Agree with your ranking. I was lucky enough to watch Alien in 1979 at a big cinema. I watched it from the front row of the cinema, with friends. The theatre was packed and you could smell the fear in the building. Everyone was exhausted at the end! Wonderful cinema!
SO, SO glad to see the love for Alien 3 in the comments. I've never understood the dislike for Alien 3. Besides Sigourney Weaver being awesome as usual, the rest of the cast like Charles Dance, Danny Webb and Charles S. DUtton give great performances too. I liked the plot, I liked the alien chase sequences and liked the ending. I remember still thinking about the ending for several hours after leaving the theater as a kid.
Yeah, I’d even add the death of Newt and Hicks was spot on as it was a very dark, gothic take on Alien saga. Nature is brutal! Them being alive wouldn’t make any sense in Alien 3. Just imagine!
I have absolutely loved Alien 3 since the day of its release. I've been a staunch Alien 3 defender for close to 30 years. I'm happy to know you, friend.
I like Alien 3 & it has one of my favorite movie quotes: David : I have a problem with this. Jude : What part? David : The part where we're running around in the dark fucking maze with that thing chasing us. 🤣
Aliens was my favourite for many many years, but after watching Alien again recently and really emerging myself in the movie, it's now become my top pick.
I concur, I thought it was so incredibly well filmed. as crazy as it sounds I found it believable in a terrifying way. even the music score was perfect. cheers
Mate i was exactly the same! Aliens was my favourite for my whole childhood and up until about a year ago. Watched it a million times and while its still in my top 5 films of all time, Alien has now surpassed it. As good as Aliens is, Alien is just literally a perfect movie. Its just amazing in every way.
Aliens still my no 1 pick. rewatched Alien, which I haven’t seen for 20 or so years, made me realise how bloody good that film is. Like incredible, what else from 1979 still holds up against the current day counterparts as well as Alien?
So happy to see someone as in love with this series as me! Here's my list. 1. Alien (by a teeny tiny fraction) 2. Aliens (my dad first showed it to me when I was six. Really fucked me up but totally worth it, I've been rewatching it ever since) 3. Alien Resurection (adore this one as well, it came after aliens for me. Honestly, I don't really understand the hate towards it, it is very enjoyable though very different from the others. Love the characters) 4. Prometheus (was pleasantly surprised by it. There were flaws, namely the stupidity of the crew, but overall I really enjoyed it) 5. Alien Covenant (I had issues with it. It didn't live up to my expectations, the magic of the first films wasn't recaptured *but those are insanely high standards. What annoyed me, was that it didn't give almost any answers and didn't tie it clearly with alien, as I hoped it would) 6. Alien³ (only watched it a handful of times, but definitely not my favourite. Maybe I'll warm up to it, but sadly do not find it nearly as enjoyable as some of the others) I didn't include AVP, as I don't really consider them part of this universe, but I like the first one. It would have been number 4 perhaps. It's really interesting to see how different our opinions are. Mine probably mine will change in the future, but now it's like this :)
Its ridiculous how good Alien Isolation is and I'm specifically speaking about the story (all the other goodness aside). It really feels like a true entry in the Alien saga. I'd be happy if there was just a good film adaptation of Isolation. And a frikkin' sequel for the game!
I read the Alien 4 novelization before the film, and it had me hyped. The trailer for Prometheus had me hyped as well. I think the alien film we have in our head makes it hard for the real film to live up to our expectations.
I had the pleasure of watching the first two Alien movies with my 15 year old brother for the first time recently, just like my father did when I was a kid. Me and my brother are very talkative and I don’t think I’ve ever seen a movie with him that kept him silent and at the edge of his seat the whole time like Alien did, truly a timeless classic in all ways.
So glad alien 3 is actually counted as a part of the universe now. I love alien 3 and never truly understood why it was so hated. It's not as good as the first 2 obviously but it's nothing below a very solid movie with excellent acting and direction.
I honestly find it better than Aliens which is a brilliantly made action film but has barley any of the horror and subtext of the original. I find there's more to explore in Alien³.
@@tracynicholson704. It makes the horror... What do you think should have happened?? Keep fighting and fighting in more sequels. Or a happy ending...?? No Alien3 makes it horror, there is no escape.
Jupiter I cringe at every aleeeunzizthabests toolbag that only hates the third film because of the first few minutes- when the previous film took what was a near-unstoppable monstrosity of true alien identity..and made it a big f*cking ant that could be squashed by a gun- they’ve got some cheek to cry about their story being torn apart. Then there was that Neil tosspot that was pitching his fan-fiction Aliens: Happy Ever After to Fox; so happy that went down the pan. Of all the things that could have been put out- a crappy retcon featuring characters that are dead af and actors that are no long in their prime to fit the role- no doubt sprinkled with a bunch of political nonsense or sexual orientation as a main plotline? Instead of a original story set in the universe featuring the titular monster with new characters, settings and originality? Hollywoke really has no bright ideas anymore, eh?
@@tracynicholson704 yes that's a true bummer but for the tone the movie was trying to hit I couldn't imagine a better opening. The movie was dark and gothic, and isolated Ripley in this horrible environment. Killing off her friends and making her truly alone gives the movie so much more urgency, as none of the prisoners are on her side. Even dillion wouldn't kill her until she helped them kill the xenomorph. She was alone, with selfish criminals who only care about themselves.
I'd honestly put Alien Resurrection as my 3rd fav. I loved it when I was younger. I like that they tried something a bit different, loved the time-jump (would be great to see where the universe was even further in the timeline), and the cast is pretty solid. The final act lets it down though.
I think something so cool about alien res is that the Aliens in that film would maybe understand humans/humanity as far or around as much of Ripley's understanding and perception of Aliens from the genetics. A lot is left open from alien res even as it takes place with such advanced futuristic compendiums.
The time jump was also good for a few laughs. The look of disgust on the characters faces when they find out the ship is auto-piloting back to Earth is hilarious.
If I had to rank my favorite (AVP movies excluded), it would be... 1. Aliens (directors cut) 2. Alien 3. Aliens 3 (has a special place in my heart because I was able to see it in theaters with my dad as a kid) 4. Prometheus (saw in theaters) 5. Covenant (saw in theaters) 6. Resurrection * I did this BEFORE watching this vid all the way through. So it’s not inspired by AT’s picks.
The only one I saw in theaters was alien resurrection I was a kid so I talked my older sister into taking me. We had fun and even though it isn't the best it still has a place in my heart.
First, let me start by sharing what a great fan I am of your channel. My own experience, fascination and - dare I say - obsession - with the Alien franchise began when I was only 5 years old and popped a tape into the VCR and watched Aliens (1986) without my parents knowing. Of course, the immediate aftermath was terror and sleepless nights, and it certainly left an indelible mark on my pscyhe. That said, I am a huge fan of the series. Second, and in direct response to your rankings, I would have to say that I rate Aliens above the original - also by the slightest of margins. I'm compelled to explain why since I'm responding to a fellow enthusiast who has taken such great effort in bringing such amazing content and commentary on a film (and comic / novel) series that I much love. For me, the main difference between Alien and Aliens - apart from the fact that the latter is the perfect amalgamation of horror and action whereas the former was focused on realising Scott's vision of a science fiction horror (or, to borrow the language from a recent post of yours, thriller) - is the depth *and breadth* of the characters that James Cameron allowed the audience to become so invested it over 137 minutes (cinematic cut). I fully agree that Scott did an excellent job of this as well in the original, but the difference between the two directors was that Cameron wrote as well as directed the sequel. Every bit of the dialogue is within the sci-fi / film afficionados' list of quotable quotes. Where Alien has the edge over the Aliens is in Scott's mastery of immersing the viewer in the feel, tonality, grittiness of Dan O'Bannon's novel through superb film-making, particularly lighting, sound and photography technique. It is not that Cameron does not do this superbly - if not at least equally - but the novelty of the first movie, coupled with the incorporation of Giger's designs and art, means that Alien will always stand alone in creating a universe. That act of creation, a theme in Scott's films and particularly in Prometheus and Alien: Covenant, is the defining characteristic of Alien. In this respect, Scott is unequalled as a director (see Blade Runner / Gladiator). Despite this edge, I would still give the nod to Aliens as being my personal favourite simply because of the depth and development of each of the characters - so amazingly brought to life within such a limited time frame. With very few exceptions (e.g. Wierzbowski), every single cast member brought something unique and believable to the table. This would be true of Alien as well, but not to the extent of Cameron's creation. Putting aside the main cast, the roles played by the supporting actors and actresses is so supremely convincing. From Vasquez and Hicks to Burke, Bishop and Gorman, not to mention Ferro, Frost and Drake, the degree of emotional investment that Cameron commands from the audience in his characters gives Aliens the edge. There's no need to go into the evolution of Ripley's character, which you had already explained brilliantly in this and other videos you've made. This is Cameron's forte, and one only need to look as far as the finale of Terminator 2 which, amazingly, is tear-jerking when the T-800 self-terminates after beginning to learn the value of life. It is that degree of emotional investment in the characters, coupled with Cameron's ability to build and extend the original universe in ways no one else could have visualised (from the props, equipment, design of the Alien Queen, etc.), that ultimately - for me - edge the original Alien movie as a film that I love more. That's right - love! Perhaps it isn't about "which is the better movie". Instead, perhaps the most appropriate question - for me at least - is "which one do I feel more for". Alright - that's enough for me for now. I'll give and explain the rest of my list later! Thank you for such amazing content. Sincerely, Alex
@@mrjones29 Lol Wow, that's the most pretentious thing I have heard. Alien and Aliens are better than any Alien game. Just because you think a game is better than all movies doesn't mean a whole art form shut down. Alien: Isolation doesn't hold a candle to the best movies of all time
This was the video that got me hooked onto Alien Theory. For me this channel is the definative content for all things Alien. I hope you keep up the amazing content.
Having literally just finished a rewatch of the Alien Quadrilogy, I can say my love for them has only grown. I watched different cuts of each film: Alien theatrical cut, Aliens Special Edition, Alien 3 Third Cut (a fantastic fan edit) and Alien: Resurrection Extended Edition. I wholeheartedly believe Ripley as portrayed by Sigourney Weaver is integral to the franchise.
I really love your videos, man. You’re one of the few folks out there who just shares what they love, and is even cool about what they don’t. You have a very chill vibe, and I appreciate that. Discussing Alien makes the quarantine a bit more bearable. I’ve watched this channel since the beginning and don’t plan on leaving.
I'm curious to see your ranking for the Predator films too. Really enjoyed your listing and reasons for liking or disliking them :) 1) Aliens (think it was the first Alien movie I saw , certainly all the way through) 2) Alien (could easily change this around with Aliens at any moment) 3) Alien 3..I used to dislike this movie, but I've come to appreciate, still need to watch the directors cut 4) Alien Resurrection, it's got Ron Perlman in it, I find this one very fun to joke about, about some of the stuff in that isn't great, it's not pretending to be smarter than it isn't (which isn't very heh) and I just like the bloody weirdness of it...and the Newborn death is rather priceless 5) Alien vs Predator, I have memories of watching this with my brothers and seeing my older get freaked out at the chestburster bit, I don't really like the film much but I could sit and watch it and not get frustrated at it so that's why its number five.. 6) Prometheus , I've only watched it once all the way through, maybe I need to give this one another shot at some point , but yeah not a fan of it 7) Alien Covenant, wanted it to be good, wanted to like it, the Alien looked horrible and it moved too fast, no suspense in the scenes, didn't like the David stuff, the Neomorph was the best thing about the film, that back-burst sequence at the start was hilarious and enjoyable, wanted more out of the Neomorph and yeah they could have carried the film and had more scenes 8) AVPR unadulterated dog shit..don't think anything else needs saying, well yeah Wolf was cool and was nice to the Hybrid
@@user_375a82 thing I love about Predator is how they slowly reveal it, it starts out invisible, then you see bits of it, then when you see it more, it's got a mask on, then the reveal scene when it removes it's mask , then beats the ever loving shit out of Dutch, just sublime
I was 8 years old and my parents took me, my 10 year old brother and 4 Japanese exchange students to see ALIEN, and when the chest-burster exploded outta Kane, I literally ran out of the movie theater, and one of the Japanese girls threw her popcorn all over the place! BEST SCARY MOVIE EVER!
