Disclaimer, this is a review of the edited version so that it does not receive an R rating. These thoughts are specifically from that version and the score will likely differ from uncut and cut versions.

Alien is a very popular film and it’s known as possibly being the greatest horror film of all time. This film gives Jaws a run for its money in popularity and there have been many rides and spin off media from the film. This is definitely what got aliens so popular, but does the film live up to this day?

The film starts with a crew of 7 in a spaceship. They are on their way back to earth, but they are awakened from their cryogenic sleep a little early. The ship informs them that a distress signal is being sent out from another ship. They go to investigate, but an alien latches itself onto one of the crew. Is the alien hostile!? It doesn’t look so tough, but big things tend to come in small packages. The alien is pretty nimble and there are many places to hide. Can the crew possibly stop him!?

The main cast of characters is pretty underwhelming for the most part. I can’t really say that there were any characters that stood out. Lambert is terrified of the alien creature and never gets past her fears. Her end is a pretty uncool way to go down and I doubt that she has many fans. Ash is the smart guy of the group and he doesn’t always obey orders. He definitely acts a little shady the whole time. Can they trust this guy!? Dallas is the captain of the crew, but he gets a really small role. I’m not sure what his point in the film really was in the end. Parker was the only member of the crew who seemed like he could fight with the alien, but his crew turned out to be a liability and they held him back. Ripley is the main character of the film, but it’s a little hard to guess that. While she does get most of the scenes at the end, she doesn’t get that much screen time for the first half. She ditched her cat at one point which takes points away from her.

The Cat was pretty cool and I’m glad that he didn’t end up dying. Alien must be one of the only horror films that avoided the obligatory animal death which earns the film some points. The Xenomorph is definitely deadly, but I preferred his portrayal in Aliens vs Predator. He’s still a pretty dangerous creature and was definitely the best character of the film.

Overall, Alien is a film that all horror fans will want to check out. There is a lot of tension throughout the film and it also goes into a lot of detail. The opening minutes are all for showing off the ship and the schematics. The ship is also advanced and has an A.I. named “Mother” Unfortunately it never seems to have enough data to make a decision. Alien lives up well as an alien classic, but I think we could have used some more alien action.

Overall 4/10