Few sci-fi franchises are more formidable than the Alien franchise. The first film is consistently ranked among the greatest sci-fi movies of all time. This gives any director big shoes to fill when creating a prequel to flesh out the backstory – even Ridley Scott himself. With the premise lending itself to both horror and action, it’s a difficult feat to strike the right balance in the genre for a new release, making it impossible to achieve perfection. Some Alien purists revere the suspenseful slow-burner that is the original movie, while others prefer more scares.

In anticipation of Fede Álvarez’s upcoming interquel Alien: Romulus’ release date, the question of what makes a good Alien movie has resurfaced. Romulus takes inspiration from the gritty, retrofuturistic sci-fi tropes that permeated the 1979 classic. With the 40-year nostalgia cycle, Álvarez can build on these thanks to Romulus’ place in the Alien timeline, using the popular aesthetics currently dominating screens. This puts him in a position to appease audiences, whereas other prequels required different world-building. Regardless of how Romulus does at the box office, the current prequel lineup should be given another look to see how they measure up.

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Aliens VS Predator: Requiem (2007)

Decidedly Dark, So Much So It Obscures The Action

The release of Aliens VS Predator: Requiem following Alien VS Predator only three years prior reflects a hunger for cinematic universes, now ubiquitous in contemporary cinema. Continuing from the ending of AvP, a Predator spacecraft plummets into the Colorado wilderness near Gunnison. From the wreckage emerges a monstrous hybrid of Alien and Predator, AKA the Predalien. The horrifying villain escapes into the neighboring small town, unleashing chaos. A seasoned Predator is sent in to hunt and eliminate the Predalien. As the two deadly beings clash, the townspeople find themselves caught in the crossfire, desperately scrambling for survival.

Requiem’s low quality is due to terrible lighting, a weak plot, and poor character development, including the Predalien. The film also raises questions about its intended genre. With mostly teenage characters, it’s more of a slasher movie than a true fusion of both franchises. While it’s refreshing to include humans, they aren’t given substance. Using universes that have written fantastic characters like Ripley and Dutch, Requiem has scenes with teens loitering in the sewers gossiping about their love lives while there is a hybrid monster on the loose – no match for the survival instincts of other characters in the franchise.

The poor lighting choices are particularly frustrating. Directors The Brothers Strause claimed that you “can’t show the Aliens in too much light or you’ll know it’s someone in a costume.” (Collider) The problem is that the whole movie is dark and it’s hard to see what’s happening. Indeed, the setting is largely at night in the rain, but there have been cinematic masterpieces using this atmospherically, like the neo-noir classic Blade Runner. In the case of Requiem, the darkness makes it practically unwatchable. Rather than creating mystique and suspense, Requiem‘s lighting simply ruins the Xenomorph.

Requiem highlights a key flaw in the AvP films – while they have plenty of action, they don’t capture the spirit of the Alien franchise, which boasts a clever use of suspense, and psychological and existential themes. Alien arguably wasn’t designed for something as bombastic as monster vs. monster movies. While the first AvP has some merit with its strong protagonist and contributions to the lore, the sequel has little to offer with plot or cinematography. Ultimately, Aliens VS Predator: Requiem is capitalization at its most shallow.

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Alien VS Predator (2004)

Ingenious Lore Merging, Mixed Results

The early 2000s were an interesting time for B-movies. Notable so-bad-it’s-good titles include Lake Placid (2000) and Python (2000), which are great fun but rely on spectacle. It was also the era that had seen monster-of-the-week TV shows like The X-Files and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. It was from this landscape that the Alien VS Predator movies were born, with the premise of two iconic monsters clashing. It was guaranteed to be a draw, but sadly, this reduction of the villains to sensational, cartoonish curiosities somewhat ruins their mystique. The film’s merits lie in its Alien and Predator backstories.

Alien VS Predator is based on the Aliens versus Predator comic book (1989). It was eight years in the making for director Paul W.S. Anderson, his pitch impressing producer John Davis with its Jaws-like allure. It’s an ambitious project with big shoes to fill. The plot, inspired by the work of Erich von Däniken, proposes that Predators are ancient aliens who have helped human civilization build pyramids. Every 100 years, Predators use Earth as a hunting ground for a rite of passage adolescent Predators must go through hunting Xenomorphs. This time, humans get caught in the middle.

This mythologization foreshadows more recent approaches that explore the origins of different species. It also explores a theme vital to the Alien franchise – the arrogant prioritization of profit over responsibility. Weyland (Lance Henriksen, for continuity) drives this Alien trope home in the initial meeting for the pyramid expedition: “This is worth the risk.” Weyland’s relentless approach seems appalling to the more responsible Alexa Woods (Sanaa Lathan), the strong female lead who carries the film. Her cunning and bravery earn the respect of the Yautja (Predators), with whom she forms an unlikely alliance.

