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movie review - Alien

the journal of Michael Werneburg

twenty-seven years and one million words

This is the classic tale of the crew of a space tug hauling an ore refinery back to the human home solar system. They've been out for several months and are surprised to find that they have been diverted to a new destination because their ship picked up a distress signal.

Famously, they find something on the world broadcasting the warning signal, but it's too late. The titular alien is among them, now, and it's time for the classic man-in-a-rubber-suit plot-line. The tone is paranoid and unsettled, the scenes are too dark and incompletely shot, and the whole thing feels super dated. I love it. However: while it's simultaneously more moody and rich than I remember, it's also sloppy in its pacing and cinematography, and I honestly couldn't tell if some of the pauses were on purpose.

Recommended. But not as strongly as I once did.