When I was 8, I read Alien by Alan Dean Foster and though it was super chilling and awesomely scary to an 8 yr old, I was hooked. It wasn't long before the second one came out after that, and I ran to the theater, and bribed the guy at the booth to let me in at 11 yrs old. I watched with pure excitement, and I remember the bike ride home, looking over my shoulder the whole way home thinking a crab alien was behind me or something like that. God I miss the 80s...
So now that Disney owns Fox, and that Alien: Covenant was a disaster, maybe Disney will finally give Neill Blomkamp a shot with his Aliens sequel? Hey, I can dream, can't I?
and that will likely be only the beginning. not sure if this is a good thing, but Disney might want to try for both a cinematic universe and a crossover for the alien & predator franchises. obviously this could be done very well, but i don't have much faith
advancedlamb my faith is spread thin too but nothing is impossible. But I don’t like the fact that if they do get more respectable movies than what we’ve been getting lately , they won’t be R rated
mariodrv Disney handles Marvel well, they fucked up Star Wars and I hope they don’t mess up Alien and Predator. I think we should get the finale to the prometheus and covenant movies to conclude that chapter because it was left on such a cliffhanger
Appreciate your channel a lot. Your content over the years has been extremely on-point and enlightening, and you possess an incredibly easy-to-listen-to voice. Big props on the channel and solidarity with your future endeavors. For my part, Alien is undeniably the best; Aliens is just as perfect and dear to my heart-putting my ranking in the same position you articulated. But Alien3 (Assembly Cut) is my favorite. Like you, I had a unique viewing experience for the controversial third installment, namely I saw the Assembly Cut before seeing the Theatrical Cut. Genuinely remains one of the most powerful films I’ve ever seen-and one I consider every bit as titanic an entry into the series as the first two.
About the 4th movie "destroying" the Ripley character: they only said in the movie itself about 50 times that "Ripley" wasn't 200-years-dead Ellen Ripley. It was a Xenomorph-DNA-containing, lab-built clone who thought she was Ellen Ripley. Therefore, as an avatar of Ripley, the character actually had nothing to with Ripley from the first three movies, and I think that line about having to f--- someone to get off the ship made it clear, this version of Ripley was a lot more brash and aggressive than the original.
Alien Aliens Alien 3 Alien resurrection Nothing beyond that I know no one likes resurrection but I’m not everyone really enjoying all your videos specially this insane times 🖤
Your relationship to the series seems so similar to mine. I secretly recorded Alien 3 from a TV showing in the mid 90s (maybe 1996?) and became fully obsessed with this nasty, weird, grungy film for which I had no real context (I was 12). I hunted down the Alan Dean Foster novelisation and became even more obsessed with this grungy, obsolete future world. I then managed to convince my mum to rent an Aliens VHS (our local rental place had the directors edition - joy!) and had my mind absolutely, completely fully blown. The absolute audacity of the finale - thinking it was over when they get picked up by Bishop, and then realising that the Queen is ON THE SULACO - totally melted my 13 year old brain. And my intense love for Sigourney Weaver truly began here - one of the best characters and performances in a genre film ever. I will always love this franchise. There's really nothing else quite like it. We got two absolutely perfect movies, and then a heap of fascinating but flawed additions to this world. I'm so excited to see what the next couple of years holds for this franchise.
With the exception of the sub-par special effects (understandable given the challenges Fincher had to endure), I have to say Alien 3 is a gothic-horror masterpiece and merits a much better standing than it gets. Had it not come off the heels of its predecessor and the hugely popular/well-loved Aliens, it'd might've fared better. It succeeded in eliciting a deeply emotional response and feeling of dread and hopelessness. Classic horror. Alien Covenant? WAY too gory and over-the-top bloody than I like.
Alien 3 Assembly Cut is right up there with the first two movies or maybe just a notch or two below them. As much as it sucked for Hicks and Newt to have died between movies, I think that's the point. You're supposed to start the movie feeling confused and devastated about the loss. -as if you were gut punched. It immerses you into Ripley's feelings off top and reminds you that the alien represents nothing but sorrow and pain.
@daveruda The story in general did as in the novelization and Assembly cut. But the theatrical cut did not. Morse, Dillon, Clemens, 85, Gregor, Junior, Andrews, Boggs, Rains. All great characters in their own right but really brought to life in the novelization. Had the studio not interfered so much, the theatrical cut and even the Assembly cut would probably have developed these characters even further.
I disagree. The Assembly Cut didn’t do shit for me. It just added more time for characters I didn’t care about, and killing Newt and Hicks was a terrible and lazy way to drive the point. How that facehugger got onto the ship is ridiculous anyway, so what is the point.
Most of my life, especially during childhood, Aliens was my favorite. As I’ve grown older, I’ve grown to appreciate Alien far more, and find it to be a superior film. ALSO you have to realize that James Cameron never had to design an Alien, never had to come up with a main character, or establish the overarching plot. He did a GREAT job, but you have to give credit for the genesis of this franchise to Geiger, O’Bannon, and Scott. It is SO SAD that the appropriate third movie was never made. The Xenomorph terrorizing a space station in Earth orbit, threatening to make it down to the planet, could have been amazing. I HOPE so much that the story of Hadley’s Hope is made into a movie. I really think that it could be great. 1) Alien 2) Aliens 3) Prometheus 4) Alien 3 5) Covenant 6) Alien Resurrection Personally, I wish Scott would have continued with his vision after Prometheus, instead of listening to social media complaints. There were some missteps in the film, I didn’t care for Shaw at all, but when it ended, I could not wait to see what was next. When Covenant started and we find out what became of Shaw......WTF? I imagined them off to LV426, and we’d find out how the derelict ship got there for the first film.
I really wish we'd have got Scott's original vision for the sequel to Prometheus, and that was my biggest issue with Covenant. As you suggest, Shaw was no Ripley, but I was still invested in her journey and her relationship with David. I was fascinated to see where it would go next, and my disappointment when I found out Shaw died off screen and that story was abandoned was palpable. I still hope we get a follow up to Covenant, for no other reason than to see more of David( Fassbender is an incredible actor ), but I'll always wonder what we could have got had Prometheus got a better reception.
Who was it that made the Quote “ I’m sorry if you have think a bit when watching my Movies!!” I believe it was Christopher Nolan upon the release of the quite Brilliant “ Interstellar “ but that’s another discussion! I thought Prometheus was fantastic because it was SO different from the others in the Alien franchise, the story, the great cast, and of Course the fabulous Cinematography and Direction of Ridley Scott! Perhaps, because it was different and it was asking the viewers to maybe think a little bit more than usual, and didn’t just have hissing Xenomorphs doing their chest busting thing, it came as a surprise and disappointment for those undemanding fans out there who simply want more of the same old formula, time and time again??? For me it was great to have an origins story, and a big plus was the introduction of the Engineer Race and the story line involving them was absolutely riveting I thought! Wonderful production values, with a solid cast, I thought that Prometheus was an outstanding piece of Sci Fi on its own merits, and not even necessarily part of the Alien franchise! Enjoyed it immensely and probably more so than Alien 3 My own favourites in the Franchise would be; 1) Alien/ Aliens at level pegging as I can’t choose between them….both absolutely OUTSTANDING but in very different ways! 2) Prometheus 3) Alien - Resurrection 4) Alien 3 - though I’m gradually appreciating this movie more over time 5) Alien - Covenant 6) AVP 7) AVP Requiem- less said of this pile of steaming Horse Shit the Better I think!!
I also agree with you, the first Alien movie is my favorite. I have watched it countless times in the past forty-one years and it never grows old to me.
They need to get the Alien prequels done already then give a proper ending to Aliens with the whole Neil Blomkamp project. From what I've heard, it would've delivered a proper fan service.
If they move on after the prequels, I hope Blomkamp has nothing to do with it. Aside from seeming derivative of the DH comics (essentially the fan service you describe) I couldn't get over the fact when his treatment (no script) was mothballed his fans blamed Scott and generally set about leaving every review of Covenant with "I wish we would have gotten' Blomkamp's film with the Colonial Marines" and blaming Scott. They just completely forget Scott was already working on his series of films and had announced his wish to pursue them even before Prometheus was released. All Blomkamp did was walk into a room, fart, then leave everyone else to suffer it. I have zero respect for such fuckers.
Man Beadle Covenant may have been a dumpster fire, but I agree with this sentiment- everyone just wants Aliens 2.0 happy ending edition. Ripley’s dead, along with those near and dear to her. From Acheron to Fury 161- they are dead, no amount of Star Wars-izing the plot will bring em’ back. Accept it.
Honestly I have a weird nostalgia for resurrection. I remember my grandfather was flicking through channels, and it was the scene in the chapel, and I could never find out what that was from. A couple years later my dad took my cousin and I to see AVP, and some time after that, I saw Resurrection on TV, this time getting to see the clone room bit onward. But it wasn’t until I went on the great movie ride at mgm at Disney, that I finally rented the DVD and watched them all
@@Mustang_Dan It´s so crazy that the A3: AC had to be fixed again on the Blu Ray due to the audio mess on the DVD. You can now hear what is said in the "new" scenes. Lol. What a cursed film and I prefer the wood planet script but it´s a solid finish to the trilogy. A bleak but fitting ending. The cinema cut is... whatever. A4 doesn´t exist. Nope.
I'm surprised to perceive that my order of preference would be the very same as yours, Mr. Theory. I've never tried too much to put my thoughts on this matter to words, and I'm glad that you have done so in such an enjoyable manner.
1, Aliens (my all time favorite movie) 2, Alien 3, Alien3 4, Alien Res 5, AvP 6, Prometheus (not good Alien movie but good Sci Fi movie) 7, AvP2 8, Alien Covenant (utter garbage and the first time i walked out of a theater mad and disappointed about lore in a movie)
Your list is identical to mine, (although, I've never walked out of a theater). I wish they went back to making alien movies where people were at least a little intelligent.
peter mulder yes Scot messed with his own lore... the fact it had to come from humans is utter bs... Even the story of the Aliens:Colonial Marines is better then this!
AvP: Requiem's best thing for me was that scene at 28:35 - 28:46. Eleven seconds of pure immersive Alien horror ambient, what an incredible shot. The rest of the movie is a complete disaster.
Me, my brother and sister taped alien and aliens off of tv onto vhs sometime in the 80s. Wore those tapes out, know every line. Even the commercials. Only saw the deleted for tv scenes (which seemingly were few) decades later.
Love this man. For me it’s A1, A2, Prometheus, A3, AC, Res, AVP/AVP 2. Prometheus is legitimately a Flawed science fiction classic that just happens to feature alien lore. A3 feels way more “Alien” but Prometheus is just a more well-made, thematically rich experience.
I haven't seen the AVP movies, so I'll just do the main series: 1) Alien 2) Aliens 3) Alien 3 Assembly Cut 4) Prometheus 5) Covenant 6) Alien 3 7) Resurrection which is stupid as hell but I still love it
For me, it's Alien, Aliens, and whatever. Generally, they've gotten worse as time has gone on. You can argue about the order but the first two are in their own catagory from the rest.
First 2 are amazing. 2 of the best movies of all time. Both in my personal top 5. That said, Prometheus was a large step for alien-kind back in the right direction. Covenant was proof that Prometheus wasn't a fluke and that alien, and Ridley Scott at the helm, was back. Ridley Scott in general is a godsend. How he breathed new life into Bladerunner and he doesn't step on the toes of his old creations, he complements them.
The Alien series is a classic example of diminishing returns with every sequel (except the 2nd). 1. Alien 2. Aliens 3. Alien 3 4. Alien 4 Sod the rest . .
