 We return to deep space, where no one can hear you scream, with the first overlapping 'Alien' movie, which takes place between the events of 'Alien' and 'Aliens'. Like it is with most movies in the franchise (save for the first two), it's yet another movie I can't help but feel lukewarm about. The problem there is that I've found 'Aliens' (and arguably its predecessor) have simply set the bar too high. I'd be hard-pressed to say anything will ever be as awesome as 'Aliens' in this franchise, even when it comes to future possibilities.
I've quite honestly enjoyed each and every movie since 'Aliens' in their own individual ways; even 'Alien 3' and 'Resurrection', which I now find to be intriguing parts of their respective director's/writer's (David Fincher/Joss Whedon) careers. I like them like any horror franchise, meaning that despite how awful some of it may be, I can't help but have fun with it and, hey, let's face it, cheer on the villain just a little bit, because that's kinda what we came to see. The fun thing about the 'Alien' franchise is that there are two key villains; the Xenomorphs themselves, and the Weyland-Yutani Corporation who continue to show their dark side. After doing a bit of homework, I've found that this takes place a couple of decades after the events of the first film, in 2142. The USCSS Nostromo, destroyed at the end of 'Alien', floats in pieces through space. A Weyland-Yutani probe checks things out, and gathers a large cocoon which is revealed to contain the Xenomorph we all thought must have died in space after Ripley blew it out of an airlock. As one can imagine, the company's greed eventually backfires on them and, spoiler alert, but we never see any of the chaos happen. Soon enough we meet Rain Carradine (Cailee Spaeny) and her adoptive brother, a glitchy android named Andy (David Jonsson); members of the mining colony, Jackson's Star on LV-410. After Rain's work contract is extended, she begins to lose hope of ever getting off such a terrible rock, especially after having lost her parents in the mines. That is until her ex-boyfriend, Tyler (Archie Renaux) approaches her with a plan to raid a seemingly abandoned spacecraft for its functioning cryostasis chambers, which should, in theory, give them enough time to travel from this planet to the next safest, habitable place. Joining them are Tyler's sister, Kay (Isabela Merced), their cousin Bjorn (Spike Fearn), and Bjorn's adoptive sister, Navarro (Aileen Wu), and together, they manage to make it off planet and head straight towards the Weyland-Yutani ship mentioned earlier; by now, full of creepy-crawly facehuggers and meat-hungry Xenomorphs, turning the heist of a few cryotubes into a survival mission. It pretty much goes through the motions of the collective crew finding themselves in the wrong place at the wrong time, and trying like to escape with their lives. All in all, the film is pretty good. It does feel to some degree like things are kinda back to normal when it comes to this franchise, and they even roll out a new idea or two here, like the alien cocoon, and another attempt at a baby alien that looks far, far more disturbing here than it did in 'Resurrection', which was a feat hard to accomplish, but they pulled it off. I even appreciate how it brings things together, also referencing 'Prometheus'. All in all, the film is pretty solid, even for a franchise film this far down the line. The downfall here, however, is that it falls victim to some fan service that can only be seen as either cheesy or unnecessary. We get familiar faces coming back for no real reason, a repeat of a famous line from the franchise, and even scenes that feel very cut-and-paste from previous films. That said, however, I would say that the original ideas (and I'm only half-way counting something brought over from 'Resurrection' as a concept done differently) counterbalance the fan service stuff decently, and it's not like it's being an 'Episode VII' about things. Again though, 'Aliens' just has that bar set too high. 3/5
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 Going back to my 'Prometheus' review, I mentioned it being something along the lines of a "prequel to a prequel." In that case, this movie represents the second prequel, and gives us further development of the Xenomorphs, as we learn how they grew into the monsters we all know and love. This time around, I'd argue that there's a bit more for the 'Alien' fans, and just speaking on a personal level, I felt like it tied 'Prometheus' and 'Alien' together quite nicely, giving us more to draw from 'Prometheus'.
