Review by Dan Deevy
(DanDeevy@TheCinemaSource.com)

I have to admit, this movie really did nothing for me. I know that it’s supposed to be a “classic” and that it was the first to blend a sci-fi story with such graphic horror elements, but the story was just so incredibly weak that I really didn’t care.

This movie offers up nothing in the area of interesting science fiction story telling. It’s a basic, “uh ohh, there’s a bad alien on board, Let’s Get Out of Here!!!” And I know that as an audience member, we’re not supposed to come up with better, far quicker solutions to their problems than the characters, but when alternative solutions like, just sealing themselves in one room and then opening an external door is so obvious, it’s really hard to ignore. Suspension of disbelief is one thing, but this movie really asks you to be pretty down right stupid.

I know a lot of people will say that the reason that I don’t appreciate this movie is because I waited so long to see it. I’d seen the original Star Wars Trilogy, countless hours of Star Trek on both the big and small screens, and every space spoof like Spaceballs that’s been done, so how could I NOT be bored by the original article? Well, honestly, just because a movie is the first to do something, to break new ground doesn’t mean that it has to be incredibly simplistic and slow. Take the first Halloween movie for example. I hadn’t seen that until well after its 6th sequel, Halloween 20 Years Later and after it had been spoofed a million times over by other movies, but it still had me on the edge of my seat and actually managed to scare me; because it was a story with more than one layer and was a brilliantly made film.

As far as this being the “Director’s Cut” of the film, even that is laughable. It looks on screen as though they took the original film put it through the film washing process that they use to help restore old negatives and then made copies and sent it out. There were no digital enhancements made, no improved effects, nothing that attempted to bring about a different view of the film than the original. The only things that were added were a couple of extra boring silent shots in space and one scene on the ship that had previously been cut involving finding where the Alien was storing the bodies of the crew. Other than that, it looks like 24 years ago Ridley Scott really got the movie that he wanted.

I can understand not wanting to upgrade and change things in the film for fear of losing its original effect on the audience, but then just call it a re-release not “The Director’s Cut.”

I have great respect for what the film and the film makers achieved with this movie 24 years ago, but I think the title of ...