Great video; and great commentary. I'm glad to see Alien 3 getting some love as opposed to all the (unnecessary) hate over the years. And while AvP is PG-13 I still found it heaps better than the trainwreck that is AvP2. Your ranking is pretty much identical to mine; although I would maybe swap Resurrection with Covenant... but only on some very minor points. As a big Alien fan, I'm glad I have found your channel. You have earned yourself an extra subscriber; and I have recommended this channel to a few of my friends :) I'll be watching a ton of your videos in the (near) future~
Oh, man! The AvP games on the PC were so good! I had so much fun in the single-player campaigns, especially as the marine (so well done as a horror/action game).
Im surprised with how much we agree! My only uncertainty is if I can put Alien 3 in third. You've given me a lot to think about by talking about the undeniable acting and great visuals. It does offer a true pleasurable viewing experience that far surpases whatever nonsense they tried to force on us with AVP and Requiem. I'm tempted to say it comes in just after Prometheus and Covenant, but on second thought it might barely edge them out do to their own faults.
I rank them in the order they came out. I like Alien just ever so slightly more than Aliens. Alien 3 is clearly the worst of the original trilogy, but I have a soft spot for it and I genuinely think it is a better film than any subsequent entry in the franchise. I've learned to appreciate Alien Resurrection over the years for re-injecting some weird into the franchise, but I just don't enjoy watching it for the most part. The Prequels are in their own category that is automatically lower than any of the previous films, with Prometheus being the clear best of the two, because it had some good things though it was flawed, and, well, Covenant was just stupid. So I guess I see the franchise as getting progressively worse as time goes on. Let's hope the next prequel proves me wrong. Now if we're including the AvP movies that'll mess up the rankings aligning with release date. I would place the first AvP at about the same rank as Covenant, probably a little higher since it isn't trying to be anything more than what it is, and I actually had fun when I saw it for the first time. Requiem, on the other hand, makes Covenant look like a great movie by comparison.
Just blown away on your channel, your passion and accuracy is unquestionable. May I pose a what if question. What if Drake had survived the initial fire fight with the Aliens. He managed to get into the APC. What would have been different about the coming events, what would the dynamics have been like, having his soldier experience but still having to share the remaining weapons. I’ve been pondering on this question for nearly 30 years, maybe I just wanted him to survive.....at least for a few more scenes. Thanks for your content.
For me the one that I have the most conflicted feelings toward is actually Aliens. Of course it's an amazing movie, but everything you said about Requiem is how I feel about nearly every bit of media, in whatever form it took, that came out since Aliens. I guess I can understand how due to Cameron's sense of detail and world building, that through is vision we all sort of just adopted it as what the universe looked like, but nearly all the dark horse comics riffed off the same themes and used the same one-liners and call backs, and in the end, because of Cameron, I think Aliens made the Pulse Rifle the star of the show over the Alien itself for nearly everything that happened in the franchise after it. (Look at how beloved and amazing Alien: Isolation was, and then what happened afterwards to Amanda's character in the comic series' that followed. Gun toting pulse rifle wielding alien killing machine. How boring) I think the heart rending intro to Alien 3 is the first stroke of genius with the story. I never get upset about a movie or game subverting fan expectations, and in this case I think it needed to happen. Alien takes place largely in space, or on planets far away from home, in space. It's dangerous, there is no God, nothing can ever save you and the universe doesn't care because you aren't special. Hicks and Newt weren't special, they were human like every other unlucky schleb that was eaten or blown out of an airlock. Illustrated starkly because of happened to Ripley in the end as well. It's because of these things that I really want to see Scott's 3rd Prequel film the way he intended to do it, and why I would love to see Blomkamp do an Alien movie, just not HIS Alien movie. Retconning Alien 3 is not how I want to see a triumphant return. What we need is somebody like Villenuve to direct a new Alien movie. And we need a proper sequel to Alien Isolation.
Man those Amanda Ripley comics got bad. Trounced on the legacy of Isolation and Defiance, became straight up army recruitment propaganda after Defiance was so anti-authoritarian. I’m honestly pretty glad the recent Colonial Marines comic got canned before it came out, because that creative team was plummeting in quality.
Hehe, my son's introduction to Alien was Jon Hurt and the chestburster that then proceeded to sing and dance in a space diner. Yes he saw it in Spaceballs. After that I showed him the original, and after that the making of of the original scene. He's been a fan ever since.
I'd rank them: Aliens. Alien. Alien³ AvP Prometheus Alien Resurrection AvPr My biggest bugbear with Requiem is putting the xenos in suburban America when the whole purpose of the original series is stop them getting here; then, we find out they were here all along. I'll give it some credit though; it had some particularly brutal kills, and has the most badass Predator of any film
The only thing I really enjoyed with Resurrection was the alien / human cross breed monster, in the cinema it was truly terrifying. The noises it made were awesome and really added to its emotion.
I think it basically flows the same way they released, and that includes Ridleys disgusting prequel mess. As for AvP, they start at the end of this list and descend in release order lol. Also just an addition, the scene with the Alien in A3 close to the end where they're in the foundry and it climbs the walls - @10:26 - is to me, the best Alien scene in the entire franchise. Maybe just behind the very first reveal, but seriously it's perfect and terrifying.
Resurrection being judged so negatively by the majority leaves me surprised and also kind of sad. For me it's what other people see in Aliens, a perfect sequel of the series that kept the spirit of the first movie and builds upon it without changing it. Yeah it has some cheesy humour and one-liners typical for the time, but that's what others seem to like in their Aliens when they say they like the typical 80s action and characters and their dialogue. This is what bugs me the most when said Resurrection is mindless popcorn kino. Space marines are like a blank template for sci-fi action with them being inserted in movies and games with always the same stereotypical character traits. It takes away more than it gives. These marines could just as well exist today and nothing they do goes beyond mindlessly shooting and screaming always the same stuff at each other. If you really think about it, the only scifi thing on Aliens is the spaceship they arrive on and the aliens themselves. Except that, I really just see a mindless action movie in it, with the android existing only as reference to Ash and the aliens existing just to be shot down. Camerons only trump card was the queen, which also demystified the aliens a bit. One alien was literally run over by a vehicle. Resurrection on the other hand plays on a military research spaceship that turns the balance of power. The alien is now prey and subject to the experiments humans carry on on them. Until the balance of power is twised again by the aliens, which sets the plot in motion. The aliens cannot be controled as the way they act and evolve throughout the movie is just unpredictable to the humans, which leads to the conclusion that every attemt to have contact with them leads to death. Even if their captors seem to have all the power and resources in the beginning, the aliens are just too... alien. They are the perfect organism. This was lost in the second movie The characters help giving resurrection a dismal tone ranging from sinister, merciless researchers trying to gather informations of the alien creatrues to reckless merchants who are indifferent to the consequences of their actions and just want to get out of the mess they helped creating. Resurrection demonstrates how positions can turn if you think you can outsmart something you don't know. It's showing us what would have happened if Ash had been successful in bringing back an alien sample with him. It's also showing perfectly how aliens would react to that. And it also gives us a glimpse of the world in which the Alien movies exist, more than the others do. It wasn't a perfect movie by far, even the director sadly disliked it, but for me it's what I want from a Science Fiction movie.
I agree, I would have put it at 3rd or 4th place, definitely above Covenant. It had some very interesting and creative takes, with Ripley, with the aliens, and had humans researching and experimenting with them which I loved to see. Also, like you said the aliens were too dangerous to contain and death was inevitable if that wasn't respected
I just discovered your channel. You do great work. You give great insight and I pretty much agree with your rankings wholeheartedly but I actually really enjoy Alien: Resurrection!
My ranking from top to the very bottom: -Alien -Alien³ -Aliens -Prometheus -Alien: Resurrection -AvP -AvP: Requiem (...) -Alien: Covenant So Ridley Scott, for my taste, is really responsible for one of my favourite films of all time, for one pretty middle-of-the-road movie AND simultaneously for the most god awful theatre experience I have ever had in my entire life. Gladly it was a shared experience as the crowd was laughing throughout, shaking their heads in disbelieve and even some people walking out entirely. Otherwise I would have thought either I, or everyone else, must have gone mad, but I think the world on the whole has given "Covenant" the hate it deserves. It basically ruined two franchises in one, as the Xenomorph was never more laughable (even in "Spaceballs" it seemed more like a threat) and the Prometheus storyline is now irreversibly fucked up (would have loved to see more explored after "Prometheus", but they ended everything before the next movie began). So, yeah, Game Over, I guess. #sad
I’m curious what you disliked so much about covenant. I thought it was one of the better films, #2 or #3 for me. I didn’t see it in theatre and waited till it was streaming to rent and ended up buying it once it was over for an extra 20 bucks. I’ve liked all the franchise films except for Resurrection and AvP like you.
The only problems I had with covenant were that Shaw is killed off screen, I wish they’d given some flashbacks to it at least. They did do an online only short with her so it seems like they mush have had a scheduling conflict or otherwise she would have been in it. Also the life cycle of the protomorph seems way too short. The xenomorph in Alien was never really established but it seemed like some time passed in the original. In covenant there are two that impregnate, burst and fully grow all in the 3rd act which seems way too fast.
@@kkett100 It's easier to say what I did like: The casting (not the characters) in general, the flute scene and Fassbender acting against himself, the "Country Roads" signal (not what the characters make of it and it should have led to a Shaw being alive) and that's about it. It looked IN PARTS expensive, I'll give it that. Sometimes even horrible though as the completely CGI-Aliens behaved like computer game enemies that weren't triggered yet and just stand-by in an animation-circle. Also when they grow, they just weirdly scale them up in a bad CGI-manner. I can take or leave the new designs, they didn't wow me and and I didn't need another redesign of the Xenomorph. Do it, or do something else. And that air pumping, arm waving little alien, showing it in brought daylight just hanging around... all that destroyed its mystique even more than James Cameron did back then with "Aliens". Now there is nothing left, its just DNA-garbage thrown together by a robot from big white people and mostly stupid people. Far from a perfect organism. Nothing in the film scared me, I was laughing out loud and crying with one eye when the same person slipped in the same puddle of blood three times to a goofy cartoon noise. Then 1 sec later it is sold as drama, when the character's husband is shown devastated. The characters in general where the absolute stupidest people I have ever seen on screen, they would be taken out by Dumb and Dumber. If people complained about "Prometheus", this gave them a run for their money. Stepping on a foreign planet because of a human pop-song and not questioning that at all. Instead they don't use helmets and the very first thing they do is snort an alien flower through their nose. INTENTIONALLY. Then they meet an evil looking robot, the only survivor and accept his invitation to hold one's own head over a slimey alien egg. Yeah, why not... Outside of the context of the film, it was a cruel joke to show people Shaw AND James Franco in the promotional material, as they are not in the film. On a storyline context that's even more cruel as Shaw was our human connection and if there was a scheduling problem, they should have let Bloomkamp make his film 1 or 2 years earlier and wait for this one to be possible. I didn't need to see the world of the engineers intact, cause that would be to awkward, if we meet their Bürgermeister and they gave Shaw the key to the city or something like that, but give me ANYTHING instead. Something completely new and maybe different from the universe we haven't seen yet. I don't need the specific 100% answer where the Xenomorph comes from. The third act then just becomes a blatant rip-off of everything we have seen before in Alien films, just shortened and cheapened, so why bother. They didn't even include the best shots of action from the trailers. And that shower scene... Jesus. We are deep in parody-level at that point. This movie was bad, horrible, cheap, laughable and unnecessary on so many levels. But not weird and inventive enough to give me at least a different, terrible experience from let's say an "AvP: Requiem" which at the time had a brand new setting we have never seen in the franchise. I actually enjoyed Shane Black's "The Predator" a whole lot more. It's far from a coherent movie, but it had characters, some cool scenes and AT LEAST it dared to have ideas. So for me it will now be a red flag, if I hear Ridley Scott is involved in any future entries. If he had shot "Blade Runner 2" I would probably have not seen it, as that would be too much to handle. At least he is not George-Lucasing the old films and we can still watch what once was, but I am not interested in what he has to say now.
