Every ‘Alien’ Movie, Ranked
“Alien: Romulus,” out now in theaters, is a surprise late-summer hit and proof positive that the “Alien” franchise is far from over.
And the new movie, plus the upcoming FX series “Alien: Earth,” have us wanting to look back at the series – the highs, the lows and the what-were-they-thinkings (while there have been rumblings that the “Predator” and “Alien” universes would again intersect, let us pray it’s a while before we are subjected to another unholy union). Below is the definitive ranking of every “Alien” movie.
Chest-bursters and face-huggers are, of course, welcome.
9. “Alien vs. Predator: Requiem” (2007)
The poster for “Alien vs. Predator: Requiem” is stylized as “AVP R,” which emphasizes the fact that the movie was actually rated R, unlike the earlier PG-13-rated “Alien vs. Predator.” And, in that sense, the movie delivers the goods – there’s a ton of splatter in this installment.
A direct sequel to the earlier extraterrestrial team-up movie, “AVP R” is set in a small Colorado town, where a predator/alien hybrid from the end of the previous movie is on a bloodthirsty rampage. And, truth be told, the movie really is fun when the Brothers Strause, a VFX team turned filmmakers making their debut, let loose. But the murky cinematography (from legendary DP Daniel Pearl) makes it hard to see anything that is going on and the slack plotting isn’t exactly engaging. Maybe one day, we’ll see a rematch of these two foes. It could be worse than watching two of the most iconic movie creatures of all time growl at each other for 90 minutes.
8. “Alien vs. Predator” (2004)
There’s a lot about “Alien vs. Predator” that is downright head-scratching, including why the movie is set in present day, on earth and in the Antarctic (especially since, in “Predator” lore, it’s attracted by hot weather). But there’s just as much to appreciate in Paul W.S. Anderson’s junky sci-fi extravaganza, from the movie’s goofy, smashing-action-figures-together tone (following countless team-ups in videogames and comic books) to Sanaa Lathan’s committed lead performance (at one point she teams up with a predator) to the nifty pyramid ice castle sets.
Anderson knows how to put action set pieces together that hum with a kind of elemental power, particularly when he indulges in his more direct-to-video sensibilities, which he does here. (It’s got an undeniable “Critters 3” energy.) “Alien vs. Predator” also has a tagline as good as any other in the franchise: “Whoever wins, we lose.”
7. “Alien: Resurrection” (1997)
Somehow, Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) returned. In the fourth film in the mainline “Alien” franchise, Ripely is cloned following the events of “Alien 3.” She’s been revived on a military space station that is trying to develop the aliens as the ultimate bioweapon. A group of smugglers (including Winona Ryder’s android Call) deliver some forbidden cargo and get caught up in the chaos, when the aliens inevitably escape.
What’s fun is that, since Ripley is cloned from the version of the character that was infected with the queen alien, this new version of the character has some alien attributes (acidic blood, mad basketball skills). While the movie was widely derided and has continued to endure grief in the years since, there’s a lot to love about “Alien Resurrection,” from French director Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s comic horror approach to the lush cinematography of Darius Khondji. Even the script, which writer Joss Whedon distanced himself from (“It wasn’t a question of doing everything differently, although they changed the ending, it was mostly a matter of doing everything wrong,” he later said), is snappy and fun. Plus, there’s a truly messed-up creature designed by music video wunderkind Chris Cunningham that was so weird that the puppet was augmented digitally in post-production. Hell yes. This one feels ripe for reappraisal.
6. “Alien: Romulus” (2024)
The latest installment in the franchise is a decided mixed bag, full of sequences that are cleverly structured and strongly constructed, while the overall movie at times feels too reliant on what has come before to invent anything particularly new. And that is a problem, especially this many movies in.
“Alien: Romulus” takes place between “Alien” and “Aliens,” following a group of young people who are stuck on a desolate mining world and are looking for a fresh start amongst the stars. They have a simple enough idea: travel to a derelict space station (the Renaissance) and steal fuel and cryo-tubes, which will allow them to travel to the lush world they all dream about. Of course, when they get to the Renaissance, all hell breaks loose.
