A smart and stylish ripoff

Rating: 7/10 (7 May 2011)

I did like this film, don't get me wrong. Acting is good, the overall atmosphere is very dark and moody, the gore scenes remain impressive to this day, the special effects are fantastic (damn, why did the industry ever quit matte painting...) There is even character development and a very solid storyline. I love the idea of the extraterrestrial life form being, for once, DIFFERENT, not your usual Roswell-type creature with two arms and two legs... But men, you must admit this is a ripoff of Alien.
(SPOILERS FOLLOW)
Everything is there : the confined home within a hostile environment, the extra-terrestrial life form supposedly dead for thousands of years, the slow progression of the killings within the team by this seemingly unreachable ET, even some of the gruesome moments are heavily inspired by those in Alien. The cool thing is that you don't notice it during the film because Carpenter has his own way of telling a story, and the cinematography is unique. And hey, who knows if Ridley Scott wasn't himself inspired by The Thing From Another World...