Recently, for the first time in my life, I watched the original "Alien" movie (1979) on Amazon.
The sequels to "Alien" was played many times on TV when I was a kid, but I never really watched them in full, or rather they never did grab my attention. I did really enjoy Predator (1987) though, and to my young mind the Aliens series was a famous but inferior version to that.
Even after becoming an adult, I continued to hear a lot about the original "Alien" being a great movie, but still didn't get around to watching it. And frankly, one can't help thinking that watching a 1979 sci-fi movie in 2024 can't be enjoyable, what with the superb digital enhancements in movies these days.
Boy was I wrong.
"Alien" may lack the technological effects of movies in modern days, but the chilling atmosphere resulting from the mise en scene, the slow but gripping pace, and the way they made the most of the limited props they had, it was nothing short of genius.
In fact, it was art.
I watched the second installment shortly after, but the magic was lost. The second film was still alright, but it's become formulaic like recent sci-fi films. It was no longer art, but a commercial exploit.
Which is fine, of course. Nobody says everything has to be art. But art stays in peoples' minds, haunting us yet encouraging us for generations after. That's why we still rush to look at Mona Lisa hundreds of years later, and that's why we still speak of Hitchcock and Fritz Lang after all these time.
As such, I think there is a lot of value to learning from them. In this case, I want to know—need to know—what makes "Alien" so good compared to its sequel? It's certainly not the initial shock factor, because I've watched its sequels (albeit in bits) and dozens of sci-fi movies before I watched it, and even with that kind of mental preparation, I was still impressed.
When I do find out, I'll share my thoughts on this blog. Stay tune for more film buff blabbering if you're into those 😂
(And, as the title of this post suggests, I had a similar realization last year when I watched Mission Impossible I for the first time, only to realize that MI:1 is the best of them all. As such, this is as much about Alien as it is about MI:1, and in fact about what I call the "unreplicable magic of excellent originals".)
Above Alien poster image by Imp Awards, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=398031