Director Fede álvarez, who co-wrote the script with frequent creative collaborator Rodo Sayagues, clearly knows and loves the “Alien” franchise, with nods to virtually every installment (he even divides the Renaissance into two portions, Remus and Romulus, with each section feeling and looking and sounding like “Alien” and “Aliens”), but at some point, the fan service is more a bug than a feature. Still fitfully entertaining and scary, but also a little bit of a letdown.
5. “Alien 3” (1993)
Widely derided at the time of release and buttressed by one of the most misleading marketing campaigns of all time (the teaser trailer for a movie not at all set on Earth promised that “on Earth, everyone can hear you scream”), “Alien 3” remains one of the more underrated entries in the series. The film marked the debut of director David Fincher, who had come from the world of music videos, commercials and visual effects. He was taking over a waylaid production that was fraught with difficulty and disruption. The fact that he made a watchable movie at all is a miracle. Eventually, the movie was taken away from him and he has all but disowned it. (We suggest watching the “assembly cut,” which maintains more of his vision.) But the movie is really striking, having Ripley (Sigourney Weaver, yet again) crash land on a prison planet manned by custodial staff and two dozen murderers, rapists and thieves.
Sometimes, the grimness gets the better of “Alien 3”, as in a truly horrific autopsy of Newt, the young girl who got off the Salaco with Ripely. And the geography of the prison planet remains fuzzy, especially in the chaotic final act. But it’s also visually striking, with prisoners sporting a bar code tattoo on the back of their necks and the alien reimagined as a runaway freight train of terror (this time, it was born from a dog or ox, depending on which version you watch). Many felt betrayed by the movie, post-“Aliens.” But in the years since, it has rightfully taken its place as one of the more unforgettable installments.
4. “Alien: Covenant” (2017)
When Ridley Scott rejoined the franchise with “Prometheus,” set long before the events of “Alien,” he found a new character to hang his hat on – David (Michael Fassbender), an android that is sent on a secret mission to uncover the origins of life before curdling into something quite different. “Alien: Covenant,” the sequel to “Prometheus,” continues the story of David, who has become a far darker character than in the first film, and introduces a more sincere, technologically advanced doppelg?nger in Walter (also Fassbender). Walter is accompanying a new voyage, this time a Noah’s Ark-type group of space travelers (all couples) meant to populate a new, inhabitable world. Of course, tragedy sends them on another path, where they intersect with David and some nascent Xenomorphs.
You can feel the magnetic poles of “Alien: Covenant” pulling Scott in their own directions – one wants a satisfying, full-throated “Alien” movie for mass audiences, the other (Ridley’s) wants to further explore the philosophical conundrums and introspective urges of “Prometheus.” It’s a testament to Scott’s abilities that he is able to reconcile these two paths to form a satisfying whole, one that advances the storyline of “Prometheus” while also doing away with things that you thought would be a big concern (like the Engineers and their home world plus the character of Elizabeth Shaw, all done away early on) and boldly introducing new concepts and ideas. Bonus points for a then-79-year-old Scott to unleash something this singularly gnarly (the back-burster!) Movies!
3. “Prometheus” (2013)
It took more than 30 years, Ridley Scott finally returned to the franchise that he gave birth to. But instead of exploring or advancing the timeline that he started, he wanted to begin something new, asking questions about the so-called “space jockey” from the first film – the ingeniously designed, mummified pilot. You know, the one surrounded by eggs. And in going down this path, he and his collaborators, most notably “Lost” co-creator Damon Lindelof, got to explore a wide and sometimes unwieldy array of concepts. This is a movie that starts with a bunch of blank-faced alien visitors landing on Earth and essentially creating life, and ends with a robot and an explorer headed off to find the originators of life … and kill them. Along the way, he weaves in Shakespearean family drama, extremely gnarly kills, a space abortion (carried out by our hero on herself) and an extremely weird proto-Xenomorph.
