10 Things You Learn Re-Watching Alien

Holy Hell have this movie's visual effects aged extremely well or what? The overwhelming majority of it was shot in-camera using models and miniatures, and the result is that the various spaceships and planet surfaces look incredibly lifelike and tactile, far more so than a lot of contemporary CGI.

Seeing Alien on Blu-ray in recent years only makes the intricacy and skill of the effects work seem that much more impressive, the detail more visible while baring few of the seams one might expect to see with higher resolution video.

It's fashionable to bang the "all CGI sucks" drum these days, and while that's certainly not the case, it's a shame more productions, especially in the sci-fi arena, don't make more use of practical effects elements such as this.