As beautiful-looking as it never would have looked on US movie screens had the movie ever actually been released here in the first place (“Say ‘huh?’”), Midnight Legacy’s Alien 2: On Earth could definitely shake the stalactites off of a grotto’s ceiling. It looks that beautiful! The colors are more vibrant than I would have ever thought them possible to appear (especially the reds during the film’s gorier moments); contrast is completely natural and untouched by conventional “restoration” procedures (another plus for Midnight Legacy: they’re keepin’ it real with a 100% organic transfer, kids!); and…it…uh…wow! I’ve never seen a cheesy Italian horror movie look so fucking great.
Again with doing the whole “organic” thing, Midnight Legacy didn’t bother mixing up a brand new DTS 5.1 soundtrack that offers a few fresh-yet-decidedly-extraneous surround sound effects and very little else going for it. Instead, they go au naturel with an English DTS-HD 2.0 mono audio track, which, for purists, is like watching Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope in its original mono form (and wondering what the hell Darth Vader is saying the whole time). On a more “standard” A/V side of the coin, this soundtrack will leave some folks feeling about as empty as a little girl on the beach who just had her face ripped off by an alien. That is not to say this one and only audio option is not good. It’s great, in fact! Midnight Legacy’s auditory offering is crisp, clear, and successfully delivers the film’s inane dialogue and oft-outrageous dubbing.
The only downfall here as far as I’m concerned is a lack of English subtitles. Sure, it’s bad enough to just hear the dialogue without having to read it, too — but there’s a majorly-vital and ultra-corny tagline that pops up during the film’s apocalyptic finale (all Italian horror/sci-fi movies must have an apocalyptic ending: it’s a law over there) which will only make sense to anyone that a) is semi-fluent in Italian, b) has seen the movie before with its English-language credits), or c) gives a shit. That being said, though, the tagline is viewable via the disc’s English-language trailer, which is presented in Standard Definition and has been culled straight from a full-frame Dutch VHS copy (t’was all they could find, apparently).
The only other Special Feature to be found on Midnight Legacy’s release of Alien 2: On Earth is an eleven minute reel of “Special Effects Outtakes.” These clips (which are even rarer than the main feature itself) are presented without any sound (as they were shot) or music, and give us several different takes of some of the movie’s gory highlights.
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