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I'll start things out with a quick observation (sorry if this came up in the other thread, I haven't read it yet.) In Alien, the reinsertion of the "kill me" scene seems like a mistake. It breaks up the tension in the critical final third of the film by side tracking Ripley and distracting the audience. It interrupts what was a seamless building of suspense as she runs first to the self-destruct mechanism, and then to the shuttle, then back to the self-destruct mechanism and finally back to the shuttle again. Additionally, it doesn't really add anything to the film. The plot thread (the Alien is doing something with the crew members that doesn't kill them immediately) is thrown away and not needed.
Other than that I think the new cut of Alien is good. I like the reinsertion of the Ripley/Lambert confrontation as it sheds light on their relationship and I think that other parts of the film benefit from tighter editing. In all it seems like a zero sum gain. The original release is an established classic that’s hard to criticize. The “kill me” scene mars the re-cut version but the tighter editing makes it a little better in other places. I prefer the theatrical myself but I wouldn’t begrudge anyone who liked the re-cut version better.
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