And that's an important qualifier up there. I wish to stress that this is not a definitive view of fact, but one fan's opinion. I welcome disagreement, and I realise this film has a cult-ish following, the reasons for which I plan to explore a little. So keep an open and calm mind and it should go without saying that SPOILERS will be involved.
Back in the sixties the starship USS Enterprise launched. Zipping through the universe at impossible faster than light speeds in a shiny, uber-advanced vessel with a diverse, completely harmonious crew it was a vision of the sci-fi future as we dreamed it could be: near perfect. A decade later the rag-tag group of miners and very human crew of the space vessel Nostromo lived and worked in a much more realistic, closer to life spaceship. THis was our world as it is now transposed onto the future, and what's more into this slice of sci-fi as possible realistic future came a monster: and with it the horror genre itself meshing perfectly. It's not a stretch to say that Paul Anderson and the makers of Event Horizon were probably inspired by Ridley Scott's masterwork. Now the controversy, I think that earlier film may be slightly, very marginally (whisper it)... over-rated. Can you live with that? If not then it might be time to opt out of this particular post.
Alien is, however, a good film. I recognise that, I see it's impact and feel like it's just a bit subtle for me personally. I do, however, plan to re-watch and re-evaluate, and it is still my second favourite of that franchise. The best parts, as mentioned above, have been transposed onto our earliest moments here. The sci-fi actually seems somewhat realistic, and cooler for it. The plot line paying respect to the idea that frankly even travelling in our solar system would ba a taxing, arduous task. The stated point that you should not be able to break the law of relativity is so cool, and surprisingly intelligent, as is the way around it. As a sci-fi movie the start of this film thus works, it sucks you into this world of the not massively distant future, clearly establishes where we are and what we can and can't do and doesn't dwell too long on it. It seems a touch slow for the horror side of things but sadly one suspects the filmmakers knew that. Unfortunately this leads to a never explained idea which, as far as I can tell, suggests that Sam Neill's Dr William Weir is somehow receiving messages which could either be from his dead ex-partner or the ship he helped create. This psychic relationship and these more unusual aspects are not explored or expained at all. I know they come up later but only when we are on the ship, and they are constantly only used as an excuse to give us SCARY QUICK IMAGES AND SHOCK MOMENTS that seem designed to get the teenage boy "awesome, cool" demographic on side by going "sci-fi, spaceships, boring stuff, character beat, cool warp drive, HEAD FUCK!!!". Sigh.
This was my primary problem with the film, it seemed in what could be construed of a plot that we were supposed to be getting a depiction of hell (or something like it), and true horrors to freeze the soul. If that is so then it's unfortunate and a bit twisted that it's all played so "woah! cool" and almost emphasises the fun of the craziness of evil. I know hell itself is not something we could ever argue is presented well or otherwise, having never experienced it, but these scenes have all the subtletly and menace of a rock music video. The closest comparison I coul conceive would be trying to understand the nature of violence in our species by watching a Tom and Jerry cartoon.
The sad fact is there are things here which could have been played for a great plot, and an excellent horror aspect to the piece. The great idea, touched upon then dropped, that there is no hell as such, everyone is merely seeing the darkness inherent in themselves and being tortured by bad acts and events from their past is so intriguing. This provides some excellent Solaris-esque exploration and a couple of brilliant scenes, some top notch acting and character motivation (for example Captain Miller is a hard ass because he watched one person die horribly under his command and silently vowed to lose no-one else, good stuff which in a subtle, unspoken way adds so much gravitas to the later scene as he struggles to save Justin and the others).
The horrors themselves are unfortunately dragged down to hokey cliche. This is a depiction of a possible hell so naturally we get flames, rivers of blood, mutilations, ... yawn. Far more impressive is the scene where Weir is forced to watch the lover he abandoned slit her wrists and die again, as she did one before because he wasn't there. That is hell, and if we all make our own perhaps psychologically our characters could be presented as living in theirs. Play that up more.
