The notion of life beyond our solar system has always fascinated people. However, there’s naught more terrifying than the idea of an alien race that seek to destroy (in my opinion). Filmmakers have been playing on that fear for over a century (and authors for much longer than that). In 1979, we were introduced to a new breed of alien that was later dubbed the Xenomorph (or Internecivus raptus to give it a strangely earth-bound name). It’s parasitic in nature and much like the Borg of Star Trek, seeks only to multiply. It’s a terrifying creature, with its design created by surrealist artist H.R. Giger, and there is nothing redeeming about it. It is an out-and-out enemy to all other species. We have seen many films enter into the franchise in the past forty-five years, and as 2024 will see the release of the standalone Alien: Romulus, we are here today to celebrate (or cringe at) the history of the Alien franchise.

Alien (1979)
Director: Ridley Scott
5/5

The first instalment of the eponymous franchise really set the bar high. Like, it could not be higher. The story follows the crew of a space ship that are infiltrated and attacked by an unknown alien. One of the crew, Ellen Ripley (Sigourney Weaver), seems to be the only one concerned about the creature before they really know what it is. The film actually produces a decent female lead role (slightly gratuitous underwear scenes aside) that, clearly, audiences craved more of. Production-wise, the set design is fantastic, the visual effects timeless and the creature designs, throughout its lifecycle, are terrifying, unique and classic in the realm of cinema. The story itself is paced very well, the tension building perfectly, and the performances are excellent across the board. It’s a shame to start off so high, as it can’t possibly get better than this, especially with that iconic tagline.

Aliens (1986)
Director: James Cameron
4/5

Fifty-seven years have passed since the events of Alien, and Ripley has found herself on another ship, having been in stasis for all those years. She is hired to go back to the moon where she first encountered the Xenomorph as a consultant for a group of marines. They are tasked with finding out why contact has been lost with the colonisers on that moon. Throwing Ripley back into the fray made sense, after what she endured prviously, and now she has become something of an anchor for the franchise (not to mention being a firm fan favourite). There are many characters to enjoy in this instalment, and once again the VFX are top notch, however this film is less story-heavy and features more action and violence. It’s enjoyable as an action film, but it does lack more in the tension and horror that we were spoilt for in Alien.

Alien 3 (1992)
Director: David Fincher
2/5

I mean, the franchise had to dip at some point, but who knew it would be this soon? Alien 3 once again has Ripley waking up from stasis (this time immediately after the preceding events) to find out she has landed on a penal colony planet that is inhabited my male criminals of the very worst kind, including murderers and rapists (who’s idea was that? It’s giving misogynistic, to be honest). She also comes to learn that she wasn’t the only one to have landed on the planet – she had a stowaway. As you might tell, I’m not on board with the premise of this movie, and on the whole it’s a more disappointing production. The opening scenes that follow on from what happened at the end of Aliens were a cop-out to explain a few things away, and the ending was anti-climactic and not suitable for Ripley. The VFX weren’t too bad, but they began to introduce more CGI, and, even for the time, it does not look good and certainly does not stand the test of time. The only thing I particularly liked about it was a couple of the characters and performances, namely Charles Dance and his character, Clemens. It’s not the worst film out there, and perhaps could have scraped a higher rating if it weren’t for the ending, but as it stands, it is, overall, a disappointment (just ask the director, David Fincher, the film’s number one anti-fan).

Alien: Resurrection (1997)
Director: Jean-Pierre Jeunet
3/5

The franchise begins to pick up again a little with this one. Two-hundred years after the events of Alien 3, Ripley has been cloned by military scientists and her body is used to birth a new Xenomorph queen. A group of mercenaries are hired to abduct people for the scientists to experiment on using Xenobabies. Eventually all goes wrong, and Ripley teams up with the mercenaries to get them away from the aliens. I remember seeing this film as a teenager and I simultaneously enjoyed and abhorred it. I still feel much the same way, it turns out. The story itself is good, the characters are more diverse in their personalities, and I really enjoyed the hybrid/clones in a weird and sickening way, but it could easily not have been a part of this franchise, or at least not have had Ripley as the lead again, because it felt like a weak reason to bring her back. The story was written by Joss Whedon, and truly the story and dialogue smacks of Whedon (the rag-tag misfit mercenaries and the mix of humour and fear tactics, for example), to the point where it felt like a preamble to Firefly (specifically Firefly because of the space setting). The VFX outweighed the CGI again, thankfully, and that made for a more compelling and immersive experience than that of Alien 3.

