11/04/03

Alien? The original? On the big screen? I'm there, dude. Amusingly enough, I think that actually was my initial response to hearing about the re-release. Watching the new Director's Cut of Alien, it's astounding to see how much of an influential movie it was. So many SciFi and Horror movies owe a debt to this film. Almost all of this movie feels cliched, until you realize it set the standard. It taught many lessons that could have saved the lives of countless movie protaganists that followed.

1. It's always a bad idea to investigate a distress signal. Period.
2. No matter what you think you know about the monster, it's always faster, smarter, and more powerful than your initial assesment.
3. Aliens like air shafts. Stay the hell out of them.
4. When in doubt, blow up the entire ship. Don't forget to allow time for the needlessly complex self destruct mechanism.
5. Someone among you has ulterior motives. They'll betray you, but don't worry, they'll get what's coming to them.
6. Cute animals have a better chance than you do.

The movie looked great on the big screen, plenty of wide sweeping shots of space and the planets and space freighters that occupy it. With the exception of the computer terminals and Sigourney Weaver's atrocious 70's underwear, nothing looked dated. The movie still manages to be unsettling even though you know exactly what's coming. I thought the use of the video feeds cutting out when they're exploring the alien spacecraft worked particularly well. And let's not forget the chest-burster scene, which is still priceless.

One thing I thought was interesting was how slow paced a lot of the movie was. It borrows a bit from 2001 in the long sweeping shots of the ship, inside and out, as well as the long sequences like the descent to the planet. Although it's not as slow as 2001 (thank god), it still show's how much has changed in movies since then. This worked really well, especially in contrast to the frenetic pace of the last 20 minutes or so. The final scene, although working very well on a purely sensory level, honestly didn't make much sense. The addition of a scene where Ripley finds two of the crew members alive and cocooned, I found interesting simply because I'm a SciFi geek. Story-wise, I don't think it really added anything to it.

Altogether a blast. Just don't look behind you to see what that cat is hissing at.

• IMDB Entry