ThisIsTheRoad thanks for your reply. I’d like to respond to some of your criticisms to provide my point of view on the movie and see if you or others may reflect differently on your opinions after hearing someone’s positive impressions. I’m not saying that you are wrong or your opinions aren’t valid though. I don’t think the characters are stupid in the film. It’s a sci-fi horror flick, but the characters are unaware of that. They don’t wear helmets as is common in many sci-fi media when going to an unexplored planet that they have determined via readings is habitable for humans. Star Wars, Lost in Space, Star Trek are a few examples. Star Trek even commonly showed away missions to multiple previously unexplored planets, even ones that did result in illness and/or death to their crew but I’ve not heard it criticized for it because it was not a horror show so the audience didn’t go in expecting the characters to die somehow. Capt. Oram trusts David which leads to his death and the first face hugger scene. I can see how he seems dumb from the point of view of an audience that knows what the eggs represent but as a prequel with none of that knowledge for the character it’s not really a bad choice. There are no macro organisms in human experience that are hostile or capable of inflicting harm immediately at birth, in fact it is when pretty much all creatures are most vulnerable. He also has reason to trust David won’t harm him. The movie explains that the David model of droids was idiosyncratic and strange and that they disturbed people but never said they were dangerous or killed anyone. David seems strange and disturbing with his comments with his experiments but he did rescue the crew and he does assure Oram that it is safe. I think that his experience with Davids in the past could have led him to see this particular one as very strange but ultimately not life threatening.
1. Alien/Aliens (can't really say which one is better, both have been my favourites since my childhood). 2. Alien 3 (no matter what, it's still a great film and a heartbreaking finale of Ellen Ripley's saga). 3. None. I tend to disregard everything made after Alien 3. As an honourable addition to that list, I would include Alien: Isolation by Creative Assembly and Aliens vs. Predator 2 by Monolith.
Great with the first three, pretty much summed up what I think of them and their ranking with a few things I hadn’t thought of. Being a teenager when 3 was in the cinema, have always had a soft spot for it....
Alien³ is super underrated. There are times when it's my favourite to be honest. Have never bothered with Ridley's prequels so here goes 1. Alien - Perfect 2. Alien³ - Underrated 3. Aliens - Entertaining 4. Alien Resurrection - Silly
I remember noticing in the first Alien that to me it was freaky from the very first frame with that music and the panning across the planet with the letters filling in. The whole thing was a creepfest even from the opening filming.
Yes, its a cold harsh emotional ending to the saga of Ripley. Much closer the first Alien movie. I love it. The trilogy has great build up and part 3 is the perfect ending. Newt, Hicks, Ripley cant escape and survive the space beast. True terror and she has to give it all to end its cycle. The ending always gets to me. Part4 can burn in hell. Biggest disappointment in theater on opening night ever. And I knew it would suck and did not even want it at all. Same for Prometheus and I refuse to watch Covenant. The trilogy is the Saga. I love Alien Isolation game. Only way forward in my closed book of the Xynomorph.
My ranking pretty much exactly matches yours. Especially the placement of Alien 3 as I actually think, despite its faults, it's a good movie with a good story to tell - and of course beautifully shot.
I recently discussed alien vs predator with a close friend of mine and it was my introduction to the alien and predator franchise. And I told her how much I used to watch that film as a kid and she told me it didn’t surprise her because she felt it was a kids movie. I absolutely agree since I don’t enjoy it as much as I used to. But it introduced me to so much so I still have some nostalgia towards it.
For me Aliens is far above all the other movies in the franchise. I really wish Cameron would have returned for another go, but not with Ridley Scott who I think is overrated as a director.
I think the strength of the first movie is the cast. The entire cast is good and everyone fills and important role. What important role did for example Morse fill in Alien 3? Saying fuck in a funny way and surviving for some reason? That is a very good example of good characters vs bad.
@@daveruda Morse actually instructed Ripley how to kill the alien during the final. He also helped her avoid capture and by doing so kept the creature out of the Waylands hands. Come to think of it, Morse is the true mvp.
Honestly I put the first 3 alien films all as number one because they're each equally different & equally unique in they're own ways but still stick to the same storyline & I honestly don't have a favorite because I love the entire trilogy & watching all 3 films in order & sometimes I just get in different moods to where I just want to watch one of the films more than the other two at times!!!! It's honestly my favorite movie trilogy of all time!!!! Alien : Horror Sci-fi Thriller Aliens : Action Sci-fi Thriller Alien 3 : Drama Sci-fi Thriller All 3 films complement eachother perfectly!!!! 2nd would be "Alien: Covenant" because it explains the most about the Xenomorphs beginning & it has the best ending of any alien film to me & it's extremely intense & I think it's very underrated despite everyone else hating it for no particular reason because it actually explains so much about the Xenomorphs creation & birth & life cycle in extreme detail especially if u watch & read all of the very complex & detailed lore that's in the Blu-ray/ 4k DVD 📀 extras!!!!! 3rd would be "AVP" because it's fun & it doesn't need to be perfect!!!!! 4th would be "Prometheus" because it shows the alien universe from it's complete origin & has good acting & it explained the "Space Jockey" origin finally!!!! 5th would be "Alien Resurrection" only because I love the iconic underwater scene & the cloned Ripley with red acid blood !!!!! & 6th is "AVP Requiem" because Its the only one left on the list!!!!!!
All right sweethearts, we're gonna go and we're gonna conquer and we're gonna take some!! 1. Aliens. Classic 2. Prometheus. Fun on a bun 3. Alien. 4. Alien Covenant. Juicy Smooliett NOT strangled 5. AVP.
I feel you have nailed the line up. Requiem is the 1 I have watched the least. Maybe 3 times. Aliens was my first at about 8 years old. At least in 50 + amounts. Thanks for your videos. Always a good watch
Alien: Best of all alien movies, masterclass on sci-fi and horror genre. Alien Isolation: Best sequel ever. Aliens: Love and hate relationship, love the world building and hate the “bugification” of the alien creature. Alien 3 (Assembly cut): Beautiful depressing movie, fitting and real ending of the alien franchise. Alien Resurrection: Guilty pleasure, shit movie with a beautiful score (the ps1 game is a hidden gem). Prometheus: Massive disappointment and wasted opportunity for Ridley and the Alien franchise. Beautiful train wreck. Alien Covenant: Confirmation that Ridley is senile and the franchise is DEAD. Alien vs Predator: No. Alien vs Predator - Requiem: Just no.
@@carlosandresgomezreyes9846 LOL This isnt facebook son, also learn the difference between a "fake account" and a "bot account". AvP are trash movies and they are the reason that we dont have a proper Alien 5 by Ridley and Cameron, get educated.
My own ranking changes all the time. You have some as your favorites, then you decide to watch one of the movies you haven't seen in a while, it feels fresh again, and that goes up the ranking. And then another takes your interest, and so it continues. In the end, I just love them all (not counting AvP, that is) and it all comes together to form my favorite fictional universe.
I think he was mad because fox callously killed his character off screen as well as newts. It made their survival in aliens meaningless...I do like alien 3 though
Last week I had a movie marathon. I did it in a timeline way instead of release. I watched all the films I could online with the aliens present in the films. Aliens vs. Predator, Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem, Prometheus, Covenant, Alien, Aliens and Aliens: Resurrection. I enjoyed all of them but I can say that all felt like space action movies except for the original Alien. It truly was, even after all this time and after several times seeing it over the years a scarry horror, scifi movie that still makes me curl up in a corner covered by my blanket and in suspense while watching it. Aliens is equally still engaging and terrifying while the rest of the films end up being something I have playing in the background while working on my bicycle and watching the suspense moments only. It says something to how the original two have stood the test of time and will live on for a very long time to come. It will be hard to match those two ever again.
With all that said. My ranking falls pretty much identical to yours. I am old enough that I have seen all these in the theater. Seeing the original Alien on the theater while being very young gave me nightmares for a while and started my love for the franchise.
Agree with your ranking. I was lucky enough to watch Alien in 1979 at a big cinema. I watched it from the front row of the cinema, with friends. The theatre was packed and you could smell the fear in the building. Everyone was exhausted at the end! Wonderful cinema!
Alien is the best one.
alien is my all time favourite scifi /horror movie,
Glad to see you still like the Alien series. I hope you are okay at home and enjoying this iconic franchise. Take care.
SO, SO glad to see the love for Alien 3 in the comments. I've never understood the dislike for Alien 3. Besides Sigourney Weaver being awesome as usual, the rest of the cast like Charles Dance, Danny Webb and Charles S. DUtton give great performances too. I liked the plot, I liked the alien chase sequences and liked the ending. I remember still thinking about the ending for several hours after leaving the theater as a kid.
And who doesn't like Pete Postlethwaite?
Yup. Execellent cast👍
I love the alien series but I never liked the cgi in alien 3
Yeah, I’d even add the death of Newt and Hicks was spot on as it was a very dark, gothic take on Alien saga. Nature is brutal! Them being alive wouldn’t make any sense in Alien 3. Just imagine!
I have absolutely loved Alien 3 since the day of its release. I've been a staunch Alien 3 defender for close to 30 years. I'm happy to know you, friend.
I can understand people being pissed about Newt & Hicks being killed in the opening, but that doesn't make it a bad movie.
I like Alien 3 & it has one of my favorite movie quotes:
David : I have a problem with this.
Jude : What part?
David : The part where we're running around in the dark fucking maze with that thing chasing us. 🤣
Imagine if Sigourney Weaver herself signs up for In search of tomorrow
Aliens was my favourite for many many years, but after watching Alien again recently and really emerging myself in the movie, it's now become my top pick.
Yas keep watching me kill :D
I concur, I thought it was so incredibly well filmed. as crazy as it sounds I found it believable in a terrifying way. even the music score was perfect. cheers
I personally enjoy Aliens the most, but I understand why people say alien is the best. Both of them are masterpieces imo.
Mate i was exactly the same! Aliens was my favourite for my whole childhood and up until about a year ago. Watched it a million times and while its still in my top 5 films of all time, Alien has now surpassed it. As good as Aliens is, Alien is just literally a perfect movie. Its just amazing in every way.
Aliens still my no 1 pick. rewatched Alien, which I haven’t seen for 20 or so years, made me realise how bloody good that film is. Like incredible, what else from 1979 still holds up against the current day counterparts as well as Alien?
So happy to see someone as in love with this series as me! Here's my list.
1. Alien (by a teeny tiny fraction)
2. Aliens (my dad first showed it to me when I was six. Really fucked me up but totally worth it, I've been rewatching it ever since)
3. Alien Resurection (adore this one as well, it came after aliens for me. Honestly, I don't really understand the hate towards it, it is very enjoyable though very different from the others. Love the characters)
4. Prometheus (was pleasantly surprised by it. There were flaws, namely the stupidity of the crew, but overall I really enjoyed it)
5. Alien Covenant (I had issues with it. It didn't live up to my expectations, the magic of the first films wasn't recaptured *but those are insanely high standards. What annoyed me, was that it didn't give almost any answers and didn't tie it clearly with alien, as I hoped it would)
6. Alien³ (only watched it a handful of times, but definitely not my favourite. Maybe I'll warm up to it, but sadly do not find it nearly as enjoyable as some of the others)
I didn't include AVP, as I don't really consider them part of this universe, but I like the first one. It would have been number 4 perhaps.
It's really interesting to see how different our opinions are. Mine probably mine will change in the future, but now it's like this :)
Currently rewatching them in between playing Alien Isolation for a third time round.
Just finished my third playthrough also. Cheers.
The AI in this game makes most games just look stupid and dull.
Its ridiculous how good Alien Isolation is and I'm specifically speaking about the story (all the other goodness aside). It really feels like a true entry in the Alien saga. I'd be happy if there was just a good film adaptation of Isolation. And a frikkin' sequel for the game!
I need to give Isolation a 2nd playthrough.
@@RoninAM . Yes yes yes..... in VR MODE on PC
Alien, Alien: Isolation, Aliens.
The Golden 3.
Getting through the ‘Alien: Isolation’ is cinematic in itself. It is great for closing the gap between the first two films!
Alien
Covenant
Prometheus
Aliens
Alien isolation
Alien 3
Alien: out of the shadows
@@foundhorrificgames.2505 Convenant. How.
Including games, I agree. Alien Isolation > Alien 3 & Resurrection
@@foundhorrificgames.2505 Covenant? Really? Okay, your taste sucks.
