Alien (film) disguise imaginative poverty". In a 1980 episode of "Sneak Previews" discussing science fiction films of the 1950s and 1970s, critics Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert were critical of "Alien". Ebert called it "basically just an intergalactic haunted house thriller set inside a spaceship" and one of several science fiction pictures that were "real disappointments" compared to "Star Wars", "Close Encounters of the Third Kind", and "", though he did compliment the early scene of the "Nostromo" crew exploring the alien planet as showing "real imagination". However, the film later made it onto Ebert's "Great Movies" list, where he gave it
The Purple Monster Strikes to aid in the invasion plot. With the criminals' help the alien begins building the spaceship. Eventually, however, the Martian's efforts at pretending to be Dr Layton fall apart, and Foster and Sheila realize what is happening. A series of action scenes show the pair trying to figure out and stop whatever the alien is doing on Earth. Craig and Sheila constantly battle the Purple Monster's henchmen, who use mind-control poisons, carjackings, and even a booby-trapped vacant lot to dispose of Craig and Sheila. The closest the criminals come to succeeding is in Chapter 7 ("The Evil Eye"), when Sheila