Alien Review · 10:09pm Jun 3rd, 2017
Okay, in honor of Alien Covenant's release, I'm going to review the first four Alien movies. The ones that started this franchise... no I'm not reviewing Prometheus. I've heard the reviews, I've seen clips, if you like it fine, if you don't like it fine, it just didn't interest me. You take out the Xenomorphs in a story that's part of the Alien franchise, I don't see a point in me seeing it.
But... lets focus. This franchise in particular is one of the most popular science fiction franchises put together, I think its right up there with franchises like Marvel's projects, DC's projects, Star Wars, Star Trek, and... some other fifth thing. But we're gonna take a look at the first Alien movie that started it all. How did this franchise become so awesome? Lets begin. This is, Alien.
First thing I need to say is... that's a perfect tagline. For reasons I'll explain later.
The story centers around a group of space truckers who are waken up from cryo sleep due to a distress signal on an unidentifed planet. They go to investigate, but as soon as they do, they come back with a strange alien parasite on one of their crew members. But as they leave and try to prepare their trip home, the strange parasite comes loose onto their ship and now they need to get rid of this alien creature before any of them are dead.
Now the first thing I'm going to mention, is going back to that tagline, and it sums up this perfectly. 'No one in space can hear you scream'. This film is incredibly atmospheric and is actually pretty scary. The idea alone of these truckers, none of which work in some form of military or weapons division are all stuck on this one ship, and there's a monster running about doing god knows what.
And that's another wonderful thing about this movie, it takes horror cliches and it actually *GASP* makes them scary!? I never heard of such a thing! No, I'm serious, this movie is actually pretty scary, it gave me goosebumps just watching it. With previous horror movies nowadays, they just use the same cliches over and over making them more dated and painfully obnoxious. But this movie pulls off some actual scary tension with its atmosphere, clever writing, and the major sense of uneasiness that carries in this whole film.
Another wonderful thing I have to say is, the writing is very fantastic. I love these characters, and I love the main one we follow who becomes a major character later in these movies, Ellen Ripley played by the fantastic, Sigourney Weaver. Sigourney does an outstanding job bringing this character to life, and she's an example of a badass female lead, especially in its awesome sequel. This character doesn't take crap from anyone, she's tough, and is one of my all time favorite characters. And that's another thing, the characters in this movie are especially likable and enjoyable. You get a sense that they've been working together for quite a while.
Which leads to the other thing... the scary factor. One of the scariest things about this movie is that we barely get to see what this alien looks like. That's what makes it even more horrifying, we don't see what this thing looks like. We get a few hints and glimpses now and then, and a few details of some parts of the creature, but we don't get a definitive clear full body shot. That just adds some more terror to the fact that these things are difficult to take out... without weapons.
I mean it, the Xenomorph in this movie is probably one of the best alien creatures I've seen in movies. Its stealthy, smart, fast, tough, and its pretty damn scary. I would not want to be face to face with one of these
especially when you realize how these things birth, which is one of the grossest and most disgusting births I've seen. Yeah, you know those chestbursters. Eugh... gross...
As a stand alone horror film, its perfect in every shape and way. As a start for a franchise, its a perfect start. As for a movie in general... go see it. Go see this movie, this is an example of a perfect movie. The acting's perfect, the tension and atmosphere is perfect, the writing's... okay not perfect, its excellent, and even the sets are excellent too. If you haven't seen this film, see it. It is worth the time and your money. I give this movie, a 9 out of 10.
Now with that opening review done, we will progress to the next film. Stay tuned for our next film; a badass action movie.