Alien vs. Predator (2004)
Director: Paul W.S. Anderson
3/5

It was an interesting (and good, in my opinion) idea to go in the direction of merging two terrifying franchises together (and, frankly, two struggling franchises at this point). The film has a good premise, in which we’re introduced to the history that the Xenomorph and the Predator/Yautja share, namely being that the Xenomorph was/is purely prey for the Predator’s hunting games, and Earth was once their playground. Now, the Earth once again becomes the setting for the warring species, and some humans are caught in the crossfire. There’s a grander scale to it all, perhaps because we’re now in the 21st century where set designs and graphics create huge new worlds, and the claustrophobic setting of the ancient pyramid is nicely reminiscent of being on the Nostromo. The actual fighting between the creatures, despite being cheesey at times, is quite satisfying. We learn more about the “ethics” and rules the Predator race abide by, but we don’t really learn anything new on the Xenomorph side of things, so it certainly verges on more of a Predator movie. It is also full of cliches, sports some weak dialogue and characters, but on the whole, it’s not a bad film.

Alien vs. Predator: Requiem (2007)
Directors: The Brothers Strause
2/5

Ok, now we have our first real bad film of the franchise, and fortunately it is just another crossover. Shortly after AvP, a Predator returns to do a sort of “clean up” job after the events of the first movie, and he will clear anything and anyone, alien or human, that stands in his way. They went quite brutal gore- and violence-wise in this film, particularly in the first act, and they do show a clear line between the new breed of alien we were presented with at the end of AvP and the Predators themselves, but that’s about where the positive aspects end. This film has fallen so far from what both Alien and Predator were/are, separately and together, so much so it feels cheap and disjointed. It seems that someone wrote a teen slasher movie and decided to encorporate popular antagonists in order to actually sell what would have been a terrible teen slasher movie anyway. Just like a Transformers movie, there’s too much focus on the humans, to the point where the title doesn’t make sense. Much like the previous film, the Predator probably got more out of this movie than the Alien species, and also, the ending was dumb. I’m being generous giving it 2/5.

Prometheus (2012)
Director: Ridley Scott
3/5

First, it’s nice to have Scott back in the driver’s seat. Second, it’s nice to be back in space. Prometheus is a prequel to Alien, set a good thirty years prior to Ripley’s meeting with the Xenomorph, in which some humans are searching for not only a way to prolong life, but also where humans originated from, an origin story that is quite apart from anything to do with religion or evolution. It delves into themes of creationism but with creators one can see to believe. It certainly has the alien “vibe” to it, with familiar set design and the H.R. Giger influences, and it does a good job of blending modern aspects with near-future, so it’s recognisable yet distinguisable. The plot itself does fall a little short; it would have been good to have more exploration of the reasoning for the characeters’ journey, and the pacing is not as clean as Alien, but we have a good amount of gore and terror. I’m not sure I’m entirely onboard with Scott’s vision of an origin story, but I am intrigued to see where he goes with it next. This film could have been a 4/5, but it felt like something was missing, a certain je ne sais quoi that I can’t quite put my finger on.

Alien: Covenant (2017)
Director: Ridley Scott
3/5

This was not a bad instalment, but once again I don’t think I’m a fan of where Scott is leading this franchise. Following on from Prometheus, just eleven years after, a ship carrying a colony of humans and embryos on their way to a new planet hit a storm in space and are forced to land on another planet. After some exploring and getting into some trouble, the crew find their not alone on this planet. Truthfully, I don’t particularly understand why Scott wants to move away from the original Xenomorphs or overcomplicate the story by infusing his themes of creation. Honestly, I just want a simple monster movie at this point. Covenant, along with Prometheus, could easily have been a separate franchise away from Alien with its premise and new creatures. I understand what Scott is doing, I just don’t understand why he needs to do it with this franchise. This movie is probably the closest plot-wise to the original Alien, particularly with the idea of experimenting with creationism, however once again its pacing is slower, the humans are perhaps too involved and the main antagonist, while an interesting concept, is taking away from who, or what, I believe the main antagonist should be. The creatures are grotesque and gore-ridden as usual, and the film stands well on its own, but it’s feeling too removed from the franchise.

It’s always a treat when a single film can launch a franchise, particularly a franchise that spans decades. The Alien franchise has come a long way and taken a few directions, and right now, it feels a tad lost. As a series, it has plateaued and has not been able to capture the same “magic” as the inaugural film, although some of the films can work as decent films away from the franchise and its anchors, those being the alien/Xenomorph and the character of Ellen Ripley. If it’s just frights you’re after, every entry in the series will give you just that, but if you’re looking for more depth, you might get a little lost with all the directions it takes and perhaps disappointed with them. I don’t have particularly high hopes for the next instalment, Alien: Romulus, a standalone set between the events of Alien and Aliens, however I am still rooting for things to pick up, especially as it started off so strongly.

UPDATE 15/08/2024:

Alien: Romulus (2024)
Director: Fede Álvarez
4/5

Alien: Romulus is the best Alien movie since Aliens. Read the review here.