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Plot:
In deep space, the crew of the commercial ship Nostromo--comprised of five men and two women--is awakened from their cryo-sleep capsules, halfway through their journey home to investigate a distress c...( read more
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Alien Recent Reviews
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Recent Reviews
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MCT:December 17, 2008
After watching this movie, start-to-finish for what I realized was actually the first time, I suppose I should finally comment on it, though it's really not easy to say much about it other than that it's a solid movie.
I watched the second one in a course about war and technology in society and the media, and the focus was on the gendered aspects of the film, so it's hard to turn that element off when watching the first one. In that respect, this film is really good if only because neither the hero nor the villain are the "big swinging dicks" like in most action/horror/thriller movies these days. Those types of characters get what they deserve in this movie.
The gendering and the theory of the other that Ridley Scott is exploring are the most interesting points to really discuss in depth, but the whole concept of the movie is great... the idea of the "evil monster" actually being implanted into a person then coming out of them is phenomenal. Plus, it's set in space, and Sigourney Weaver turns in her most famous and possibly best performance. A classic. -
MCT:November 28, 2008Ash: Ripley, for God's sake, this is the first time that we've encountered a species like this. It has to go back. All sorts of tests have to be made.
Ripley: Ash, are you kidding? This thing bled acid. Who knows what it's gonna do when it's dead?
Ash: I think it's safe to assume it isn't a zombie.
A mining ship, investigating a suspected SOS, lands on a distant planet. The crew discovers some strange creatures and investigates.
Sigourney Weaver: Ripley.
Alien sees us following a seven man crew journeying to Earth aboard a huge space freighter aptly named Nostromo. The crew is in cryo-sleep, but the on-board Computer A.I. interrupts the journey, thanks to a foreign radio signal is picked up. It originates from an uninhabited planet and the crew lands to investigate. There they make contact with a foreign entity...
What makes Alien legendary is the constant feel of uneasiness it leaves in the pit of your stomach. Right from the beginning you have a sense that something isn't right. The crew is not particularly friendly towards one another, and you truly feel all the Crew relation tension. The ship itself is a huge worn out industrial-style maze of metallic halls and lonely corridors, and it feels more like a prison than a place to live. It is as if not only the alien but also the ship itself is against them. The Alien itself is the scariest monster in history because it is a ruthless, soul-less parasite completely devoid of any human or civilized attributes. The design of the monster is a stroke of genius. Sure it has a humanoid corporeal form, but it has no facial traits or anything else which could give away emotions or intentions,apart from it's gritted teeth visage. Its actions reveals no weaknesses nor rationally intelligence, its more or less the opposite of human and more of an insectoid, instinctive creature, plus it's nature and instinct allows for the alien to be more adapted to the inhumane interior of the ship. To sum up, you then have a setting where the humans are caught in a web of in-group tensions, an inhospitable ship and the perfect killer which thrives in the ships intestines. You almost get the feel that the humans are the ones who are alienated to each other and to their own ship.
Dallas: [looks at a pen being dissolved by alien's body fluid] I haven't seen anything like that except, uh, molecular acid.
Brett: It must be using it for blood.
Parker: It's got a wonderful defense mechanism. You don't dare kill it.
Ridely Scott is such a minimalist in some of his film projects, sci-fi nuts find it to be slow and unenterprising. So many people prefer Aliens, its sequel, to this one, which is unfair. I think Aliens, directed by James Cameron, is another sci-fi masterpiece (and maybe the best action film ever made), but I think Alien is the same quality but for alternative reasons. In fact, I would say that it is among the best films ever made, in sci-fi, only equaled or rivaled to, the enigmatic 2001:A Space Oddysey.
The plot absolutely lacks contrivance. All the plot points develop how they would naturally. And there are great surprises throughout the film. Even if you haven't seen the film, you know about the chest-bursting scene. You probably saw it parodied dozens of times. But watch the scene where Ian Holm reveals his secret! That is one amazing scene! I actually saw the sequel first, so I kind of knew that secret, too, but it still shocked me. It was so well directed.
Notice how the dialogue works. It never particularly draws attention to itself. It actually reminds me of Robert Altman, how he directed such movies as Nashville, where many characters are speaking at the same time, and nothing seems more or less important than anything else. It is just like real life. Alien is one of the most realistic, documentary-like sci-fi films ever made.