I think a big part of the problem with 'Prometheus' is the whole existentialism plot that one kinda sorta has to be able to accept as a potential human origin theory, throwing religion and evolution both out the window. For yours truly, I just find the whole thing fun to think about. I'm not one to argue on any level, and believe in "live and let live" when it comes to such things. But at the end of the day, we have to remind ourselves that 'Prometheus' is just a movie that has fun with the "Engineer" theory (in short, an alien race created us). Picking up eleven years from where 'Prometheus' left off, the ship Covenant heads towards planet Origae-6, carrying a crew of colonists and human embryos, meant to populate what they hope to make a second Earth. Here, we meet the ship's monitor, an android named Walter (Michael Fassbender), who is forced to reanimate the ship's crew during an emergency. Several casualties occur as a result of a neutrino burst, which damages the ship significantly, and ultimately kills the captain, Jake Branson (James Franco) in his stasis pod. Following the rude awakening, no one is keep on getting back into their stasis pods for the remainder of their trip. But while the ship is being prepared, as these films tend to go, they receive a signal from a much closer, much more habitable planet, which they could get to without having to go back into stasis. Branson's widow, Daniels (Katherine Waterston) protests the trip, considering their set mission, but the ship's new captain, Chris Oram (Billy Crudup) overrules her opinion, and heads to the closer planet to check things out. Here, an expedition team is deployed to investigate, and track the mysterious signal to a crashed ship. This is where a couple of crewmembers get themselves infected by microscopic spores that lead to some pretty brutal suffering, and the eventual alien for this film, the Neomorph, which, if you can believe it, looks like it has a much more painful birth than the typical chest-bursting Xenomorph. From there, it's fairly typical survival from the alien creature as per usual, but with this, there's a whole continuation of their overall creation. I won't get into spoiler territory too much here, but we do learn that inspiration was taken from the Engineers who "made us," and there's more existential plot here, carried over from 'Prometheus'. So, much like 'Prometheus', this chapter may not be for everyone. Having said that though, I feel like this does a better job than 'Prometheus' by giving it a bit more of a bump of action. There are dry moments here and there, but I feel like the action and body horror (again, really well done and cringe-worthy) make up for it. I think it's safe to say that one can treat these prequel films much the same way they could treat the 'AVP' films in that because they are all full-blown prequels to the franchise, they can easily be ignored if one doesn't like them. I still enjoy the ideas behind these films, but can understand where others might come from with their criticisms. Much like with other horror franchises, whether the film is good or bad, I can still have fun with its concepts, and in my own way kinda like 'Prometheus' and this. They still don't top the first two classics by any means, but I just don't find them to be that bad. 3/5  I've been reviewing some of the movies within the 'Alien' franchise as being somewhat split down the middle when it comes to varying opinions. For my money, there is not title in the franchise that splits people more than 'Prometheus'. Some of it is because it's really not an 'Alien' movie at all, so much as a prequel TO a prequel, giving us what is essentially the origins of the Xenomorphs. They got OG director Ridley Scott back on board to direct though, so that was what ended up being most of the pull for this. But the question is, does he still have it?
Since Scott, we've had James Cameron, David Fincher and Joss Whedon behind the wheel of the singular 'Alien' titles; all of whom have really gone on to bigger and better things since, so it's a franchise in which pulling in the original director to make it feel "right" doesn't necessarily apply, especially when Cameron really set the bar for making them sci-fi action as opposed to sci-fi horror. So I think a lot of people went into this expecting more of the same, but what they left with was either confusion, disappointment, or to some people I know, some sort of questionable existentialism. We go back in time here to 2089, about 33 years before the events of the first 'Alien' film where a couple of archaeologists by the names of Elizabeth Shaw (Noomi Rapace) and Charlie Holloway (Logan Marshall-Green) discover a star map that matches many others they've found from varying cultures around the world. It all points to a very specific cluster of stars, and is interpreted as an invitation by who they call "The Engineers," believed to be the potential creators of humanity, throwing years of evolutionary study out the window as well as religion. Peter Weyland (Guy Pearce), CEO of the Weyland Corporation funds an expedition to said star system to check out moon LV-223, arriving about four years later, in December of 2093. Once they arrive, the crew finds not much more than destruction, leading them to believe the Engineer race has gone extinct, and probably over something very horrific. They basically get their answers, but ever the curious fellow, an android named David (Michael Fassbender) retrieves a strange cylinder that seems to contain some sort of life form, reminiscent to something like a symbiote from 'Spider-Man'. As they get back to the ship with their bittersweet answers (David with