I read the Alien 4 novelization before the film, and it had me hyped. The trailer for Prometheus had me hyped as well. I think the alien film we have in our head makes it hard for the real film to live up to our expectations.
The novelisation is much better than the film.
I had the pleasure of watching the first two Alien movies with my 15 year old brother for the first time recently, just like my father did when I was a kid. Me and my brother are very talkative and I don’t think I’ve ever seen a movie with him that kept him silent and at the edge of his seat the whole time like Alien did, truly a timeless classic in all ways.
Hell ya 🔥 🎦
AT uploads a new vid while i'm binge watching the Alien Anthology set, can't get better than this.
Alien: Isolation should be included on that list, even though it's a game.
And I agree that Wolf and the Predalien deserved a better treatment.
Am I that scary to not be included in a game?
@@SinisterYT_ ????? But you are in a game. Several, really.
I'm talking about how you said alien isolation should be in the list that's why I said that
No.
Alien: Isolation should be on the 3rd place!
Nah, the ending of that game sucks so hard.
@@HOTD108_ How exactly?
No.
Not a movie though
So glad alien 3 is actually counted as a part of the universe now. I love alien 3 and never truly understood why it was so hated. It's not as good as the first 2 obviously but it's nothing below a very solid movie with excellent acting and direction.
I honestly find it better than Aliens which is a brilliantly made action film but has barley any of the horror and subtext of the original. I find there's more to explore in Alien³.
They killed of Newt and Hicks. I never got over the arrogance of those involved
@@tracynicholson704. It makes the horror...
What do you think should have happened?? Keep fighting and fighting in more sequels. Or a happy ending...??
No Alien3 makes it horror, there is no escape.
Jupiter
I cringe at every aleeeunzizthabests toolbag that only hates the third film because of the first few minutes- when the previous film took what was a near-unstoppable monstrosity of true alien identity..and made it a big f*cking ant that could be squashed by a gun- they’ve got some cheek to cry about their story being torn apart.
Then there was that Neil tosspot that was pitching his fan-fiction Aliens: Happy Ever After to Fox; so happy that went down the pan.
Of all the things that could have been put out- a crappy retcon featuring characters that are dead af and actors that are no long in their prime to fit the role- no doubt sprinkled with a bunch of political nonsense or sexual orientation as a main plotline?
Instead of a original story set in the universe featuring the titular monster with new characters, settings and originality?
Hollywoke really has no bright ideas anymore, eh?
@@tracynicholson704 yes that's a true bummer but for the tone the movie was trying to hit I couldn't imagine a better opening. The movie was dark and gothic, and isolated Ripley in this horrible environment. Killing off her friends and making her truly alone gives the movie so much more urgency, as none of the prisoners are on her side. Even dillion wouldn't kill her until she helped them kill the xenomorph. She was alone, with selfish criminals who only care about themselves.
The build up in the first two films are amazing , before any action starts it's just great
I would say that's true of 3 as well.
I'd honestly put Alien Resurrection as my 3rd fav. I loved it when I was younger. I like that they tried something a bit different, loved the time-jump (would be great to see where the universe was even further in the timeline), and the cast is pretty solid. The final act lets it down though.
I think something so cool about alien res is that the Aliens in that film would maybe understand humans/humanity as far or around as much of Ripley's understanding and perception of Aliens from the genetics. A lot is left open from alien res even as it takes place with such advanced futuristic compendiums.
Alien: Ressurection is very underrated imo.
The time jump was also good for a few laughs. The look of disgust on the characters faces when they find out the ship is auto-piloting back to Earth is hilarious.
Resurrection isn't my favourite but did give me the most nightmares when I was younger
The series should have ended there honestly. Alien vPredator was pure fan service and it has aged horribly
I like Alien 3 as well. Hell it has Tywin Lannister in it.
Also has Doctor Who, and the Taxi Killer from the first episode of Sherlock
The original Alien film is my favorite as well.
If I had to rank my favorite (AVP movies excluded), it would be...
1. Aliens (directors cut)
2. Alien
3. Aliens 3 (has a special place in my heart because I was able to see it in theaters with my dad as a kid)
4. Prometheus (saw in theaters)
5. Covenant (saw in theaters)
6. Resurrection
* I did this BEFORE watching this vid all the way through. So it’s not inspired by AT’s picks.
This would be my list too except Aliens and Alien could swap on any given day depending on my mood - such different yet equally fantastic films.
The only one I saw in theaters was alien resurrection I was a kid so I talked my older sister into taking me. We had fun and even though it isn't the best it still has a place in my heart.
Yep this is what I came up with too. Haven’t seen resurrection since it came out, only watched Covenant twice.
First, let me start by sharing what a great fan I am of your channel. My own experience, fascination and - dare I say - obsession - with the Alien franchise began when I was only 5 years old and popped a tape into the VCR and watched Aliens (1986) without my parents knowing. Of course, the immediate aftermath was terror and sleepless nights, and it certainly left an indelible mark on my pscyhe. That said, I am a huge fan of the series.
Second, and in direct response to your rankings, I would have to say that I rate Aliens above the original - also by the slightest of margins. I'm compelled to explain why since I'm responding to a fellow enthusiast who has taken such great effort in bringing such amazing content and commentary on a film (and comic / novel) series that I much love.
For me, the main difference between Alien and Aliens - apart from the fact that the latter is the perfect amalgamation of horror and action whereas the former was focused on realising Scott's vision of a science fiction horror (or, to borrow the language from a recent post of yours, thriller) - is the depth *and breadth* of the characters that James Cameron allowed the audience to become so invested it over 137 minutes (cinematic cut). I fully agree that Scott did an excellent job of this as well in the original, but the difference between the two directors was that Cameron wrote as well as directed the sequel. Every bit of the dialogue is within the sci-fi / film afficionados' list of quotable quotes.
Where Alien has the edge over the Aliens is in Scott's mastery of immersing the viewer in the feel, tonality, grittiness of Dan O'Bannon's novel through superb film-making, particularly lighting, sound and photography technique. It is not that Cameron does not do this superbly - if not at least equally - but the novelty of the first movie, coupled with the incorporation of Giger's designs and art, means that Alien will always stand alone in creating a universe. That act of creation, a theme in Scott's films and particularly in Prometheus and Alien: Covenant, is the defining characteristic of Alien. In this respect, Scott is unequalled as a director (see Blade Runner / Gladiator).
Despite this edge, I would still give the nod to Aliens as being my personal favourite simply because of the depth and development of each of the characters - so amazingly brought to life within such a limited time frame. With very few exceptions (e.g. Wierzbowski), every single cast member brought something unique and believable to the table. This would be true of Alien as well, but not to the extent of Cameron's creation. Putting aside the main cast, the roles played by the supporting actors and actresses is so supremely convincing.
From Vasquez and Hicks to Burke, Bishop and Gorman, not to mention Ferro, Frost and Drake, the degree of emotional investment that Cameron commands from the audience in his characters gives Aliens the edge. There's no need to go into the evolution of Ripley's character, which you had already explained brilliantly in this and other videos you've made. This is Cameron's forte, and one only need to look as far as the finale of Terminator 2 which, amazingly, is tear-jerking when the T-800 self-terminates after beginning to learn the value of life.
It is that degree of emotional investment in the characters, coupled with Cameron's ability to build and extend the original universe in ways no one else could have visualised (from the props, equipment, design of the Alien Queen, etc.), that ultimately - for me - edge the original Alien movie as a film that I love more. That's right - love! Perhaps it isn't about "which is the better movie". Instead, perhaps the most appropriate question - for me at least - is "which one do I feel more for".
Alright - that's enough for me for now. I'll give and explain the rest of my list later!
Thank you for such amazing content.
Sincerely,
Alex
Honestly Alien: Isolation should be at the front of the list ;)
I agree. Its a great game with great story.
Yes I'm really scary in it
When a video game becomes better than the greatest motion pictures, the industry might as well pack it all up and go home.
@Gmail com They don't cum, they come out.
...of chests, duh.
@@mrjones29 Lol Wow, that's the most pretentious thing I have heard. Alien and Aliens are better than any Alien game. Just because you think a game is better than all movies doesn't mean a whole art form shut down. Alien: Isolation doesn't hold a candle to the best movies of all time
The chestburster in Covenant was a total WTF moment.
Yes! Alien 3 is a very good movie that deserves more attention. Thanks for ranking it number 3 on the list.
it's my number 2
@@chaosiscoming9184 That's good. Wow you must like it a lot. Thanks for sharing your love for this movie. 😃👍
@@chaosiscoming9184 mine too
It's a terrible movie in every single aspect lol
@@chaosiscoming9184 that's wild
This was the video that got me hooked onto Alien Theory. For me this channel is the definative content for all things Alien. I hope you keep up the amazing content.
Having literally just finished a rewatch of the Alien Quadrilogy, I can say my love for them has only grown. I watched different cuts of each film: Alien theatrical cut, Aliens Special Edition, Alien 3 Third Cut (a fantastic fan edit) and Alien: Resurrection Extended Edition. I wholeheartedly believe Ripley as portrayed by Sigourney Weaver is integral to the franchise.
I really love your videos, man. You’re one of the few folks out there who just shares what they love, and is even cool about what they don’t. You have a very chill vibe, and I appreciate that. Discussing Alien makes the quarantine a bit more bearable. I’ve watched this channel since the beginning and don’t plan on leaving.
I'm curious to see your ranking for the Predator films too. Really enjoyed your listing and reasons for liking or disliking them :)
1) Aliens (think it was the first Alien movie I saw , certainly all the way through)
2) Alien (could easily change this around with Aliens at any moment)
3) Alien 3..I used to dislike this movie, but I've come to appreciate, still need to watch the directors cut
4) Alien Resurrection, it's got Ron Perlman in it, I find this one very fun to joke about, about some of the stuff in that isn't great, it's not pretending to be smarter than it isn't (which isn't very heh) and I just like the bloody weirdness of it...and the Newborn death is rather priceless
5) Alien vs Predator, I have memories of watching this with my brothers and seeing my older get freaked out at the chestburster bit, I don't really like the film much but I could sit and watch it and not get frustrated at it so that's why its number five..
6) Prometheus , I've only watched it once all the way through, maybe I need to give this one another shot at some point , but yeah not a fan of it
7) Alien Covenant, wanted it to be good, wanted to like it, the Alien looked horrible and it moved too fast, no suspense in the scenes, didn't like the David stuff, the Neomorph was the best thing about the film, that back-burst sequence at the start was hilarious and enjoyable, wanted more out of the Neomorph and yeah they could have carried the film and had more scenes
8) AVPR unadulterated dog shit..don't think anything else needs saying, well yeah Wolf was cool and was nice to the Hybrid
Alien and Predator used the same horror inducing method - YOU DON'T SEE THE ALIEN - its all in the imagination.
@@user_375a82 thing I love about Predator is how they slowly reveal it, it starts out invisible, then you see bits of it, then when you see it more, it's got a mask on, then the reveal scene when it removes it's mask , then beats the ever loving shit out of Dutch, just sublime
I've quoted 3 a lot in my life. "This thing is really pissed off!" has been out of my mouth more than once.
So many great quotes- I often ask in times of hardship for my family and I- *Why? Why are the innocent punished?*
Mine would be:
Aliens (love it)
Alien (love it)
Prometheus (like it)
Alien 3 (like it)
Alien Covenant (okay)
AvP (meh)
AvP Requiem (bad)
Alien Resurrection (really bad)
I was 8 years old and my parents took me, my 10 year old brother and 4 Japanese exchange students to see ALIEN, and when the chest-burster exploded outta Kane, I literally ran out of the movie theater, and one of the Japanese girls threw her popcorn all over the place! BEST SCARY MOVIE EVER!
The OG Alien will always be the best IMO. It's the only entry that feels like high art.
When I was 8, I read Alien by Alan Dean Foster and though it was super chilling and awesomely scary to an 8 yr old, I was hooked. It wasn't long before the second one came out after that, and I ran to the theater, and bribed the guy at the booth to let me in at 11 yrs old. I watched with pure excitement, and I remember the bike ride home, looking over my shoulder the whole way home thinking a crab alien was behind me or something like that. God I miss the 80s...
