Alien Movie Review

It seems that every series spanning over more than two films in lengths suffers the same problem of just getting subsequently worse, with a few exceptions. The Alien saga is a prime example of this case, and perfectly exemplifies the studio's desire to squeeze as much money out of the business as possible - with an astounding five sequels made after the first Alien movie. However, by following that logic, one can draw the conclusion that Alien must be very good, which it is.
I admire the film as being one of the film to make science fiction a legitimate and respected film genre. The movie ties together the classic hardcore features from science fiction movies and the suspenseful and gruesome features from horror movies to form a very commercially and critically successful end product. Obviously, Alien is most remembered for its horrific depiction of a monstrous alien species (hence its name) which infests a crew member of the commercial space cruiser Nostromo. The alien then proceeds to kill the rest of the crew save one. Even after almost thirty years, I’m still surprised that the film was able to still seem so suspenseful and surprising at points. I will admit that there was a lot of the surprise was taken out due to some more obvious predictions, but that’s only due to the numerous films that follow Alien’s success formula. And, despite this, I was still very surprised and shocked at some moments.

But, I also think the longs shots of the ship’s interior and exterior in the beginning should get special mention. Although they were probably ignored by most people, I think the scenery shots really set in place the lonesome and isolated nature of the entire movie. The opening title credits, featuring a long pan out into the dead of space also does a great job of this. I found the long establishing shots very useful in orienting the viewer, and really putting the audience in place of the crew. This proved very useful in the later suspenseful scenes, when the alien slowly devoured each crew member of the Nostromo.

Although the idea of a killer slowly isolating and picking off a group of people one by one is not very original, Alien adds a fresh angle to the style through the use of an otherworldly alien that actually doesn’t seem that distant. The alien’s very unconventional birth is pioneering. It emphasizes the loneliness portrayed throughout the movie. Even though all the crew members were supposedly very close, alien’s ability to “fertilize” them made them very distant. As humans, we all try to be with the group, and stay away from isolation. But, the alien’s contamination of the crew shows that we are all very much alone, and not as secure as we might like to think. This also fits with the movie’s tag: “In space no one can hear you scream."

When compared to the sequels, I think Alien succeeds the most because it didn’t just focus on recreating the most popular aspects. I enjoyed the emphasis of the setting, especially since it was of a place so foreign to us, and I think that everyone should consider getting Alienated.