his critter), crew members Millburn (Rafe Spall) and Fifield (Sean Harris) get left behind, so a rescue mission is set up, directed by the ship's captain, Janek (Idris Elba). During said resuce mission is about when the crew finds themselves in over their heads, much to the dismay of the strict ship-owner, Meredith Vickers (Charlize Theron). She's mostly there to be the stick in the mud, rational person on the crew, and somehow become a villain because of it. It's a bitchy character, sure, but a lot of me wonders how right she was about everything all along. Anyway, things unfold much like an average 'Alien' movie would, showing us a panicked crew, getting introduced to a brutal killer of an alien species, a handfull of crew gets infected, things get pretty gross, and people try to survive, all thanks to that ass hole android, David. In the meantime, however, I have to credit the film for, while not being an 'Alien' film in the traditional sense, offering up something a little different, and providing an interesting take on not only the Xenomorph's origins, but ours as well... that said, I'm an Agnostic, so it is NOT going to sit well with everyone - especially those in religious sects. While this may be a weaker chapter in the franchise, there's still a lot about it to enjoy. The body horror here is fantastic, making one squirm for all the right reasons. Beyond that, the sound design is bumped up to make things a bit more creepy, and it feels more like horror again. There's a bothersome scene here, however, involving a couple of people running from something about to crush them, and everyone who has seen this knows what I'm talking about. It sticks out like a sore thumb of stupidity. It's stupid. Otherwise, though, I would encourage people to give this another shot, just a a decent sci-fi horror. 3/5  I'm actually going to open this up with a criticism about the previous film I forgot to mention, which lends itself to a lot of my criticism about this chapter of the 'Alien' franchise. Spoiler alert, but 'AVP' ends with a glimpse of what has become known as the "Predalien;" the result of a Predator getting itself hugged in the face. The idea of a Predalien is, by all accounts, awesome, and it could have made for a much more wild climax to the previous film. But they chose to make it a cliffhanger they could potentially cash in on later, and cash in they did... not?
Honestly, I could have sworn I remembered this getting a straight-to-video release. Apparently, it was released theatrically, but on Christmas Day of 2007, debuting at #6, and continuing a brief run, seemingly overshadowed by other titles. It probably didn't help that it was a hard-R movie when the last one was PG-13. And although this all really should lend itself to a nice, refreshing hard-R, there was something about this that even I thought might be a bit too much for the average fan of either franchise... or too little (the Predator here doesn't do much of anything). The gist of it is that it picks up where the last movie left off - with the birth of the Predalien aboard a Predator ship that happens to be hauling Xenomorph eggs. Said creature pulverizes the rest of the Predators on the ship, causing it to crash land on Earth, thus allowing the Predalien and a whole whack of facehuggers to roam free. A couple of facehuggers immediately take out a father and son, and if I'm being totally honest, this whole opening scene is actually pretty sweet. But it just goes downhill from here. To start with, too many damn characters to keep track of. Ex-con, Dallas Howard (Steven Pasquale) reunites with his younger brother, Ricky (Johnny Lewis), who has the whole problem where he's in love with a Jock named Dale's (David Paetkau) girlfriend, Jesse (Kristen Hager). Meanwhile, Kelly O'Brien (Reiko Aylesworth) comes home from serving in the US Army, to her husband, Tim (Sam Trammell), and daugther, Molly (Ariel Gade), and the mother and wife of the aforementioned kid and father, respectively, Darcy (Chelah Horsdal). I know that doesn't come across as much worse than something like 'Independence Day', but a movie like that is more about those people as opposed to the offending alien invasion, so it works. We come to a movie called 'Alien vs Predator' to see Xenomorphs fighting Predators, which we do see, but even then, just barely. This film is so incredibly dark and full of shadow, it's hard to tell what's going on a lot of the time, and poorly edited fight scenes between the Predator (who only comes to Earth to clean up the Aliens' mess) and Xenomorphs don't help. The film isn't only dark with lighting, either. There are moments I feel it goes a bit over the top, even for an 'Alien' movie, like an attack on a maternity ward that, while I can credit the film for making me squirm, doesn't feel quite right for some reason. The film is often boring, gruesome (even for one of these movies), I don't care about any of these characters, it's poorly written (although the line "the government doesn't lie to people" did make me laugh), and when the action does hit, you can't even see it. All in all, this one's pretty skippable. 1/5  Ah yes. Who in my age group could possibly forget the era of the "vs" movies, where two long, long-awaited titles would follow the formula of some of the old black & white horror classics, pitting one monster up against another? While the tradition started with titles like 'Dracula vs Frankenstein' and 'Godzilla vs (anything and everything)', an update on the concept felt necessary after so long with 'Freddy vs. Jason' and 'AVP' here, which already had its own game, but definitely gave us a concept that was begging for a screenplay.