So now that Disney owns Fox, and that Alien: Covenant was a disaster, maybe Disney will finally give Neill Blomkamp a shot with his Aliens sequel? Hey, I can dream, can't I?
and that will likely be only the beginning. not sure if this is a good thing, but Disney might want to try for both a cinematic universe and a crossover for the alien & predator franchises. obviously this could be done very well, but i don't have much faith
advancedlamb my faith is spread thin too but nothing is impossible. But I don’t like the fact that if they do get more respectable movies than what we’ve been getting lately , they won’t be R rated
Disney will fuck up Alien like they fuck up everything they touch lately.
Another instalment in the prequel series is already in the works
mariodrv Disney handles Marvel well, they fucked up Star Wars and I hope they don’t mess up Alien and Predator. I think we should get the finale to the prometheus and covenant movies to conclude that chapter because it was left on such a cliffhanger
Appreciate your channel a lot. Your content over the years has been extremely on-point and enlightening, and you possess an incredibly easy-to-listen-to voice. Big props on the channel and solidarity with your future endeavors.
For my part, Alien is undeniably the best; Aliens is just as perfect and dear to my heart-putting my ranking in the same position you articulated. But Alien3 (Assembly Cut) is my favorite. Like you, I had a unique viewing experience for the controversial third installment, namely I saw the Assembly Cut before seeing the Theatrical Cut. Genuinely remains one of the most powerful films I’ve ever seen-and one I consider every bit as titanic an entry into the series as the first two.
I have a soft spot for the AVP Extended Unrated cut. It's not perfect by any means but it kinda does make up for how tame the PG-13 theatrical cut is.
About the 4th movie "destroying" the Ripley character: they only said in the movie itself about 50 times that "Ripley" wasn't 200-years-dead Ellen Ripley. It was a Xenomorph-DNA-containing, lab-built clone who thought she was Ellen Ripley. Therefore, as an avatar of Ripley, the character actually had nothing to with Ripley from the first three movies, and I think that line about having to f--- someone to get off the ship made it clear, this version of Ripley was a lot more brash and aggressive than the original.
AVP is a favorite of mine. I got into the world and watch it every now and then as the first two movies.
I'm glad you liked the fight! Who were you voting for? ;_;
@@SinisterYT_ I root for Scar and Alexa every time. Now I'm inspired to watch the movie again - LOL. xD
8. Requiem
7. Resurrection
6. AVP
5. 3
4. Covenant
3. Prometheus
2. Aliens
1. Alien
Alien = Aliens > Alien Isolation >>> Alien 3 (assembly cut) >>>>> rest
It's incredible that after 38 years a decent alien movie is finally coming out.
Alien Aliens Alien 3 Alien resurrection Nothing beyond that I know no one likes resurrection but I’m not everyone really enjoying all your videos specially this insane times 🖤
Your relationship to the series seems so similar to mine. I secretly recorded Alien 3 from a TV showing in the mid 90s (maybe 1996?) and became fully obsessed with this nasty, weird, grungy film for which I had no real context (I was 12). I hunted down the Alan Dean Foster novelisation and became even more obsessed with this grungy, obsolete future world. I then managed to convince my mum to rent an Aliens VHS (our local rental place had the directors edition - joy!) and had my mind absolutely, completely fully blown. The absolute audacity of the finale - thinking it was over when they get picked up by Bishop, and then realising that the Queen is ON THE SULACO - totally melted my 13 year old brain. And my intense love for Sigourney Weaver truly began here - one of the best characters and performances in a genre film ever.
I will always love this franchise. There's really nothing else quite like it. We got two absolutely perfect movies, and then a heap of fascinating but flawed additions to this world.
I'm so excited to see what the next couple of years holds for this franchise.
With the exception of the sub-par special effects (understandable given the challenges Fincher had to endure), I have to say Alien 3 is a gothic-horror masterpiece and merits a much better standing than it gets. Had it not come off the heels of its predecessor and the hugely popular/well-loved Aliens, it'd might've fared better. It succeeded in eliciting a deeply emotional response and feeling of dread and hopelessness. Classic horror.
Alien Covenant? WAY too gory and over-the-top bloody than I like.
AVP (2004) was the first alien and predator movie I ever saw, so it holds a special place in my heart
Same, that's how I got in the Aliens, Predator franchise in the first place
Alien 3 Assembly Cut is right up there with the first two movies or maybe just a notch or two below them. As much as it sucked for Hicks and Newt to have died between movies, I think that's the point. You're supposed to start the movie feeling confused and devastated about the loss. -as if you were gut punched. It immerses you into Ripley's feelings off top and reminds you that the alien represents nothing but sorrow and pain.
After the shock...did they fill the movie with enough good characters to compensate for erasing Aliens?
@daveruda The story in general did as in the novelization and Assembly cut. But the theatrical cut did not. Morse, Dillon, Clemens, 85, Gregor, Junior, Andrews, Boggs, Rains. All great characters in their own right but really brought to life in the novelization. Had the studio not interfered so much, the theatrical cut and even the Assembly cut would probably have developed these characters even further.
I disagree. The Assembly Cut didn’t do shit for me. It just added more time for characters I didn’t care about, and killing Newt and Hicks was a terrible and lazy way to drive the point. How that facehugger got onto the ship is ridiculous anyway, so what is the point.
Wow! Your channel is truly one of the better ones I've come across lately. I absolutely adore your Alien content ❤❤ Amazing work!
Most of my life, especially during childhood, Aliens was my favorite. As I’ve grown older, I’ve grown to appreciate Alien far more, and find it to be a superior film. ALSO you have to realize that James Cameron never had to design an Alien, never had to come up with a main character, or establish the overarching plot. He did a GREAT job, but you have to give credit for the genesis of this franchise to Geiger, O’Bannon, and Scott.
It is SO SAD that the appropriate third movie was never made. The Xenomorph terrorizing a space station in Earth orbit, threatening to make it down to the planet, could have been amazing.
I HOPE so much that the story of Hadley’s Hope is made into a movie. I really think that it could be great.
1) Alien
2) Aliens
3) Prometheus
4) Alien 3
5) Covenant
6) Alien Resurrection
Personally, I wish Scott would have continued with his vision after Prometheus, instead of listening to social media complaints. There were some missteps in the film, I didn’t care for Shaw at all, but when it ended, I could not wait to see what was next. When Covenant started and we find out what became of Shaw......WTF? I imagined them off to LV426, and we’d find out how the derelict ship got there for the first film.
I really wish we'd have got Scott's original vision for the sequel to Prometheus, and that was my biggest issue with Covenant. As you suggest, Shaw was no Ripley, but I was still invested in her journey and her relationship with David. I was fascinated to see where it would go next, and my disappointment when I found out Shaw died off screen and that story was abandoned was palpable. I still hope we get a follow up to Covenant, for no other reason than to see more of David( Fassbender is an incredible actor ), but I'll always wonder what we could have got had Prometheus got a better reception.
Who was it that made the Quote “ I’m sorry if you have think a bit when watching my Movies!!” I believe it was Christopher Nolan upon the release of the quite Brilliant “ Interstellar “ but that’s another discussion!
I thought Prometheus was fantastic because it was SO different from the others in the Alien franchise, the story, the great cast, and of Course the fabulous Cinematography and Direction of Ridley Scott!
Perhaps, because it was different and it was asking the viewers to maybe think a little bit more than usual, and didn’t just have hissing Xenomorphs doing their chest busting thing, it came as a surprise and disappointment for those undemanding fans out there who simply want more of the same old formula, time and time again???
For me it was great to have an origins story, and a big plus was the introduction of the Engineer Race and the story line involving them was absolutely riveting I thought!
Wonderful production values, with a solid cast, I thought that Prometheus was an outstanding piece of Sci Fi on its own merits, and not even necessarily part of the Alien franchise!
Enjoyed it immensely and probably more so than Alien 3
My own favourites in the Franchise would be;
1) Alien/ Aliens at level pegging as I can’t choose between them….both absolutely OUTSTANDING but in very different ways!
2) Prometheus
3) Alien - Resurrection
4) Alien 3 - though I’m gradually appreciating this movie more over time
5) Alien - Covenant
6) AVP
7) AVP Requiem- less said of this pile of steaming Horse Shit the Better I think!!
I also agree with you, the first Alien movie is my favorite. I have watched it countless times in the past forty-one years and it never grows old to me.
They need to get the Alien prequels done already then give a proper ending to Aliens with the whole Neil Blomkamp project. From what I've heard, it would've delivered a proper fan service.
If they move on after the prequels, I hope Blomkamp has nothing to do with it. Aside from seeming derivative of the DH comics (essentially the fan service you describe) I couldn't get over the fact when his treatment (no script) was mothballed his fans blamed Scott and generally set about leaving every review of Covenant with "I wish we would have gotten' Blomkamp's film with the Colonial Marines" and blaming Scott. They just completely forget Scott was already working on his series of films and had announced his wish to pursue them even before Prometheus was released. All Blomkamp did was walk into a room, fart, then leave everyone else to suffer it.
I have zero respect for such fuckers.
Man Beadle
Covenant may have been a dumpster fire, but I agree with this sentiment- everyone just wants Aliens 2.0 happy ending edition.
Ripley’s dead, along with those near and dear to her. From Acheron to Fury 161- they are dead, no amount of Star Wars-izing the plot will bring em’ back. Accept it.
Honestly I have a weird nostalgia for resurrection. I remember my grandfather was flicking through channels, and it was the scene in the chapel, and I could never find out what that was from. A couple years later my dad took my cousin and I to see AVP, and some time after that, I saw Resurrection on TV, this time getting to see the clone room bit onward. But it wasn’t until I went on the great movie ride at mgm at Disney, that I finally rented the DVD and watched them all
James Rolfe: " the series started with two cinematic master pieces and de evolved into I know what you shit last summer".
I fully agree but A3 Assembly Cut and Prometheus aren´t bad. Flawed but good.
Classic James line
I actually like Alien 3 Assembly Cut. Prometheus too. Not too big on Resurrection and Covenant though.
@resident grigo I literally commented the same thing in reply then checked the "other" reply which was yours and expressed the same sentiment lol.
@@Mustang_Dan It´s so crazy that the A3: AC had to be fixed again on the Blu Ray due to the audio mess on the DVD. You can now hear what is said in the "new" scenes. Lol. What a cursed film and I prefer the wood planet script but it´s a solid finish to the trilogy. A bleak but fitting ending. The cinema cut is... whatever. A4 doesn´t exist. Nope.
I'm surprised to perceive that my order of preference would be the very same as yours, Mr. Theory. I've never tried too much to put my thoughts on this matter to words, and I'm glad that you have done so in such an enjoyable manner.
1, Aliens (my all time favorite movie)
2, Alien
3, Alien3
4, Alien Res
5, AvP
6, Prometheus (not good Alien movie but good Sci Fi movie)
7, AvP2
8, Alien Covenant (utter garbage and the first time i walked out of a theater mad and disappointed about lore in a movie)
Did Covenant hurt the Alien saga in your opinion?!
Your list is identical to mine, (although, I've never walked out of a theater).
I wish they went back to making alien movies where people were at least a little intelligent.
@Daniel Roberts. Did it break the mystery surrounding the Xenomorph?!
Jan Fulton yeah I watched it all the way tru but after i walked out i was mad, is what i ment.
peter mulder yes Scot messed with his own lore... the fact it had to come from humans is utter bs...
Even the story of the Aliens:Colonial Marines is better then this!
We can learn from Alien(1979) now more then ever as a perfect example of what can happen when you don't follow quarantine.
"Why don't you FREEZE him!?"
AvP: Requiem's best thing for me was that scene at 28:35 - 28:46. Eleven seconds of pure immersive Alien horror ambient, what an incredible shot. The rest of the movie is a complete disaster.
Excellent work! As a fan of these films, I really appreciated your observations and opinions.
