I forgot to mention that this thread contains spoilers. Don't read further if you've not seen the movies.
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The relevant quote:
Quote"'Alien' is just a ghost train where something jumps out and you don't know who's going to die next," laughed Gilliam. "When I watched the first 'Alien,' all I kept saying was, 'Just kill them all and be done with it,' because you just know that they're all going to die along the way. In the end, Sigourney Weaver, who we've established is a really tough military officer, is running around in her underwear trying to find a cat. Give me a f—king break. There are some great moments in it, but the shot that should've never been in the film is the one at the end showing the alien getting blown out of the airlock. You see the alien, and it's just a guy in a rubber suit. Up until then, you only saw bits of the alien, and it seemed to be huge and vast and terrifying. That was so clever. It was like the shark in 'Jaws.' I told Ridley, 'You don't want that shot of the alien at the end. Cut it!'
The first point, that it's a "ghost train" movie, sounds fairly accurate, although one can insist that there's also conspiracy involved with the company plan and Ash.
The second point, about Ripley, is partly incorrect in the sense that she's not a military but a commercial ship officer. But the point about the underwear makes sense (unless there's a reason for focusing on her body as she strips to her underwear), and the one about the cat is open to discussion (perhaps she has to save something).
The last point, though, about the alien being seen in full view, makes sense. I saw the movie in the theater when it was first shown, and I just realized that it did look pathetic. In the second and subsequent death scenes, the alien looked frightening because I only got to see parts of it, especially the head and the jaw, which were the most menacing ones. But after it was blown out of the airlock, it looked to me like a man in a rubber suit, then a little doll.
