ok, so I watched it pretty much immediately after my post yesterday, but as I like to do, I like to take a little time to "digest" a film before regurgitating it back into a post.
First off, I feel kinda dumb having waited so long to watch this film. I wasn't "against" watching it or anything, just had never gotten around to it, I guess(but on one hand, I'd rather be in my current situation of still having a near endless list of movies that I "need" to watch, than having nothing left. That'd be boring).
Anywho, my perspective may be slightly different than some in this thread, especially some of the older posters, as before yesterday, the only film in the Alien series/universe that I had previously seen was Prometheus(which I liked a lot more than others did apparently).
With that in mind, I was utterly shocked at how much Prometheus borrowed from Alien, both plot and shot wise. I mean, in Prometheus, the stuff from inside the Engineers ship on LV-223 is pretty much identical, sometimes shot-for-shot, as the scenes on LV-426 in Alien, to the point where I almost thought I was watching Prometheus again. I'm all for establishing thematic resonance and bridging the plot between the two stories to connect them within the same universe, but man, now I can see why fans of the original didn't like Prometheus as much as I did.
Anyway, onto the merits of the film. One thing that I outright LOVE, that this film nailed perfectly, is the dual nature of space: being both vast, empty, and virtually endless, yet still be confined to the claustrophobic confines of a space craft(and in this movie, with a killer alien on board). On one hand, you're literally stuck with people that you may or may not like, or even really know, all the while floating through the empty expanse of the cosmos, thousands of miles from other intelligent life(or, in the case of the film's protagonists, you hope you are
). I probably wouldn't even need two hands to count the films that have done it as well, either before or since(two that immediately come to mind are 2001 and Moon).
Thematically, there are two major subtextual themes of this film that you really can't escape when talking about it on a deeper level, both of which have been brought up already, and that is greed/the corporation and sex.
We examples of the first multiple times. In fact, the first conflict of the film is between crew members over the pay scale. Throughout the film, we see the true evil face of the faceless corporation responsible for this mission: sending the crew out on a mission of which's nature they know not of(yet the corporation trusts a cyborg with this knowledge, which is quit significant from a man vs. machine standpoint), their lives completely expendable. This is the worst depths that a corporation can sink to, risking the lives of their own employees(while lying to them about it) in order to possibly make a buck(and, I mean, what would have happened if Ash was successful in bringing an Alien back? That would have been a huge threat to the entire human population, further illuminating the carelessness of the corporation).
Sex is also a common theme. I mean, it's essentially alien rape in space by nature, but one scene in particular sticks out in my head. Quite obviously, it's where Ash attempts to kill Ripley by shoving the rolled up pornographic magazine in her mouth while the wall behind him was adorned with photos topless women. One can draw, perhaps erroneously, many things from this. First and foremost, there is the phallic symbol & symbolic rape of Ripley. On another level, one can even contemplate the relationship between corporations and women as a lesser, strictly-sexual being rather than as equals to men(would Ash have tried to kill a male crew member in a similar fashion?). There's a lot, I'm just having a little bit of trouble really verbalizing it.
From a technical standpoint, what can you really say that isn't superfluous and hasn't been said one million times before? The makeup/costume for the 'Morph is still amazing(although, this is more of a personal gripe than a criticism of the film, but I really dislike it when the Alien stands upright like a human. Makes it less physically imposing, in my eyes, for some reason. Maybe the fact that it's "too human". Dunno), and the set pieces are top notch. The use of scale models and the such for the space-ship effects still hold up for the most part,too(the one time it ever really looked "cheesy" to me was near the end when the Alien is hanging outside the ship. But when you consider it's a 30+ year old effect and it still looks better than many later-to-current ones, I have no serious gripes).
One thing that may not get raved about as much as the SFX, but IMO is just as important effect as the models or make is the use of camera shots and angles throughout the film, two techniques in particular. The use of "dutch" angles to really make the set look that much more constrictive, making both interpersonal tensions between the crew and the drama of having the xenomorph on board that much more heightened. Somewhat related, the use of extreme close ups, often in conjunction with dutch angles, especially when showing the Alien, really made action that much more intense and visceral.
Even though it took me until yesterday to watch this film for the first time start-to-finish, I feel it's almost required viewing for any film fan, movie buff, what-have-you, even if it falls outside of what you typically like. Great, great film that shows that horror movies can have a brain as well as heart, both of which this film has in spades. It's the one time that I came out of a movie disliking another(Prometheus) more than I did when going into it