ALIEN

I popped in one of my favourite movies last night... That movie being Alien. I think even to this day, it is one of the best horror films. I don't like most horror movies because I find them to be too in your face. The monster will show up and just start terrorizing everything at the beginning of the movie and then you're thinking "ya ok I get it." You barely see the alien in Alien. It's lurking in the shadows most of the time and then for a split second you see it's creepy face and then it's gone. One thing I also like about it is the amount of mystery to it. Like when the Nastromo lands on the planet and goes inside the alien ship (the Derelict). There's no explanation as to what the Derelict is or what the creature was that had "fossilized". How long has it been there? Did it crash? where is the queen that produced the eggs? Was it still there and alive while the crew was investigating? We only know as much as the crew would know and that's what makes it so great.

As time goes on we find out that the company that sent the crew out to go mine whatever mineral they were mining, actually set them up. The company had somehow found out about the aliens and knew they were on the planet so they purposely had their course go by the planet so they'd pick it up and investigate it. They go onto the planet and find these eggs and someone gets a face hugger in the face. BAM! Then they break protocol and bring him back on board.

Now this is where I start to get a bit critical with the film...

Parker keeps suggesting that they freeze Kane and bring him home and Ash (Who we find out is a robot sent with them to make sure the alien returns to earth) ignores him. It seems to me though that it would be in the best interest of the company to have him delivered with and face hugger still on him so they could witness the entire process of the alien life. Wouldn't that be more intriguing scientifically? You could argue that now that since the rest of the crew has seen the planet, they'd have to die but they could either memory wipe them or kill them when they are still asleep from the cryogenic tubes when they arrive on earth.

The other thing that bugs me is why the hell would they have a self destruct system installed on the ship if they were planning on having the alien return safely? Wouldn't you think the company would know that there was a possibility that maybe after a the alien starts killing off crew members they'd start to think "We better self destruct and abandon ship, this thing is dangerous..." They'd lose the alien AND the whatever megatons of minerals they just mined... And they did...

However if they just put Kane to sleep or didn't have a self destruct sequence on the ship, there wouldn't be the parts of the film where the alien starts killing off the crew members which is what we watch the movie for...

I still love the movie regardless.