All the Alien Movies, Ranked From Worst to Best

Assessing the merits of an “Alien” film requires some unique and sometimes very personal calculus. Even given the equal and undeniable artistic and commercial achievements of the first two installments, you have to factor in what resonates most with you between them — horror or action? And then among the rest, are you looking at intention or execution? A theatrical cut or alternate version? Canonical authenticity or spirited departure? For readers, that invisible process may produce a result that echoes the tag line of “Aliens vs. Predator”: Whoever wins, we lose.

Counting the “vs. Predator” films, “Alien: Romulus” marks the ninth feature in a 45-year franchise, and it seems to presage a xenomorph renaissance, with Noah Hawley’s “Alien: Earth” series coming in the months ahead. As “Romulus” terrifies audiences, Variety ranked the “Alien” films.

Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem (2007)
Whether you viewed the “AvP” films as craven IP-mining or glorious multi-franchise wish fulfillment, their contributions to the “Alien” canon were mercifully minor. Even though it ends with the city-leveling explosion of a nuclear weapon, this 2007 film has left the lightest footprint of any chapter. And it’s a good thing: sibling special effects artists the brothers Strause delivered a story that’s not only needlessly cruel (masquerading as irreverently violent) but features underwhelming wall-to-wall CGI, the latter undoubtedly a cost-cutting measure but one that leaves the xenomorphs in particular looking flimsy. Additionally burdened with a subplot seemingly pilfered from any of a dozen teen-oriented CW shows that were popular at the time, “Requiem” substitutes underfed ideas (including a combination alien-predator) for memorable characters or even a single moment of real suspense. — Todd Gilchrist
Alien: Resurrection (1997)
Helmed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet (“Amelie”), “Alien Resurrection” continues the series trend of hiring strong visualists to direct, but trades the studio-meddling anonymity of David Fincher’s theatrical cut for Joss Whedon’s peak ‘90s slickness. By comparison, the soft reboot delivers more fun than its predecessor, but ends up being a worse film overall. Set 200 years after “Alien 3” and focused on another plot driven by corporate/ military profiteering gone wrong, Whedon’s script revives Sigourney Weaver’s Ripley (this time as a clone infused with alien genetics) for her to help a team of mercenaries escape a space ship, the USM Auriga, that’s been overrun by xenomorphs. Jeunet’s nimble camerawork keeps the story moving at a lively pace, but even if the action sequences (including audiences’ first look at a swimming alien) carry a suspenseful charge, too much of the dialogue feels borrowed from ‘80s and ‘90s action movies — and not good ones — where the hero is obligated to deliver an endless string of punny quips. — Jack Dunn
Alien 3 (1992)
The chapter that provokes the franchise’s most contentious discourse, “Alien 3” proves an underwhelming swing following the one-two punch of the first two “Alien” films. After quite literally jettisoning Ripley’s fellow “Aliens” survivors — which wouldn’t necessarily be a deal-breaker if it was replaced with something equally intriguing — Fincher drops the series’ heroine on a dismal planet where everyone is a shaven-headed, murderous convict. That should provide plenty of fuel for an “oh no, aliens” story (if only to instill curiosity about who will die next), but after Ripley determines that she’s been impregnated with an alien queen, one meandering scene after another robs her decision of whether or not to kill herself of either basic suspense or deeper emotional meaning. Unfortunately, an assembly cut released on physical media doesn’t improve Fincher’s vision for his feature directorial debut; rather than being glum, it becomes overlong and glum. — JD
Aliens vs. Predator (2004)
Heretical though it might be to rank this film above, well, anything that Fincher has done, Paul W.S. Anderson’s spinoff merges two half-baked mythologies with earnest reverence and a crowd-pleasing efficiency. The franchise first began toying with CGI on “Alien 3,” and Anderson deploys some here, most effectively with the gargantuan alien queen that gets activated after a human expedition uncovers an ancient pyramid built deep beneath the ice in Antarctica. But many more of the film’s sequences than one might expect feel like they were shot practically, and even if Anderson’s notion of a puzzle-box pyramid seems silly, it lends unpredictability and a gratifying if formulaic hero’s journey to Alexa Woods (Sanaa Lathan), a worthy if slightly underdeveloped successor to the mantle of Weaver’s Ripley. Anderson’s all-killer-no-filler approach prevents the film from either dragging or becoming weighted with self-seriousness, delivering a B-movie that’s fun without embedding its tongue as deeply in its cheek as an xenomorph’s. — JD
Alien: Covenant (2017)
