Two years after the groundbreaking release of Star Wars, we witnessed the dawn of a decidedly less family-friendly science fiction franchise. The iconic characters of Alien have found their place in the pantheon of Hollywood greats; it’s thanks to a spectacular practical effects team and the knockout performances of Sigourney Weaver across four films. These films aren’t for the faint of heart, but those who can handle a bit of blood, screaming, and nightmarish monsters are in for a real treat.
Alien (****1/2)
In which it’s made excruciatingly clear why we shouldn’t put cats in space
Iconic in almost every way, Alien is wonderfully written, expertly acted, brilliantly designed, and a pulse-pounding tale of suspense from start to finish.
I can’t believe I’ve waited this long to watch this film. It’s kind of insane to think that there was once not one but two Alien-starring attractions at Walt Disney World (The Great Movie Ride and The Alien Encounter) – which, may I remind you, is the place where they have “It’s A Small World”. This is so not a Disney movie, but its cultural impact was so big that they couldn’t resist putting it in their theme park. And now that Disney owns 20th Century Fox, the entire Alien franchise is now available on Disney+, which is what gave me the opportunity to go through it. And man, am I glad I did. Alien has so much great stuff inside it just waiting to pop out. The practical effects, first of all, are an absolute delight. We’re in the MCU era of blockbuster filmmaking, where much of what we see isn’t there at all and many actors spend a lot of time in a green or blue screened set. There are certainly advantages to that kind of storytelling, but I gotta say there are times where you just can’t beat a physical prop or puppet. This film is a perfect example, from the stunning sets of the Nostromo ship to the magnificently terrifying effects used to bring the Alien species to life. The xenomorph eggs, the face-hugger thing, the chest-bursting baby alien, and the full-grown adult are all so visceral and tangible in a way that heightens the terror in a way that CGI just can’t yet accomplish. If the face hugger was CGI, for example, you’d know right away that it was CGI, and then you’d remind yourself that the actor is really just lying there just fine. Because it was a practical effect, all I could do was wonder to myself, “What the heck is that thing?” The android bits as well were really well crafted, and again the practical nature of the execution made the violence particularly unsettling in the best way. I am a total sucker for stuff like this.
Then there’s the script to consider, and it’s so brilliantly written that it’s hard to believe at times that you’re not watching a documentary. The way the crew bickers and mumbles about their pay is so believable and natural – and this continues all the way through the film. Although the film follows a classic monster movie pattern, the characters are all so real that you find yourself forgetting the familiarity of it all. Ripley – of course – is the star, giving a career-defining performance as the one person on the ship who actually understands the gravity of what’s going on. She’s the woman that many movies of today seem to have forgotten about. I’ve seen a number of more recent films where the filmmakers have gone to great lengths to show us a female character who’s capable of doing great things without a man around. The trouble is that they’re doing so in a way that’s so obvious, you get that same feeling as when a teacher or parent uses young people slang. It doesn’t feel natural. Here, Ripley is an absolute boss in every second of screen time, and no one ever leans into the camera to remind you. She just owns it. She’s the kind of character who makes you cheer out loud. Man, she was great.
I knew that this film was a classic, but I was surprised at how much I loved it considering it’s (in many ways) not the usual kind of film I watch. I was on the edge of my seat the whole way through, and walked away brimming with excitement to keep moving through the franchise. If you’re not into horror movies, this probably isn’t for you, but if you’re okay with a bit of swearing (okay, maybe a lot) and some truly terrifying moments, you’re in for a crazy good time.
Aliens (*****)
In which Sigourney Weaver becomes the coolest person in the galaxy
Using the highs of its predecessor as a launch point, Aliens is a spectacle of cinema that totally blew me away.
I was surprised to learn that this masterpiece of a sequel wasn’t directed by the same guy as the last film. The original was directed by Ridley Scott, but for some reason or other they ended up going with James Cameron for the second time around. When you say the name ‘James Cameron’ today, I would assume most people think about the fact that he’s the biggest director ever – sort of. He directed Titanic and Avatar, two of the biggest films (in terms of box office numbers) of all time. But when he was climbing aboard this franchise, he had only directed two other films – one of which was Terminator. I’m not exactly sure why 20th Century Fox didn’t trust Scott with the follow-up, although he said in a 2019 interview that he wouldn’t have said yes even if they had asked. Whatever the reason, James Cameron took the helm, and boy, did he knock it out of the park.
