What Are My Chances? Alien: Director's Cut vs. Theatrical Cut – AvP Galaxy Podcast #177

[SiL]

I like that movie too.

[SM]

It's okay as far as movies of people who spend most of the time watching a viewscreen go.

[Simply_Kevin]

For anyone curious about fan made cuts, there's an excellent subreddit called r/fanedits. There's a 2-in-1 called Paradise which merges Prometheus and Covenant, alternating between the events of each movie in a way that feels like it was the intended effect. Brilliant! It's under 2 and a half hours, which is crazy if you think about how much of each story gets cut without losing sense.

[SM]

Butchery by uncultured swine.

[Highland]

He wanted a version he thought would appeal to a contemporary audience so sped things up a bit.

Slapping every cut scene back in makes for a slow movie. Like the Alien 3 Special Edition, minus the repetition.

I feel like the extended/Directors cut movies though should be just about volume regardless of pacing (within reason). They already made that movie, trying to make another one seems like double dipping.

As long as one scene doesn't contradict another, they should put as much in as possible. After all it's likely us that's going to buy/watch it and not Mr pacing issues.

Going to listen to the pod now at work !

[SiL]

He wanted a version he thought would appeal to a contemporary audience so sped things up a bit.

Slapping every cut scene back in makes for a slow movie. Like the Alien 3 Special Edition, minus the repetition.

I feel like the extended/Directors cut movies though should be just about volume regardless of pacing (within reason). They already made that movie, trying to make another one seems like double dipping.

As long as one scene doesn't contradict another, they should put as much in as possible. After all it's likely us that's going to buy/watch it and not Mr pacing issues.

Going to listen to the pod now at work !

That's not at all the point of a director's cut, though. The director's cut is an actual stage of the editing process and is the director's preferred version, before final changes are made for theatrical.

Some directors end up liking the finished version fine (like Scott) and others try to get their version released.

[Highland]

He wanted a version he thought would appeal to a contemporary audience so sped things up a bit.

Slapping every cut scene back in makes for a slow movie. Like the Alien 3 Special Edition, minus the repetition.

I feel like the extended/Directors cut movies though should be just about volume regardless of pacing (within reason). They already made that movie, trying to make another one seems like double dipping.

As long as one scene doesn't contradict another, they should put as much in as possible. After all it's likely us that's going to buy/watch it and not Mr pacing issues.

Going to listen to the pod now at work !

That's not at all the point of a director's cut, though. The director's cut is an actual stage of the editing process and is the director's preferred version, before final changes are made for theatrical.

Some directors end up liking the finished version fine (like Scott) and others try to get their version released.

I get that, I'm saying is more like I already know how the movie unfolds and A Directors will rarely add anything that was integral to the original, it ends up more like "oh that's kind of interesting"

I still usually like the originals better, but I just want to see more "stuff" usually, more word building, more of the characters. I think most of the extended cut versions of movies (Aliens, LOTR, The Abyss etc), they just feel better with more. Personal preference obviously!

[SiL]

You just gave examples where they intentionally added more material back to the stories to flesh them out rather than just adding "stuff" though

Like entire characters and subplots are resolved in the extended LotR that are lost in the theatrical versions. That's why those movies feel better longer; they're actually able to develop the story more fully.

[Highland]

You just gave examples where they intentionally added more material back to the stories to flesh them out rather than just adding "stuff" though

Like entire characters and subplots are resolved in the extended LotR that are lost in the theatrical versions. That's why those movies feel better longer; they're actually able to develop the story more fully.

Yeah that's my point, those movies didn't cut bits out at the expense of the new bits, we got all of it and don't have to pick between movies that have different scenes removed/replaced.

I prefer the Cameron style " long road"

[SiL]

I'm a bit lost. Those edits still considered pacing and trying to make the stories flow well - but you said they should just throw in everything plus the kitchen sink originally.

I think we actually agree in the end.

[Darkness]

I enjoyed this podcast. I always tend to watch the Director's Cut whenever I watch Alien. I don't think I realised that they changed the sound effects that you pointed out there.

[BigDaddyJohn]

I realize I haven't watched the theatrical cut for so long.

Weird since I don't really think the director's cut is better than the theatrical one.

I now only watch A3's assembly cut though, which I think is far better than theatrical.

[Nightmare Asylum]

For Aliens and Alien 3 I default to the Special Editions. For Alien, like I said in the podcast, I'm very much a theatrical cut purist (though I'm interested in a lot of the DC's sequences in isolation of the film), and for Alien: Resurrection I always go for the theatrical cut as well.

[426Buddy]

I like seeing the extra footage and scenes but I find the Aliens TC to be a master class in pacing and tension building. So I still usually watch the theatrical cuts of all films when I do watch them. Which is admittedly not very often these days.

[BigDaddyJohn]

I also go with the Aliens DC almost exclusively nowadays.

Rez I don't really mind, both are okay except for the HORRIBLE intro in the DC.