Simplicity in Storytelling and Art Direction Makes the Film Timeless

Rating: 6/10 (31 January 2005)

The very reason of the huge and continuing success of this 25-year-old sci-fi classic may be the simplicity in its storytelling and its art direction, which has seemingly made the film timeless and universal.
A simple And-Then-There-Were-None type of story has no era-related influence from the late 70s, while many sci-fi films tend to mirror the world at the time they are made. Staged mostly in a closed environment inside a spaceship and briefly on an unknown planet far from Earth, the film practically has no connection to any particular culture.
The designs of aliens' colony on the planet and of the alien by H. R. Giger must have been remarkably cutting-edge back in the time; for contemporary eyes, they look rather simply beautiful. The title design at the opening is also appropriately simple: Green LED-like lights turn on one by one to form the letters of "ALIEN."
The film doesn't look old at all after 25 years and probably will never do. This is one of great examples that simplicity attains eternity.