Good show at the BFI Southbank - great screen and sound, and an appreciative audience.
I have to echo what others have said, for the most part - Scott's clearly not had enough of pushing his 'modern' look for this film, so the cool, desaturated grade remains. A couple of sequences stood out, though - the dinner scene and the meeting after Brett's death were surprisingly colourful, almost to the point of the 1995 THX laserdisc.
Aside from that, it seems that some individual tweaks have been made here and there. Shots of the chestburster itself have been rebalanced, presumably in an effort to make the blood appear more realistic. The Ash interrogation is darker - not to the extent of the THX, but it's a little more atmospheric now. And certain shots of Ripley in the Narcissus cupboard have been darkened too - perhaps there are some things that don't need to be seen in 4K?
In terms of overall detail, the 4K master is fine but hardly revelatory - HD already offered a strong presentation of this film's low-key visuals.
So yes, always good to see Alien on the big screen, but there's little you won't have seen before otherwise. By the way, the BFI shop have Kane's spacesuit on display if you fancy a close look, and the screening started with Ridley Scott's short/ad for Hennessy, which I quite enjoyed:
(2019-03-03, 01:07 PM)FrankT Wrote: Wait, there was a digital fix?
When the chestburster sprints off the dinner table you could originally see a little stick propping the model's tail up. This was digitally removed for the BD and this has been carried over to the 4K. The afterglow of the Nostromo explosion also looks different on the BD and 4K to how it did in earlier releases.
(2019-03-03, 10:21 AM)jonno Wrote: Good show at the BFI Southbank - great screen and sound, and an appreciative audience.
I have to echo what others have said, for the most part - Scott's clearly not had enough of pushing his 'modern' look for this film, so the cool, desaturated grade remains. A couple of sequences stood out, though - the dinner scene and the meeting after Brett's death were surprisingly colourful, almost to the point of the 1995 THX laserdisc.
Aside from that, it seems that some individual tweaks have been made here and there. Shots of the chestburster itself have been rebalanced, presumably in an effort to make the blood appear more realistic. The Ash interrogation is darker - not to the extent of the THX, but it's a little more atmospheric now. And certain shots of Ripley in the Narcissus cupboard have been darkened too - perhaps there are some things that don't need to be seen in 4K?
In terms of overall detail, the 4K master is fine but hardly revelatory - HD already offered a strong presentation of this film's low-key visuals.
So yes, always good to see Alien on the big screen, but there's little you won't have seen before otherwise. By the way, the BFI shop have Kane's spacesuit on display if you fancy a close look, and the screening started with Ridley Scott's short/ad for Hennessy, which I quite enjoyed:
(2019-03-03, 01:07 PM)FrankT Wrote: Wait, there was a digital fix?
When the chestburster sprints off the dinner table you could originally see a little stick propping the model's tail up. This was digitally removed for the BD and this has been carried over to the 4K. The afterglow of the Nostromo explosion also looks different on the BD and 4K to how it did in earlier releases.
![[Image: xAwhRH5.jpg]](https://i.imgur.com/xAwhRH5.jpg)
