Region 4 Winners and Losers

    The Region 1 release of this set has just taken place; the Region 4 will be out by the 10th of December. You will be able to buy this 2-disc edition either separately (from January 2004), or as part of the Alien Quadrilogy, and you'll get the same thing — the only difference is that the Quadrilogy includes an exclusive ninth disc.

    The Region 1 version of these two discs has a couple of features that aren't on the Region 4, and that's a shame, because they are nice to have:

• optional changed footage marker for the Special Edition
• separate access to deleted and extended scenes
• commentary on both versions

    The comparison between the 2 disc Alien Quadrilogy version and the 1-disc Alien Legacy version of this film is much more one-sided than the one for Alien:

    The 2-disc Region 4 edition is missing:

• theatrical trailer (but see the bonus disc...)
• cast and crew bios
• featurettes:
  • James Cameron interview (12:05)
  • Aliens: Behind the Scenes (7:59)

    The 1-disc Region 4 edition is missing:

• audio commentary by cast and crew
• three hours of high quality featurettes
• original treatment

    I don't have the Region 4 version of the Alien Legacy set, so I can't tell you which of the two has the greater number of photos and artwork, but I rather suspect that the 2-disc version wins on this count; certainly the 2-disc version is much better organised, with the stills grouped into (lots of) related galleries.

    This looks pretty one-sided to me, so I'll be happy to buy the Quadrilogy version — I don't think I'll be watching the Legacy version of this movie again.