Much like 'FVJ', 'AVP' came out to an interesting mixture of reviews. That is to say that while they were mostly reviled, a few of us fans still held on. Speaking personally, neither concept allowed for me to take them too seriously. To me, they were made for the fans as a fantasy wrestling/boxing match of sorts. I GET why a good chunk of fans don't like them, especially with massive changes in lore (Jason becomes afraid of water, the Predator attacks someone unarmed, etc.) but its never been enough to take me out of things as long as the rest of the concept can deliver. In other words, if I have fun, I'm satisfied enough. Having said all that, it doesn't mean audiences shouldn't demand better. I still see those changes in lore as massive errors. I just also see things I want to see in these movies. What IS irksome, however, is that this kicks things off, rewinding us to present day (2004), where we meet Charles Bishop Weyland (Lance Henriksen), founder of Weyland Yutani (the big bad company of the 'Alien' franchise). We're not supposed to meet the real, non-android Bishop until the events of 'Alien 3' (2179), but hey, gotta put butts in seats somehow, because lord knows the name of the movie wouldn't be enough. But I digress. Weyland makes the discovery of a lifetime when, through thermal imaging, he discovers a pyramid buried deep beneath Bouvetøya, an island off the coast of Antarctica. He assembles a team to go explore the area which includes our film's heroine, a pro mountaineering guide named Lex Woods (Sanaa Lathan). Upon their arrival, they discover a perfectly made tunnel in the ice that just so happens to lead towards the pyramid they're attempting to explore. Unbeknownst to them, but know to us, this hole was put there by a Predator ship. As the team explores the underground pyramid, they make some shocking discoveries that lead to what I consider a fascinating extension of Alien/Predator lore. Long story short, the pyramid was meant as a sacrificial chamber, where an Alien queen was held captive, humans were face-hugged, birthed Xenomorphs, and gave the Predators an ultimate prey to hunt. The humans, being a mixture of different civilizations, worshipped the Predators as some kind of Gods who visited once a century to take part in this massive hunt as a right of passage. While I'm sure there are plenty of enthusiasts and historians who dislike/dismiss the concept, I think that if we can just think of things on a fantasy level, there's no real harm done. In m opinion, it's a cool way to get these creatures together, and while perhaps not perfect, it works for the film's needs. Anyway, I know I haven't said a lot about the main plot, but essentially, Weyland is there to research something huge before his imminent death, (almost) everyone else turns into horror meat one way or another, and Lex finds herself caught in the middle of this Alien/Predator war. If I have any real complaints about the film, it's mostly just that it feels a little slower than we're used to with either franchise. Otherwise, it's yet another chapter of the 'Alien' series I think gets a worse rap than it deserves. It's still full of some badass imagery and freaky moments that are clearly meant to be fan service, but very acceptable back in '03. Maybe I'm the odd one out on liking this movie for what it is, despite anything irksome. But honestly, if you think this chapter is bad, just wait until my next review. 3/5  This one tends to be a bit of an anomaly for me. It's one of those movies that everyone and their mother seems to show a lot of hate towards, and often call it worse than 'Alien 3'. I have to say that to some degree, I get where people are coming from, but for the most part, I actually enjoy 'Resurrection'. I see it very much the same way I see 'Origins: Wolverine', in that really, it's not THAT bad... until something happens that just makes it take a left turn into a brick wall. But where I could classify 'Wolverine' as a guilty pleasure of sorts... I actually just plain like this.
