Movies to leave in your memories: Alien

There have been a number of times in my life that I have had very fond memories of something I saw long ago only to go back and rewatch them with some level of enthusiasm only to end up very disappointed that I ever went back to see it again. There are a lot of films and series like this and honestly, I think that most films that you loved from way back when are better left in your memories. Last night I revisited the classic film Alien which was a pretty monumental accomplishment when it was released in 1979

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The film starts out pretty incredibly when you consider the technology or lack thereof that existed in the 70's and early 80's. In that regard it is still an impressive feat. However, I feel as though now that it is more than 40 years old it is kind of expected and acceptable that the overall film looks extremely dated by today's standards. This doesn't mean that the movie isn't good, it is, it is a piece of cinematic history that put Ridley Scott on the map in a way. It just isn't nearly as entertaining as I remembered it being when I was a kid and had to sneak across the street and watch it at a friend's house because there was no way my parents would have allowed me to see something like that when I was a child.

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It was damn scary at the time but especially if you have seen some of the sequels, the xenomorph or whatever it is called was pretty humanoid looking and I don't mean to be a Debbie Downer, but it is clearly a guy in a suit because honestly, what else were they going to do back then?

The establishment shots done in "space" using small models was impressive and it was all the rage at the time. You may recall how real Star Wars looked even though it was all done with small replicas of the ships and creative camera techniques. Essentially the same thing was used in Alien.

I think it was probably extremely difficult to even attempt to get his right and a lot of smoke machines were used to kind of create an ambiance as well as hide things that simply couldn't be done in 1979. Director Ridley Scott has said that there were thousands of problems that arose when filming and it was extremely frustrating to get to a finished product.

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It is considered one of the 100 most influential films of all time and I can get on board with that. That doesn't necessarily mean that it is going to be entertaining to today's audiences though. I would imagine it was absolutely terrifying to see it in theaters and the $185 million that it made over the $11 million budget would have been considered an absolutely monumental success. While these probably seem like rookie numbers from a profit perspective today, that is only because studios have enormous budgets and in some cases, NEED to pull in $500 million at the box office just to break even. This is made possible by getting Asia involved but I don't know if that was really a thing in the 70's. I have no idea. When you consider the amount of merch and how many different times this has been released to VHS, LaserDisk, CVD, DVD, Blu-ray, and digital downloads, I would imagine that it has grossed much much more than $185 million.

The fact remains though that I think that this one is better left in your memories if you already watched in years ago. I went back and watched it last night and got so bored I fell asleep halfway through seeing as how not a great deal happens in the first 40 minutes or so. Given the budget, I suppose it simply wouldn't have been possible for them to have the entire thing be action packed.

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_{almost seems comical by today's standards}
Some things are better left in your memories but if you insist on going back in time to watch the early science fiction stuff, I would recommend that you skip this one and head straight to Aliens which although a lot of people will disagree I think it is a superior film and looks a lot more "real" to today's audience. Plus you get to see Bill Paxton in what I consider to be one of his most amazing performances ever.