When “Prometheus” was released, it was instantly divisive – there were those who complained about plot holes and lapses in logic, but for those who were on its distinct wavelength, it was a movie of infinite beauty and unique thrills, with Scott’s return welcome and very necessary. With the starriest “Alien” cast yet (Noomi Rapace, Michael Fassbender, Charlize Theron, Idris Elba, Guy Pearce, Sean Harris, Logan Marshall-Green, Rafe Spall and Benedict Wong) and the franchise’s biggest ideas, “Prometheus” is a lot of movie. But what a movie it is.
2. “Aliens” (1986)
There were a number of issues that kept 20th Century Fox from immediately developing a sequel to Ridley Scott’s “Alien,” but when they were finally able to get to work on the follow-up, the team entrusted the property to James Cameron, then known as the director of “The Terminator” and writer of “Rambo: First Blood Part II.” Cameron, wisely, stayed away from the haunted house vibes of Ridley Scott’s origin, instead surrounding Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) with a bunch of colorful space marines and sending her on a quest to eradicate the aliens from a mining community. (The planet from the first movie is now referred to as LV-426.) And true to the title, there isn’t a single Xenomorph to contend with but a whole platoon of them — including the Alien Queen, created by Stan Winston and his extremely talented team, who instantly became one of the most iconic creatures in movie history.
But Cameron didn’t make the story bigger, he also made it deeper. The movie explores Ripley’s yearning for family, externalized by the discovery of a young girl who survived the alien attack and is now Ripley’s erstwhile daughter. (The extended edition of the movie, which is very recommended, explores this further, with Ripley’s actual daughter dying while she was in hyper-sleep. Weaver was nominated for an Oscar for the role, and if this subplot remained in the movie, she might have won it.) Everything about “Aliens” is just perfect, from James Horner’s pulse-pounding score to the great cabal of character actors in supporting roles (including Michael Biehn, Paul Reiser, Bill Paxton, Lance Henriksen and Jenette Goldstein) to the perfect mixture of thrills and scares. “Aliens” is as much a rollercoaster as it is a movie. Remember to put your arms up and scream like hell.
1. “Alien” (1979)
Ridley Scott often recounts that he was working on an adaptation of “Tristan & Isolde,” the medieval legend, but was so transported when he saw “Star Wars” that he knew that he needed to try for something like that. He found it in “Alien,” a script that Dan O’Bannon and Ron Shusett had intended to send to Roger Corman but instead sold to Gordon Carroll, David Giler and Walter Hill, with Hill and Giler ultimately writing the final version of the script. The producers were impressed with Scott’s first movie and the writers liked that Scott treated the premise seriously. Scott added verisimilitude and a visual flair. This was a beat-up, worn-in future with a bunch of blue-collar characters more interested in making their quota than exploring a distress signal from god knows where. Scott employed Swiss illustrator H.R. Giger to design the titular creature (O’Bannon was a veteran of an aborted attempt to make “Dune” with Giger), and the nightmarish final product is one of the most instantly recognizable monster designs in the history of cinema. (Think of how often you see it – and how often it is ripped off.)
Scott’s characterization of Ripley, who was male in earlier versions of the screen, beautifully performed by Sigourney Weaver, helped make her the icon she is today. A lowly member of the crew, she winds up the sole survivor of the alien menace and the one to ultimately defeat the monster. Not bad. Ruthless in its simplicity and relentless in its pacing, Scott’s film still conveys so much – about the relationship between workers and corporations, humans and artificial intelligence, health and illness. The idea of being in a body taken over by an unseen force would carry even more weight in the decade ahead, with the looming AIDS crisis, and O’Bannon would later say it was inspired by some of his own health struggles (he would ultimately die from complications to Crohn’s disease). Ash (Ian Holm), the treacherous robot, would dub the alien a “perfect organism.” So is the movie.
The post Every ‘Alien’ Movie, Ranked appeared first on TheWrap.
