"Alien" is an excellent, smart and scary film. The dark and cold atmosphere created by director Ridley Scott sets up a sense of isolation and danger. One of the best scenes occurs when three of the crew members board a strange ship and find the fossilized remains of the craft's pilot, a giant, who is still frozen in time in his seat after being a host for the alien spawn. This scene alone demonstrates the wonders of great science fiction film making that is almost always forgotten or ignored in today's Sci-Fi.

After watching this for the first time in years, I realized that there is surprisingly little screen time for the alien itself. But it really doesn't matter because the director does a great job of building suspense and trusting that the viewer will use his imagination. This is really the coolest looking alien of any in the series other than the "Queen" alien of James Cameron's "Aliens" feature. The effects used to create the android Ash are amazing for the time, also. Especially in a scene where he is beaten by Parker. The way that Ash's head is dangling from his shoulders is truly demented fun.

This is a total "must see" for any science fiction or horror buff.

**The Good**:

+ **Ridley Scott's** science fiction horror classic has a gritty visual style that still holds up greatly today.
+ Focus on creeping horror and building suspense, rather than endless action (watch and learn, **James Cameron**!).
+ Claustrophobic, dark and timeless sets and beautiful production design
+ An amazing cast lead by **John Hurt**, **Tom Skerritt**, **Ian Holm** and **Sigourney Weaver**.
+ Despite being in the shadows for large parts of the film, Weaver's Ripley is the primary protagonist of the feature - and an unusually strong female character for the time.
+ The simple story is perfected with flawless performances, strong direction and stunning visuals.
+ Clearly draws inspiration from _Star Wars_, released two years prior, but does it well.
+ The tense editing and atmospheric music make the film feel like a **Hitchcock** movie in space.
+ Still amazing how realistic the Xenomorph looks 40 years later.
+ Scott shows the alien very sparingly, maintaining the mystery for most of the film.

**The Bad**:
I am not even going to try. This is pretty much a masterpiece and I cannot find any flaws with it.

**Verdict**:
The science fiction classic is an expertly crafted horror tale and a movie you just cannot skip!

Three major observations from someone who has re-watched both Alien and Aliens quite a few times (and has seen the sequels once each... let's not talk about those haha).

First: given these movies are 30-40 years old, it is insane how well they have held up, effects included. The practical effects work on both these movies is stunning.

Second: these two movies work so well together in tandem, and make perfect sense from a plot perspective with the 50 year gap since the Alien ship was first discovered in between. With Alien, Ridley Scott gave us a really tight, terrifying, what the fuck is going style sci-fi horror movie that still works a treat to this day. With Aliens, James Cameron expanded the narrative scope of the universe in a really interesting way, and made an action thriller that in many ways is just as tense and terrifying as the first movie - turns out that whether you're an unarmed crew or a squad of marines, the aliens are going to go through you like butter regardless.

Third: even when judged just by on its own, individual merits, Alien is an excellent movie. It's just seen it's 40th anniversary, and is still without equal in some areas. Set design that recognises cargo freighters are just as likely to be shit holes in space as they are on Earth. The alien chest bursting sequence - no matter how many times I've seen it, it still haunts me. The reveal of the Science Officer being an Android, the creepy way he stares and does nothing as the alien bursts from another crew member's chest, the gruesome and incredible practical effects when the surviving crew beat him to pieces while he continues to partly function...

And I haven't even started on the alien itself yet. Not only is the creature design spectacular, truly terrifying, and amazingly executed, but the way we get to see so little of it (only glimpses of certain parts at a time while it kills its way through the crew) until the whole creature is revealed to Ripley in the final sequence creates so much tension you probably shouldn't watch this movie if you have a heart condition.

There's nothing that hasn't already been said about Sigourney Weaver already, but her performance as Ripley is awesome. It starts off so low key, the frustration of constantly being overruled by male crew members even though she's the only one thinking clearly enough to look beyond the next 10 minutes, culminating in the fact that she is ultimately the only one strong, crafty, and determined enough to kill the alien and survive.

Whether you look at it as a thriller, a sci-fi movie, a horror film (or all of the above), it's a fantastic work when evaluated as part of any of these genres.

Concluding aside: Fox released a 40th anniversary version of the movie, remastered on 4K UHD Blu-ray. It looks spectacular and is easily worth the purchase if you have the right equipment.

**One of the great founders of modern sci-fi.**

Anyone who knows me already knows that I don't really like alien-themed movies, because I don't strictly believe in intelligent life outside our planet. However, the theme has already yielded many quality horror or thriller films. “Alien” is arguably the best, best-performed, and most enshrined and culturally significant of them all. It's one of those films that has already gone beyond cinematic issues to become a piece of art and culture that we all know, even people who never took the time to see it.

Thus, it is not worth wasting time explaining the plot around the “Nostromo”, a cargo ship with seven crew members who are decimated by a highly dangerous and carnivorous alien. The direction, in charge of Ridley Scott, is excellent, meticulous, attentive, and the story is intelligent, very well written and with well-developed and used characters. Contrary to what happens in other films, we see the characters trying to act as a team, and trying to solve an unexpected and dangerous situation. I never felt like they were acting in such a way as to almost purposefully put themselves in danger, which happens a lot in recent horror movies.

Sigourney Weaver made an excellent dramatic career after this film, which established her as an actress and opened doors for her in the industry. A deserved reward, given that she puts in her best efforts and gives this character all the resilience, humanity and charisma she deserves and needs. Despite the general quality of the cast being quite good, there are almost no actors capable of matching Weaver. As far as the technical aspects are concerned, the film has excellent cinematography (it even looks newer than it is) and really good special effects and visuals, considering that there is no CGI and that everything is done in the old-fashioned way. Finally, a word of praise for the iconic original score composed by Jerry Goldsmith.

Back in the day before Sir John Hurt took to being little more than a highly paid cameo-man, he was a great actor and here is a prime example. His merchant ship is travelling through space when it receives a distress call. They stop to help and one of their number becomes infected with a... well, now you have to watch it. Sigourney Weaver is superb as the feisty, no-nonsense "Ripley" who leads the defence against a beastie that has brute strength, determination, intelligence and an astonishing ability to move at speed through the corridors and conduits of the ship. Ridley Scott allows the tension to rise gently and violently, by degree, and the clever use of sound and light; Jerry Goldsmith's tense score and excellent supporting performances from Tom Skerritt and a wonderfully seedy ian Holm make this a seminal sci-fi horror film that still makes you want to hide behind the sofa - 40 years on!