May 24, 2015

alright, I caved and watched it. I'm actually probably not going to be able to see it Wednesday in the cinema anyways.

To be honest, this was my first viewing of Alien. I've known things about it but never actually sat down to take it in. I wouldn't say I was impressed, but I found a lot to like in the film.

Visually, for 1979, the film is quite rich. While some of the shots of the spacecraft and alien are downright laughable by today's standards, the one major quality that they hold is a material nature. With CGI, no matter how brilliantly an image is constructed, it's artificiality shows. With Alien, its film quality plus the material/tangible use of everything gives it a greater sense of reality, primarily with one's sense of touch. The alien and the spacecraft have a flesh which one can imaging touching: a stubbly, matte aircraft, the scales, the oozing flesh. There's something very David Cronenberg happening here and its the body-horror images.

The film's sound-design is superb, with many of the effects and the careful adjusting of levels between right and left channels quite haunting and affective.

The lack of story background is both an advantage and disadvantage. The film stands on its own in a world untethered, but at the same time it does not rise from mere caricature to literature; the story is simply and effective, but a little lacking in depth. Helpful as a genre pieces, this limits the film's approach and forces it to remain within horror even more than in science-fiction, as there is no real science to speak of.

I enjoyed it, but I don't think it's a masterpiece. 80/100 - Great

 

May 24, 2015

I'm very late but i'll give some quick thoughts

Alien is good but not the masterpiece mainstram media created, the pace and editing are standouts in the film, the atmosphere created was engaging, not to mention the choice of a female lead was somehow innovative, and Weaver took it to another level i don't think anyone would've thought, however, I agree with Real hip hop (i still call you like that), it lacked depth.

7/10