“Alien Covenant,” aka “Prometheus 2,” is a beautifully composed interplanetary epic that occasionally defaults to muted 2010s sci-fi but thanks to Ridley Scott knows when to crank its chaotic energy up to 11. Merging the David (Michael Fassbender) mythology of “Prometheus” with a colonization mission that makes a detour to the home planet of the human-creating Engineers, John Logan (“Gladiator”) and Dante Harper’s script overindulges the previous film’s philosophical quandaries but allows Ridley Scott to deliver set pieces with an operatic scope that’s undeniable. It also marks the best use of CGI in bringing the xenomorphs to life, giving their births a fleshy, organic appearance and amplifying the gruesome satisfaction of their adult ferocity and speed. That said, its messy plot fizzles out in favor of a more blood-soaked finale — a good thing in the moment although a disappointment for David fans. But whether or not a third prequel happens, it delivers stellar world-building and savage xenomorph carnage. — JD
Prometheus (2012)
Ridley Scott’s return to the “Alien” franchise is just half of a good movie, but that half is so beautiful and extraordinary it overshadows the entirety of lesser chapters like an Engineer does one of their creations. Exploring the origins of mankind itself, Jon Spaihts and Damon Lindelof create an android in Fassbender’s David who manages to be almost more intriguing than the otherworldly creatures the Prometheus crew are searching for. Unfortunately, chronic stupidity metastasizes among the humans even faster than an extraterrestrial parasite once they touch down on LV-223, leading to a finale that leaves more bad questions lingering afterward than good. Even so, there’s a gnarly sequence involving an automated surgery table that’s not easily forgotten. — TG
Alien: Romulus (2024)
Fede Álvarez attempts to square the circle — or at least right a few wrongs — in the franchise mythology with this not-quite standalone film about a group of young colonists who encounter more than they bargain for while trying to salvage equipment for deep space travel from a derelict facility. If the handsome young cast is too freshly scrubbed to convincingly play motley, mine-dwelling urchins, Álvarez and co-screenwriter Rodo Sayagues (“Don’t Breathe”) pinpoint a halfway point between the technology and pacing of Scott’s 1979 original and James Cameron’s 1986 follow-up with such accuracy that audiences feel instantly transported back to that era. That said, some of its fence-mending efforts work better than others, leading to a climax that becomes unwieldy as it simultaneously folds in prequel business and pays homage to those first two films. But like a bloodier “Star Wars: Rogue One,” Álvarez stands confidently on the shoulders of giants, crafting a thriller that manages to land admiringly within reach of the sci-fi firmament that its classic predecessors installed decades ago. — TG
Aliens (1986)
One of the greatest sequels ever made in any franchise or genre, Cameron’s film absorbs the visual language and mythology of Ridley Scott’s original and reimagines it not as the same sort of pure horror but a character-driven action movie. Weaver deservedly earned a best actress nomination for playing Ripley, who becomes a badass heroine precisely by embracing her maternal instincts (and femininity) in a way the first film studiously avoided. Not only does it burnish Cameron’s delightfully pathological focus on strong female roles, but the film recognizes the multidimensionality of all of its characters, from Bishop (Lance Henriksen) — repairing the reputation of synthetic humans after Ash’s villainy in “Alien” — down to the seemingly most simplistically-minded Marine. Though not as scary as Scott’s film, each of its set pieces are more thrilling than the last, especially when accompanied by James Horner’s iconic score (there’s a reason it was used for a good 10 years in every movie trailer). Smart, inventive and perfectly paced (sorry, I prefer the theatrical cut), “Aliens” is just as much a masterpiece as “Alien,” only a different kind. — TG
Alien (1979)
How many horror films, or sci-fi, qualify as exquisite? It’s a word that defines Ridley Scott’s “Alien” and few others. Every image is painterly, whether Scott’s photographing the ornate mechanical interiors of the spaceship Nostromo or chronicling the gory, blood-spattered end of a member of the crew. Artist H.R. Giger’s designs of futuristic technology, not to mention the xenomorph itself, not only delivered a nightmarish, biomechanical foundation from which the entire franchise (and dozens of others) has taken inspiration, but re-envisioned a typically lurid genre — horror — as a limitless platform for suspenseful, psychological, even artistic exploration (though let’s not kick a hornet’s nest by calling it “elevated”). Opposite all of that meticulous production design, the film’s thirtysomething cast, led by Weaver with a convincing balance of doubtfulness and grit, gives its dangers a scrappy, blue-collar relatability that makes audiences actually care who’s being killed. And then there’s Scott, presiding over it all with virtuoso precision and thoughtfulness, creating an experience that terrifies and astonishes in equal measure. — TG

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Larita Shotwell

Update: 2024-09-26