Sadly this is dropped in favour of fudged, unexplained and inconsistent possession of Weir, the ridiculous and stupid extreme deaths and visions of the cliches mentioned above and even some ridiculous back tracking from the central idea. It would be fine to say that the gateway breached the walls of hell, and quite simple, but to then feel the need to clarify it with gubbins about actually entering another dimension of chaos where the ship came to life (and don't get me started on how that makes no sense). Sure it could still be hell but why the sci-fi possibility, surely any viewer would have to be comfortable with the horror moments.
The ending gets progressively worse until we even end up with a hackneyed villain version of Weir, never explained or given any motivation, simply appearing, looking all scarred and cut just because it looks awesomely horrific and even somehow shape shifting, gaining a Lazarus complex and now haunting Joely Richardson (maybe having gained this transfered psychic ability from before. It's not important how, it just gives us a great telegraphed jump scare to end on).
There is a good movie here, buried deep by the layers of dirt. The twisted and deranged may enjoy the evil-as-fun elements, worryingly. The infantile or those who enjoy disengaging the brain may get a kick from some of the obvious moments of strobe-riddled, quick cut "awesome, it looks gross/freaky/intense" stuff. One can even see the aeteur elements of the director begin to emerge, bad as they may be utilised in later films such as Resident Evil (still better than this by the way. I know: controversial). I can understand the whole "Steak every day gets boring, have a hamburger" mentality and those who watch for the ride and the ability to watch intense imagery with brain firmly disengaged are not wrong, I just cannot condone it when there are so many good plots and films still unseen.
In conclusion a decent sci-fi, terrible horror that smothered a great concept for exploration of evil, human fears, psychosis or the unimaginable horrors of our cultural collective unconscious. But dude come on, it had exploding heads and people with no eyes and scenes that were just awesome. Personally this viewer would have preferred more awesome respect for his intelligence and fear tolerance and a decent plot, basic as it may seem, with a touch of coherency. And please stop clubbing me over the head with your ideas of freaky/scary/hellish; blood, bodies, scars and lacerations, exploding people, flame-consumed villains, it has all been done before. And better. Throwing them at me quickly and loudly is not big or clever and frankly I feel a little sick.
* (1/5)
MM
Back in the sixties the starship USS Enterprise launched. Zipping through the universe at impossible faster than light speeds in a shiny, uber-advanced vessel with a diverse, completely harmonious crew it was a vision of the sci-fi future as we dreamed it could be: near perfect. A decade later the rag-tag group of miners and very human crew of the space vessel Nostromo lived and worked in a much more realistic, closer to life spaceship. THis was our world as it is now transposed onto the future, and what's more into this slice of sci-fi as possible realistic future came a monster: and with it the horror genre itself meshing perfectly. It's not a stretch to say that Paul Anderson and the makers of Event Horizon were probably inspired by Ridley Scott's masterwork. Now the controversy, I think that earlier film may be slightly, very marginally (whisper it)... over-rated. Can you live with that? If not then it might be time to opt out of this particular post.
Alien is, however, a good film. I recognise that, I see it's impact and feel like it's just a bit subtle for me personally. I do, however, plan to re-watch and re-evaluate, and it is still my second favourite of that franchise. The best parts, as mentioned above, have been transposed onto our earliest moments here. The sci-fi actually seems somewhat realistic, and cooler for it. The plot line paying respect to the idea that frankly even travelling in our solar system would ba a taxing, arduous task. The stated point that you should not be able to break the law of relativity is so cool, and surprisingly intelligent, as is the way around it. As a sci-fi movie the start of this film thus works, it sucks you into this world of the not massively distant future, clearly establishes where we are and what we can and can't do and doesn't dwell too long on it. It seems a touch slow for the horror side of things but sadly one suspects the filmmakers knew that. Unfortunately this leads to a never explained idea which, as far as I can tell, suggests that Sam Neill's Dr William Weir is somehow receiving messages which could either be from his dead ex-partner or the ship he helped create. This psychic relationship and these more unusual aspects are not explored or expained at all. I know they come up later but only when we are on the ship, and they are constantly only used as an excuse to give us SCARY QUICK IMAGES AND SHOCK MOMENTS that seem designed to get the teenage boy "awesome, cool" demographic on side by going "sci-fi, spaceships, boring stuff, character beat, cool warp drive, HEAD FUCK!!!". Sigh.
