Aliens 4k release Opinions

[newbeing]

I've been going back and forth on picking the 4K release of Aliens after hearing about the AI use on this release to reduce grain of the film. However I've read it improves the heavier use of teal color grading of the blue ray (granted I never noticed this until comparisons pointed it out).


For those that picked up the 4K what are your thoughts?

[[cancerblack]]

@BlueMarsalis79

[TheDerelict]

I'm reticent to discuss the topic in question as I foolishly made the mistake the other day of mentioning that I bought and watched Aliens 4K and enjoyed it and was surprised that there were things that my eyes picked up that I just hadn't noticed before...

You would have thought I just been caught red handed setting fire to a hospital for terminally ill children.

Apparently there's problems with it about something something A.i and something something grain and teal colours and adding in extra Banthas and han shot first but greedo never shot at all...

Mate, I have no idea what anyone is talking about. All I watched was a film I had seen 100+ times that had a better picture quality than the blu ray.
I first saw Aliens in 1988 when I was 8 years old. I've seen it on TV, in a cinema 4 times, I've watched on a alone, I've watched on my iPhone, I've watched it on an iPod, I've owned it on both DVD and Blu ray. I've even watched it on a projector that was beamed onto the side of a metal container in the middle of the night in Helmand province Afghanistan...
And what I saw the other day when I watched it in 4K...was the same film, just looking slightly better.

My advice mate, if you like the film Aliens, buy it. It's a good film and now it looks better than ever.
But if you have the blu ray, keep that one too and if you can, buy a physical copy, that way if you don't like it you can get a refund.

Either way, I think Aliens 4K is fine and I'm willing to bet you will too. But on the off chance you find yourself getting angry about phantom A.I teal ghosts or whatever, go for a walk and breath some air. I get it mate, life can be pretty shit sometimes and we are all carrying around a lifetimes worth of pain from multiple events, but Aliens 4K shouldn't be one of them.

Best of luck in your decision and I hope you enjoy the film.

(For complete transparency, I am an individual who greatly enjoys the film Alien 3 and even thinks it's superior to its predecessor Aliens.)

[Local Trouble]

Uh-oh

[SM]

I'm reticent to discuss the topic in question as I foolishly made the mistake the other day of mentioning that I bought and watched Aliens 4K and enjoyed it and was surprised that there were things that my eyes picked up that I just hadn't noticed before...

You would have thought I just been caught red handed setting fire to a hospital for terminally ill children.

Apparently there's problems with it about something something A.i and something something grain and teal colours and adding in extra Banthas and han shot first but greedo never shot at all...

Mate, I have no idea what anyone is talking about. All I watched was a film I had seen 100+ times that had a better picture quality than the blu ray.
I first saw Aliens in 1988 when I was 8 years old. I've seen it on TV, in a cinema 4 times, I've watched on a alone, I've watched on my iPhone, I've watched it on an iPod, I've owned it on both DVD and Blu ray. I've even watched it on a projector that was beamed onto the side of a metal container in the middle of the night in Helmand province Afghanistan...
And what I saw the other day when I watched it in 4K...was the same film, just looking slightly better.

My advice mate, if you like the film Aliens, buy it. It's a good film and now it looks better than ever.
But if you have the blu ray, keep that one too and if you can, buy a physical copy, that way if you don't like it you can get a refund.

Either way, I think Aliens 4K is fine and I'm willing to bet you will too. But on the off chance you find yourself getting angry about phantom A.I teal ghosts or whatever, go for a walk and breath some air. I get it mate, life can be pretty shit sometimes and we are all carrying around a lifetimes worth of pain from multiple events, but Aliens 4K shouldn't be one of them.

Best of luck in your decision and I hope you enjoy the film.

(For complete transparency, I am an individual who greatly enjoys the film Alien 3 and even thinks it's superior to its predecessor Aliens.)

I saw a lot of criticism of screen cap comparisons and I honestly couldn't see what the complaints were about.

[SiL]

I'm interested to see it in motion and make my own judgment.