Part of what made Alien so great was its slow burn. We gradually learned more and more about the xenomorph as the film went on, but those moments were split up by scenes of quiet rooms and dark hallways. It’s a surprisingly quiet film that builds to a crescendo of madness. Aliens, alternatively, never takes its foot off the gas pedal. Even before we ever see an alien, we see how traumatized Ripley is by the experience she’s had. And once the aliens come out, they come out with fire. There’s guns blazing, people screaming, monsters leaping out of smoke and fog, and it’s a total blast. I can’t imagine the film succeeding any other way – if it had focused on a group as ill-equipped as the previous group, it would have felt too familiar. Watching a military squad take on the monster we know and love was fresh and exciting because it was such a different battle than the one from before.
Sigourney Weaver knocked it out of the park again, and I loved Ripley’s relationship with Newt. It’s a tried-and-true narrative trope to throw a helpless kid into a horrid mess like this with no one but our protagonist to save them, but the bond that the two made over the course of the film felt so authentic. In a way, they had something in common from the very beginning – they were the only ones around who had any idea just how messed up these aliens were. This shared trauma, then, was kind of a glue that pressed them together. And I’m thankful that Ripley’s final act was centered around saving a little girl as opposed to a cat.
Just like in the last movie, the practical effects were jaw-dropping here. The alien mother in particular was so gruesome and yet so real (that egg-laying moment gave me the shivers), it’s no wonder the xenomorph is such an unforgettable movie monster. And man, that final fight with the mech suit?! That’s the stuff of legend! What made that scene so great – apart from the emotional weight, the killer one-liner, and the sheer butt-kicking action, anyway – was the cinematography that made that action look as seamless and real as possible. Looking back, I imagine that a crew member watching a slow-moving mech suit do battle with an elaborate animatronic (or puppet or costume or whatever the mother alien was) might not have looked as believable as it did to us. There’s a lot of close-ups that excellently highlight the intensity of that scene while likely hiding the imperfections of the technology of the time. It was – in a word – awesome. What a finish!
Aliens was heart-stopping fun, and even more spectacular than the heights set by the last film. I would not hesitate to watch this film again and again. Go, Ripley, go!
Alien 3 (***)
In which the writers decide to kill both kids AND dogs and expect us to be okay with that
It’s a far cry from the first two films in the franchise, but it’s an earnest (albeit false) conclusion to the Ripley trilogy.
Part of the reason that these films are so palatable for me despite the gore and horror within is the fact that the monster is 100% a work of imagination. There are no multi-mouthed face-sucking aliens waiting to impregnate you – and with that truth comes a certain safety from which to enjoy these films. When I watched Tom Cruise in his rendition of War of the Worlds, I wasn’t scared at all of the monstrous aliens and their plan for world domination. What did scare me in that film was the scene where Tom was trying to get his kids through a dense crowd of desperate people. That was tense, and it’s because of one central truth. Aliens aren’t really scary. People are. The evil that humans are capable of is far worse than any evil a fictional monster could ever display, precisely because the evil that you and I are capable of is an ever-present danger.
That’s what made this film feel less fun to me. Ripley’s stuck once again, this time on a prison in the middle of nowhere. From the very beginning there’s a bleakness that’s brought on by the immediate death of the characters we grew attached to in the last film. I get it – it’s been six years since the last film, and Newt’s not gonna look the same anymore. But why not jump forward six years? Or why not fast forward past Ripley’s rescue so that Newt can get off the ship in some way before propelling Ripley back into the action? You didn’t have to kill Newt like this in order to raise the stakes. If anything, this felt like a slap in the face of its predecessor. The whole point of Aliens was Ripley and her quest to save Newt. Now it’s as though the central conceit of the previous film is empty. That’s not the sort of thing you want the third film in a franchise to do.