Also notice the setting. The Nostromo's design is so believable that I feel that I'm actually seeing a real space vehicle. The alien ship also beams with its spookiness.
The characters are also extremely believable. They are so well written that even the first character who dies is completely developed. If you get the DVD, they actually created dossiers about each of the crew members. It also has extra scenes which round out the characters even more. I think Ripley is one of the most endearing characters in film history. Even in the last two sequels, which were visually interesting but not very well written or directed, Ripley held my interest. I teared up when she died at the end of 3. If they made a fifth one, I would go, no matter how terrible I knew it would be. The acting is also top-notch. Ian Holm, a great actor, gives one of his best performances here. I love the last scene that he is in. Truly a master. And of course Sigourney Weaver could have just as easily been nominated for an Oscar for her performance here as she was for Aliens.
Ripley: [nervously eyeing Alien while she pushes buttons] You are my lucky star. You... Lucky, lucky, lucky, lucky, lucky.
The most important part of a film, in my mind, is the mood. And heck, does Alien have one of the most genuinely spooky movies I've ever seen. Make sure you watch it after the sun has gone down. Also, watching it alone will help. The special effects are kind of cheap, but Scott knows this well enough. He only shows the alien for seconds at a time. Besides keeping us from seeing the shoddiness of those puppets, this technique makes the alien seem all the more creepy and mysterious.
As mentioned the ship is very claustrophobic and Ridley Scott adds to the eeriness by using camera movement, lights and shadows in an effective way. The living quarters are bright and should be comfortable to the crew, but there is something sterile about it all. The rest of the ship is basically a huge basement.
The music by Jerry Goldsmith underlines the eeriness so well, and the movie wouldn't have worked without his score. Combined with the sounds of the ship it all adds to the uneasiness.
This is not a story about heroic people who boldly teams up against evil. It's a story about ordinary people facing true fear, which is the fear without a face. The fear we can't understand and can't negotiate with, because its only goal is to survive on the expense of us. It's a story where some people bravely fight back whilst others are destroyed by the terror. It's a story where people a killed in a completely random way. There is no higher-order justice behind who gets to live and who dies. All seven characters are just part of a race where the fittest - not necessarily the most righteous - will prevail, and all seven characters start the race on an equal footing. None of them are true heroes, and none of them are true villains.
All the above makes Alien so great as a horror movie, not just a tense psychological Sci-Fi one. The terror isn't just the Alien itself, it's the entire atmosphere, which gets so effectively crawling under your skin, that you just can't shrug it off, until after the end credits like you can with so many other Hollywood horror movies. The title Alien doesn't just refer to the monster, it is the theme of the movie and it is the feeling you have during and after the movie.''Final report of the commercial starship Nostromo, third officer reporting. The other members of the crew, Kane, Lambert, Parker, Brett, Ash and Captain Dallas, are dead. Cargo and ship destroyed. I should reach the frontier in about six weeks. With a little luck, the network will pick me up. This is Ripley, last survivor of the Nostromo, signing off.''
[to Jonesy the cat]
''Come on, cat.'' -
MCT:November 19, 2008
Being exposed to the Alien franchise too late alters lots of hype surrounding the greatness of each particular movie: I know this is the one that started it all - the one with the fantastic alien concept; it's just that I take the acclaimed premise for granted and only see it as a weak science fiction flick with one or two classic scenes. As a movie watcher who's big on endings, I'm completely disappointed with "Alien." And I know the first thirty minutes are supposed to add spatial claustrophobia, but, for me, it's an anti-insomnia device.
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MCT:November 17, 2008The cuddliest downbeat Western succeeds on canny miscasting. Newman and Robert are dead wrong as ageing outlaws, but perfect as 1969 defiant youth.
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MCT:October 20, 2008
Dallas: Something has attached itself to him. We have to get him to the infirmary right away.
Ripley: What kind of thing? I need a clear definition.
Dallas: An organism. Open the hatch.
Ripley: Wait a minute. If we let it in, the ship could be infected. You know the quarantine procedure. Twenty-four hours for decontamination.
Dallas: He could die in twenty-four hours. Open the hatch.
Ripley: Listen to me, if we break quarantine, we could all die.
Ridley Scott's sci-fi/horror film was once billed as Jaws in space. That seems like a fair statement.
