Does Alien still hold up for you?

Timeless movie....

Very good ... I saw last week, I still love the movie, I'm still distressed by the scene of the alien to leave the body of Kane, and horror claustofobio is one of the best ... like the second movie, Aliens .. .

Alien delivers, always has and will..despite what I consider small things such as the mattes

Of course it does. And always will. It's a classic.

MolokoPlus- 1st - GREAT MONIKER!! Kubrick fan in general or an A Clockwork Orange fan specifically? 2nd - " it's just like my current me sitting beside my (very) younger self and sharing our enjoyment." Very nice. That literally brought a tear to my eye. I've definitely become a softy of my old age. Like a lot of us I'm trying to keep my excitement and anticipation down for this new movie so that I can go in with at least somewhat lowered expectations. Alien is such a great movie that even if Prometheus falls short of it we'll still be in for something amazing. If Ridley matches or exceeds it (fingers crossed)…OMG!!! 27 days.... tick, tick, tick…

I like your opening statement MolokoPlus and I too am a Long Time Kubrik fan. I agree with ALIEN having aged very very well but I wanted to say one thing to you to give you some hope...regarding your closing statement. He's going to knock Down a Wall Of Injustice That Has Been standing in PhoneyWood" for No Good Reason for almost 90 Years Now. Prometheus is poised for one of the single greatest runs in film making history and a sure fire favorite if you ask me for Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Art Direction @ The 2013 Oscars. This is not a "Film" This is not a "Night out". This is not a "Travelling Circus". This ain't No "Party"! This ain't No "Disco"! This ain't No "Foolin' Around"! This is a Significant [b]EVENT[/b] !

just wait till june ..Man all of our bood PSI is going off the scale

In answer to your question @Molokoplus "Does Alien still hold up for you?" of course... We are far from children now (I am) and have been fed the cheap imitations and unflattering attempts of making a science-fiction horror with so many of the base looks and themes of Alien. All that said I have waited since '82 for Scott's return to this genre , and he refused to enter it again because it had all been done... So "Does Alien still hold up for you?"... This is my answer and the only words that matter to me on this subject. "Does Alien still hold up for you?" "Of course, its Ridley Scott"

It still does for me. It is one of those movies that evolve with you. I loved it as a pre-teen, because of its scariness, sci-fi-ness and visuals. Usually as kids we come to love many things that as grown-ups we see as mere kids stuff (even though we retain fond memories of them). But Alien is something that I (and many other) appreciate as an adult for several other reasons (some may say deeper, I prefer just different). In my case, my bond with Alien is that I whenever I watch it, it's just like my current me sitting beside my (very) younger self and sharing our enjoyment. Prometheus, unfortunately, will not be able to give me this, but I'll try to enjoy it both as an adult and as the kid I was as much as I can.

@overman I'm a huge Kubrick fan, I have three collectors box sets and watch them religiously. Without 2001 ASO there wouldn't be Ash in Alien. Kubrick has influenced everyone. ACO is my favorite film, I can go on for hours how much I love it.

Still an awesome movie but the VFX is dated. Pretty much everything involving Ash's deconstruction looks bad now from the hole in the floor and sudden shift from prosthetic to flesh right to the extra 12'' shoulder growth in order to remove the appendage that so famously sent movie-goers to run for the restroom. (if they hadn't fainted first). Everything else is golden. ;)

@Incognito I disagree. In a CGI heavy comic book flooded world. The lack of green/blue screens and real make up and prosthetics came as a breath of fresh air. I felt Ash's milk bath was morbid and violent as ever, sure the quick jump match cut to the head was obvious but given that it was the 70s and it was a mere second, it was far better than most of the FX seen today. A talking head saying you're all going to die and wishes you luck as he does, wow, that's an amazing set piece. The material is the magic, the make up and all that comes secondary.

@MolokoPlus I'd have to agree with you. I've always felt that practical effects are able to sell the story that much more. CGI, when used appropriately can be a fantastic tool, but I don't think it generally lights well when placed into an existing scene etc. I definitely feel that it was the combination of Holm's performance, the cinematography, direction and effects that made that scene so memorable.

Yes. Aliens first and second part was always in memory. Predators on the other hand, hands down. It's good that they are touching space jockeys.

@Sky. The story of what happened to the Jockey in the original film has always fascinated me, ever since my dad told me about it when I was younger (prior to my becoming a massive Alien fangirl though). I was too wee to watch the films at the time, but his description of this 'ancient pilot with a hole punched out of his chest' was so vivid in my head that it blew my mind when I saw it on film. I'm so happy that RS has decided to reveal a bit more about them and not make it a 'straight' prequel.

that was nice of your dad, he must be a cool guy.

