| Overall Grade: |
B+ |
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| Story: |
B+ |
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| Acting: |
B+ |
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| Direction: |
A- |
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| Visuals: |
A- |
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"In Space, No One Can Hear You Scream..."
by Yahoo! Movies User (movies profile)
May 31, 2008
12
of
13 people found this review helpful
Director Ridley Scott brings us a horror picture that no one will ever forget, whether you liked it or not... I will try not to reveal too much from the film as most other reviewers have.
"Alien" is probrably one of the very few films listed in the horror genre that I enjoyed, containing a solution of both artistic and entertaining characteristics... one of the greatest experiences of Ridley Scott films. The plot wasn't new to us. Crew of 7 inside an isolated ship pursued by a ravenous, alien beast... suggesting a mixture of classics "2001" and "The Thing". But the look and feel of the film will make you soon learn that that fact really doesn't have any affect upon the film's awesome and sincere effect. Ridley Scott took the art of the film just as seriously as the entertainment of the movie. And like in "2001", the crew are left at the mercy of the ship, with its computer, as well as the alien...
Now a quarter century later, the re-released Director's Cut with digitally mastered visuals, revamped sound, 5 minutes of cut footage, and trimmed fat from other scenes. The new version's beautifully remastered color and quality makes the film even more bland, bleak, and every bit as great as the original.
The film's beginning and first half is very observative and slowly paced. We glide through the depths of the Nostromos' glowing hulls, pausing to watch lights flicker and creaks and utters within the ship. Even as the movie progresses into what should be more serious notions, Scott still turns down the volume and lets camera flow freely. When the crew lands on an uknown planet to investigate a possible SOS signal, they wander too far into an uknown alien vessel. This is, of course, when we are given a foreshadowing when Riply says, "It sounds more like a warning than SOS." Two of the search party loom into a misty chamber of the alien vessel, filled with organic eggs... a spider's web of a trap. When they break the silence, that is when things start to happen. Later in the film, a parasetic creature looms on an unconscience Kane's face, we are led to believe that it is a "perfect organism", giving him oxygen but keeping him asleep. It is impossible to remove. If you lift its legs up, it's tail squeezes tighter around the host's neck, try to cut it and its acidic blood eats through the host and/or the ship. Eventually, it randomly crawls off and dies. Kane wakes up with no memory of the facehugging creature and procedes to eat dinner... when he feels a sharp, scurrying, rumbling in his chest. Everyone has their guards down...
In a few seconds, the calm and erie world that Scott had created is shredded in an instant. We are then thrusted into warp speed through intense and terrifying action that refuses to stop to let ANYONE off. It is nonstop suspense with an unpredicting plot twist. Like a hunter, it is killing them off... one by one. Each attack is quick yet pain stricken and you only glimpse the beast for a second and we all cringe when we see its snarling lips, reaveling saliva dripping teeth UPON teeth screaming bloody death, you can only watch in panic as it chomps the victims. Yet Ridley Scott keeps you from seeing too much of the gore, leaving the rest to your imagination. Running out of time, the crew's numbers are falling and their hopes for survival fading, it comes down to a single woman, endlessly being hunted. This movie would make her a star, hitting all the right notes and we feel just as terrified as she is outrunning against any set of rational odds with science officer Ash's "sympathies".
"Its structural perfection is matched only by its hostility... I admire its purity." Ian Holm (Lord of the Rings' Bilbo Baggins) might be talking about the movie that surrounds him that perfectly fits its tagline, "In space, no one can hear you scream." With the film's artistic core surrounded by gasping entertainment glammering with multiple climaxes, it won Best Visual Effects at the Oscars along with a nomination for Art Direction. Ridley Scott was knighted as a film director, being only his second film and with so much critical AND box-office success, he went on the direct yet another visually stunning and critically acclaimed sci-fi film, "Blade Runner" with Harrison Ford.
Most people would give this movie an "A" or "A-", but I do not feel that this movie could match the power and tranquility of its daring sequel by James Cameron. Some critics complained of a lack in character development, but that is not the weakness. Whilst the first is mysterious, scary, and claustrophobic, it lacked a certain amount of storytelling that the second film had, along with more suspensful effects, situations, and executed on a more grander scale than the first, hence that Alien(s) are more terrifying and dangerous than one.
Alien will remain as one of the most memorable horror films and is on my personal list of classics for DVD. The second film, "Aliens," I also very highly recommend on DVD. However, avoid the grotesque, dull-stricken, and pointless Alien 3 and Alien Ressurection. Ignoring the last two Alien movies, Alien and Aliens are a great couple to own. I also very highly recommend the action-packed sci-fi "Predator." (In which I enjoyed even more than the Alien films) I have also reviewed the newly released and highly controversial "Alien vs Predator." Having all that taken into account, Alien is truly an amazing and memorable artistic film as well as entertaining movie...
**What I have written is collective thoughts and measures from myself and others. Some quoted. If anything is read the same on another review, it is purely coincidential**
My Rating: B+ An Unforgetable Experience
-Jerry Johnston |
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