Alien Review

 

        After the success of Star Wars, you wouldn’t believe how sci-fi became popular. Just to put into perspective, prior to that film, it was a very niche genre that leaned towards B-Movie type of quality. With Lucas’ film, it gave a legitimacy to a genre where anyone can spin the genre to any way. You had many imitations that tried to be like Star Wars but lacked that heart and awe. That’s where Ridley Scott comes in. This is the movie where it put him on the map, and started a franchise. 

1. Space Truckin’

        My first exposure to the franchise was when those crappy Alien vs Predator movies came out. I haven’t watched those but there was a bombardment of ads on tv that you couldn’t shield your eyes. My first movie that I did see in the franchise was for the fifth film Prometheus. As a stand-alone it was decent, but as puzzle piece to the entire franchise, it’s, well, I’ll talk about that later. 

        With all that, many years into the future, we follow the crew of the Nostromo. Carrying mineral ore to Earth, the onboard computer receives a distress signal for the crew to investigate. And knowing this movie, you know exactly how it’s going to go down. The way it opens too is ominous. Just a bleak view into the planet as the title gradually appears. There's no pomp or circumstance with John Williams, just a foreboding vibe of danger.

        This film is the exact opposite of Star Wars, like duh right? What makes it work is the overall atmosphere and setting. Inside the Nostromo, everything is cramped and it feels endless with the hallways of the whole ship. The tech is really interesting to, while primitive as the special effects of the time, it’s always interesting to see how future tech was portrayed in older movies. 

        The characters too are all worth getting invested. We assume that the main character is Dallas, since he assumes the control of the situation when he gets the objective from the A.I. named Mother. I say that they’re interesting because they’re not scientists, just haulers and technicians that want to get a share of money that they feel is warranted. Most of them address each other by last names and I feel that it works.

        Obviously, the whole franchise would revolve around Sigourney Weaver’s character, but it’s amazing how she basically became the only person who has balls to go against Dallas’ authority. She’s mostly by the books and the only smart person among the crew when the actual ensuing action kicks off the entire demise of the crew. 

        In one way, the film is paying tribute to what came before within its contemporaries but adding new synergy. A group go into a sketchy place, usually haunted or in this case a crashed alien ship. Get exactly what they deserve when the threat slowly picks them off, once again paying tribute to the old horror trope of the monster on the loose. 

2. Xenomorph

        This creature is one of the most interesting aliens, no pun intended, ever to be portrayed in film. It was designed by artist H.R. Giger, who mostly focuses on the combination of human and mechanical. Which when you see his works, it’s odd looking when it’s the fusion of these two things. 

        Anyways, the actual introduction to the creature is ingenious. We see its fast evolution when we see the crew descend to the planet and investigate the signal. It starts off as an egg, but it immediately opens when one of the crew decides to look at it closely. The face hugger is much scarier than the actual drone I believe. Since it leaps into the face of the victim and force its seed into the host. 

        It's parasitic and psychosexual as heck when you think about it. Which is what the film is mostly about when you look at it a bit closely. The whole creature is representative on the fear of what’s it like to be on the receiving end of a very traumatic action. Especially when everything seems to be normal, the creature forces itself out of the gut of the victim.

3. World Building

        Aside from the Alien going hunting for the crew, the whole world in the movie is interesting since it doesn’t explain everything. We along with the crew are seeing something where it looks interesting and foreboding. It’s immediately clear that the distress signal is an actual warning for anyone to stay away. 

        The money shot is when they find the dead alien, dubbed the Space Jockey, when they see that its chest is blown out. We don’t know what it’s doing or why it was carrying the cargo of Alien eggs. The whole ordeal lets the audience interpret what happened. Either the aliens had the cargo to be kept away or used as a weapon. The ideas are endless, well, until we got a sort-of prequel, I’ll talk about that one some other time.

        One more thing is that there’s a secondary antagonist in the film. Among the crew, there’s one member who seems off, and it’s Ash. Ash is interesting as a character since he’s an android. More so that he has other motives along side the A.I. computer. It sets up that the company they work for is nefarious. As far as I’m aware that it gets expanded upon in the sequel.

4. Legacy

        The success of this movie triggered a franchise and started a franchise. It’s part of probably the best horror movies of the 70s. I rank this below The Exorcist and above Halloween in terms of quality. What’s always interesting to me in retrospect is how the reception changed throughout the time during and after the film’s release. For one thing it was mixed, and then later with a new lens gained an appreciation to then be called a classic. 

        The franchise has been inconsistent. I had a chance to watch this one and its sequel Aliens for a class when I was in college. And I can easily say that Aliens is the best one throughout the series. It wasn’t until that there were more sequels in the 90s and 2010s. They were mixed at best due to how much they relied on Weaver’s character and expanding on the Space Jockey aspect. 

        One last thing is that it served as an inspiration for the Nintendo franchise Metroid. Having played the series here and there, it’s clear that the franchise pays a lot of respect to the Alien series. Since it has that cramped feeling and borrows elements of the creatures and made their own threat. The video game series is still beloved among Nintendo fans and gaming fans. 

5. Overall

        Alien closes out the decade by mixing in sci-fi and horror in the best way possible.