brad@looking.UUCP (Brad Templeton) (10/25/85)
I must protest these attacks on one of the best SF movies of recent times. Yes, SF, not just horror. > > Space Suits are fully contained. THEY DONT EXHAUST > GASSES! Besides, thats not the only weak point of the Space suits are also very expensive, and it is unlikely that they would be used on a planet in an atmosphere. You would have atmosphere suits that would probably vent. Get real yourself, do you think scuba divers wear spacesuits in the ocean?? > movie. You have an alien runnung around in a space > ship. Simple solution: > > 1) EVERYONE gets into spacesuits ALONE > > 2) open ship to vacum (they finally did this > at the end of the movie) > > 3) wait 8 or more hours > > 4) get you trusty dusty flame thrower and fry > the body of the beasty. You didn't pay close attention to the movie. This beast was the great survivor, and vacuum was no trouble for it. At the end, blasted into space, it crawls back up the harpoon line and tries to re-enter the ship. Only the full exhuast blast of the ship damages it. > > Additionally, I seem to recall a scene of a corridor of > the ship with slime flowing down the walls. They must > not have maids. It was a mining ship. Most of the ship was refinery. Do they have maids in a refinery? > > This film attempted to be a Science Fiction film and > failed badly. It had the potential of being a classic > and all the tools were there the characters just > refused to use them. > > One more and I'll get off my soapbox. Remember the > scene when the Captain died? They had the monster > located on a grid telling the direction and distance > from the Captain. Do they tell him though? NOOOO. he > could kill it then. make the movie real short. > > My favorite part of the movie was the fun the group I > went with had laughing about all the stupid mistakes > the crew made. For G-d's sake when a monster is on > someones face and you KNOW that is has some kind of > appendage in side them, where is the first place you > look when it disappears? not in the ship. In the > person. > Mistakes by the crew do not make bad SF. Mistakes by writers and producers do. In this case, your crew mistakes are explained by the one major SF flaw in the movie, namely the android scientist. He was leading them away at all times from destroying the creature. He was fully aware of the creature in John Hurt's stomach. > > Doug Anderson -- Brad Templeton, Looking Glass Software Ltd. - Waterloo, Ontario 519/884-7473
shiue@h-sc1.UUCP (steve shiue) (10/27/85)
Regarding Doug Anderson's comments on "Alien" (didn't read the original article but excerpts posted by Brad Templeton): Has this man ever heard of the "willing suspension of disbelief"? I realize that some poorly written and filmed sci-fi films are so ludicrous that it is impossible for anyone with ANY science background to enjoy them because they spend too much of the time cringing. However, I don't think that "Alien" comes remotely close to falling in this category. And besides, for me, the gothic horror elements of the story are the real active ingredients. I don't think this movie "tries to be a sci-fi film and fails miserably" at all. I think that the sci-fi elements provide a vehicle for the story, much as the sci-fi trappings in "Dune" (THE NOVEL) are a setting that provides Frank Herbert freedom to create a geopolitical and religious messiah epic. -Steve Shiue "The only thing that worried me was the ether. There is nothing in the world more helpless and irresponsible than a man in the depths of an ether binge..." -Hunter S. Thompson