Review of Alien³ (1992) by Shayan S — 26 May 2017

Spoilers.

Ridley Scott's 1979 movie Alien, is an absolute classic of both the science fiction and the horror genre. In the over 35 years since its release, Alien has influenced so many movies and has become widely known as one of the best movies ever. Alien is certainly one of my all time favourite movies and in my opinion has a well deserved place in cinematic history. Alien is just one of those films where there is so much good that it can out way any criticism one may have. The acting and cast are one of the reasons why the film works so much. In my opinion Alien has one of the best casts for a movie ever, you have: Sigourney Weaver, Tom Skerritt, Harry Dean Stanton, Ian Holm, Veronica Cartwright, Yaphet Kotto and of course the late great John Hurt. While a lot of the actors aren't the most well known or haven't gone on to incredible fame, every single one of the cast are brilliant character actors and are absolutely 100% convincing. Also a mention has to go to 6' 10'' Bolaji Badejo who played the xenomorph. Alien was the second movie directed by Ridley Scott and in my opinion this is his best directing I have seen. This movie is absolutely dripping in suspense and horror. From the moment the film starts there is a sense of unease to the movie that just builds and builds through the runtime and leads to a film that is still scary and tense today. This movie is full of long suspenseful scenes with absolutely killer pay offs, my favourite of which is the nail bitingly tense air duct sequence. However one cannot talk about Alien without mentioning the absolutely iconic chestbuster scene; it's a scene that is just so well done, it comes at the perfect point in the movie, we really care and feel sympathy for John Hurt's Kane so it makes the scene all the more powerful and finally the gore and effects still hold up. Considering that Alien came out in the 1970's the film still really holds up. The xenomorph/ Alien still looks amazing. In my opinion it is still the scariest and most well designed movie monster. Everything from the design to the whole concept of the creatures reproduction cycle are just so effecting and H.R. Gieger deserves full credit for the design of the Alien. The creature is so sexualised and there are so many references in the film to rape that it makes the movie all the more unsettling. Another thing that has to be mentioned is the secret robot member of the crew, Ash played excellently by Ian Holm. Upon rewatching there are so many hints that Ash is a robot and the actual reveal and design is very well handled. Technically Alien is brilliant; while slow paced the editing is still top notch. The cinematography from Derek Vanlint gives a brilliant feel of isolation and horror. The sound design is brilliant and the writing is also excellent. Alien is overall just a masterpiece, it has great acting, brilliant suspense and some absolutely top notch horror. This is still a classic and upon rewatching I think this is the best of the Alien franchise, although Aliens is still pretty great. Alien is an absolute classic everyone should see. A+.