AVP was my intro to both franchises so im a little partial -.-
Avp is good
Me, my brother and sister taped alien and aliens off of tv onto vhs sometime in the 80s. Wore those tapes out, know every line. Even the commercials. Only saw the deleted for tv scenes (which seemingly were few) decades later.
Love this man. For me it’s A1, A2, Prometheus, A3, AC, Res, AVP/AVP 2. Prometheus is legitimately a Flawed science fiction classic that just happens to feature alien lore. A3 feels way more “Alien” but Prometheus is just a more well-made, thematically rich experience.
I haven't seen the AVP movies, so I'll just do the main series:
1) Alien
2) Aliens
3) Alien 3 Assembly Cut
4) Prometheus
5) Covenant
6) Alien 3
7) Resurrection which is stupid as hell but I still love it
For me, it's Alien, Aliens, and whatever. Generally, they've gotten worse as time has gone on. You can argue about the order but the first two are in their own catagory from the rest.
First 2 are amazing. 2 of the best movies of all time. Both in my personal top 5. That said, Prometheus was a large step for alien-kind back in the right direction. Covenant was proof that Prometheus wasn't a fluke and that alien, and Ridley Scott at the helm, was back. Ridley Scott in general is a godsend. How he breathed new life into Bladerunner and he doesn't step on the toes of his old creations, he complements them.
@@derkavondangerkill7628 lol, thats a joke. xD
@@fullgreys0n738 Well, feel free to disagree. I too believe that Prometheus and Covenant are great and ambitious movies.
@@Infiny92 Just in the wrong universe.
@@fullgreys0n738 Ok.
Alien and Aliens are so utterly different yet cannot be separated. It’s like a sandwhich without a spread. A loo without a seat, etc etc lol.
The Alien series is a classic example of diminishing returns with every sequel (except the 2nd).
1. Alien
2. Aliens
3. Alien 3
4. Alien 4
Sod the rest . .
I think you meant to say:
1) Aliens
2) Alien
3) Alien 3
4) Alien 4
@@sjc5411 No. I prefer the first but the second is pretty close . .
Great video; and great commentary. I'm glad to see Alien 3 getting some love as opposed to all the (unnecessary) hate over the years. And while AvP is PG-13 I still found it heaps better than the trainwreck that is AvP2. Your ranking is pretty much identical to mine; although I would maybe swap Resurrection with Covenant... but only on some very minor points.
As a big Alien fan, I'm glad I have found your channel. You have earned yourself an extra subscriber; and I have recommended this channel to a few of my friends :) I'll be watching a ton of your videos in the (near) future~
Oh, man! The AvP games on the PC were so good! I had so much fun in the single-player campaigns, especially as the marine (so well done as a horror/action game).
Yeahh
I used to play AVP 2 multiplayer a lot back in the day. It was so much fun!
Im surprised with how much we agree! My only uncertainty is if I can put Alien 3 in third. You've given me a lot to think about by talking about the undeniable acting and great visuals. It does offer a true pleasurable viewing experience that far surpases whatever nonsense they tried to force on us with AVP and Requiem. I'm tempted to say it comes in just after Prometheus and Covenant, but on second thought it might barely edge them out do to their own faults.
I rank them in the order they came out. I like Alien just ever so slightly more than Aliens. Alien 3 is clearly the worst of the original trilogy, but I have a soft spot for it and I genuinely think it is a better film than any subsequent entry in the franchise. I've learned to appreciate Alien Resurrection over the years for re-injecting some weird into the franchise, but I just don't enjoy watching it for the most part. The Prequels are in their own category that is automatically lower than any of the previous films, with Prometheus being the clear best of the two, because it had some good things though it was flawed, and, well, Covenant was just stupid. So I guess I see the franchise as getting progressively worse as time goes on. Let's hope the next prequel proves me wrong.
Now if we're including the AvP movies that'll mess up the rankings aligning with release date. I would place the first AvP at about the same rank as Covenant, probably a little higher since it isn't trying to be anything more than what it is, and I actually had fun when I saw it for the first time. Requiem, on the other hand, makes Covenant look like a great movie by comparison.
Just blown away on your channel, your passion and accuracy is unquestionable. May I pose a what if question. What if Drake had survived the initial fire fight with the Aliens. He managed to get into the APC. What would have been different about the coming events, what would the dynamics have been like, having his soldier experience but still having to share the remaining weapons. I’ve been pondering on this question for nearly 30 years, maybe I just wanted him to survive.....at least for a few more scenes. Thanks for your content.
For me the one that I have the most conflicted feelings toward is actually Aliens. Of course it's an amazing movie, but everything you said about Requiem is how I feel about nearly every bit of media, in whatever form it took, that came out since Aliens. I guess I can understand how due to Cameron's sense of detail and world building, that through is vision we all sort of just adopted it as what the universe looked like, but nearly all the dark horse comics riffed off the same themes and used the same one-liners and call backs, and in the end, because of Cameron, I think Aliens made the Pulse Rifle the star of the show over the Alien itself for nearly everything that happened in the franchise after it. (Look at how beloved and amazing Alien: Isolation was, and then what happened afterwards to Amanda's character in the comic series' that followed. Gun toting pulse rifle wielding alien killing machine. How boring)
I think the heart rending intro to Alien 3 is the first stroke of genius with the story. I never get upset about a movie or game subverting fan expectations, and in this case I think it needed to happen. Alien takes place largely in space, or on planets far away from home, in space. It's dangerous, there is no God, nothing can ever save you and the universe doesn't care because you aren't special. Hicks and Newt weren't special, they were human like every other unlucky schleb that was eaten or blown out of an airlock. Illustrated starkly because of happened to Ripley in the end as well.
It's because of these things that I really want to see Scott's 3rd Prequel film the way he intended to do it, and why I would love to see Blomkamp do an Alien movie, just not HIS Alien movie. Retconning Alien 3 is not how I want to see a triumphant return.
What we need is somebody like Villenuve to direct a new Alien movie. And we need a proper sequel to Alien Isolation.
Man those Amanda Ripley comics got bad. Trounced on the legacy of Isolation and Defiance, became straight up army recruitment propaganda after Defiance was so anti-authoritarian. I’m honestly pretty glad the recent Colonial Marines comic got canned before it came out, because that creative team was plummeting in quality.
Hehe, my son's introduction to Alien was Jon Hurt and the chestburster that then proceeded to sing and dance in a space diner. Yes he saw it in Spaceballs. After that I showed him the original, and after that the making of of the original scene. He's been a fan ever since.
I'd rank them:
Aliens.
Alien.
Alien³
AvP
Prometheus
Alien Resurrection
AvPr
My biggest bugbear with Requiem is putting the xenos in suburban America when the whole purpose of the original series is stop them getting here; then, we find out they were here all along. I'll give it some credit though; it had some particularly brutal kills, and has the most badass Predator of any film
And I haven't listed Covenant simply because I haven't seen it yet
The only thing I really enjoyed with Resurrection was the alien / human cross breed monster, in the cinema it was truly terrifying. The noises it made were awesome and really added to its emotion.
Alien 3 is my favourite one.
Fantastic, hauntingly beautiful movie.
I don't understand you
I think it basically flows the same way they released, and that includes Ridleys disgusting prequel mess. As for AvP, they start at the end of this list and descend in release order lol.
Also just an addition, the scene with the Alien in A3 close to the end where they're in the foundry and it climbs the walls - @10:26 - is to me, the best Alien scene in the entire franchise. Maybe just behind the very first reveal, but seriously it's perfect and terrifying.
Resurrection being judged so negatively by the majority leaves me surprised and also kind of sad.
For me it's what other people see in Aliens, a perfect sequel of the series that kept the spirit of the first movie and builds upon it without changing it.
Yeah it has some cheesy humour and one-liners typical for the time, but that's what others seem to like in their Aliens when they say they like the typical 80s action and characters and their dialogue. This is what bugs me the most when said Resurrection is mindless popcorn kino. Space marines are like a blank template for sci-fi action with them being inserted in movies and games with always the same stereotypical character traits. It takes away more than it gives. These marines could just as well exist today and nothing they do goes beyond mindlessly shooting and screaming always the same stuff at each other. If you really think about it, the only scifi thing on Aliens is the spaceship they arrive on and the aliens themselves. Except that, I really just see a mindless action movie in it, with the android existing only as reference to Ash and the aliens existing just to be shot down. Camerons only trump card was the queen, which also demystified the aliens a bit. One alien was literally run over by a vehicle.
Resurrection on the other hand plays on a military research spaceship that turns the balance of power. The alien is now prey and subject to the experiments humans carry on on them.
Until the balance of power is twised again by the aliens, which sets the plot in motion. The aliens cannot be controled as the way they act and evolve throughout the movie is just unpredictable to the humans, which leads to the conclusion that every attemt to have contact with them leads to death. Even if their captors seem to have all the power and resources in the beginning, the aliens are just too... alien. They are the perfect organism. This was lost in the second movie
The characters help giving resurrection a dismal tone ranging from sinister, merciless researchers trying to gather informations of the alien creatrues to reckless merchants who are indifferent to the consequences of their actions and just want to get out of the mess they helped creating.
Resurrection demonstrates how positions can turn if you think you can outsmart something you don't know. It's showing us what would have happened if Ash had been successful in bringing back an alien sample with him. It's also showing perfectly how aliens would react to that. And it also gives us a glimpse of the world in which the Alien movies exist, more than the others do.
It wasn't a perfect movie by far, even the director sadly disliked it, but for me it's what I want from a Science Fiction movie.
I agree, I would have put it at 3rd or 4th place, definitely above Covenant. It had some very interesting and creative takes, with Ripley, with the aliens, and had humans researching and experimenting with them which I loved to see. Also, like you said the aliens were too dangerous to contain and death was inevitable if that wasn't respected
I just discovered your channel. You do great work. You give great insight and I pretty much agree with your rankings wholeheartedly but I actually really enjoy Alien: Resurrection!
My ranking from top to the very bottom:
-Alien
-Alien³
-Aliens
-Prometheus
-Alien: Resurrection
-AvP
-AvP: Requiem
(...)
-Alien: Covenant
So Ridley Scott, for my taste, is really responsible for one of my favourite films of all time, for one pretty middle-of-the-road movie AND simultaneously for the most god awful theatre experience I have ever had in my entire life. Gladly it was a shared experience as the crowd was laughing throughout, shaking their heads in disbelieve and even some people walking out entirely. Otherwise I would have thought either I, or everyone else, must have gone mad, but I think the world on the whole has given "Covenant" the hate it deserves. It basically ruined two franchises in one, as the Xenomorph was never more laughable (even in "Spaceballs" it seemed more like a threat) and the Prometheus storyline is now irreversibly fucked up (would have loved to see more explored after "Prometheus", but they ended everything before the next movie began). So, yeah, Game Over, I guess. #sad
I’m curious what you disliked so much about covenant. I thought it was one of the better films, #2 or #3 for me. I didn’t see it in theatre and waited till it was streaming to rent and ended up buying it once it was over for an extra 20 bucks. I’ve liked all the franchise films except for Resurrection and AvP like you.
The only problems I had with covenant were that Shaw is killed off screen, I wish they’d given some flashbacks to it at least. They did do an online only short with her so it seems like they mush have had a scheduling conflict or otherwise she would have been in it.
Also the life cycle of the protomorph seems way too short. The xenomorph in Alien was never really established but it seemed like some time passed in the original. In covenant there are two that impregnate, burst and fully grow all in the 3rd act which seems way too fast.
People love me alot :D I'm glad you liked the movies!
@@kkett100 It's easier to say what I did like: The casting (not the characters) in general, the flute scene and Fassbender acting against himself, the "Country Roads" signal (not what the characters make of it and it should have led to a Shaw being alive) and that's about it. It looked IN PARTS expensive, I'll give it that. Sometimes even horrible though as the completely CGI-Aliens behaved like computer game enemies that weren't triggered yet and just stand-by in an animation-circle. Also when they grow, they just weirdly scale them up in a bad CGI-manner. I can take or leave the new designs, they didn't wow me and and I didn't need another redesign of the Xenomorph. Do it, or do something else. And that air pumping, arm waving little alien, showing it in brought daylight just hanging around... all that destroyed its mystique even more than James Cameron did back then with "Aliens". Now there is nothing left, its just DNA-garbage thrown together by a robot from big white people and mostly stupid people. Far from a perfect organism.