But more than the fact that Ripley’s on her own again, she’s now stuck in a place where there are more than aliens to contend with. She’s now up against a host of vicious criminals who haven’t had a woman nearby in years. There’s an obvious and sinister tension that builds up as a result of this, and it crescendos into an attempted rape scene. There’s a lot wrong with this moment, so let me unpack it a bit for you. First of all, we’ve just sat through two movies proving to us that Ripley just might be the ultimate female action hero. To put her into a position where she’s the only girl around isn’t necessarily a bad call, but to take the next step and force her into a position where she’s subservient and reduced to an object of sexual desire robs her of the strength and authority she’s worked so hard to build up. Ripley turns into a damsel in distress when she should’ve been written in a way that allowed her to kick some convict butt. I mean, seriously – if she can take down aliens, these guys should be a breeze for her.
More than that, though, I want to get back to the problem I had when watching War of the Worlds. I came to the Alien franchise to have a good time. Watching people get eaten by aliens is fun – at least for me. Watching a rape attempt is decidedly un-fun. It’s the abject opposite of fun. Is there a place for rape in cinema? If there is, it’s not in escapist horror like this. This is supposed to be a roller coaster, not a car crash. There’s a lot of similar sensations in both, but it’s the inherent safety in the former that makes it fun. Maybe I’m wrong – if you’d like to defend the scene, let me know.
Beyond that, I was disappointed in the turn the special effects took. There was an over-reliance on CGI instead of the practical effects that made the first two films so great. But the thing that makes me give the film an ultimately more positive than negative review is the ending. These guys set out to finish the story, and they did so in a way that felt authentic to the franchise and to Ripley’s character. The film isn’t perfect, but it makes bold decisions and it does what many franchises are afraid to do – close the book.
Now, of course, this wasn’t the last film in the franchise. And you can make of that what you will – but it really seems to me like the people making this film weren’t planning for aliens to come back – or at the very least, certainly not Ripley. And I’ve got to give them points for that.
All the same, stopping at Aliens wouldn’t have been the worst call in the world either.
Alien Resurrection (**)
In which it’s a metaphor for Hollywood’s desperation to clone past successes with disastrous results
Sigourney Weaver is really the only thing keeping this franchise afloat at this point – but she makes it look easy.
First and foremost, this film shouldn’t exist, and we need to acknowledge that. The last film killed Ripley – and not only did it kill her, it killed her in a way that was emotionally resonant and that neatly tied up her story. Let’s face facts and admit that this movie was a cash grab.
That said, just because it’s a cash grab doesn’t necessarily make it a bad movie. Sigourney Weaver is at the top of her game like always, and the way they’ve brought her back makes her feel incredibly fresh and new. You see, Ripley did die in the last movie, but they somehow grabbed some of her DNA and decided to pull a ‘Jurassic Park’ and bring her back. But because she had an alien inside of her when the DNA was harvested, this new Ripley is a sort of hybrid with superhuman abilities. Her relationship with the aliens becomes somehow even more layered than before, and anytime she was onscreen, I was hooked.
Unfortunately, this movie doesn’t have enough of Ripley to make it a must-watch. There’s really not one other character in the whole film who commands the spotlight or makes a lasting impression. If it weren’t for Weaver, I’d have next to nothing good to say about it. You’ve got a ragtag team of underdogs just like we’ve seen in pretty much every other film in the franchise, and there’s a sort of mad scientist who gets his comeuppance before the end. That part of the film is a bit too formulaic to earn any points.
The other thing I didn’t love about this film was the way they cranked the grotesque-o-meter up way higher than it had been in the past. To be clear, there’s been plenty of gross-out and horrific moments in the franchise so far. But it’s like they wanted to make us physically sick for this one. An alien gets sucked out into space at the climax of this film (which is practically a cliché at this point in the franchise), but it’s executed with so much gore it actually pulled me out of the moment entirely. I don’t know much about how space works, but I don’t think it works like that.
Jumping to another horrific moment in the film, there’s the scene where Ripley finds the clones-gone-wrong that paved the way for her. There are some truly unsettling sights in this scene – but as macabre as they are, I can understand and even appreciate their role in the movie. It’s a moment where Ripley realizes the ugliness of her own existence, and Weaver acts the heck out of the scene. She turns a freak show into a moment of terror, pity, and grief. Well done.
