Alien: Director’s Cut
Without a doubt the last word when it comes to science fiction / horror movies, Ridley Scott’s influential masterpiece does nonetheless still suffer from some pacing and writing issues in the first half. It would seem that screenwriter Dan O’Bannon wants to establish the mundane quality of space travel (which he also did in Dark Star, his earlier collaboration with John Carpenter), showing how the characters are bored and fed up with being out in the final frontier and just want to go home. However, the character development is a bit flawed, as several of the actors (particularly Cartwright, Stanton, and Hurt), seem to have nothing to do and come off as quite boring, thus leading the viewer to get restless during the first half waiting for things to get going. Still, almost 30 years later, it’s amazing how absolutely timeless this film is, as the production design, makeup, and FX (model miniatures look more real than CGI), all hold up remarkably well today. Then of course there is that incredibly tense second half, as the alien claims its first victim and we are off to the races, letting the suspense build until we are down to our (legendary) last survivor. Weaver starts her iconic run in subtle fashion here, as it’s ironic how Ripley is such a by-the-book company girl early in the film until she realizes what’s going on; Skerritt plays the captain as a spineless schlub who is easily pushed around by the others; Kotto registers well as the take-charge crew member way down on the totem pole; and Holm as the apparently obsessive-compulsive science officer brings great menace and tension to the film until his sinister secret is revealed. Only Cartwright in the latter portions of the film starts to get on our nerves until we’re practically ready to pay off the creature to rub her out. As for Stanton, he plays his stock grubby little asshole role as usual, and Hurt, despite having one of the most celebrated death scenes in cinema history, does little to make us care for his character before the inevitable. The alien itself is a grand design by H.R. Giger, setting the stage for the additional creatures we would see in the sequels. It should be noted that Ridley’s director’s cut features a key scene late in the film involving Weaver and Skerritt that is haunting to say the least, and adds greatly to the atmosphere of the second half. In the end, a film that has some trouble getting out of the gate, but is still an essential classic…
8/10