Movie Series Review - Alien

Another year of Halloween and as always, its going to be a month full of horror and Halloween like films and possibly video game stuff as well. And after so many years, I finally manage to get around to watching the Alien films after only ever seeing the titular villains in the Alien VS Predator films, the ending of Prometheus and through all mediums of pop culture. And for the film series that served as Sigourney Weaver's breakout films which helped establish her as an action heroine, I'd say it worked well, for the first half at least. So let's talk about them:

Alien

Now it should be noted that each of these films had 2 versions made. One being the one you may have seen at the cinema (if you were around the time of the films' release that is) and the other being an extended and alternate version that builds upon the original version in a way. So the review of each film will be of both versions. The first film, directed by Ridley Scott who serves as the creator of the franchise in general, follows a spacecraft called the Nostromo which is on a return to Earth with all the crew in stasis mode. The ship detects alien life somewhere and changes course to the signal of this alien life, waking up the crew as it goes. A few members, head out to investigate an alien ship which contains an alien who's ribcage had been exploded. Warrant Officer Ripley (played by Weaver) determines that the signal that summoned them and the ship was not a distress call but a warning. And its not long before the ship gets alien infestation and its then a matter of survival where only one survives. So most people say that the original film is OK, but not great and much prefer the alternate version to this. Seeing both versions, I can see where they are coming from. It is a simple, yet in a way creative, survival horror film and at the time of the film's initial release, the visuals and practical effects were average despite being released around the same time as one of the Star Wars original trilogy films. But its got good acting and helped set the foundation of the franchise. 8/10

Aliens

Aliens was the third film James Cameron made and the second sci-fi film he did after Terminator and just like Terminator, it was released to critical and commercial success, thus making him a great choice for sci-fi films. So taking place roughly 57 years after the last film, Ripley has gone into stasis and has been drifting in space for quite some time. She is rescued by her employers at the Weyland-Yutani Corporation who become sceptical of her claims of an alien that killed her crew and forced her to blow the ship up. Where the alien eggs from the first film are, is now home to this human colony who seem to have lost contact and Ripley reluctantly goes to accompany a group of soldiers and one of her employers to investigate the disturbance and once again, only a few will survive. A lot of people this time felt both versions were great for pretty much the same reasons as one another and I think this is really where the franchise took off. Its got great action scenes, would work perfectly as a popcorn film and does a lot to build upon the first film which is great. I know Cameron is known to be one of the best film makers out there and this film, just proves that very thing. 9/10

Alien 3

So after 2 good films, we now go into the second half of the series and look at the films that most people thought weren't as good as the first 2 (or at least Aliens anyway). So we come across this ship that gets an on board fire and causes the crew inside, among them is Ripley and an Alien facehugger, to escape on the escape pods. They end up at this foundry and penal colony which are an all male community and Ripley finds out that she is the only survivor along with the facehugger which escapes. The facehugger in question, manages to create a larger than life Alien which begins to terrorise the colony and its another matter of survival, but this time Ripley may not survive. Most people this time didn't particularly care for which version is better as they felt that the film in general isn't very good and I kind of feel for them. The deaths of beloved characters from the second film is one that I felt was as Cameron put it, a slap on the face to make room for some new characters. I also felt the ending was too anti-climatic and you know after doing 3 films, you'd expect them to be more creative in how they survive, but instead, we get the same thing that's been done in the last 2 films, again. Just with a different setting and a different set of characters, except for Ripley of course. The last 2 films were both creative in the whole survival thing, but here, it just feels like a rehash more than anything else. 6/10

Alien: Resurrection

And so we come to the so far, last film of the series and for a guy who directed The Marvel Avengers films, Firefly and its film and Buffy as well as taking a part in the creation of The Cabin in the Woods, I would've expected some better writing from the legendary Joss Whedon. So taking place 200 years after the last film (which is a huge gap if you ask me), military scientists on a spaceship, create a clone of Ripley using her DNA and what was left of an Alien that was inside her at the time of her death (spoiler alert for the third film). The Alien sample inside the clone, makes her just as strong as an Alien and gives her a psychic link to them. A military team arrives, carrying some prisoners for the scientists to test to see if Aliens can be bred, but as you'd expect, the experiments go awry and the Aliens are running amok so its up to Ripley and the military team to take them out while also tackling a human and Alien hybrid that we see later on. Its quite common that you would find a film maker and have a film of his to not be very good as the films he has done before and after. This film was a mess from the start and the idea of scientists breeding Aliens is always a recipe for disaster. The hybrid however, is a joke because it looks terrible and makes us feel uncomfortable when we see it, making us feel sympathy for it, but retaliating with just sheer laughter for how bad it looks. This is possibly the worst film of the series so far and surprising for someone who gave us the Avengers several years later. 5/10

So that's the Alien films. All versions of the 4 films and all I can say is, what happened? This used to be a great series of films and then the second half came along and now, its considered to be a laughing stock and while there has been talks of a 5th film, chances are that we're not going to get it any time soon. 7/10