibly snobby.

For better or worse, this is what Cameron wants the film to look like. He never liked the graininess. He's clearly grown out of liking the colour purple and anything related to it. This isn't the studio making a shitty transfer, this is a filmmaker using new technology to make old work look closer to his modern sensibilities.

Which is a whole other kettle of fish.

Spot on. And also what SM said earlier too.

It's what I said earlier. I think Jimbo wants his films to look a certain way - and given his experience in all things digital filming, I would say Aliens 4K is probably how he wanted it to look.

[Nukiemorph]

And am I the only one who doesn't feel passionately either way about the cover?

I think it's fine... It's like a modernized version of the poster with Ripley & Newt, and honestly, I was never crazy about that poster. I like the addition of the queen's silhouette in the background.

[[cancerblack]]

Wait, we were talking about the cover?

[SiL]

Not lately.