Alien Anthology - Page 3

I couldn't pre-order this fast enough.


I mostly like the "egg" deluxe boxset. But for some reason the nerd in me is bugged about the alien hugging it. The kid in me wants an egg shaped box set. But then the kid in me is also saying "Hey, the eggs aren't bigger than the aliens".

Thanx for the breaking news today everyone!
Something to smile about....

Wait for the reviews. That's what I'm doing.

With the fiasco that is Predator: be afraid... be very afraid.

The only way they could have not fudged the transfers/encodes up is if these were all directly supervised by the people intimately involved with these films (with lots of hand holding), and 6k transfers and restorations from the original negatives as Spielberg has requested for his catalog titles so far.

Again... this is Fox we're talking about, which is starting to look like Universal for their catalog titles.

This doesn't even begin to make sense. How is one release from a company with a good-to-great record (after a few missteps) a trend? Do you have any examples of excessive DNR on Fox titles between the very early releases like Patton/TLD/etc and Predator, let alone other recent releases?

You may as well wait. It's very likely reviews will be out before the release date, so why take the risk of being burned? I'm optimistic we won't see another Ultimate Predator, but for this kind of money I'd want to be sure.

In my case the franchise ended after Aliens, so I've got plenty of time to measure the PQ before the single movie releases.

This.

i am sure as hell waiting. This is the most exciting release on BD for me since gladiator (which I didnt buy). If they botch it I simply wont buy it.

At the MSRP they're charging, I'm going to have to hope it hits 50% off at least before I jump on this one. I just can't see paying over $70 for the set. Who knows, though, it may just get down there by release date.

Oh, and I'm definitely going to be watching for reviews.

Predator is a sci-fi/action classic.

Fox hasn't bothered to fully restore this film since the early days of DVD!

They dust off an old transfer and slather it up with DNR like Vasoline and then call it "restored."

The new MGM (via Fox Home Video... MGM is bankrupt and has had financial difficulties even before that for years, and couldn't afford to do their own transfers if they tried... hence going from Sony to Fox in order to release their movies as they couldn't on their own) Sergio Leoni movies also have excessive DNR (G, TB, & TU is the worst), and many aren't fully restored.

Bull Duram and The Edge are 2010 releases, The Graduate was 2009 and use older MPEG-2 encodes.

Etc. Etc.

Looks like the start of a back-peddling trend to me.

Sorry, but 4 films in two years does not a trend make. The fact that one has been problematic since DVD, two are films of middling-to-good PQ judging by reviews, and the last has great reviews on PQ but uses a codec you have a personal dislike for makes it even less so. And last but not least, the only one that has been noted for DNR (let alone excessive DNR) is the same one you've already used as the one-title "trend." I'm not even going to get into the MGM titles since Fox is responsible for selling them, not mastering or transferring.

So, again, where is this "trend" from Fox? This time, see if you can use non-anecdotal evidence.

Sweet photoshop quality lens flare used on the packaging. Good to know those never go out of style... oh wait...

Looks like a sweet set, however, I can justify paying for Alien 3 and 4. I tried to like Alien 3 with the workprint - couldn't. Alien 4 is a mess. So i'll wait for the individual versions sad to say. Good to know those are closer to reality then ever tho.

I'm not sure if you're just interested in arguing, but is it your position that everyone should just blind buy this $140 box set because the majority of recent Fox catalog releases have been what we would all consider good to great quality? I certainly think caution is warranted given the Predator release alone, regardless of whether any overall "trend" toward lower quality can be proven to your satisfaction.

Agreed.

Though, even if these meet our high expectations I think I'll wait for the individual releases. I just can't stand the last two and yet I keep wasting my money on them.

No, I'm all for waiting to see on quality. I'm just bothered by the repeated insistence on this "precrimination" of releases based on faulty or even non-existent evidence. Other posters take this to heart, and then we have people saying releases are sub-standard or crappy when they're quite the opposite. Half the time, I feel like it's people who are just trying to justify complaining about something. And like it or not, depressing the sales of titles because of minimal or perceived flaws makes the studios less likely to either release or work harder on other titles. It's one thing to say "wait and see," it's another to make up trends out of whole cloth and make it a blanket statement.

^^
If they screw this one up with excessive DNR, they'll be a lot of pissed off fans!

As much as I've eagerly waited for this to come out since HD launched, I'm still not rushing to pre-order. After what Fox did to Patton (which I own) & the latest Predator (I'm staying with the 1st BD, thank you), I'll wait for a review!! If people hold on to their dollars until reading reviews that should send a clear message to the studio, we demand high quality. Rushing out to buy poor transfers only perpetuates poor quality - they have little incentive to spend money to do it right!

If this would be WB or Sony, I'd pre-order the box set now. In a nanosecond...but not Fox. Been burned on what should have been premiere titles, makes me cautious, say optimistically cautious

Agreed.
Like I said earlier....no one at Fox is willing to risk pissing him off.
In fact, I doubt ANY studio would risk it...

He should also approve the encode so we don't get another one of these:

97.99 on amazon - lol is all i can say. Are you kidding me? This should not have been more than $60 msrp.

They've got me over a barrel with the pricing. The price is a bit high, but I must get it as soon as possible. However, it does have a ton of content, so it isn't too bad if the image quality holds up nicely across all films.

Black Friday for me!

Let me just say, thank you for helping to support Blu-ray releases of great catalog titles by buying early and at the higher MSRP! That's what the studios need to see to justify back catalog releases to the bean counters. Unfortunately I'm not in a financial position to be able to buy "at any cost," but I sure wish I were!

I saw this at the BD site talking about the set's details. Bold emphasis is mine.

20th Century Fox claims that the four Alien films have been "reinvigorated for an intense Blu-ray high-definition viewing experience."

I'm sorry, but that is a huge red flag for me.

new cgi aliens for the first and second films to better match the aliens from III and IV....?

I don't think so - too many Big EYEs on this one. Scott, Cameron?

Do you really think the studio is letting some half-assed people handle the product
of their biggest payday director in history? Then there's Scott about to get back in space
right on the heels of Cameron with 2 films on the same franchise.

There is no way I'm buying this without either an advance peak via rental or enough reliable reviews that confirm the transfers aren't botched. And the first two movies are among my favorite films ever.

This is the message I'm sending not just Fox but all the major studios as an individual consumer: No more blind buys, no more pre-orders from me. Your product has to meet my expectations *before* I plunk down my money, especially for a expensive box set. I don't support double-dips. Just do it right the first time or don't bother.

T.B.

My thoughts exactly.