The alien within?

Rating: 6/10 (17 June 2008)

Despite it's legendary status, the truth is that Alien is just a horror movie set out in space, i.e. the alien monster taking the part of the serial killer that's murdering the cast one by one (minus of course the main character, in this case Ripley - played by Sigourney Weaver). So, nothing original, apart from that it's set in outer space.
Then where does that leave us? Well, two things are really of note. H.R. Giger's design of the alien planet and the creature itself - chilling and nightmarish, in what is the brush of a true artist, and also Ash's poetic reflection on the alien monster: "Its structural perfection is matched only by its hostility." "I admire its purity. A survivor.. unclouded by conscience, remorse, or delusions of morality."
And yet despite the atmospheric approach, it's unclear what angle or view, if any, the film offers. Seemingly it condemns the instinctive effort for survival of the alien creature, yet in the end it's the morally bound humankind which prevails. In fact, the scene in the end where Ripley comes face to face with the alien and kills it by shooting it in outer space is probably the film's center of gravity. The alien creature is for the first time looking insecure and scared of dying, but Ripley (guided by her own instincts) shows no remorse. Here, the roles of the hunter and the hunted are blurred, and so is the moral status of mankind.
Other minor themes are the remorseless capitalist stance of the mother/company, which also hides a metaphysical meaning (the company is called mother, it controls the destiny of the crew, has it's own purposes, has it's chosen representative amongst the crew with the robot Ash etc).