For those of you who know me, this will not be a surprise in the least.....I Love 'Alien'...It is my all time favorite film and a masterpiece at that.....never before had sci-fi/horror been taken so seriously in its conception, production and execution....sure, there are moments where the effects do not hold up and I can only think of two that qualify... - The dead and very rubber facehugger on the floor screams cheezy.... [img]http://www.markta.co.uk/alien/screens4/alien_091.jpg[/img] ....despite this, the following shot of the dead facehugger with it's VERY real (shellfish) innards on display saves the moment, cancelling out the affect of the earlier shot... [img]http://www.markta.co.uk/alien/screens4/alien_092.jpg[/img] - The now infamous fake to real jump cut of Ash's disembodied head... [img]http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-LU_ob66eztM/T3vSDt77JrI/AAAAAAAABJ0/9oRKJeI2yzQ/s1600/vlcsnap-2012-04-04-05h45m08s162.png[/img] ..which could have been edited around in my opinion, but it's not so atrocious as to judge the entire piece, particularly due to the power and pressence of Ash's monologue concerning his orders and his chilling admiration for what he see's as the perfection of the organism hunting them all. Putting those moments aside, 'Alien', as a whole, DOES NOT date in the same way as its sequels do...this is a result of an affect created by Ridley Scott that I believe Damon Lindelof commented brilliantly upon in a recent interview about 'Prometheus'.... "What do you think Ridley’s influence on the sci-fi genre has been? [interviewer] [Lindelof] When I saw Blade Runner, my understanding was that Blade Runner and Alien were sequels to each other — or they were related. They were set in the same world. I was not sophisticated enough to know that Ridley Scott directed both of them or even know what a director was.[b] Ridley decided to say, I’m going to look at the future the way it might actually look. I’m going to think about what urban design is going to look like, the ships are going to be gritty and grungy, the people who inhabit this world are blue-collar people. He took the fantasy out of sci-fi and grounded it in a profound way, which laid the track to look at the future in a different way, which was dystopian instead of utopian.[/b] Did you and Ridley ever discuss why he wanted to go back to a movie that he made 30 years ago? Did he feel like there was some unfinished business there? The only sense of it that I ever got — because by the time I came into the process he was already very excited, he was already ramped — [b]is that in his journey as a film director over the past 30 years, it seems like the movies that people are most interested in and the movies he probably gets asked about the most are Alien and Blade Runner. And so, for him, he doesn’t look at himself as a science fiction director. In fact, when he talks about the five other guys that he was up against to direct Alien, he’s sort of befuddled as to why they chose him. He was the unlikely guy. I don’t think he sees himself as a sci-fi director.[/b] So probably over the course of the last 30 years it’s probably confusing to him why people keep asking him about these movies. But I would assume that over time, it would start to get into his head: Wow, these movies that I made 30 years ago really resonated and people are still curious about them, maybe there’s more story there! And I can guarantee you that many times over the intervening years, he was aware of what was happening with the Alien franchise. And his silence on those movies, with the exception of Aliens, which I think he is a fan of and I know he’s also a huge Fincher fan, but post-Alien 3 — both Resurrection and the Alien vs. Predator mash-ups, I think Ridley’s feeling was, It’s time for me to now take the reins and put the ship back on course. I feel a sense of parenthood and I feel like my child needs a stern talking to. That’s my sense of it, it’s not anything that he has said to me." The point here is...that Ridley approached these science fiction pieces as realities rather than fantasies....In the WORLD of 'Alien', in the WORLD of 'Bladerunner', none of the fantastic is [b]fantastic[/b] to the characters that reside within. Therefore, you must ddesign and direct it as though it were real...You're not making a [b]science fiction[/b] piece about discovering alien life or hunting down artificial humans. You're making a period film about discovering alien life or hunting down artificial humans just as you made a period film about dueling soldiers in 'The Duellists'. Ridley saw the reality of the worlds in which he was operating and did his best to translate that visually and functionally to his audience....It's the very reason why 'Alien' and 'Bladerunner' are on the short list of sci-fi masterpieces and to this day, do NOT date...They hold up as well as any film can...

I watched last night again and noticed the Locker # Ripley gets into at the end of the film for the first time and in the past 33+ years. First time ever that that it Registered how that may be significant as a simple piece of trivia. You all know what it was right??? LOL.

@Cragamore, I diss agree completely and with all due respect about the facehugger looking "cheesy". At that time in the theater on the big screen it looked completely gory and delisciously frightening and I will never ever forget that, was one of the first and best moments in the film that scared the crap out of the entire theater. You could hear the groans when it was turned upside down by ASH and inspected up close with the pointer. They used real animal organs man..it looked awesome not rubbery, we tried to discredit it in our heads and couldn't do it at the time in the theater because it looked too real and Alien at the same time.

I see what you're saying Spartacus and I AGREE. I even said, "....despite this, the following shot of the dead facehugger with it's VERY real (shellfish) innards on display saves the moment, cancelling out the affect of the earlier shot.....[b]I'm refering specifically to the moment when it hits the ground as Ripley throws it away from her body[/b]....I praised how they used real animal parts, the shellfish, to make the innards.....I'm only saying that the one moment comes off a bit cheezy......and considering how much ytou know I LOVE this film, it's a very minor complaint, I'm just trying to be honest here......I refer, when I say cheezy, ONLY to this moment..... [img]http://www.markta.co.uk/alien/screens4/alien_091.jpg[/img]