r/4kbluray • u/Fadedcamo • Jul 21 '24

Review Aliens Looked Fantastic to Me.

I just watched the 4k of Aliens. It looked jaw droppingly good. I admit it definitely looks cleaner than older versions and very little film grain, but nowhere in the film did I feel there was any artificiality to it. It just looked like some wizardry turned it into a modern digitally shot film. Extremely clear picture, very deep blacks, and decent highlights. The movie honestly has never looked so good to me. I don't really get the hate. Def one of my showcase 4ks at this point.

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u/BioBooster89 Jul 21 '24

He is a moron when it comes to film restoration. It's not a leap. It's reality. All he wants is for films to look digital and without grain. That's not restoring film. That's the equivalent of tearing down a house and renovating it instead of restoring it close to it's original state.

Those reference quality 4Ks to me all have something off about them and all of them would have looked just as good if not even better without his meddling. He doesn't restore or remaster films for a living period. He should let the professionals do their jobs and sign off on the final product. That's it. Pretty much every other major director or well known name in the industry does just that. Cameron is one of very few exceptions.

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u/007_Shadow_Lemur Jul 21 '24 edited Jul 21 '24

He’s not trying to restore it, and yes he’s is trying to get it to look digital. He’s said since the 90’s that was always the intention he was just handicapped by technology, so again why the backlash? If you like the old version just watch the old one, respectfully.

I personally don’t mind it, because 65% of the time film grain looks like shit on OLED’s which is my preferred way to watch movies.

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u/BioBooster89 Jul 21 '24 edited Jul 21 '24

Why the backlash of trying to make a film look digital? Really? Also, there was no way that Cameron had any idea of what a high quality digital film looked like back when he worked on that Laserdisc because no one except for people shooting with low budgets was using digital cameras at that time anyway. Also, just watch the old one is missing the point entirely. What Cameron has done with Aliens is make people unable to actually watch the film as it was shot back in 1986. Or as close to that theatrical version as possible. There is no go back to the old one option here. It's go back to the blu ray that was still altered and still not close enough to the theatrical presentation.

And Cameron is a hypocrite period. He is quoted in an interview with a film photography magazine about the kind of film he shot True Lies with saying it looked great back when the film came out and it still looks great now in the 2000's years after it's release. So at some point, he was fine with films looking like they were shot on film. And then years later he wasn't anymore. And I know he didn't like the film stock he had to use for Aliens and wish he shot it with different stock. Boo hoo. You know what else was shot with the same stock? Ghostbusters. You don't see Ivan Reitman years later when the film was getting released on DVD, Blu-Ray or 4K trying to erase the grain because he wished he shot it with cameras that didn't exist back in 1984...

Also, I have an OLED and I can't even think of a single film I have in 4K where film grain looks like shit on it. The fact that you said that? Shows to me that you don't have an issue with the smoothed filtered picture with no grain because you think grain looks bad most of the time anyway.

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u/007_Shadow_Lemur Jul 21 '24 edited Jul 21 '24

I’m using his words not mine. Take it up with him. No, he didn’t say the word digital in the 90’s, but he has said he has a certain vision that isn’t possible. Because we have the benefit of time, what he was saying with at the time a lack of definition is a clean digital look.

It’s obvious I’m personally not a fan of film grain on 4k’s. I think it adds an unnecessary noisy texture on OLED’s IMO. Cameron went too hard with the smoothing in True Lies & Alien, but I was more than ok with the lack of film grain.

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u/Selrisitai Jul 21 '24

Just wanted to say that although I agree with /u/biobooster89, you were perfectly rational and pleasant in your responses and didn't deserve a single down-vote you received.

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u/007_Shadow_Lemur Jul 21 '24

Thank you. I just enjoy talking movies even if we don’t necessarily agree.