Deserves a 10, but...a victim of its own genius and success.

Rating: 7/10 (11 January 2020)

Anyone who saw Alien before 1985 knows the iconic impact it had on all future sci-fi / horror movies that would follow. It was a creative canon, a standard, by which all subsequent movies would be held against in comparison (even its own sequels). The problem- why I give it 6.8/10? Like all classics, to be viewed by future generations, it cannot remain in a time warp, never to be compared to the future films it inspired or spawned. As my sons watched this movie, they cringed at the special and visual effects, and matte paintings, that for our generation were indistinguishable from a real life, massive set (the artists won Oscars for these masterpiece effects). But for today's generation, the special, visual, and model effects are readily distinguishable, and effectively destroy the film's illusion. My kids could easily point out where the seams to the matte paintings were located. I hate to admit it, but this film's only failing is that it cannot stand up to the newest generation of films, that it brought about.