DVDizzy Forum

I've been eyeing the set since it came out but now that I've just seen that Amazon.co.uk has it for around $33 US and is region free, I'm not sure I can pass it up any longer.

I never owned the quadrilogy DVD set so most of the bonus material is completely new to me, I only have the Legacy DVD set. So for anyone who has it, would you say it's worth $33?

Yes. For $33 you're getting four movies, each presented in two versions, commentaries and isolated scores for each film, a bonus disc housing the 12 hours of making-of material (split into four 3-hour documentaries, one for each film) plus about 5 hours of enhancement pods, and another bonus disc with a wide array of features (galleries, trailers, tv spots, both versions of "Alien Evolution", 1999's "The Alien Legacy", 2002's "The Alien Saga", additional vintage documentaries/featurettes, the Laserdisc Archives for Alien and Aliens, the 3D ride footage, etc.).

And if you're not a fan of the last two films, think about the $33 as spending $16.50 each for the first two films and the two bonus discs, and the other two films as freebies.

It sure beats buying the standalone Blu-Rays for $34.99 each (well, SRP), where all you get are the movie discs. Which are good, as they do offer the theatrical and alternate edits, the commentaries, and iso-scores.

But the two bonus discs in the Anthology set are really where the lion's share of supplements are and well worth whatever price is paid.

albert

Sorry to again be the killjoy, but this belongs in the DVD section.

I'm planning on buying this too. so damn expensive though.

I agree with Escapay. This is money well spent. Alien Anthology on Blu-ray is superior to anything else that has ever been released. If you like commentaries, they finally got Sigourney Weaver to do a commentary for "Alien", and it is worth the price of owning the set.

All four movies are prestine in their presentation, and with a boatload of extras, it is definitely worth the investment.

dvdjunkie wrote:I agree with Escapay. This is money well spent. Alien Anthology on Blu-ray is superior to anything else that has ever been released. If you like commentaries, they finally got Sigourney Weaver to do a commentary for "Alien", and it is worth the price of owning the set.

All four movies are prestine in their presentation, and with a boatload of extras, it is definitely worth the investment.

I'm sorry to correct you, but the Sigourney Weaver audio commentary isn't on the disc. She appears on the audio commentary that was recorded for the Quadrilogy release, but not on any new ones (there aren't any new ones). Not that that makes the set any less impressive, though.

Yeas, this set is totally worth its money. They put most of the extras of both the previous DVD releases on the set, so there's a fountain of supplements on each disc, and all of the movies look and sound incredible.

Note to Kubrick Fan:

Currently watching "Alien" and Sigourney Weaver is among those involved in the commentary. There was so much made about the fact that she was not involved in the film's commentary on "Quadrilogy" that she caved and her film commentary is featured ONLY on "Alien" on the "Alien Legacy" on Blu-ray.

dvdjunkie wrote:Note to Kubrick Fan:

Currently watching "Alien" and Sigourney Weaver is among those involved in the commentary. There was so much made about the fact that she was not involved in the film's commentary on "Quadrilogy" that she caved and her film commentary is featured ONLY on "Alien" on the "Alien Legacy" on Blu-ray.

But she was involved in that commentary. Look up the specs of the many different regions of the Quadrilogy set at DVDCompare.net. She's there on every single version of the first movie. I even remember when it was released, that there was a discussion why she wasn't on all the commentaries. Turned out Weaver didn't have much time, so even the one commentary we did get was kind of lucky. There was also talk that Weaver got her daughter a Blu-ray set of the movies, supposedly with audio commentaries done only by Sigourney Weaver, but whether that was true, I don't know.

I own the "Alien Anthology" on Blu-ray and there is a separate audio track with Sigourney Weaver's commentary. There is also the "old" commentary track that was on the "Quadrilogy" collection. Like I said before I was listening to it yesterday. There was a big article last year about her taking the time to do this commentary. It is something that she didn't want to do at first, and it took a few years (20 or so) for Ridley Scott to coerce her into making a contribution.

dvdjunkie wrote:I own the "Alien Anthology" on Blu-ray and there is a separate audio track with Sigourney Weaver's commentary. There is also the "old" commentary track that was on the "Quadrilogy" collection. Like I said before I was listening to it yesterday. There was a big article last year about her taking the time to do this commentary. It is something that she didn't want to do at first, and it took a few years (20 or so) for Ridley Scott to coerce her into making a contribution.

I'm sorry, but why then do none of the reviews (that list all of the special features) mention this? Weaver was already interviewed for the Quadrilogy, and did the commentary, so it's not like she didn't make a contribution already.

dvdjunkie wrote: it is definitely worth the investment.

