Review of Alien (1979) by Ben V — 27 Dec 2016

Alien is not a fast-paced movie, it's not a big movie, sometimes it's not even a fun movie. You know why? Because it's not supposed to be. Alien doesn't need to show the monster more than the 6 times it does, Alien needs to tell a compelling story with three dimensional characters and good acting.

All of which this movie achieves. Complaints that this movie features a "rubber monster" or practical effects that don't "tantalize" are either forgetting that this was made in 1979 or are caught up in the fact that it was made in 1979.

Yes the monster looks dated on the wide shots that we get of it, but CGI was essentially non-existent and believe it or not, movies have budgets. The other side of that coin is that the world Alien builds looks and feels too much like Star Wars and the production team was just copying that.

To retort, Fox decided to take this project BECAUSE of the immense success of Star Wars. Every movie company rushed to space because Star Wars did so well. Those who watch Alien need to be absorbed into the film, and those opening - so called "boring" - shots are there to do that.

So if you haven't seen Alien, you really should and keep two things in mind: every second of this film matters and don't expect an overblown in-your-face monster that pops out every other minute.

Alien is a fantastic film with superb acting, an original (for the time) plot, and surprisingly good practical effects.