Riveting

Rating: 9/10 (17 June 2008)

While this movie is not entirely perfect, I felt the need to give it a 9 due to its overall rating of only 6.1.
Too many people compare this Alien to the Aliens of past films. This is ridiculous, because every sequel has been almost categorically different from its predecessor. While the original movie was a groundbreaking landmark of horror-science fiction, the second movie, Aliens, was much more of an action flick than a horror movie. And the third movie, while attempting to be something of a return to the claustrophobic, narrow corridor brand suspense and horror of the first, was nonetheless a far different movie with a far different alien.
This movie is a masterpiece. It exudes style, much in the same vein of The Matrix, but with a definite monster movie twist. This exuberance of style does threaten, at times, to overwhelm its viewers, but it is peppered with enough gut-wrenching violence that one's attention stays just under the threshold.
This movie does demand, much more than its predecessors, that the viewer 'suspends disbelief.' The gore of this movie seems to be its only realism. Realism is sacrificed in the name of style, but to wonderful effect. Anyone who would expect any less must not be at all familiar with Jeunet, the movie's director (see "City of Lost Children").
What this movie lacks in realism, it more than makes up for in style. Furthermore, while fans may have been disappointed by a lack of realism, I do not know how they could expect a character who was burnt to a crisp in the previous sequel to return within a realist paradigm. Even if it is science-fiction, one need only note that truly dead characters more often return to life in the likes of Friday the 13th and Halloween than 2001.
And the ending sequence of the film is beyond harrowing. One of the greatest all-time monster movie endings I have ever seen. However it is definitely not for those with a weak stomach.