Buying a copy of a movie on physical media... is not an investment.

The Decline and Fall of Physical Media Retailing: A Timeline

Just to put the commentary disagreement to rest, some words from official sources and those close-enough to the official sources...

The Digital Bits interviewed Charles de Lauzirika, the producer of the Alien Quadrilogy and the Alien Anthology. This excerpt from a 2003 interview discusses the Alien commentary:

Inside the Alien Quadrilogy, Part Two

• CL: Obviously, Ridley Scott has been very helpful and enthusiastic. In fact, he's become more enthusiastic as the project's progressed. At first, he was busy working on Matchstick Men, his new movie, plus he was prepping another film that he's trying to get off the ground, called Tripoli. So he didn't really have the time to focus on Alien for a long while. But now that his schedule is starting to free up a little bit, he's been very helpful and supportive. He really wants to get in there and be part of the project. We recorded all new audio commentary with him twice, once by himself and then again with Sigourney Weaver.
  
  

When The Digital Bits received their copy of the Quadrilogy for review, they discussed the commentary in the Disc One review:

• But the best of Disc One's extras has to be the newly recorded audio commentary track. This is completely different than the Ridley Scott commentary on the previous DVD, so if you want to have that as well, you'll have to hang onto the original disc (as I mentioned in the introduction, the previous DVD's isolated score and alternate music and production audio tracks are also not included here). This new commentary is fantastic, featuring Ridley with almost all of the film's featured players, including Sigourney Weaver, Tom Skerritt, Veronica Cartwright, Harry Dean Stanton and John Hurt. Original writers Dan O'Bannon and Ronald Shusett also appear occasionally to offer their thoughts. Scott and Weaver were recorded together, as were Cartwright, Stanton and Skerrit. This allows a nice interplay between the participants, and makes for fun listening. There are some great anecdotes told here, along with some good jokes and even a "blue" comment or two. I won't spoil it for you other than to say that this is a commentary track you'll definitely enjoy.

Then, in 2009, there were early indications that Weaver would record new commentaries for the still-a-year-away Blu-Ray set, as reported in the The Digital Bits' Rumor Mill:

• This is just a quick update on a title we've talked about several times before, but as it's still a few months away from being officially announced, the news belongs here. In an interview with the L.A. Times over the weekend, actress Sigourney Weaver revealed that she's going to be recording brand new audio commentary tracks for each of the four Alien films - tracks that will be added to Fox's nearly complete Alien Anthology Blu-ray box set. We've confirmed this news with our industry sources, who have also informed us that the box set is going to blow away fans of the previous DVD Quadrilogy. Not only have all of those previous extras have been included, but TONS of new material has been added as well exclusively for the Blu-ray release - extras that should make the BD WELL worth upgrading to. The set will be released in mid-to-late 2010, and rest assured we'll keep you up to date on it.

And the excerpt about the commentary, taken from the actual interview:

• In the meantime, Weaver has been living in the future by promoting “Avatar” and getting ready to revisit her past – she will be sitting down in the weeks to come to watch all of “Alien” films as part of the process of recording commentary for the upcoming Blu-ray release of the four-film franchise.
  
  “I’ve never done that, watched all of them in a row,” Weaver said. “I just recently made my [19-year-old] daughter watch them. She had never seen them before, believe it or not. I think she just prefers to think of me as good ol’ mom, you know, not some person running around a spaceship with a flamethrower.”

Unfortunately, when the official specs came in for the Blu-Ray, there were no new commentaries listed, which The Digital Bits explained in their review of the Alien Anthology on Blu-Ray:

• A couple of notes on the extras: Many of you may recall that actress Sigourney Weaver gave an interview to the L.A. Times in which she indicated that she was going to be recording new audio commentary tracks for all four films in this set. This is something she planned to do, and Lauzirika and Fox worked hard to facilitate it. Unfortunately, the intense demands upon her schedule of promoting the theatrical release of Avatar didn't allow this to happen. That's certainly a shame, but it's the nature of the beast and she IS still represented on the previous DVD commentaries. In addition, the Dailies: James Remar as Hicks Enhancement Pod was deleted from the set's extras at the request of Lightstorm. I just thought it was important to note here, because many of you have asked about both things in recent weeks.

Hope all this helps!



albert

I don't own the Blu-ray set, but for the price the UK set is the way to go. I think the packaging (both versions) are a big improvement over the US release, and the price is great right now.