This is a great influential classic in the realm of horror, sci-fi, and alien related movies. It takes a very simple idea and turns it into a perfect example of how to create tension and thrills from creative ideas and a less-is-more approach for the most part.
Ripley: Ash, that transmission - Mother's deciphered part of it. It doesn't look like an S.O.S.
Ash: What is it, then?
Ripley: Well, I, it looks like a warning. I'm gonna go out after them.
Ash: What's the point? I mean by the, the time it takes to get there, you'll, they'll know if it's a warning or not, yes?
After awakening from hyper sleep a service crew on their way back home pick up a distress beacon and decide to check it out. After arriving on the planet and inspecting the distress call, one crew member encounters an unfortunate situation with an alien being. After being taken back to the ship things only get worse from there as a newly born alien slowly kills the crew members one by one.
Tom Skerritt begins as the leading man in this film, but it is Sigourney Weaver who takes the role of heroine by the end of this movie. You also have a minimal cast, all made up of great character actors, including John Hurt, Yaphet Koto, and Ian Holm, adding up to the seven person crew.
Ripley: Come on, Ash, I mean, the Science Department should be able to help us. What can we do to drive it?
Ash: Yes, well, it's adapted remarkably well to our atmosphere considering its nutritional requirements. The only thing we don't know about is temperature.
Ripley: OK, what about temperature? What happens if we change it?
Ash: Let's try it. I mean most animals retreat from fire, yes?
Dallas: Fire, yeah.
The way this film is constructed further adds to how great it is. The set design and creature designs are both great. The sets are very fitting and have a lived-in quality. The alien is slowly introduced throughout, and it is not until very late in the game that we actually see the creature, which works all for the better. The very setting that these characters are in also very well handled, with a space ship that almost functions as another character.
Although the movie is made up mainly of build up to key moments, the pacing is fantastic and the results are not cheap jump scares, but creative ways in which the alien encounters its victims and how the story continues without being gimmicky.
The score by Jerry Goldsmith is also very wonderful, perfectly working with the tone of the film.
Especially given that this film was made with a lower than average budget, the result is a very effective sci-fi thriller, with a unique creature that has gone on to become very iconic, not to mention the wonderful plot and characters also featured in this film.
Dallas: [looks at a pen being dissolved by alien's body fluid] I haven't seen anything like that except, uh, molecular acid.
Brett: It must be using it for blood.
Parker: It's got a wonderful defense mechanism. You don't dare kill it. -
MCT:January 8, 2009
The most terrifying film I've ever seen. This film will scare the living daylights out of you while you watch it and once it is over, it may haunt for quite some time. The image of the "Alien" won't be going away any time soon... Other than that it is a phonomenal film and is a must see for science fiction film fans.
Comments
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nrvanagrlposted 70 days ago -
well, i know somebody says very good movie but this is my sent comment that i am the first fan member who are seen this(Alian) forty five time's. and so i am gonig to visit this Alian movie which i genrally saw many time if you like my comments than look my profile,too! and i am sure that you like my profile and everything 100% am i right?????????????????? than bye. i am sure we can meet next time!!!:))))))))))))) take care,too!
your's new and funny friend
neel.(my profile-
you have to watch first)posted 176 days ago -
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Hi,
Here is an awesome trailer parody twisting Golden Compass Vs Aliens :
http://parodiesaffichesfilms.blogspot.com/2007/12/parody-golden-compass-vs-alien-aliens.html
Compare with the original trailer !
Enjoy !
Myposted 402 days ago -
Think you know your shit about Alien? Try my quiz.
http://www.flixster.com/user/immortaldisciple/quiz/immortal-ds-alien-directors-cut925?invitorId=780570480posted 476 days ago -
If you must take an Alien quiz and are a fan. Steer clear of Rabidwombat22's. For the most part it's correct but on three questions, he is absolutely wrong. He won't even own up to facts provided by Wikipedia. He's not a fan in my book.
You will not get 100% even cheating. The only way you will is if you GUESS right or ask him first. In his mind, he is correct. I was NEVER mad that I didn't receive a good score as I had aready stated that I never expected to. I just wanted to point out to him, his errors.
I'm not the only one to point this out to him.
Shameful!posted 489 days ago -
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Try my exhaustive 40-someQ quiz about alien! I bet nobody will ever get 100% without cheating.
posted 530 days ago -
