Alien - Review

Every time I watch a movie that many consider being one of the greatest films ever made, I feel a tiny bit of pressure to at least enjoy it because if I give a bad review to a movie many people cherish, it could get ugly in the comment section. So here it is, Alien, directed by Ridley Scott, one of my favourite filmmakers is good. I didn't love it, but I'm glad I watched it. I have to get that off my chest first so that I don't get destroyed by this movie's supporters. Some may ask, "How could you not just absolutely fall in love with this movie?" In this case, it's rather simple. This movie is slow. There, I said it. This movie came out the same year as Star Trek: The Motion Picture and they both suffer from the same problem. With the success of Star Wars, movies could now explore the deepest reaches of space. In my eyes, Star Trek and Alien both tried to show off the sheer scale of what they could do at that time. So, the crew wakes up and decide to investigate an alien ship. By the time they decide to do that, do it, and come back onto the ship, 45 minutes of screen time has passed. Those 45 minutes are full of extremely long shots of dark, creepy imagery which was cool to see, however way too long. However, this probably wasn't a problem back in 1979 because then, viewing shots like that would be breathtaking. So the fact that it felt slow was just a byproduct of me growing up in the late 90s and 2000s where CGI was everywhere. As for the actual horror aspects of the movie, it's pretty intriguing, but again, I keep seeing it as dated. I feel bad saying that, but it's true. However, watching this film makes me really want to watch the sequel. I'm more of a fan of action in my science fiction rather than a harder focus on the science aspects or even horror, so I'm sure the next film will be a treat. For film junkies, I'd say go see it. If you are one of those people who can't stand watching movies that feel "old" then maybe this isn't your best option. I'm glad I saw it though and looking forward to watching its sequels.