[Acid_Reign161]

To answer the OPs question, it will depend vastly on whether you are a videophile or not. Myself? I personally consider this the *worst* official release we've ever had (and for perspective, I've got this movie on everything from Video-8, Betamax, VHS, Laserdisc right up to all digital formats (not to mention non-home media releases such as various TV broadcasts and several different 35mm transfers)... and I just *cant* watch this 4k release through and enjoy it... everything is just... "off". Colour grading is awful (which to be fair plagued the 1080p blu-ray before it though that was somewhat forgivable due to providing the best picture quality we'd had), grain has been completely scrubbed leaving in its place a waxy DNR'd mess, with over sharpening and edge enhancement applied via A.I. This is as artificial looking as you could possibly get.

However, this isn't a problem to everyone, as evident by others in this very thread who are quite happy with it /pleased. It's going to come down to how you personally tend to react to such factors.

One thing I will say; the new transfer doesn't look *as* bad on a smaller screen (as iTunes/Apple automatically upgrade your purchases to latest release (which is usually a good thing) my 1080p digital Aliens that I usually watch on my MacBook when away on field work, sadly got replaced, and even running as a stream (where quality is lost over the 4k UHD) some of the problems were slightly less noticeable on an iPad/Macbook screen than on a 55inch 4k TV. (Distorted faces etc, not as immediately noticeable) - but still a hard watch for me; it takes me out of the immersion. 😅

[xShadowFoxX]

Man, I'm just happy I could buy True Lies on Prime, finally. That movie was on streaming for years but I could never purchase it.

[BlueMarsalis79]

Objectively the HDR sucks, it only goes up to a mere 200 nits so that blows when Alien had a great range of HDR. The Atmos also's missing sound effects outright in certain places, like the ramp closing. As for what you're seeing in terms of the image? Make up your own mind always, but I will not act like it is a better transfer when to me it is most certainly not in any sense.

I would read this for a range of various opinions:
https://www.reddit.com/r/4kbluray/comments/1bi345b/aliens_screenshots_comparison_and_video_clip/#lightbox

Look how Predator Ultimate Hunter Edition they look (flat and rubbery with oversharped edges) on the right here:



And because we have artificial intelligence algorithm at work look what it does to faces and people in the background of shots.

Hicks lost an eye prematurely:




And Frost lost one too!

The thing is, it is doing this all over, it is just most noticeable and easy to point what is obviously off with human faces instead of environments.

[Local Trouble]

But that looks awful!

[TheBATMAN]

Well I can confirm Hicks has two eyes on my disc version at least. And the ramp sound effect is there too.

[BlueMarsalis79]

Details go in and out of existence at random so in certain moments people have all their facial features and in others they have a smeared mess as seen above.  It is inconsistent because the artificial intelligence interprets frame by frame without actual continuity.

The hydraulics noise in the ramp closing no longer exists on the Atmos mix, it is still present on the DTX HD mix though. Compare them if you do not believe me.

The most damming thing to me's the way it wipes away dirt from Newt's face because it does not understand textural detail and assumes it to be film grain that has been sadly intentionally obliterated from this transfer for a digital look.

Look at the irises, they are totally wiped of detail, they look like fake eyes now.

[newbeing]

Thanks for the opinions and insights. Some of the screen capture comparisons are pretty striking, in that some look great, while others do have that odd AI art look. As others have mentioned there seems to be differences between the streaming version and the physical disc.
I guess I'll have to see it in motion before forming an opinion.

Ultimately I may wait to pick this up (it seems to be out of stock in most places anyway).

It is sad to me that this film, and many others have been tweaked so much beyond their original presentations. I get that we've all initially seen these films in different formats and on varying displays, so it's original look is always going to be a bit subjective. I just wish from a film history perspective we could get the film with as little tweaking as possible. I'd be fine if it was included as a no frills extra like the original Star Wars films on the first Star Wars DVD releases.

[MetalAlien]

I don't have a 4k TV or projector... I am happy with the blu ray.

[xShadowFoxX]

I don't have the 4k.. the original Blu ray is all I need, but i find it interesting how everyone on Amazon is eating it up