I was happy to see more practical effects in this film than in the last one, even if the creations they came up with were the stuff of nightmares. But by far, the single greatest practical stunt of the entire film was when Ripley threw a basketball over her head and landed it in the basket without looking. They got that shot in one take. Sigourney Weaver is a total boss and she deserves better than this movie.
Prometheus (***)
In which a meeting between creator and offspring does not go well at all
It’s a little bit on the weird side – and in many ways it’s hardly an Alien film at all – but Prometheus’ ambition and stellar casting make it worth the watch.
By the time the credits rolled on this film, I had a lot of questions that had been left unanswered. What was that alien at the very beginning of the film? Was that supposed to be Earth? There’s a lot of opinions on the internet, but the movie never explicitly spells out the significance of this opening clip. Secondly, how do these aliens grow as quickly as they do? This isn’t a Promethean problem specifically – the aliens in this franchise always seem to mature without eating so much as a sandwich. One does not simply ‘get bigger’ unless you’re consuming stuff in order to increase your mass. How did that alien in the operating room grow to like twenty times its original size? It’s not as if there were closets full of food in there. Lastly, why did the Engineer get so angry at the end? I think I missed the part where it was explained. I get that the Engineers made us. And it seems like we were meant to find them one day. But even if we weren’t meant to find them, why would finding them make the Engineer decide “Alright, guess I gotta wipe out this civilization”? His motivations are just so unclear.
There’s obviously room for ambiguity in a film’s ending. But I think this movie just went a bit too far in that direction for my liking. But aside from that, there’s a lot to like about the film. There’s a lot of good old-fashioned alien screaming going on, as characters suffer horrific deaths because they’ve delved too deep into the universe. There’s a surgical scene in particular that is brilliantly crafted from beginning to end. It’s a nail-biting moment where you’re on the edge of your seat the whole time. I also really liked Michael Fassbender as David, an android whose motivations became more and more clear over the course of the film. He was a really intriguing character. Even if he hadn’t been in the film, though, there’s more than enough talent to keep the story afloat. Idris Elba and Charlize Theron are part of the crew of the titular ship, and they both add a lot to the film both in terms of their character’s roles but also in their personalities.
This film is shooting for the moon by tackling really big questions that it refuses to answer. I give it points for trying, but the ambiguity was just too much for me. This definitely isn’t essential viewing for the franchise. However, the next film was a lot more fun, and it’s a direct sequel to this film – so maybe it’s not so skippable after all.
Alien: Covenant (***1/2)
In which Michael Fassbender teaches Michael Fassbender to play the flute
A thrilling horror film that expands on its immediate predecessor while deepening the world of the franchise as a whole, Covenant is a worthy addition to the Alien mythos.
One of the first things to appreciate about this film is how the movie more or less picks up where Prometheus left off. We get to find out about the fate of David and Shaw, and more gaps that the previous film made are filled in. It seems clear now how the Aliens came about in the first place, and it’s an answer that more or less fits thematically with the rest of the franchise. As usual, humanity’s meddling in matters far beyond its capacity to control leads to dramatic consequences. Michael Fassbender makes a welcome return both as David and as a newer model of the original android named Walter. There are scenes where Michael acts against himself that are really impressive both from a technical standpoint but also in terms of his dual performance. Putting someone on a screen twice is a trick that never seems to get old, but this film really pushed the boundaries of the gimmick to really make me wonder how they pulled it off. At one point, one version of Fassbender is teaching the other version of Fassbender to play the flute, and they both hold the flute at the same time – their hands are even touching. That was really cool.
David continues to be the standout character in this film just as he was in the previous film. His motivations are more clear now than they were before, and he seems to have taken on the role of mad scientist – but there’s a twist, because he’s not human to begin with. The way the crew gradually discovers his malevolent intent is really exhilarating to watch, as is the way his role as an unreliable narrator is made more and more clear. If and when the next Alien film comes out, I’d love to see some sort of definitive conclusion to David’s story.
Lots of people die in horrifically gross ways, so if you’re not up for that, this isn’t the film for you. But if you’re a fan of the franchise or the horror genre, this is a fun addition to the collection. It’s exciting, innovative, and it gives you exactly what you came for. Here’s hoping we get more in the future!
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