"Alien" With Frostbite

Rating: 8/10 (14 June 2011)

Excellent special effects. As in "Alien", Carpenter shows an eerily realistic spaceship wreckage. As in "Alien", it's just one long cat-and- mouse game. But it's very well-made, the special effects are scary and very creative, and the atmosphere captures men in isolation, with no help for rescue. (In the Arctic, no one can hear you scream).. There were some flaws, however. As in "Alien", we have an African American character who has a highly qualified position,no doubt having had to be screened for intelligence,and technical know-how. As in "Alien", he is a jive turkey; a fool who speaks like an uneducated ghetto stereotype. Some scenes called for an emotional response, but the characters took it in stride. When Russel's character and the other guy look at a huge spaceship stuck in he ice, they seem too relaxed. Nobody said, "Wow! a flying saucer!" They didn't even elaborate on it when they got back o the other guys. When the horrific Thing kept warping itself into demonic images of horror, nobody really panicked...they just dealt with it as if it were a rat in the kitchen... At the end, the alien inexplicably attained gigantic proportions. And when I sit riveted to the screen for two hours, I want closure....not this type of ending.