Cards on the table, of course I'm the odd man out on this, and that's fine. I can recognize a lot of bad in this, but I have to say it gets a bad rap as a whole that I feel like it doesn't entirely deserve. And even in saying the same thing I said about 'Alien 3', I still kinda like this one just a bit better, all things considered. Again, though, I'm the odd one out here, so take my review with a grain of salt. This just might be one of those cases where I simply like a movie that, to others, is recognizably awful. Taking place two centuries after the events of 'Alien 3', a group of military scientists find Ripley's (Sigourney Weaver) DNA within the prison in which she sacrificed herself. Said sacrifice was an effort to wipe the Xenomorph species out (or at least out of Weyland Yutani's reach) so that it couldn't be left alive to study, and be an obvious threat to the human race. This DNA is used to develop a series of potential clones of a not-just-Ripley, but a Ripley with Xenomorph DNA coursing through her veins on account of the one in her chest at the end of 'Alien 3'. The process also manages to birth a very fast-growing Alien queen that the scientists end up raising on their own, and collecting its eggs for further study of this creature. The ultimate goal for Weyland Yutani seems to be to make these things incredibly effective biological weapons. Spoiler alert, however, because these scientists get what's coming to them eventually, as one would probably predict from the get-go. I find often in horror, you can point out who's about to turn into meat, and this is one of the more obvious cases. As for Ripley, her new cloned self has a bit of Alien Queen DNA within her, and has become somewhat advanced, forming a psychic link with the other Xenomorphs, incredible reflexes and strength, and the signature acidic blood we've all come to know as a signature xenomorph feature, up there with vampires having fangs. She also becomes more empathetic towards the aliens, but she's also still half human. She's a total badass in this movie, almost leaning towards being bad, but she becomes more of a hero over time. It's another matter of survival horror, but this time, involving a much bigger group. The scientists get a lot of abuse, but so do a group of humans who are being shipped in by a handful of mercenaries to be used for Xenomorph breeding - still a super disturbing scene, if you ask me. Said mercs; Elgyn (Michael Wincott), Johner (Ron Perlman), Christie (Gary Dourdan), Vriess (Dominique Pinon), Hillard (Kim Flowers) and Call (Winona Ryder) are just there to get paid, but soon find themselves on the run from the aliens, and entrusting their lives with Ripley, who Call knows full-well is an alien clone. For me, the film provides a solid action adventure, complete with the proper horror elements, and half-decent banter between a group of characters as newcomer Joss Whedon tends to write so well. However, it all ends with some pretty over-the-top and bizarre stuff, including an alien-human hybrid, which is just plain disturbing to look at. There's a scene where Ripley falls into an alien nest, and that's about where it starts to get kinda bad. But up until then, I vote this movie to be altogether fairly underrated. But again, that's just me. 3/5  This has always been one of those movies I tend to meet in the middle. While there are things I outright hate about this movie, I feel like as a whole, it's bad, but not quite as awful as people claim. As far as a third entry into a series, I've definitely seen worse, and I've definitely seen better. I'd claim it to be passable, but it has absolutely nothing on the first two films, which have both reached a sort of "classic" classification at this point in time. This pretty much has one really famous seen (as seen in accompanying pic), but is otherwise not as memorable.
