T's Take on Alien

T's Take on Alien

Best

one

ever.

Next movie.

I seriously considered letting that be my review, but I'm sure M will pour more thought and insight into hers, and I fear her wrath.

Alien was my first real, hardcore, balls-out nerdy science fiction movie. It was delivered from my Father's quaking hands and into the VCR with the kind of relish and pride one would feel watching his adolescent son down an adult boar with naught but a sharp stick. I devoured it immediately and rewatched my favorite scenes at length until I had the dialogue memorized and every fleeting glimpse of the Alien itself ingrained in my mind. The pacing, the characterization, the dialogue, the very mythology this groundbreaking movie lays at our collective feet is astonishing to behold. My favorite scenes were never the gruesome or action(ish) bits - they were the underplayed silent portions where characters interacted with this believably big and complex hulk of technology. I could watch the crew groggily amble through hallways absent-mindedly flipping switches and pulling levers to manipulate that oblong spaceship all day.

The normalcy of Alien made it great. The relatability of the maintenance guys rolling their eyes and groaning when asked to do something, or the waves of tension that ripple through all levels of a team when their leader is weak... Company policy and aggravating protocol (which will inevitably be overlooked by employees when left to their own devices) paired with the simplicity of human intellect and the fragile nature of our bodies and minds. Truly, the goal of good science fiction is to point out the similarities between their fictitious circumstances and ours. The juxtaposition between piloting the Nostromo over an uncharted planet in the Whatever sector of blibbity-blah and watching the main characters bitching about shitty food and pay discrepancies in the mess hall is an easy and fun card to play.

I guess the worst part about reviewing movies you already love is finding things to gripe about. I suppose I could have done with more awesome violence. People like the Alien movies because they enjoy watching the perplexing and unique species interacting with people and whatever environment the narrative finds us in. At the same time, we keep coming back because we know so little. I'm content to let this sleeping dog lie. Death by space-creature is awesome.

Watch Alien.