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Alien Planet Review Wow. From the beginning of the script, I knew this was going to be much different from the dozens of other fan scripts and fan stories of a potential 'Alien' sequels floating around the 'Net. Set onboard the space ship USS Vassus, we watch as the 80-odd crew members wake from their sleep. They talk, they laugh, establish past relationships. Familiarity and family is thick in the air. But we're not part of it. We're detached, simple viewers, held back by the fact that the only person we are familiar with is a stranger here, bemused and alone. We try to get in, but our emotions are firmly keyed into one person: Ripley. That ability to evoke emotion and force the viewer to be part of the proceedings, in one way or another, is a perfect example of the creative...genius, for want of a better word, behind this. Indeed, to pass it off as just another fan script is an insult. This is much better, more the work of a professional than someone with a lot of time. We care about these characters. Some may be two-dimensional, but they're all well-executed, all strangely real. The first third of the script is exactly what we need in an Alien movie. Tension. Characters we care about. Weariness of the unknown; dread. There's an almost palpable undercurrent of malice and dread. We know what's going to happen, but we don't want it to, and in a good way. We want these people to stay and grow. Damnit, we want to know them, and that's something sorely missing from many movies these days, not just the Alien franchise. After the turning point, our relatively low-key story of people working on a ship takes a grand and nightmarish turn. Now we're outside of our comfortable, lived-in ship and in an alien world. The Alien world. A strange place, oddly beautiful but undeniably deadly. Of all the renditions of the home planet of the Alien, this seems the most fitting. But at this point, we also get to my only real problems with the script. The first is that, after an epic battle, the movie goes back to low-key, from many Aliens to just one. This maintains for the better part of the Alien/Human interactions, and as a fan doesn't sit right. The feel changes from 'Alien' to 'Aliens' then back to 'Aliens', and is somewhat of a let down. We get a taste of grandeur, then get slammed into small spaces and a single creature. Advertisement The second problem is with the Aliens themselves, arguably the single most important part of the movie. They seem to be based more on the Aliens as seen in the comics and novels - stupid, mindless, pure animal instinct - rather than the Aliens as seen in the movies: animalistic, but still intelligent, calculating even. It's not necessarily a major problem, but it makes the creature seem...so-what-ish. Nothing special any more. Adequate maybe for another movie, but not for the final chapter. They need to go out the way they came in: Unique, horrifying. Not to say there aren't any scares in the script - There are quite a few, and good ones - but the creatures should be frightening without doing anything. Ultimately, however, the movie does what it set out to do better than I ever hoped it could: It gives closure to Ripley's journey. Spanning almost three hundred years, filled with horror and despair, here she's finally given her peace. Her rest. And after this final, harrowing encounter with the beast that's consumed her every waking moment for so long, damn does she deserve it. All in all, if Fox makes an Alien 5, this has to be it. If they don't use it, they may as well not bother and continue with AvP on its own. This is the best 'Alien' script in twenty years, it's got everything that could possibly make an Alien movie good. Good build-up, good plot, good...everything! For all intents and purposes, this is the perfect way to close the series once and for all, or if not that, at least Ripley's voyage. Alien Planet Blog By SiL Comments? Flames? Praise? Mail feedback!