Review: Alien

Alien
Cert: 15 / 111 mins / Dir. Ridley Scott / Trailer



And following a brief break after Prometheus, the second-part of the 426 extravaganza was 1979’s original Alien movie*¹.

The problem with running this double-bill in chronological story order, of course, is that the original film really isn’t ageing well, visually. There, I said it. The film stock is furry, even for a remastered director's cut. Miniatures look like miniatures, the fully-grown Xeno looks like a guy in a suit, and the escape of the iconic chestburster is nothing short of comical*². And that's all fine until you run it back to back with a flick made in the digital age.

But, when it comes down to the mechanics of the Mansion Murderer In Space, Scott’s film is masterfully tense and hasn't been topped since (although many are still trying). This was the first time I’d seen the original Alien at the cinema. Hopefully it won’t be the last...

As the Nostromo is hauling an ore-refinery for mining operations, that effectively makes the seven crew members and the Seven Dwarfs.
Which would make the Xenomorph Snow White.

Discuss.

The Aliens.



If you can bear the analogue-feel on a digital-screen, yes.



It does.



Probably not, but only because of their impressive other work.



Nope.



Nope.



Level 2: Sigourney Weaver's in this of course, and she starred in A Monster Calls along with the voice of Liam 'Qui-Gon' Neeson.




Yeah, I've marked it up. Despite looking worse in the cinema, the film's better in the cinema. Me mordere...


*¹ There were 13 people in the auditorium for the screening Prometheus which is embarrassing enough. But two of those left in the interval, and one walked out about ten minutes into Alien. Who does that? I could understand if they'd been showing the films the other way around. Alien is generally accepted as the better of the two, right? Some weird reverse film-snobbery going on.
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*² Not the screaming and the writhing; that bit where it looks around then goes skittering off across the floor. Tonight's audience had already watched a far more visceral version of the birthing process in Prometheus of course, but then this film was followed by a couple of sequences from Covenant, one of which shows a similar event. So seeing modern-interpretations both before and after John Hurt’s most famous scene doesn’t really do the film any favours I’m afraid. ^{[ BACK ]}


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