I haven't watched Alien in years. Should I watch the theatrical version or the "Director's Cut"?

Well, the theatrical version is just about a perfect movie of its type. And I'm starting to trust Riddley Scott less with the Director's Cuts after the third do-over on Bladerunner.

Theatrical it is, then. Even he said he was perfectly happy with it to begin with.

I really liked the Director's Cut, but I think it's the only version I've ever seen. I saw it in the theater, and it was mind-blowingly awesome.

According to Wikipedia, the Director's Cut removes five minutes and adds four minutes. I would have gone ahead and watched it if it were just adding stuff (but Scott actually thought it was too long as an "expanded" edition), but I don't want to LOSE stuff from the classic version.

I really really liked it, but I know I'm not finished with it. It is complicated and subtle and the heavy lifting is up to you (I couldn't work out any way the flashbacks were being signalled, for instance, other than you realising this couldn't be taking place during the main timeline-was there some visual or audio cue I was missing, or was it really all in the narrative?).

I read the book this year and it jumps all over the place. However, I finally got Disc 1 of the Alec Guinness version and can't believe it starts at the end with the whole initial Tinker Tailor code setting meeting with Jim and Control.

And I'm starting to trust Riddley Scott less with the Director's Cuts after the third do-over on Bladerunner.

This.

THIS.

It's like he got knighted and then got a big ego or something.

Is there buzz on Corolianus? It looked kind of interesting, and then, only then, did I realise it was a modernising.

Man, I wonder what it was like for people to see Alien for the first time, especially if they didn't know anything about it. Because it's like, whoa, eggs, what the fuck. Facehuggers, what the fuck! Chestbursters, what the fuck! HOLY MOTHER OF GOD WHAT IS THAT THING WHAT THE FUCK! Special Order 24, what the fuck! ROBOT WHAT THE FUCK. The black guy is not the first, second, or even third person to die, what the fuck!

I really loved how elaborate the sets were, especially given the long tracking shots. That is a dirty-ass, lived-in spaceship.

I was surprised by how little you actually see of the alien. The last time I rewatched the movie, it felt weird to me too because it was like I didn't really remember what the movie was about. I think most of what I associate with the franchise, what really stuck with me, is in Aliens. Which is next.

Man, I wonder what it was like for people to see Alien for the first time, especially if they didn't know anything about it.

::raises hand::

I saw it in the theater with my high school friends and we didn't know anything about the movie except the basic premise.

The thing I remember is arriving after people had started to be seated, and there were eight of us and there was a prime row about a third of the way back that was improbably empty.

So we sat down there. And promptly got up because it smelled like puke (somebody had lost it in the previous showing because of the chest burster).

So we got up and moved. And then we watched five more groups of people go there, then sit down and get up and move. All to increasingly greater amusement by the people already seated, so that everybody would sort of hold their breath as a new group sat down then erupt in laughter when they got up.

Oh, and the movie was incredibly tense and eerie and creepy the first time we all saw it. Not like anything else anybody had ever seen. The monster's design alone was revolutionary - first time most people had seen anything by Giger.

But also it was the first aesthetic volley in the Dirty Future notion of science fiction, which was in high contrast to the previous model of Moulded White Plastic Future of both 2001: A Space Odyssey and (for the most part) Star Wars.

Ridley Scott, of course, then took this idea even further and to even greater influence in Bladerunner.