Wellll Sheeeeit. This one’s a doozy for the uninitiated. It takes its time in the set-up, but well done as we see people just doing their space jobs. Unfortunately for them, their contract may have a few caveats involved. This is one such caveat. I haven’t watched this in a long time. I debated even watching the “2003 Director’s Cut” on the Quadrilogy edition I procured, but Ridley even said, yeah, pretty much nailed it with the first one, but this one is minorly updated. And despite not seeing it in awhile, I didn’t notice any huge differences except for one gnarly scene toward the end. About the same run time too, so yeah, not too many changes, kudos to him there.
The Nostromo. Crew: seven. Hauling space-ore or some shit back to Earth. Deep sleep enacted while they make the journey home. Upon waking up though? WTF? We ain’t at Earth yet? This is a classic monster movie, just set in space. The framing of it really makes it that much cooler in a lot of respects. Basically some workin-class stiffs, space mining job done, just wanting to get home and get paid. Slight wrench in the works, though. SOS signal, where there shouldn’t be one. Weyland-Yutani Corporation reroutes the ship to check it out. It gets checked out. And it’s kinda fuckin crazy what they find.
In a lot of ways, this is a B-movie plot done in A-movie fashion. Ridley did something different here, on multiple levels. Amazing realistic realizations of a sci-fi setting. Elevating a basic horror trope to new levels with growing suspense and dread. And a strong female protagonist that is actually fairly believable. I don’t care who the hero of the story is, as long as it’s logical. And this is, for the most part. Except for one pretty glaring point, you can probably figure it out. Is what it is, still makes for a pretty terrifying ride.
