Ridley Scott's classic has run out of gas.

Rating: 10/10 (13 February 2005)

Alien is a film that will forever go down in history. It has earned a place among the greatest horror movies of all time and was put there by the fans. I know people who have seen this film literally dozens of times and are scared by it each time. The first time I saw Alien I was four years old... and it put me to sleep in a manner of minutes. Till this day it still accomplishes that.
I have seen Alien 5 times. Each time I struggle to stay awake. I find this film so incredibly boring & dull. I understand why so many people find this film scary. When they tell me why they were scared I don't think "What the hell is the matter with these people?". Yet the formula seems to be scared by does not work on me.
Much like AVP, the films lacks what the title promises. You barely see the Alien. I know most people credit that to the films horror, but for me I find it incredibly annoying and frustrating. When I go to a movie called Alien I want to see an Alien! Overall the title character gets only about 30 seconds of screen time. When the film was done I couldn't even describe what the creature looked like. The least they could have done is give the Alien enough screen time so the audience could actually KNOW what it looked like.
Ridley Scott pretty much invented the formula of hiding the monster and using the characters to sell the fear. The problem is he over used it. He used way too much characters and way too little Alien. There needs to be a perfect balance between the two like James Cameron did with Aliens. He hid the Aliens till half-way through the movie but at least he gave us long enough looks at the Aliens that we had a perfect picture of what it looked like.
Alien is another one of those films that has earned a place in cinema history. But yet I have never been caught up in the terror so many people claim it has.