Defining moment in sci-fi horror history

Rating: 9/10 (14 February 2016)

Alien is one indisputably one of the best science fiction, and horror films ever made. And easily one of the most influential ever. As it basically invented and defined the science- fiction horror genre, paving the way for films like the thing, and predator.
One of Alien's best aspects is its amazing cinematography and creature/set design. All of see work together to give the film a visual style that was unlike anything scene at the time and Ridley Scott would re-use in Blade Runner. Alien's magnificent visuals can be strangely credited to Alejandro Jodorowsky, who found and assembled all the different artists used in Alien for his adaptation of the novel dune, which was unfortunately canned before shooting started, but every cloud has a silver lining, and Jodorowsky's Dune's silver lining was Alien.
Another one of Alien's best aspects is its pacing and atmosphere, though some people today may call Alien "boring," these people know nothing about film and are not to be trusted. Alien opens with a slow footage of space, as the eerie score plays, open credits come up, and the title is slowly spelled out, this is then followed by a slow montage of the empty ship Nostromo, followed by the crew slowly waking up from cryospleep. In fact we don't see any sign of an alien until 1/3 of the way through the film, and we don't see the main alien until halfway through the film. And this is why some call it "boring," but these people came to see the wrong film, they expected something like predator, a straight forward action film where the hero tries to kill the creature, instead what they got was something more like Halloween or Psycho, a subtle unnerving film that builds tension and doesn't blow its load all at once.
The characters in Alien are also far above the average horror movie, they aren't annoying teenagers, or people that we just want to see die. They're relatable diverse logical characters, that have really natural chemistry, as can be seen in some of the films earlier scenes. And another interesting thing about the characters is, we have to figure out which one the protagonist is, it isn't revealed immediately and makes all lot of scenes much more tense because we don't know which characters are going to die.
Though Alien begins slow, the final scenes of Alien are some of the most "on the edge of your seat" scenes ever, I don't won't to spoil anything for anyone who somehow hasn't scene alien yet, but you will most likely be on the verge of a heart attack while watching.
One final note, I recommend you watch the original version first, and then you most definitely should watch the directors cut.
9.6/10