With the alliance between humans and Predators comes a double-edged sword. On the one hand, it’s satisfying to see natural enemies team up against a common foe, and forged from this was an iconic piece of armory – the Xenomorph head shield. On the other, this appeal seems cartoonish. It brings to mind episodes of Tom and Jerry where they temporarily make friends to beat Spike the dog. It’s a fun concept for its rating (PG-13) and even works for an action franchise like Predator. For a horror giant like Alien, though, Alien VS Predator reads as a little cheesy.

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Alien: Covenant (2017)

Formulaic Scares But Fascinating Themes

On paper, Alien: Covenant seems like an impressive addition to the franchise. It has a strong female lead, plenty of scares, and character decisions that inspire yelling – all Alien tropes. In reality, the reception was disappointing. The film contributes greatly to the lore with its existential and theological focus, and the visuals are outstanding. Sadly, the awkward dialogue is worse than the lines penned for Prometheus and most of the crew don’t get much character development. It also uses a great deal more ‘formidable CGI’ (Screen Daily) sacrificing atmosphere, and is too much like a checklist of Alien conventions.

Covenant is a reply to Prometheus, which asked more questions than it answered. Set in 2104 AD, 11 years after the Prometheus expedition, the crew is assisted by Walter, the generation of synthetics following the David line. After listening to a rogue transmission, they’re led to a nearby planet that seems more habitable than Origae-6, where they were originally headed. The planet they find eerily resembles a paradise. It seems too good to be true, but the captain agrees to investigate. They’re greeted by a familiar face who fills them in on what happened there, but can he be trusted?

David, masterfully played by Michael Fassbender along with the identical-looking Walter, is Covenant‘s highlight. Much of the appeal rests on how David has changed since Prometheus, along with his newfound freedom to create following Weyland’s death. The role of Walter offers a different type of synthetic, thematically questioning the morals of this technology. He emulates humans to an extent, even making a wry joke, “When in Rome,” before taking a shot with the crew. It doubles as a nod to empire as a theme, which is discussed relentlessly by David, who recites many classical and literary references.

For all of Covenant’s contemplative tone, the pace is much faster than Prometheus. Perhaps action-packed scenes compensate for the heavy themes explored – but this underestimates the audience. In an interview with The Guardian, Scott revealed his intention was purely, “I wanted to really scare the shit out of people,” and he’s never been shy about incorporating CGI to achieve that. Still, in Covenant, it goes overboard. This is promised to be rectified by Fede Álvarez’s Alien: Romulus, a love letter to practical effects. Nonetheless, Alien: Covenant is a worthy addition with plenty to enjoy.

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Prometheus (2012)

The Strongest Prequel Effort To Date

While Prometheus had mixed reviews upon its release after high expectations, when it comes to Alien prequels, it’s the best to date. The film is a huge departure from the original series, moving from dark and dingy corridors to a primordial expanse. While the dialogue and character development are a little awkward, the world-building is spectacular, and the cast is impressive. It teases reveals and asks more than it answers, but while the visuals contrast with the aesthetics of the 1979 classic, its slow pace and suspense capture the spirit of Alien more than other attempts.

Prometheus follows a crew aiming to meet their creators. They take a leap of faith on this mission based on primitive art from various cultures showing a race of ‘Engineers’ assisting human civilization. Their thesis is that these giants created them and invited them to their planet; Weyland Industries supports the mission to find it but, as always, has its own motives. When they explore the planet, they discover it’s not what they thought it was – that exploring it was a big mistake. The stages of this realization are built expertly throughout.

The prequel’s greatest strength is its world-building. Ridley Scott’s core goal was to expand the world. From the beginning, the opening credits show the striking textures of an alien planet, and the audience is taken on the expedition with the crew, finding a wealth of discoveries. It also builds on the exploration of synthetics, adding a new dimension to the lore as viewers are shown a different degree of emulation and the reasons for this. David’s questionable motives are an additional piece of sinister horror. His visual impassivity makes his moral ambiguity all the more disturbing.

The CGI in Prometheus is used tastefully to enhance and expand the universe, with the scares well-paced. The technology on the ship is contentious; this being said, it doesn’t seem fair to compare it to the original Alien. The crafts have different purposes, and the films’ releases are relative to society’s views of the future. Scenes inside the ship provide claustrophobia to offset the more open-air horror – in particular, a horrifying scene set in the confines of a surgical machine. Its pincer descending as though it’s about to pluck an arcade prize plushie is not an image easily forgotten.

Source: Collider, Games Radar, Game Rant, Screen Daily, The Guardian