We know we're gonna be pretty disappointed throughout the opening credits, as they essentially show you right from the get go that the whole plot of 'Aliens' (by far the best of them) gets tossed out the window here. Remember that little girl, Newt, who Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) was essentially playing mother bear to, protecting her every step of the way? Well, spoiler alert, but she dies while in stasis (along with a couple of others I won't name), and the ship they're travelling in, The Sulaco, eventually crash lands on an all-male inhabited foundry and maximum-security correctional facility called Fiorina "Fury" 161. Upon being awoken by the prison's chief medical officer, Clemens (Charles Dance), Ripley learns that she is the sole survivor, and worries that there may have been an alien on board - which there was. Said alien (a facehugger in this case) escapes into the facility, and goes after a poor dog, thus eventually creating the "Dog Xenomorph," who's our big baddie in this chapter. There's not a whole lot of difference between this thing and your average hunter/drone, except that it seem much more animalistic, and perhaps faster on all fours. While Ripley tries to take every precaution to try to find out whether or not this crew is gonna have to deal with another damned Xenomorph, the others pretty much toss aside her thought, thinking she's maybe gone mad. However, as one by one the prisoners and crew start going missing under mysterious circumstances, it seems that Ripley isn't so full of crap. Now it's up to her to familiarize these dudes with the monster who has haunted her for too long now, and hopefully kill it. As far as the aspects of the movie that I hate, the biggest problem to me is the idea that 'Aliens,' while still being a great sci-fi action flick, is essentially rendered "pointless" after the very beginning of this - and the same writers are on it! This could have had to do with Carrie Henn's aging of six years, but in such cases, a recasting is forgivable. On top of that, I honestly just find the film to be altogether slow, and when the action does happen, it tends happen off screen or show that insanely aged '92 CG. 'Jurassic Park' wouldn't set that bar until the following year. Forgivable, but hard to look at now. Another thing that I feel like I need to point out is the fact that this was directed by the one and only David Fincher. Some consider it one of his worst movies, but in his defence, he wasn't much more than a music video director at the time this was released. Quite honestly, I think he's a more forgivable aspect of the film, being that he wasn't only a rookie director back then, but with that particular script, I still see that he did the best with what he had to work with. He is not the problem here. Despite a few rough things about the film, however, I am an 'Alien' fan much in the same way I'm an 'Elm Street' or 'Friday the 13th' fan. I even find the bad stuff relatively entertaining, even if it is pretty bad. For my money, this one's definitely the worst of the original trilogy, when that was still a thing. But from here on, these movies split audiences like crazy. It all just reverts back to the idea that, like with 'Terminator', this is a series in which if you just watch the first two, you're pretty much good to go. 2/5  In the not-so-widespread tradition of film franchises where a sequel is widely regarded as being better than the original, it's tough to argue against 1986's 'Aliens', brought to us by James Cameron in his prime. He also did 'Terminator 2', which falls under the same category. The dude knew how to take everything good about a film's predecessor, bring more lore to the table, advance the story and characters, and bring us mind-blowing special effects. One could watch either 'Aliens' or 'T2' on the big screen now, and they each hold up almost perfectly.
One could draw quite a few parallels between the two best Cameron films of all time (which I understand is debatable, but I'll die on that hill), but we're only here to talk about one of them, so let's get on with this sci-fi/horror/adventure/action/drama epic. When we last left the crew of the commercial space tug, Nostromo, everyone was dead except for its warrant officer, Ellen Ripley (Sigourney Weaver), and Jonesy; a cat whose fate is ultimately unknown, but at least we never have to think about the little buddy getting ripped to shreds by a Xenomorph. After all the action, the two go into stasis mode, and the credits roll. Fifty-seven years after the events of the first film (now making it 2179), chance brings the Weyland-Yutani Corporation into her path, and she is eventually awakened and debriefed. Ripley sticks with her story about checking out a distress signal and eventually dealing with an alien creature that tore her crew to shreds. Her story is hard to buy, however, since now, that same area is colonized, and everything has been fine. Of course, it's not long before they lose all contact with the colony, and need to go check it out. Ripley is understandably apprehensive, but unfortunately, she's the only person there who has had any type of experience with the Xenomorph creature. Headed by a guy named Burke (Paul Reiser), the mission includes a group of well-trained marines this time - primarily Corporal Hicks (Michael Biehn); Private Hudson (Bill Paxton); Lieutenant Gorman (William Hope); Private Vasquez (Jenette Goldstein); Sergeant Apone (Al Matthews); and their android, Bishop (Lance Henriksen). This is where we start to take this is a bit less horror, and a bit more action with horror elements. The intro to this team is almost like asking the audience to "buckle up." Upon