A good film, but maybe a bit overrated

Rating: 6/10 (31 July 2017)

Here we have the 1979 2-hour film Alien and this one is the beginning of a franchise that is still going on today, again with Ridley Scott in charge, the man who also directed this original movie. It is all about what happens when an alien creature ends up on a spaceship full of scientists in the future. Lets just say that it is not full of scientists anymore at the end. The movie won an Oscar for its special effects and scored another nomination. These days, despite being almost 40 years old (or because of?), it is considered a classic when it comes to combining the horror and sci-fi genres. The most known cast member is certainly lead actress Sigourney Weaver and she keeps moving more and more into the center of it all the longer the film goes and there are other pretty well-known actors in the relatively small cast here. Still, this is at no point an actors' movie. It is all about the creature, the fight for survival and of course the technical aspects (both visually and audibly). And last but not least about the scare factor: I think they did a pretty good job here in elevating this film beyond mediocre jump scares as the creature attacks sometimes when you don't expect it and does nothing when you do expect it like when the second victim was looking up at the ceiling in search of his cat.
Some solid plot twists about crew members and the general plan involving the creature work in the film's favor too. You have to dig deep for flaws, but here and there you find one. Maybe Ripley is sometimes depicted too heroically for a film that definitely tries to go for realism at the very core of it all. I also could have done without the epilogue outside the ship I guess, but I'll accept it for the thrills. Just personal preference though obviously. It was a good watch, but almost top50 films of all times (as here on IMDb) is certainly exaggerated. I will probably check out the James Cameron sequel at some point too, but these 2 hours were not on a level where I would want to do it immediately. Overall, a thumbs-up though. Certainly worth checking out if you love SciFi. A lot was done right here and there were certainly scenes that could have gone horribly wrong with less competent people in charge. Lucky for us, they did not. Go see it.