dinky wrote:anyway...Alien: Resurrection SE. First cut was far superior. no pace whatsoever to the SE. no wonder Junet didn't want to re-edit. I'm not sure which is a bigger plot gaff: the cloning and its results in Resurrection or the fact that the Alien incubates inside a dead ox. isn't the whole point of a host body that it's alive and nurtures the alien embryo?
no you missed the dialogue and implication of the scene in Alien3 i think. The ox *just* died, they pulled it inside, almost immediately (in terms of time frame) it chest bursts when they leave. Think about the size of an ox, its going to take it ages to eat/burst its way out don't you think?
Anyway, its pretty obvious that the hugger grabbed the ox straight away (since they used the oxan to pull the shuttle into the scrap heap, and most likely left the ox with the wreck). It then collapsed, died, they dragged it inside... that's what they say at least. Note the prisoner finds the dead facehugger, now in the first movie, it clearly says the alien has been keeping the host alive, its only in humans that they seem to live short after the face hugger falls off... why would this be the same for other species? Surely if it was a trait for all species, there'd be no point for the face hugger feeding oxygen and nutrients into the system? So I think actually the logic goes in favour of the facehugger feeding the host until it no longer needs it
However, you could be quite right, it isn't alive and it does make sense on one level that the host should be alive until incubation is done, or at least it sounds better that the alien feeds on the host like a parasite. It may be ready to burst, but needs to whatever... its unexplained, but if you need it to be I guess its fair to question. Anyway on the flipside of the questions it raises, I think acknowledgement of a huge contribution alien3 did contribute to the whole incubation cycle... that the alien takes on the 'make up' of the host and when the alien inpregnates a different species, you get a different alien. I always thought this was very cool, infact it was one of the redeeming factors of the normal edition.
There's a lot of incosistancies with the whole series if you think about it, I mean how long does it take the chestburster in Alien? Practically nothing, then in aliens, the colonist that chestbursts has been there for ages (hence all skinny and 'ill'
) and then in alien3, it takes a substantial period for ripley. Then in alien4 it takes like 40mins There's a lot of inconsistancies in the incubation cycle in *humans*... its best not to think about these things But given the size of an ox, I thought it seemed quite logical. As for the dog, I found it a bit implausable, that an embryo the size of the dogburster could live inside the dog without killing it. Its much bigger than a 'puppy' and its living inside its throat The series isn't very consistant, but then we are talking about an alien species, from different sub-species decent (a queen from a human won't be the same as the queen from those other aliens in Alien), there's going to be these inconsistancies.
And why not go further, given the unlikely hood that any aliens out there will be bipods, and the almost certainty that they will not take form of any terrestrial body, which have evolved to adapt for life on the unique atmosphere of earth.... why are the facehuggers specifically designed to impregnate air breathing lifeforms, with an orafice on their face for taking oxygen and food? Such a thing, in evolutionary standards would be implausable? The thing about alien... its alien, its nothing that we know.
As for explaining the alien's form, I think the ox, despite missing the excellent dog burster which is a better FX imo, the ox much better explains the charging bull sequences in the lead works at the end and for that reason is the better choice. As for the other changes the middle is given much more depth and the ending more meaning by the fact that they can outsmart and catch the alien, but I'm sure you'll agree that those changes were significant and positive.
As for the first cut of A:R being far superior, to be honest, they were both crap and I can't see anything changed significantly to warrant using far, and there was no noticable difference beisdes the changing of the ending and the begining. Pacing was identical. Neither was any significant change or improvement, apart from the terrible earth ending in the second cut... which topped that white piece of crap ending of both
. Saying far imo is an overstatement, out of all the cuts there's the least change between the two. The theatrical version is the better of the two though obviously 
Incidently, I've met a few people that actually think Alien3 is the best in the series now, although I think its the second worst/3rd best.
So I guess it does appeal to a lot of people... i personally think the series starts with the best, and ends with the worst as you know.
From that whole boxset, the biggest shame is that fincher didn't want to even bad mouth fox (although apparantly huge amounts of anti-fox footage has been censored from the box set, which is quite shocking on one level, but not surprising on another). Or, do you think fox would want to even ask him? Given the mutual hatred of one another
It's a shame though. I would have preferred more honest extras on both Alien3 and Alien4. All alien4 extras seemed tame, uninsightful and 'pre-screened' promotional material (ie the stuff u see in movie tv programs). Besides Giger bad mouthing the designs, it seemed dishonest. Alien3 extras seemed censored and much less than a lot of a 'anti-fox' presentation as you would expect from more open sources.
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And spiderman2 I haven't seen. Is there a decent TC yet?
