Movie Notes: Alien
= 5 stars
Starring Sigourney Weaver, Tom Skerritt, Ian Holm
Directed by Ridley Scott
Synopsis
On a return voyage to Earth, the crew of a large mining ship inadvertently brings aboard an extremely dangerous alien creature that threatens to do them all in.
The Good
- Despite the standard horror movie plot of clueless individuals picked off one by one, the constantly changing nature of the alien maintains the suspense. The alien also goes through several metamorphoses through different stages of its life cycle and by the time the crew realizes the full nature of what they’re up against, it’s too late.
- Great direction by Ridley Scott. There’s one great sequence where a crew member is picked off and the camera focuses on drops of blood from above. Then there’s the iconic chest-bursting scene where the entire crew is shocked to see a horrific creature emerge from the chest of a seemingly recovered crew member. At many points, especially during the final show-down and escape, the movie resembles a smart combination of Kubrick’s 2001 and The Shining.
- Great special effects and imaginative set design by H.R. Giger. The alien technology contrasts greatly with the blue-collar grime of the humans, and the occasional glimpses of the moist, organic alien parts are squeamishly realistic, like oyster insides. Then there’s the fully sized alien sporting a mouth within a mouth and all kinds of sinister, phallic appendages. Ultimately, it realizes deep fears that if we ever make contact with extraterrestrials, they will resemble entities from our nightmares and not hoping for intellectual, cultural exchange with Jodie Foster.
The Bad
- As mentioned before, the plot boils down to a rather standard horror, kill or be killed exercise.
Conclusion
The awesomeness of Alien is it takes a standard horror movie plot and re-tells it in an inventive and entertaining way. Its riveting amalgam between horror and sci-fi results in a cinematic classic for both genres.
IMDB: Alien
Wikipedia: Alien
Rotten Tomatoes: Alien
I only managed to watch this film all the way through about five years ago — every other time I found myself watching it I always seemed to be home alone and it was, quite honestly, too scary so I ended up turning it off!
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