From "A" to "Xenomorph," All 9 Alien Films Ranked
In honor of the release of Alien: Romulus, here's how the franchise stacks up.
9) AVP: Alien vs. Predator
Combining the Alien films with the Predator films and including Lance Henriksen into the adventure seemed like a surefire success, didn't it? Considering that all previous installments in either franchise were R-rated, this PG-13 installment featured watered-down violence, characters, and CGI effects. The film did the best it could when it came to figuring out a story that combined the franchises (the Predator species intentionally hatched the Alien xenomorphs to create a tribal training grounds), but the film mostly flopped. Despite the film itself ultimately being a failure, it did give us an all-time great tagline with, "Whoever wins, we lose." Sadly, that tagline was also accurate in regards to the movie's success.
8) Alien vs. Predator: Requiem
Hoping to make up for the flaws of the previous installment, Alien vs. Predator: Requiem took two of the biggest extra-terrestrial icons of all time and pit them against one another in The Rocky Mountains. "Requiem" means a "mass for the dead," so the film's title is apt, seeing as it was the nail in the coffin of seeing big-screen battles for the crossover conflicts. Possibly in hopes of recreating the terror lurking in the darkness of the original film, Requiem was so poorly lit, you could barely tell what was happening in most scenes. The only reason the movie barely stands above the previous crossover is that, in the rare moments in which we do see sci-fi combat, it's more gripping and violent than its PG-13 predecessor, feeling more like a slasher movie than a sci-fi specatcle.
7) Alien 3
When the director of a film completely disowns the finished product, it's tough to judge that film accurately. David Fincher ran into so many issues with his vision of the third film in the Alien series that he has since turned his back on the product, but thanks to Fight Club, Se7en, and The Social Network, he has more than managed to establish himself as one of the greatest directors of the last 20 years. One of the opening scenes of Alien 3 basically says, "Remember those two interesting characters that gave Ripley a more dynamic character? Well, forget about them," as it's revealed that they were killed between the last film and this one. The film has plenty of strengths, and the home video market has allowed more audiences to connect with the "Assembly Cut" of Fincher's original vision, though it doesn't bring quite enough to the table to set itself above other entries into the core Alien series.
6) Alien: Resurrection
Considering the fate of Ripley in the previous film, Resurrection already had the cards stacked against it. Far from being outer space horror, this installment aimed to recreate the action and adventure of Aliens, while also injecting more humor and campiness than had been seen in any of the other films. There are many laughably silly scenes in the film, but it's hard to complain about it when we get to see Ron Perlman as a space pirate, a laboratory full of horribly mutated Ripley clones, and Winona Ryder as an android. Counteracting the sillier sides of the sequel is a finale in which a xenomorph/human hybrid has all of its insides sucked out into space through a hole in the back of its head, marking one of the more grotesque sequences in the entire franchise.
5) Alien: Romulus
Cailee Spaeny in Alien: Romulus.
- 20th Century Studios)For better or worse, Alien: Romulus plays like a "greatest hits" of both Alien and Aliens, while also hinting at some other corners of the franchise's lore, which includes mentions of the fan-favorite video game Alien: Isolation.
Romulus doesn't do much to break the mold of what audiences expect from the franchise, but instead goes back to the basic premise of the original Alien by abandoning a group of characters in a derelict space station, though ups the ante with more than one horrifying creature stalking them, which is more akin to Aliens. Keeping in line with other entries in the series, Romulus also injects healthy doses of terror courtesy of synthetic characters, while Álvarez also finds ways to get a bit more experimental with the ways in which he utilizes established components of the saga.
With Alien 3 and Alien: Resurrection being linear continuations of the first two films and earning mixed responses from audiences, Romulus treads similar ground as those entries, though to a more effective and frightening degree.
4) Alien: Covenant
Feeling less like the next chapter in a long-running series and more like the second, necessary half of a complete vision, Alien: Covenant continues to mine the more ambitious and unexplored elements of Ridley Scott's mythology. The movie feels like a direct answer to all of the questions raised by Prometheus, explicitly laying out how we went from parasitic organisms to the familiar xenomorphs, while also elaborating on the nefarious nature of A.I. and synthetic life. Regardless of how you might feel about the story, Scott's directorial eye is as powerful as ever, making it one of the best-looking entries in the saga.
3) Prometheus
Prometheus is a fascinating entry into the Alien mythos as, when Ridley Scott came onboard to helm the project, he actively began trying to distance this prequel from having any connection to the original film. The final film ends up being 90% of mostly original content that doesn't have a direct connection to other installments and the familiar elements feel somewhat forced into the final product. The film isn't without its flaws (notably virtually every character and their motivations are underdeveloped), but the opening sequence alone is ambitious in a way that the franchise had rarely seen. Michael Fassbender makes for a fantastic android and the visuals in the film stand out as some of the series' strongest, though it's hard to make a case that Prometheus is as great as the earliest entries into the franchise. Still, considering how this prequel compares to some of the lackluster entries into the franchise, there's enough in it to make it stand out from the pack.
2) Aliens
James Cameron's action-adventure epic might have lacked abject terror, but it made up for it in ammunition and charismatic characters. There's no shortage of aliens and acidic blood in this militarized take on Alien's concept, as Ripley heads to a mining colony to offer her expertise on the extra-terrestrials. Michael Biehn's Hicks gives Ripley a love interest while the abandoned Newt, played by 10-year-old Carrie Henn, allowed Ripley to show her more maternal side. Add to that a squad of charismatic soldiers and a villainous Paul Reiser, Aliens helped set the bar for what can be done in the realm of science-fiction action films.
1) Alien
Deciding that Alien is superior to Aliens is an incredibly tough decision, as they are both masterpieces that explore different angles of what makes the movies so compelling. However, since Alien came first and introduced the characters and creatures, it gets to take the top spot. Featuring a dynamic cast, a believable interpretation of life in outer space, and a vessel full of dread, the effectiveness of Alien cannot be overstated. With so many sequels released in subsequent years, it feels like we know everything there is to understand about the creatures, but with the original film, the fear of the unknown permeates every moment. Whether it be the discovery of the "Space Jockeys," the surprise of the chest-bursting scene, or the unknown location of the creatures on the ship, Alien proves that what you don't see and understand is infinitely more terrifying than the physical threat in front of you.
Which Alien is your favorite? Contact Patrick Cavanaugh directly on Twitter or on Instagram to talk all things Star Wars and horror!
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