Series Review: Alien
One of my favorite science-fiction/horror flicks when I was a kid was Alien. Luckily for me, I had a father who was more concerned with me not seeing naked boobies than with me not seeing alien monsters devouring people, so I was able to watch these amazing flicks while they were still in theaters (from Aliens on, anyways; I was way too young to see the first one). This Ridley Scott-created masterpiece franchise had a large role in forming my young imagination, allowing me to think of crazy alien monsters from other worlds, so foreign and difficult to understand that we, as people, had no other choice but to shoot first and ask questions later. And though the franchise went steadily downhill following the second installment, it still remains iconic enough that people want to keep building off of it. Here, I will attempt to briefly examine each of the first four movies in the franchise (I’m not going to even try and touch the god-awful Aliens vs. Predator movies) and talk a bit about what made them winners or losers.
Alien (1979)
To summarize the story for the random individual that may not have seen it, a mining ship stumbles upon a crashed alien craft. They go in to explore it and one crew member ends up with an alien stuck to his face. Said little alien plants an egg in the guy, another alien pops out of his stomach and gets bigger and then the crew have to try to either kill it or escape, the latter option being the preferred of the two. Most of them die. Ripley kicks ass.
This was the movie that started it all. The plot is basic enough and even cliché in today’s movie world - an alien gets on board a ship and kills off the crew one-by-one until finally being defeated by the final survivor. Yes, by now we’ve all seen that one a dozen times or more. But Ridley Scott put it together in such a way that the alien was truly scary, the crew truly terrified and the reasons behind the alien being there more insidious than we might have thought. The characters are believable enough and enough time is spent developing them instead of just rushing through the various ways to kill them off. In fact, you don’t even get to see many of the deaths, Scott preferring to leave that part of the story to your imagination.
Between Scott’s writing and directing and H.R. Giger’s creepy alien concept designs, Alien leaves you wanting more. Though it was once just a movie about a murdering alien bad guy, it has since spawned into the basis for an entire universe of speculation and creative efforts. It also happens to have gained a 97 percent on Rotten Tomatoes, which is a monumental task.
Aliens (1986)
This next installment takes the monster of Alien and brings it to a new field of battle - war. This time around, a squad of marines sets down on the planet where the crew of the first film encountered the alien ship. As it turns out, a colony was placed there and the corporation in charge of them has since lost contact. So here comes the military, to figure out what happened and they bring Ripley (from the first) along for the ride since she’s actually seen an alien before. Aliens are everywhere, the marines fight and die and then Ripley must face off against the queen.
This one was brought to us courtesy of James Cameron, back before he started losing his touch. It presents a very smooth story that builds in tension. The characters are mostly two-dimensional, but you come away knowing most every one of them by name due to the way they are portrayed. The plot is as insidious as the first movie, with the corporate powers looking to sacrifice more lives to find their secret weapon. The movie is beautiful to look at and one of the best science-fiction action movies ever made. This one holds an even greater rating on Rotten Tomatoes than the first at 98 percent, though I’d tend to disagree myself.
Alien 3 (1992)
In the third movie, Ripley once again makes an appearance after being thawed from a frozen sleep, although this time she’s got some bad news waiting for her. There’s an alien queen inside her and it’s going to hatch. Aliens also happened to get inside her companions, so now she’s trapped on a prison planet with more of the monsters running around (she never seems to get a break). Killing ensues, aliens run around and take on new forms and then the humans are victorious.
Though Alien 3 brought onboard another great director in David Fincher (Fight Club, Se7en), nothing could save this movie from itself. The script was weak from beginning to end and the entire flick focused on the same “aliens hunting humans” plot that the first one did, albeit in a less expertly crafted manner. It is a mirror image of most of the alien-based kill-by-numbers flicks that you can find anywhere, albeit much prettier to watch. This, in my opinion, is where the franchise officially died.
Alien Resurrection (1997)
The final installment of the franchise, Alien Resurrection brings back Ripley (again!), although this time she’s a clone. The movie takes place on another spaceship, this time a laboratory of military alien-breeding projects. By using Ripley’s DNA, military types try to clone the alien queen. Predictably, the aliens escape and start killing everyone and clone Ripley and her allies must stop a ship with an alien onboard from reaching the Earth before it’s too late. Also contains very stupid-looking human-alien hybrid design.
Again the franchise brings in an amazing director with Jean-Pierre Jeunet (The City of Lost Children) and again the movie stinks to high-heaven. Though the overall plot had the potential to be intriguing, there is nothing driving it. The movie quickly degenerates into a survival/chase format and we are forced to sit back and watch as characters die off, one by one, until we reach an eye-roll of a finale. Personally, this is the only film in the franchise that I probably wouldn’t be able to sit through again, unless I happened to be too drunk to get off the couch.
Prometheus (2012)
Many people would lump this one in with the rest of the Alien franchise, but in truth it’s a whole other thing. Though it takes place in the same world and contains the same alien (at least at one point), the plot follows something completely different and, if you watch it, you should focus on none of the similarities excepting perhaps the atmospheric design. One thing Prometheus has done, however, is generate a massive amount of discussion on many different forums, from both people that love it and hate it. I think Ridley Scott did a fine job with Prometheus, though it’s one of those movies that you really have to watch and decide for yourself.
Alien poster courtesy of cromeyellow.com
Alien 3 poster courtesy of screened.com