Alien (DVD Screening)

(Spoilers)

So yes I am a big movie fan, however it is shocking the amount of ‘classics’ that I have never seen – I am fairly good on films post 2000 but anything much before that and it will be quite likely that I will have missed it.  For example only recently have I explored the Die Hard and Star Wars franchises! Next on my list was Alien. I was already a big fan of Sigourney Weaver’s despite not having seen her most famous films and I love a good sci-fi flick so it would have taken something pretty awful to screw up the chances of me enjoying Alien!

Alien was far from awful, it was actually pretty great. I was pleasantly surprised early on at the variety of the cast, it was cool to see the likes of John Hurt and Ian Holm in there, Weaver would have been the only cast member that I could have named before now.  The cast did well here and created a believable scenario. I am genuinely surprised however that Jones the cat didn’t receive an acting credit as at one point it seemed that it featured more than the actual Alien! Despite Alien being released in 1979 I was quite impressed at the look of the Alien, it didn’t look fake and easily stands the test of time against some of the more recent aliens that the movies have brought us!

There wasn’t much action in this flick and there was definitely much more emphasis on horror and suspense. Although that was good, there certainly was a good amount of this throughout but it may have been cool to see more of the crew put up more of a fight against the alien. As until it gets to Ripley there is really no hope for the humans and even then I was expecting Ripley to go more bad ass on the Alien however I am guessing that that comes later on in the franchise and I suppose her actions were appropriate for the tone of the movie which I was a fan of, reminded me a lot of Jaws!  I loved the ending of the movie, I had started to convince myself that there actually wasn’t going to be a final showdown between the alien and Ripley but I am so glad that there was, I would have been so disappointed otherwise! That whole scene was brilliant, the way in which the alien concealed itself and then how Ripley gets the better of it was just unreal!

Due to me being 35 years behind on watching this flick it was inevitable that I would have picked up some spoilers over the year so I had come to expect the Alien bursting through the stomach scene but I can only imaging how awesome that was originally and I can appreciate how iconic a scene that it has become.  However I was unaware about the twist with Ash, which I loved! Gave the movie a whole other dimension and created a more sinister atmosphere which accompanied the main plot brilliantly.  Slightly more pace could have helped the movie at the beginning but that is only a small complaint!

I can safely say that I have been missing out on all this Alien goodness for too long, I am the happy owner of the Alien quadrilogy and I am more that excited to start to delve deeper into my exploration of the Alien….and then most likely the Predator franchise!

BIGGEST FLAW – Bit of a slow start

BIGGEST ACHIEVEMENT – The Alien, from the egg to stomach to big bad alien!

Rating – 9/10