Nothing in the film scared me, I was laughing out loud and crying with one eye when the same person slipped in the same puddle of blood three times to a goofy cartoon noise. Then 1 sec later it is sold as drama, when the character's husband is shown devastated. The characters in general where the absolute stupidest people I have ever seen on screen, they would be taken out by Dumb and Dumber. If people complained about "Prometheus", this gave them a run for their money. Stepping on a foreign planet because of a human pop-song and not questioning that at all. Instead they don't use helmets and the very first thing they do is snort an alien flower through their nose. INTENTIONALLY. Then they meet an evil looking robot, the only survivor and accept his invitation to hold one's own head over a slimey alien egg. Yeah, why not...
Outside of the context of the film, it was a cruel joke to show people Shaw AND James Franco in the promotional material, as they are not in the film. On a storyline context that's even more cruel as Shaw was our human connection and if there was a scheduling problem, they should have let Bloomkamp make his film 1 or 2 years earlier and wait for this one to be possible. I didn't need to see the world of the engineers intact, cause that would be to awkward, if we meet their Bürgermeister and they gave Shaw the key to the city or something like that, but give me ANYTHING instead. Something completely new and maybe different from the universe we haven't seen yet. I don't need the specific 100% answer where the Xenomorph comes from.
The third act then just becomes a blatant rip-off of everything we have seen before in Alien films, just shortened and cheapened, so why bother. They didn't even include the best shots of action from the trailers. And that shower scene... Jesus. We are deep in parody-level at that point. This movie was bad, horrible, cheap, laughable and unnecessary on so many levels. But not weird and inventive enough to give me at least a different, terrible experience from let's say an "AvP: Requiem" which at the time had a brand new setting we have never seen in the franchise. I actually enjoyed Shane Black's "The Predator" a whole lot more. It's far from a coherent movie, but it had characters, some cool scenes and AT LEAST it dared to have ideas. So for me it will now be a red flag, if I hear Ridley Scott is involved in any future entries. If he had shot "Blade Runner 2" I would probably have not seen it, as that would be too much to handle. At least he is not George-Lucasing the old films and we can still watch what once was, but I am not interested in what he has to say now.
ThisIsTheRoad thanks for your reply.
I’d like to respond to some of your criticisms to provide my point of view on the movie and see if you or others may reflect differently on your opinions after hearing someone’s positive impressions. I’m not saying that you are wrong or your opinions aren’t valid though.
I don’t think the characters are stupid in the film. It’s a sci-fi horror flick, but the characters are unaware of that. They don’t wear helmets as is common in many sci-fi media when going to an unexplored planet that they have determined via readings is habitable for humans. Star Wars, Lost in Space, Star Trek are a few examples. Star Trek even commonly showed away missions to multiple previously unexplored planets, even ones that did result in illness and/or death to their crew but I’ve not heard it criticized for it because it was not a horror show so the audience didn’t go in expecting the characters to die somehow.
Capt. Oram trusts David which leads to his death and the first face hugger scene. I can see how he seems dumb from the point of view of an audience that knows what the eggs represent but as a prequel with none of that knowledge for the character it’s not really a bad choice. There are no macro organisms in human experience that are hostile or capable of inflicting harm immediately at birth, in fact it is when pretty much all creatures are most vulnerable. He also has reason to trust David won’t harm him. The movie explains that the David model of droids was idiosyncratic and strange and that they disturbed people but never said they were dangerous or killed anyone. David seems strange and disturbing with his comments with his experiments but he did rescue the crew and he does assure Oram that it is safe. I think that his experience with Davids in the past could have led him to see this particular one as very strange but ultimately not life threatening.
1. Alien/Aliens (can't really say which one is better, both have been my favourites since my childhood).
2. Alien 3 (no matter what, it's still a great film and a heartbreaking finale of Ellen Ripley's saga).
3. None. I tend to disregard everything made after Alien 3.
As an honourable addition to that list, I would include Alien: Isolation by Creative Assembly and Aliens vs. Predator 2 by Monolith.
Alien Covenant wins best writing with examples such as “I’ll do the fingering” I mean that’s some academy award stuff right there.
Great with the first three, pretty much summed up what I think of them and their ranking with a few things I hadn’t thought of. Being a teenager when 3 was in the cinema, have always had a soft spot for it....
Alien³ is super underrated. There are times when it's my favourite to be honest. Have never bothered with Ridley's prequels so here goes
1. Alien - Perfect
2. Alien³ - Underrated
3. Aliens - Entertaining
4. Alien Resurrection - Silly
I remember noticing in the first Alien that to me it was freaky from the very first frame with that music and the panning across the planet with the letters filling in. The whole thing was a creepfest even from the opening filming.
I love Alien 3.. who's with me?
Yes, its a cold harsh emotional ending to the saga of Ripley. Much closer the first Alien movie.
I love it. The trilogy has great build up and part 3 is the perfect ending.
Newt, Hicks, Ripley cant escape and survive the space beast. True terror and she has to give it all to end its cycle.
The ending always gets to me.
Part4 can burn in hell. Biggest disappointment in theater on opening night ever. And I knew it would suck and did not even want it at all. Same for Prometheus and I refuse to watch Covenant.
The trilogy is the Saga. I love Alien Isolation game. Only way forward in my closed book of the Xynomorph.
💯%...
*raises fist* amen.
Alien day was an absolute blast! Watching the movies with everyone made quarantine that much easier!
Look at my controversial ranking:
1. Alien
2. Prometheus
3. Alien Covenant
4. Alien 3
5. Aliens
6. Alien Resurrection
7. Avp
8. Avp 2
....and yes I'm a huge fan of the franchise 🤓
Wow. Literally my exact ranking, bar maybe swapping Prom and Cov - both still severely underrated and misunderstood. Perfection mon ami
Switch alien and aliens I have the same opinion.
Dude
Omg stop Ripley!!!!!!!!!
My ranking pretty much exactly matches yours. Especially the placement of Alien 3 as I actually think, despite its faults, it's a good movie with a good story to tell - and of course beautifully shot.
Well personally AVP Requiem is so bad it doesn't deserve any ranking whatsoever! 😩
Let's consider it a filler.
Avpr is a bad movie but is brave an i like the concept of the monsters
It might not have been so bad if it was handled well and you could actually see what the hell was going on it was so dark
I recently discussed alien vs predator with a close friend of mine and it was my introduction to the alien and predator franchise. And I told her how much I used to watch that film as a kid and she told me it didn’t surprise her because she felt it was a kids movie. I absolutely agree since I don’t enjoy it as much as I used to. But it introduced me to so much so I still have some nostalgia towards it.
For me Aliens is far above all the other movies in the franchise. I really wish Cameron would have returned for another go, but not with Ridley Scott who I think is overrated as a director.
Ridley Scott is only as good as the script he's given
Totally
I'd say he's not so much overrated as past his best, for me i feel he lost the magic after Gladiator."
@@theheadshotstudio9254 Yup. Dan O'Bannon was the man of Alien. Scott has an eye though.
Completely agree with the order you listed. You got it spot on.
Ripley wasn't the main character of Alien. The xenomorph was.
I N D E E D
I think the strength of the first movie is the cast. The entire cast is good and everyone fills and important role. What important role did for example Morse fill in Alien 3? Saying fuck in a funny way and surviving for some reason? That is a very good example of good characters vs bad.
Nah. Ripley is the franchise......in my opinion.
@@daveruda Morse actually instructed Ripley how to kill the alien during the final. He also helped her avoid capture and by doing so kept the creature out of the Waylands hands. Come to think of it, Morse is the true mvp.
That's just wrong lol
Honestly I put the first 3 alien films all as number one because they're each equally different & equally unique in they're own ways but still stick to the same storyline & I honestly don't have a favorite because I love the entire trilogy & watching all 3 films in order & sometimes I just get in different moods to where I just want to watch one of the films more than the other two at times!!!! It's honestly my favorite movie trilogy of all time!!!!
Alien : Horror Sci-fi Thriller
Aliens : Action Sci-fi Thriller
Alien 3 : Drama Sci-fi Thriller
All 3 films complement eachother perfectly!!!!
2nd would be "Alien: Covenant" because it explains the most about the Xenomorphs beginning & it has the best ending of any alien film to me & it's extremely intense & I think it's very underrated despite everyone else hating it for no particular reason because it actually explains so much about the Xenomorphs creation & birth & life cycle in extreme detail especially if u watch & read all of the very complex & detailed lore that's in the Blu-ray/ 4k DVD 📀 extras!!!!!
3rd would be "AVP" because it's fun & it doesn't need to be perfect!!!!!
4th would be "Prometheus" because it shows the alien universe from it's complete origin & has good acting & it explained the "Space Jockey" origin finally!!!!
5th would be "Alien Resurrection" only because I love the iconic underwater scene & the cloned Ripley with red acid blood !!!!!
& 6th is "AVP Requiem" because Its the only one left on the list!!!!!!
All right sweethearts, we're gonna go and we're gonna conquer and we're gonna take some!!
1. Aliens. Classic
2. Prometheus. Fun on a bun
3. Alien.
4. Alien Covenant. Juicy Smooliett NOT strangled
5. AVP.
I feel you have nailed the line up. Requiem is the 1 I have watched the least. Maybe 3 times. Aliens was my first at about 8 years old. At least in 50 + amounts. Thanks for your videos. Always a good watch
Alien: Best of all alien movies, masterclass on sci-fi and horror genre.
Alien Isolation: Best sequel ever.
Aliens: Love and hate relationship, love the world building and hate the “bugification” of the alien creature.
Alien 3 (Assembly cut): Beautiful depressing movie, fitting and real ending of the alien franchise.
Alien Resurrection: Guilty pleasure, shit movie with a beautiful score (the ps1 game is a hidden gem).
Prometheus: Massive disappointment and wasted opportunity for Ridley and the Alien franchise. Beautiful train wreck.
Alien Covenant: Confirmation that Ridley is senile and the franchise is DEAD.
Alien vs Predator: No.
Alien vs Predator - Requiem: Just no.
Puff alien predator is much better that garbage the alien 3 and 4
@@carlosandresgomezreyes9846 First, learn to properly write down your ideas in a coherent manner, then acquire some taste, payaso.
@@bernardstrauss1183 it was the idiot autocorrect and why don't you show your face or you,re just another fake account
@@carlosandresgomezreyes9846 LOL This isnt facebook son, also learn the difference between a "fake account" and a "bot account". AvP are trash movies and they are the reason that we dont have a proper Alien 5 by Ridley and Cameron, get educated.
My own ranking changes all the time. You have some as your favorites, then you decide to watch one of the movies you haven't seen in a while, it feels fresh again, and that goes up the ranking. And then another takes your interest, and so it continues. In the end, I just love them all (not counting AvP, that is) and it all comes together to form my favorite fictional universe.
11:11 Biehn was just mad because he needed a pay check to support his alcoholism.
I think he was mad because fox callously killed his character off screen as well as newts. It made their survival in aliens meaningless...I do like alien 3 though
Last week I had a movie marathon. I did it in a timeline way instead of release. I watched all the films I could online with the aliens present in the films. Aliens vs. Predator, Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem, Prometheus, Covenant, Alien, Aliens and Aliens: Resurrection. I enjoyed all of them but I can say that all felt like space action movies except for the original Alien. It truly was, even after all this time and after several times seeing it over the years a scarry horror, scifi movie that still makes me curl up in a corner covered by my blanket and in suspense while watching it. Aliens is equally still engaging and terrifying while the rest of the films end up being something I have playing in the background while working on my bicycle and watching the suspense moments only. It says something to how the original two have stood the test of time and will live on for a very long time to come. It will be hard to match those two ever again.
With all that said. My ranking falls pretty much identical to yours. I am old enough that I have seen all these in the theater. Seeing the original Alien on the theater while being very young gave me nightmares for a while and started my love for the franchise.