Blu-rays for home cinema nuts: Alien Anthology

Is that a Face Hugger on your face or are you just pleased to see me?
Is that a Face Hugger on your face or are you just pleased to see me?

The Alien Quadrilogy boxset was a true lynchpin for the DVD format. When it came out in 2003, it revolutionised the format, with its superb DVD extras and a cracking transfer.

Seven years later it is now time for the four Alien films to come to Blu-ray in a boxset which sounds (and looks) like it truly delivers.

Home Cinema Choice is so impressed with the Alien Anthology six-disc set that it has showcased stills from the Blu-ray online which tease that this may well be one of the best transfers yet for the hi-def disc.

"It's time to throw out those old Alien Quadrilogy boxsets, as Fox has taken the franchise to a whole new level with this stunning six-disc boxset," explains Anton Van Beek, news editor at Home Cinema Choice, part of the TechRadar network.

"Alien and Aliens in particular have never looked better, the completely remastered AVC encodes revealing levels of fine detail and colour accuracy that previous versions simple can't compete with."

Aliens

As for the special features, well it sounds like they are still very special, with Van Beek explaining: "The care and attention put into this set is evident at every turn, from the stunning presentation of the films themselves through to the abundant special features – including the longer and more honest version of Wreckage and Rage: The Making of Alien 3, which Fox took the scissors to for the DVD release.

"Quite simply, it's the best Blu-ray release of the year by a significant margin."

Alien Anthology has a UK release date of 25 October, courtesy of 20th Century Fox, and will be priced at £49.99.

Go to hcc.techradar.com for all the details and super-large images of the whole anthology.

Marc Chacksfield

Marc Chacksfield is the Editor In Chief, Shortlist.com at DC Thomson. He started out life as a movie writer for numerous (now defunct) magazines and soon found himself online - editing a gaggle of gadget sites, including TechRadar, Digital Camera World and Tom's Guide UK. At Shortlist you'll find him mostly writing about movies and tech, so no change there then.