investigation, they find a girl named Rebecca, but we call her Newt (Carrie Henn). She's the sole survivor of an off-screen Xenomorph attack, and essentially becomes Ripley's purpose throughout the film. She has to try to get Newt the hell off this rock, and to safety. But complicating things are a combination of people we don't know if we can trust, an army of Xenomorph drones and warriors (which many say are the same thing, but I don't really know), and last but certainly not least, our first look at that "bitch," the Alien queen! This film's place in cinematic history is a bit unique, as I might argue that it set the bar for sci-fi action to come so much so that a lot of alien movies outside of this franchise are often said to be inspired by, compared to, or even just straight-up copying it. Personally, I could see films like 'Attack the Block', 'Cloverfield', 'Pitch Black' and 'Starship Troopers' as prime examples of titles I absolutely love, but admittedly see taking a lot from this in some way or another. It seems hard to avoid if you want an alien who's also a monster. Over the years, 'Aliens' has become a personal favourite, and remains the only film in the franchise (including the original) I don't need to be in the mood to watch before putting it on - any old time would be just fine. In short, the movie is an action-packed, if a bit horrific, roller-coaster ride, and defines what sci-fi action should look like. It's also the only one of these movies I feel has aged incredibly well, and something to point to in order to show kids these days how amazing things could look in the 80s with the right crew behind the wheel. 5/5  This is a film that gets my ultimate respect as one of the all-time best survival horror films in the history of cinema. It's no secret that many (including myself) enjoy 'Aliens' more for entertainment purposes, but the original here is still legendary in its own right, and as far as I'm concerned, much like with the 'Terminator' franchise, one can watch the first two, be done with everything else, and they'll still have seen the only parts that really, truly matter. It all begins in the distant year 2122, in deep space... where no one can hear you scream!
A crew of seven trucker-like characters open the film by slowly coming out of stasis (waking up from a long-ass sleep) as they head back to Earth, on board a commercial ship called the "Nostromo." Among the stars here are, Captain Dallas (Tom Skerritt), Executive Officer Kane (John Hurt), Warrant Officer Ripley (Sigourney Weaver), Navigator Lambert (Veronica Cartwright), Science Officer Ash (Ian Holm) and a couple of engineers named Parker (Yaphet Kotto) and Brett (Harry Dean Stanton). One could definitely consider this an all-star cast at this point in time, but back then, I believe a good chunk of them were up-and-comers. This brings me to who the real star is of this whole series; the incomparable Sigourney Weaver, who was starring in what is arguably her breakout film role. The best part of her casting is that even though now, we know she's the poster woman for this series, back then, she was very unassuming as a heroine, and you had other more established names like Tom Skerritt or Ian Holm to route for as the heroes. This is part of what makes this movie so bloody good - if you go into this knowing nothing at all, the ending is a bit unexpected. Back to the plot, however, the crew discovers that they have been awakened early, as their ship has picked up a distress call from a nearby moon. Though hesitant at first, the rules state that they must go check it out, as it indicates some kind of intelligent origin. Upon checking out the eerie but awesome H.R. Giger-designed alien ship the signal comes from, one of the crew finds a nest of eggs, and upon inspecting, gets nailed with the franchise's first face-hugger. These little spider-crab-puppy objects of one's most terrifying nightmares latches onto your face and implants an alien embrio inside of its victim, only to later fall off dead. But once the victim thinks they're in the clear, an alien creature bursts from their chest, and starts attacking whoever it can find in some pretty horrific ways. They have acid for blood, grow rapidly, have a little stabby mouth inside their main mouth, and are among the scariest creatures in the history of horror, especially with their aim to kill everyone and everything it can find, seemingly without reason. So yeah, the first film is pretty straightforward as things go, and it all boils down to how the crew tries to survive this alien creature as it terrorizes the ship, playing a most lethal game of "Hide and Seek." After 'Aliens', the series would take a bit of a more action-packed route, using horror elements. So I would definitely classify this as the definitive horror chapter within the series. The first chest-burster scene that takes place here is one of the best horror movie scenes of all time, and it holds up in as much as it makes the viewer feel uneasy, at the very least. It's crazy that even after four decades later, and with the advancement of technology when it comes to film, this is still by far one of the most well done horror movies let alone 'Alien' movies out there. It's yet another one that shows how much better practical effects can be than CG sometimes, and it definitely seems to take inspiration from 'Jaws' in that the alien is actually barely seen here. To this day, the film remains a creepy but awesome work of horrific art, especially with the help of Giger's otherworldly creature designs and set work. What more can be said? This movie is classic, through and through, and still totally holds up. 5/5 |
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