Review of Alien³ (1992) by Jared O — 27 Aug 2015

Alien is a 1979 science fiction horror film directed by Ridley Scott starring Harry Dean Stanton, Sigourney Weaver, Ian Holm, Yaphet Kotto, Veronica Cartwright, John Hurt, and Tom Skerrit. Alien had a chance to succeed thanks to a renewed interest in the science fiction genre with the success of both Star Wars and Close Encounters of the Third Kind two years earlier.

The film, set in the year 2122, follows the crew of the Nostromo who answer a distress signal from the desolate planet LV-426. When they get there, the ship takes damage and time is needed for engineers Brett (Stanton) and Parker (Kotto) to repair the ship. In the meantime, Captain Dallas (Skerrit), navigator Lambert (Cartwright), and Executive Officer Kane (Hurt) investigate the origin of the signal. They come across a ship and upon entering it they find a large amount of eggs. Each of these eggs contains a creature that has become known as a facehugger. One of these facehuggers attaches itself to Kane. Upon returning to the Nostromo while carrying Kane, Dallas and Lambert are denied entry onto the ship by warrant officer Ellen Ripley because of quarantine procedures. Quarantine procedures are thrown out the door when Science Officer Ash (Holm) allows them onboard. The facehugger detaches itself from Kane and dies. Kane wakes up and the crew decides to celebrate by having a meal together only to find out that Kane was impregnated with a deadly alien that gets loose and quickly grows in size and strength. Now the crew must fight for both their survival and the survival of mankind.

Scott seems to take plays out the same horror movie playbook that fellow renowned science fiction director Steven Spielberg used for Jaws four years earlier. Thankfully for Alien, they are the right plays. The most notable one being the scariest thing is whatever you do not see. Scott drew his visual inspiration from Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey and George Lucas' Star Wars while he has described the film as a science fiction version Texas Chainsaw Massacre.

Scott fought with the studio over his decision to let H.R. Giger to design the film. While the studio was against that decision, Scott still won that fight allowing Giger to use his imagination and in the end he created a stunningly beautiful looking style for the film. Every scene with the alien is filled intense atmosphere. Over thirty years after the film's release the visuals of Alien are even better than the visual effects in a lot of movies today.

The acting is also impressive. That is an understatement for Weaver's performance. Weaver was not known at the time like she is today, but she sure does own the role of Ellen Ripley. Speaking of Ripley, she is a character that I love. She is smart, brave, and resourceful. All of the characters are fun to watch on screen in large part thanks to some entertaining performances.

Alien has stood the test of time perfectly. Though it took a few years to get a sequel, the film still became the first installment of one of today's most iconic movie franchises. Alien is a classic that perfectly blends everything together.