Alien (1979) - Directed by Ridley Scott

The Spacecraft Nostromo is on a return trip to Earth with a seven-member crew in stasis: Captain Dallas (Tom Skerritt), Executive Officer Kane (John Hurt), Warrant Officer Ripley (Sigourney Weaver),

Navigator Lambert (Veronica Cartwright), Science Officer Ash (Ian Holm), and the Engineers Parker (Yaphet Kotto) and Brett (Harry Dean Stanton). Detecting a mysterious transmission from a nearby planetoid, possibly a distress signal.

Following standard company policy for such situations, the ship lands on the planetoid, sustaining damage from the planetoid's dusty atmosphere in the process.

Parker and Brett begin repairing the ship, while Dallas, Kane and Lambert head out to investigate.

They discover the signal is coming from a derelict spacecraft. Inside, they find the remains of a large alien creature whose rib cage appears to have exploded from the inside.

On the Nostromo, Ripley determines that the transmission is not a distress signal!.

Ash responds by telling her that she wouldn´t be able to communicate with the others in time.

In the mysterious ship, Kane discovers a chamber containing hundreds of eggs.

As he inspects one, a creature comes out and attaches itself to his face.

Ridley Scotts direction and the editing of his sequences is so perfect, it feels like you´re on this ship with the crew, every shot is marvellous, every movement of the camera is breathtaking.

The set design is incredible, it´s still one of the coolest movie ships of all time and the ship feels so much like a real enviroment. The crew is also very well realized.

This take on the future was very believable.

One thing that is very rare in Alien is that it doesn´t have a clear protagonist, first it feels like the crew as a team is the protagonist but later Ripley steps up and to see Ripleys character grow in the movies is so much fun.

The acting is splendid and the performances builded a credible world centuries away.

Sigourney Weaver is more than a revelation, and the rest are great aswell.
On first viewing The android played by Ian Holm seems like a real person but on second viewing you see that he is analyzing the crew.

The script is a work of art, the story is so mesmerizing, well-constructed, well-developed and free of any absurd twists. It´s simplicity and effectiveness are yet, 25 yers after, to be matched.

The atmosphere is pure genius, it's gothic and claustrophobic, the use of light and dark is beyond description and the use of sound is as creepy as it gets.

The FX are so impressive especially from 1979 and it still holds up very well!
In The time of it's release some scenes was very scary and they still are effective!
Jerry Goldsmiths score matches the images so perfectly it seems to bleed for them and it´s one of my favorites soundtracks for any Sci-Fi movie!
And, of course... The Alien. H.R. Gigers design is the most innovative i´ve seen. It has spawned dozens of imitations and no one has lived up to it which is kinda of sad.
This is the real deal, not only the look, but the complete design of the Xenomorph, including biological features. Acid instead of blood.
A very good sign of a movie that has gone down in history is the amount of well remembered scenes Like - the chest burst scene which is a great scene!
But my favorite scene is when Brett is looking for the cat named Jones and  in the background the alien is seen, that scene is so amazing and suspenseful!

So what else? I urge all Young directors and Young people who wanna be filmmakers to watch this movie, take notes all along. But not in order to rip off as many others have done, but to learn and how a movie should be done!

In my opinion, Alien is one of the few perfect movies in the history of cinema, Because this is one of the few movies i can´t find the slightest flaw.
The only flaw i can find is near the end when the alien hangs out, that scene looks a little dated but except for that everything is perfect!

Alien has engaging characters, a incredible creature, scary and suspenseful.

Rating 10/10

Princess Mononoke (1997) - Directed by Hayao Miyazaki

In Muromachi Japan, an Emishi village is attacked by a demon. 
The Last Emishi prince, Ashitaka, kills it before it reaches the village, but its corruption curses his arm in the battle.
The curse gives him superhuman strength in the injured arm, but it´s fatal.
The villagers discover that the demon was once a boar god (Nago), corrupted by an iron ball lodged in his body.
The village´s wise woman tells Ashitaka that he may find a cure in the western lands where Nago came from.
Heading west, Ashitaka meets Jiko-Bō, a wandering monk who tells him that he may find help from the
Great Forest Spirit, a Kirin-like creature by day and a giant Nightwalker by night.
Nearby, men herd oxen to Irontown, led by Lady Eboshi and they are attacked by a wolf pack led by the wolf goddess Moro.
Riding one of the wolves is San, a human girl. Later, Ashitaka see injured Irontown men, and sees San and her wolf pack: he greets them, but they leave.
He carries the injured men through the forest, where he encounters many Kodamas, and glimpses the Forest Spirit.
In Irontown, Ashitaka learns that Eboshi has built the town by clear-cutting forests to claim ironsand and produce iron, leading to conflict with the forest gods.
The town is a refuge for social outcasts, including former brothel workers and lepers, whom Eboshi employs to manufacture firearms to defend against the gods (Nago was turned into a demon by one of Eboshi´s guns).
Eboshi also explains that San, self-dubbed Princess Mononoke, was raised by the wolves as one of their own and resents humankind.

I think this is Miyazaki´s most personal work, clearly a serious design.
It is set in an imaginary time which blends the time of the anicent gods (Shinto style, gods of place and nature) with the settlement of humans and the coming of metalworking and war.
The world is not in balance, and a distant conflict between industry and nature has wounded one of the gods of the forest, which is then killed by a sentry boy as it rampages into farmland he guards.
The evil is controlling, it transfers to him, beginning a slow takeover, and he must journey to the origin of the conflict to find a way to cure himself and incidentally, as he will learn, try to restore balance.
But this is not a simplistic tale, he finds there are other characters in play, and there is good and evil in everyone, and no easy balance.
The Princess (Hime) of the story is a mysterious human who has been raised by wolves (which are themselves powerful forest gods, a little reminiscent of the amerindian coyote myth), who becomes both his ally and his enemy.
The story has many Japanese mythic elements but even then, it is a work of unique imagination, and is not intended to be simple or to have a clean resolution.
The animation is spectacular, and unusual, with new elements even for Miyazaki and marks a new departure for style which you can see continued in his next film, (Spirited Away) - more nature, more wild and more jamming on elements from japanese myth and folklore.
And, continuing the trend to be more personal, concerned with ethics and character and less sci-fi.
There are at least half a dozen well developed characters threaded through the story and their animation is wonderful in displaying subtle character.
The Movie has some problems but they are very minor!
The original japanese soundtrack has some amazing singing and draws upon some of the best talent availaible for voices - in Japan, this was a masterpiece carefully crafted.
This is truly an adult work: children might like some of the visuals, but i doubt that many kids below teen age will have any idea what it´s all about!

Rating 9/10