Alien

I had a bad day so I wanted to watch one of my all-time favorites. I got introduced to the Alien series through AVP, through a YouTube toy reviewer about 17 years ago, oddly enough. I was always a monster enjoyer, and the creatures looked sick, so I was sold pretty easily. I rented the first AVP at my local blockbuster, and absolutely loved it. I had to have more, so I started seeing what both Alien and Predator had to offer. That led me immediately to the first Alien at about 9 years old. It blew me away like nothing I had seen; I was absolutely -mesmerized- by this movie. I was an avid monster enjoyer, but my main exposure was tokosatsu, meaning my understanding of movie monsters was heavily colored by Godzilla, gamera, and ultraman, so this was a major culture shock. Those movies heavily prioritized action and special effects, whereas here, it's all suspense and tension. It was slower paced, but I was completely locked in. I tore through the alien trilogy, and the predator films, but this one was always my favorite. This is a damn near perfect film, so I'll try and keep the glazing to a minimum, but I do have to gush a bit. I've gotta start with the craft of this movie, because it's insane how good it is, especially on a relatively low budget. The artistry of Alien is unmatched. It'd one of the best looking movies I've ever seen, bar none. Every aspect of the visuals, whether it's the lighting, camera work, set design; it's all perfect. Down to the last screw on every console, everything looks great. And of course, you can't talk about the design without talking about the xenomorph. Without a doubt, one of the best monster designs in the history of cinema. A perfect blend of a striking silhouette, and exceptional detail and depth to the suit; Geiger's creation is truly iconic. There's a reason it's (mostly) stayed the same all this time. While more understated than the visuals, the audio does a great job in getting their vibe of alien just right. So many good machine sounds, the soundtrack knows exactly when to take center stage and when to fade into the background. The writing is simple but effective. Characters are pretty straight forward, but strong performances keep them from being boring. Ripley is of course our standout, watching her "earn" the main character status was a really cool way of making her feel important. Tons of praise gets thrown Weaver's way for Aliens, and fair enough, that movie is also great, but so many of the seeds of Ripley as a character are laid out here. The thematic nature of alien is also done to near perfection. The xenomorph works so well as a representation for both the horror of sexual violence, and as a "perfect solider" in regards to Weyland-Yutani's franchise long quest to bump up its bioweapon division, its cold, unfeeling, and efficient nature punctuating both outlooks perfectly. The Xenomorph doesn't seem to delight in the misery it causes. Aside from the chest burster scene, there aren't any really flashy kills, no torture, no malice. It doesn't even kill for any real purpose. The alien doesn't feed on people, nor, at least in this movie, does it serve any master or higher force. It simply kills or ruins lives and moves on. The Xenomorph can camouflage effortlessly in the Nostromo, so well Ripley thought she beat it with 10 minutes of runtime to spare. It can make the familiar terifying...idk, I think there's so many aspects of it that work so well. You can write sonnets about the nature of the forced pregnation, the xenomorph morphing to take on the traits of its host, the inner mouth, it's so layered and so fascinating. Yeah I love this film. Will probably be in my top 5 forever, it's so damn good.