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Genre Movies You Hated, Even Though Everyone Else Liked Them

Alien (1979)

Heresy! Blasphemy! Doesn't everyone like this movie? I didn't. If a film is going to scare me, it has to make me believe what's going on in order to set me up for a good fright. I stopped believing in the plot and characters of Alien very quickly. Some of my issues:

o Nostromo is a deep-space ore ship? Did we use up all the minerals on the moon and in the asteroids?

o What's the safest way for non-explorers to investigate something on an unfamiliar, hostile planet? You all get into the shuttlecraft and crash on the surface, leaving no one back on the ship except the cat. Brilliant.

o Speaking of the cat, could someone tell me how he closed himself in that small locker so that he could jump out and scare the crewman? Do cats evolve thumbs and sense of humor in the future?

o The final scene aboard the escape shuttle is a real puzzler. Apparently a well-designed shuttle contains an assortment of poisonous gases that you can easily release into the passenger compartment...just in case.

I really wanted to like this movie; it remains a visual wonder. But I left the theater that day feeling cheated. I think we're all accustomed to cutting film-makers a bit of slack, but there were just too many times during this movie when I thought, "Oh, come one!" One faux pas was not fatal, but together they ruined the movie for me.

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Howard S. Dunn on January 7, 2010 at 10:49pm

Tolkien and C.S. Lewis were friends and colleagues. They both wrote fantasy stories involving magic rings (The Magician's Nephew is the first Narnia book - and the first way to get there was using magic rings.)

I bet they had a discussion while listening to Wagner and challenged each other to write an epic Christian allegorical work using magic, rings, and pagan mythology. Keep in mind, as a professor of literature, Tolkien's contribution was to support a claim that Beowulf was not pagan but early Christian in origin.

Just speculation - but this is the speculative fiction section - so...

Permalink Reply by Mack Fuller on April 16, 2009 at 8:54am

I have one or two friends that are rabid fans of Tolkien. I thought his stuff was fun to read, put in comparison for the time I can see how it was groundbreaking for modern fiction and for bringing some maturity to the struggling genre of fantasy. Since I'm a History Geek I prefer The Silmarillion, which I have read cover to cover twice. It makes for great summer or deep winter reading

As for the films, they were fun, but Jackson changed some things which really ticked me off, two greatest being the addition of the elves at helms deep, which was supposed to illustrate the persistence of man, and the lack of the scouring of the Shire. That final scene where the hobbits rise up and defend their home was great stuff.

For the record I do not own the films, and have no wish to.

I've met quite a few people that liked the Vin Diesel Vehicle "Chronicles of Riddick" I thought it was okay...It was meant as the ending of a Trilogy when I felt it should have been the first film, add in plot holes and some craptastic acting and you have that failure of a film.

Permalink Reply by Johnny on December 29, 2009 at 2:44am

oh no... i agree too. the movies were MUCH better than the books. Tolkien got so caught up in his fantasy that he described page after page of what Rohan LOOKED like.

then he didn't find it important to describe climactic and thrilling battles.

HORRIBLE books. full of creative genius but sloppily edited i feel.

Exactly the same thoughts you had about "if the books were this excitingi "

Permalink Reply by Little Name Atheist on January 1, 2010 at 2:52am

I detested the character of Sam (in the books) with a purple passion, the little toady; he's the personification of everything wrong with the British class system.

Absolutely! That speech he gave at one point reminded me of speeches I'd seen in other old British films where the working-class schmo ends up giving their life for some upper class twit.

Permalink Reply by SJ on January 5, 2010 at 6:53pm

Bored of the Rings was truly funny...I definitely agree w/ your statement.

Permalink Reply by Aparna Jayachandran on December 21, 2009 at 7:20am

Two words: Napoleon Dynamite.

Permalink Reply by Michelle Malcolm on December 28, 2009 at 8:53pm

Agreed. I fear for my brain cells the longer I hear any part of Napoleon Dynamite.

Permalink Reply by Richard Valcourt on December 29, 2009 at 2:22am

Wow, this sounds like an "it's so awful I can't look away" kind of film. I must rent it immediately. :-)

Permalink Reply by Johnny on December 29, 2009 at 2:48am

really. TRULY. PERFECT choice of words.

Permalink Reply by Johnny on December 29, 2009 at 2:48am

there were.... parts... I really liked the scene where the cow was shot in front of the bus and Rex Kwon do.

it DEFINATELY should have been a series of short films though. the film was excruciating to sit through all the way.

Set up for a punch line!.....................blank face and walk away or "yeah"... over and over and over....

in a way it was an artsy form of comedy, but it got old real quick.

Permalink Reply by Prog Rock Girl on December 31, 2009 at 3:20pm