A sci-fi horror "classic" which disappoints

Rating: 5/10 (6 April 2013)

Upon its initial release critical reaction to Alien was mixed to negative. One notable review described it as an empty bag of tricks. One critic dismissed it as an overblown B-movie. Another called it deeply dislikeable. Then a funny thing happened. Audiences saw the film and liked it. The film became a big success. It wasn't long before the film was being touted as a classic of its genre. Critics who had initially panned the film went back and wrote entirely new reviews praising it. The film was now beyond criticism. Nobody would dare admit they did not love it. Truth is the critics had it right the first time. This film is just not very good.
Alien is meant to be a scary monster movie but the scares certainly don't come fast and furious. This film takes a long, long time setting itself up. Director Ridley Scott tries to build suspense. But this slow build drags on far too long for the film's good. Tension and intrigue drain away, boredom sets in. The film is often described as "Jaws in space" in that it's a monster movie in which we see very little of the monster. But where Steven Spielberg kept Jaws crackling along Scott's film gets terribly bogged down. Jaws also benefited from compelling characters. No such luck with Alien. Sigourney Weaver has some presence to her playing the key role of Ripley. But that character doesn't really spark to life until very late in the film. The rest of the cast has very little to do. A boring group of characters prone to doing stupid things. Like searching for a cat instead of, you know, escaping the giant murderous Alien. There are some notably fine actors here, including John Hurt and Ian Holm. But the script fails them. The characters never inspire much feeling in you at all, giving you little reason to care about their fate. There is very little story here, no character development whatsoever. A late reveal of one character's background proves more silly than shocking. The film has a memorable moment or two. But one or two moments in a two-hour film aren't nearly enough. This monster movie is monstrously overrated.