This was my primary problem with the film, it seemed in what could be construed of a plot that we were supposed to be getting a depiction of hell (or something like it), and true horrors to freeze the soul. If that is so then it's unfortunate and a bit twisted that it's all played so "woah! cool" and almost emphasises the fun of the craziness of evil. I know hell itself is not something we could ever argue is presented well or otherwise, having never experienced it, but these scenes have all the subtletly and menace of a rock music video. The closest comparison I coul conceive would be trying to understand the nature of violence in our species by watching a Tom and Jerry cartoon.
The sad fact is there are things here which could have been played for a great plot, and an excellent horror aspect to the piece. The great idea, touched upon then dropped, that there is no hell as such, everyone is merely seeing the darkness inherent in themselves and being tortured by bad acts and events from their past is so intriguing. This provides some excellent Solaris-esque exploration and a couple of brilliant scenes, some top notch acting and character motivation (for example Captain Miller is a hard ass because he watched one person die horribly under his command and silently vowed to lose no-one else, good stuff which in a subtle, unspoken way adds so much gravitas to the later scene as he struggles to save Justin and the others).
The horrors themselves are unfortunately dragged down to hokey cliche. This is a depiction of a possible hell so naturally we get flames, rivers of blood, mutilations, ... yawn. Far more impressive is the scene where Weir is forced to watch the lover he abandoned slit her wrists and die again, as she did one before because he wasn't there. That is hell, and if we all make our own perhaps psychologically our characters could be presented as living in theirs. Play that up more.
Sadly this is dropped in favour of fudged, unexplained and inconsistent possession of Weir, the ridiculous and stupid extreme deaths and visions of the cliches mentioned above and even some ridiculous back tracking from the central idea. It would be fine to say that the gateway breached the walls of hell, and quite simple, but to then feel the need to clarify it with gubbins about actually entering another dimension of chaos where the ship came to life (and don't get me started on how that makes no sense). Sure it could still be hell but why the sci-fi possibility, surely any viewer would have to be comfortable with the horror moments.
The ending gets progressively worse until we even end up with a hackneyed villain version of Weir, never explained or given any motivation, simply appearing, looking all scarred and cut just because it looks awesomely horrific and even somehow shape shifting, gaining a Lazarus complex and now haunting Joely Richardson (maybe having gained this transfered psychic ability from before. It's not important how, it just gives us a great telegraphed jump scare to end on).
There is a good movie here, buried deep by the layers of dirt. The twisted and deranged may enjoy the evil-as-fun elements, worryingly. The infantile or those who enjoy disengaging the brain may get a kick from some of the obvious moments of strobe-riddled, quick cut "awesome, it looks gross/freaky/intense" stuff. One can even see the aeteur elements of the director begin to emerge, bad as they may be utilised in later films such as Resident Evil (still better than this by the way. I know: controversial). I can understand the whole "Steak every day gets boring, have a hamburger" mentality and those who watch for the ride and the ability to watch intense imagery with brain firmly disengaged are not wrong, I just cannot condone it when there are so many good plots and films still unseen.
In conclusion a decent sci-fi, terrible horror that smothered a great concept for exploration of evil, human fears, psychosis or the unimaginable horrors of our cultural collective unconscious. But dude come on, it had exploding heads and people with no eyes and scenes that were just awesome. Personally this viewer would have preferred more awesome respect for his intelligence and fear tolerance and a decent plot, basic as it may seem, with a touch of coherency. And please stop clubbing me over the head with your ideas of freaky/scary/hellish; blood, bodies, scars and lacerations, exploding people, flame-consumed villains, it has all been done before. And better. Throwing them at me quickly and loudly is not big or clever and frankly I feel a little sick.
* (1/5)
MM
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