This is The second movie in the Alien Quadrilogy and IS UNTOUCHED
*1986 Theatrical Release
*Special Edition (dual versions available via seamless branching)
THX certified
THX Optimizer
(new) Audio commentary with director James Cameron, Gale Anne Hurd, Stan Winston, Robert Skotak, Dennis Skotak, Pat McClung, Michael Biehn, Bill Paxton, Lance Henriksen, Jenette Goldstein, Christopher Henn and Carrie Henn (BOTH versions)
Introduction to Special Edition by director James Cameron
Optional deleted footage marker for “Special Edition” (When you activate this mode, the text "Special Edition" will occasionally appear on the bottom right corner of the screen to identify every new scene)
Separate deleted and extended scene access for “1986 Theatrical Release” (8 scenes, allow you to view the new material from the Special Edition separately)
English and Spanish subtitles
1.85:1 anamorphic NTSC
English Dolby Digital 5.1
Spanish Dolby Digital 2.0 surround
James Cameron had a history of making longish films that film companies forced him to trim back, until somebody finally let him have his way and he created the biggest boxoffice success of all time. Anyway, his director's cut of Aliens, which he put together in 1991, runs 154 minutes and is the true version of the movie. The original theatrical version, which runs 137 minutes, felt incomplete when it first appeared and is fairly useless now. The additional material doesn't just enrich the story, it elegantly ties the plot together and draws you through its adventure and excitement with a solid narrative logic.
The picture transfer is identical to the older DVD, but it is also the most problematic. Not only is it very grainy much of the time, but the grain and the ambitious running times create noticeable digital artifacting flaws, especially during darker sequences. Otherwise, colors and fleshtones appear reasonably fresh. The 5.1-channel Dolby Digital sound is also identical to the earlier mix. It has a little more surround activity than Alien does, but it is still rather subdued in comparison to the later films.
Cameron is featured extensively on the commentary track, along with producer Gale Anne Hurd, four effects supervisors and a half dozen cast members. They reminisce about the movie, explain how things were staged, share a few anecdotes and that sort of thing. Cameron also tackles the film's graininess head on. "In this exact year, I think Kodak was in transition, they were changing their emulsions. This was a higher speed negative than had been used previously. They hadn't worked out their 't-grain' emulsion, so it turned out to be grainier than I would have wanted, but this was actually the standard, this is just what that stock was, that year, and because we weren't using the full negative like you would with an anamorphic film, we weren't getting quite as much image quality. I was surprised recently when I screened this film at how grainy it was. Of course, nobody noticed the grain at the time." Nobody except LD fans, who were up in arms when the film first came out in a blur that has now been substantially rectified.
