Best "Alien" film yet . . .

Rating: Null/10 (19 September 2012)

I have FINALLY just watched this film now, but I really should have seen it when it first came out months ago, but no, I was put off by all the mediocre reviews. I mean, I could have watched it in 3D, maybe even in IMAX too. But no, I just watched it on my TV at home, and it was definitely one of those films that I wish I REALLY had made it to the cinema for. Now of course, maybe the reason why I enjoyed it so much was for the exact reason that I didn't go out of my way to see it in the cinema (total strangers munching on popcorn in my ear tends to make any film a lot less enjoyable for me), but then I guess I'll never really know.
OK, well so how can I fault this film. Well honestly I can't. The only thing that I can really think of in negative terms is that it was a pretty much a standard re-hash of the theme of a band of random mis-fits on some daring mission in a sci-fi film. I could tell that they were trying a bit to hard to make some of the characters look a bit too modern, hip(ster) and cool for this time period, which just didn't sit right with me at all because this is supposed to happen before the original Alien film, and all the characters then were modern, hip and cool for that era i.e the '70's. I guess some of the creative designers / costume designers were trying to make it palatable and appealing for the youth of today, which, at the age of 33, I'm probably a little bit too old for.
But other than that, it was absolutely fine. Actually, a lot better than fine, pretty much damn near perfect. I remember the first time I saw "Aliens" and that was just amazing, and I was soooo utterly disappointed upon watching "Alien 3". I mean, honestly, how can you make such a terrible film after such a great one ??? "Alien Resurrection" was definitely a step in the right direction and made up a bit for how horrible "Alien 3" was, but didn't quite blow me out of the water either. The Alien vs Predator films were, well, gimmicky and just entirely out of context. But this, FINALLY, a film that after all those years, comes close to the greatness and awe-inspiring nature of "Aliens" and in some ways even far surpasses it.
Unlike "Aliens", this was more than just some gung-ho military style rescue mission, and it really is the only film that I've seen that is worthy of the title "pre-quel", as it very much elaborately created an intricate and layered back-story that almost made some aspects of the original Alien films look a bit boring. Being a modern film, with a whole amazing arsenal of special effects at its mercy, it didn't need to use artistic pause to get it's point across effectively, it just kept on moving along at a nice quick pace. No need to build up suspense for minutes at a time, the film-makers were able to get everything right when they needed it and right when they wanted it, proof for me at least, that sci- fi can indeed get a whole lot better the farther we progress into the future . . .