I'm sure most of you know the story on this. Alien 3 style screwing around by 20th Century Fox saw this film get sliced 'n' dice considerably.
This one reviewer at Amazon was telling the truth about it, as best I can tell:
So...what's the deal on this, Andy? Are we finally going to get to see the original FULL film come November 22, 2005?I just read a report of an interview with director Paul W.S. Anderson (director of AVP). He said quote "that all the best scenes were cut from the film." He also said that the movie was always going to be R-rated until the studio enforced a PG-13 rating 3 WEEKS before releasing the film. In addition to the violence and gore cut from the film, a sub-plot that further explained the plot was cut as well. If it had been in the film, the cut footage would have cleared up many continuity issues. For example, the sped up alien life cycle in this film is not a careless error at all; the machine that holds the alien queen captive also injects horomones and drugs in to her, speeding up the facehugger/chestburster process. The footage that was cut would have explained that and also would have given the characters more screen time. Director Paul W.S. Anderson also mentioned that the explosion at the end took up HALF of the 65 million dollar budget (which is ridiculously low for a film like this).
So when you see this film and end up hating it, dont blame the director. He made a film that, if it had been released in the original cut, would have pleased long time fans of the franchises. But instead, the studio made it PG-13 (so more people could see it) and cut out a lot of footage to make the film way too short (to fit in more screenings per day).
BUT, the changes the studio made are helping. Currently the film is making A LOT of money, mostly because of the PG-13 rating. This means that the studio will be more likely to greenlight AVP 2 or, more importantly, ALIEN 5. But try to realize that if the film had been released in the original uncut version, it probably would've only made half the money the current cut has because not as many people would have been able to see it.
Luckily, an R-rated Director's cut WILL be released on DVD sometime in the future. This edition will up all the violence and gore to an R-rated level (all the off screen deaths will now be ON-screen as originally filmed) and add in an additional sub-plot that will clear up continuity issues, give the characters more screen time, and make the plot development clearer. As a long time fan of the original 6 R rated movies, I was ECSTATIC to hear this.
Unfortunately, movies aren't made to be good anymore. They're made to make money, and AVP is doing that right now. So when you see this film, know that you aren't seeing the final version of the film. But PLEASE see it because it needs all the money it can make. And also, PLEASE buy the director's cut DVD when it comes out because its gonna kick a**.
The website that containes the link to the original report can be found here:
http://www.darkhorizons.com/news04/040819d.php
Widescreen Review 101 gives a few details about it:
2 discs, seamlessly branched, 2 hour unrated cut with commentary by Anderson, Henriksen, and Lathan, as well as extra footage, DTS and DD soundtracks.
The second disc will be loaded with behind the scenes features.