a night like this

saw Alien: the Director's Cut in the theatre earlier today.

we have it on LD at home, only with the extra scenes not cut back into the movie where they belong. but still.

the print looked very, very nice. and the movie itself is still amazing. on so many levels. niggling continuity issues that crop up here and there aside, the model work is fantastic (won't be seeing any of that anymore, will we? i mean, since everyone seems fairly well convinced that "digital is always better," and more importantly, that computer graphics are better than anything and everything that went before, hi art of modelling and puppetry and animatronics and claymation and stop motion and...and...); the score is appropriate and uses tons of silence and ambient noise in addition to not feeling the need to have music going nonstop throughout; the actors do their job but are not over the top; the lighting is really good; the sets look really real; everything altogether looks and feels more REAL than lots of sci-fi epics done in more recent time. in large part, i'd say this is because this film was not afraid to be dirty. this sort of thing looks too clean for my taste these days, honestly. plus, suspense! and Giger's designs. god. it's really cool, but it makes me sad at the same time. i'm really glad to have seen it in a theatre, though.

also, there was a trailer for Alien Vs. Predator before the movie. due out in August of 2004. they're finally doing it. after talking about it for years.

it had better not suck, dammit. >P