42/15
Andy: The solution to a claustrophobic astronaut is to give him more space
Synopsis
While scavenging the depths of an abandoned space station, a group of young space colonists encounter the most terrifying life form in the universe. Check out the movies in the Alien series fare according to IMDb user ratings. [Last updated August 14, 2024] Director Fede Alvarez sought out the special effects team from Alien 2 (1986) to work on the creatures. Physical sets, realistic creatures, and miniatures were used wherever possible to inform later VFX work. When Rain turns off the ship’s gravity and shoots all the aliens, their blood floats in the air in long, smear-like patterns. Real-life weightlessness causes fluids to take on spherical shapes rather than spreading out into long, flat pieces like they do in the movies.
Theme from Alien
The 20th Century Studios fanfare freezes and becomes ominous, like in Alien 3 (1992), leading into the film’s opening scene. The logo itself is caught in a static charge and turns green. Featured in Nerdrotic: The Acolyte: Force is Female CONFIRMED? The Death of Cinemas – The Real BBC @MauLer @HeelvsBabyface (2024). Written by Jerry Goldsmith. At this point in 2024, there are more bad Alien movies than good ones, so something that pays tribute to the originals really piqued my interest.
The opening scene was perfect
Visually, it’s classic “Alien/s,” albeit with a modern polish. It looks great, spectacular even, especially the space scenes. The film’s main problem is that it fails to create any tension or sense of dread whatsoever, and it’s not scary, except for the last few scenes, which I enjoyed. The film tries to create tension and intensity with another plot element in addition to the aliens – the equivalent of a countdown with a timer on bombs. This doesn’t work because it overpowers the alien threat, they become inconvenient roadblocks. The facehuggers have been relegated to annoying nuisances – something you can just smack away.
into the franchise
The aliens are cannon fodder and the cast always seem to run into them. I didn’t get the feeling they were being hunted. For example, the scene with the sentry cannons from Aliens, which this film references. But you don’t see the aliens die in Aliens, here you do, which makes them seem weak. As an aside, this scene also reminded me of the prison corridor from Star Wars: “Boring conversation anyway.” Many scenes played out like a QuickTime event in a video game where the characters would over-explain and then comment on their actions, “I press X to do this.” It’s like the audience needed to be told what they were seeing and why they should be scared or tense because there is no tension in the scene even though an alien is present. I have concerns about putting more laws etc.
That’s the point of a monster
I don’t need to know how the alien works, it’s not scary if you know everything about a monster. They use this newfound law to get past some aliens, that too was like a scene from a video game. It really nails the alien aesthetic, it’s a fast-paced movie with video game level text and characters. Entertaining in parts but ultimately dispensable. The final season of What We Do in the Shadows is one of this month’s biggest TV and streaming premieres. Check out our October calendar for more!