Alien

Directed by Ridley Scott, Alien follows the crew members (Tom Skerritt’s Dallas, Sigourney Weaver’s Ripley, Veronica Cartwright’s Lambert, Harry Dean Stanton’s Brett, John Hurt’s Kane, Ian Holm’s Ash, and Yaphet Kotto’s Parker) of a futuristic mining vessel as they’re forced to fend for their lives after a menacing (and bloodthirsty) alien sneaks aboard. There’s little doubt that filmmaker Ridley Scott, working from a script by Dan O’Bannon, does a stellar job of immediately luring the viewer into the proceedings, as the film kicks off with a captivating opening title sequence that’s followed by an engrossing, dialogue-free tour of the aforementioned ship. It’s striking stuff that instantly establishes an atmosphere of dread and suspense, with the movie’s pervasively watchable feel heightened by Scott’s continually captivating directorial choices and the efforts of an entertainingly off-kilter roster of performers. Having said that, Alien does, on the other hand, boast an exceedingly deliberate pace that can be, at times, a little tough to stomach – with the movie’s paucity of plot resulting in a few less-than-taut stretches within the almost episodic midsection. It’s just as clear, however, that such concerns prove easy to overlook in the face of such engrossing set-pieces as, for example, the now-infamous chest-bursting interlude and Dallas’ frightening confrontation with the creature in the ship’s air-duct tunnels. (It’s conversely difficult to work up much enthusiasm for or interest in the admittedly unexpected fate of Holm’s mysterious character.) By the time the tense climax rolls around, Alien has certainly lived up to its place as a memorable (yet demonstrably erratic) landmark of the cinematic sci-fi field – with Scott’s subsequent endeavors in the genre (Blade Runner, Prometheus) certainly not faring quite as well.

*** out of ****