Ranking the Alien Movies, Including Romulus, from Worst to Best: Updated List
This month, the latest entry in the long-running Alien sci-fi franchise hits theaters. Alien: Romulus, starring Cailee Spaney (Civil War) and Isabela Merced (Madame Web) from noted horror director Fede Álvarez, debuts August 14, and from the trailers and early reactions, it looks like a fantastic entry in the decades-old series.
We all know which Alien films are the absolute best (and you’ll see two Kotaku writers duke it out over whether or not Alien or Aliens reigns supreme), but not every xenomorph flick has been good—nay, some of them have been very, very bad. Whether it was the questionable crossovers that were the Alien Vs. Predator flicks, or the bizarre way in which Alien: Covenant tried to be both an Alien movie and a Prometheus sequel, there are some misses in the iconic franchise.
So, ahead of the theatrical release of Alien: Romulus, we’ve ranked the Alien films from worst to best. Click through to see where they all stack up.
Alien vs. Predator: Requiem
The first AvP wasn’t a cinematic masterpiece, but it was a fun and action-packed movie that gave fans what they wanted: A live-action fight between Xenos and Yautja. At the end of that movie, we were given a tease for a possible sequel featuring a Predator/Alien hybrid. Sadly, that neat stinger is better than all of Requiem.
Requiem is a poorly lit disaster of a movie that is a slog to watch, assuming you can even see what’s happening. The movie is too dark, which is a problem when the aliens in the film are dark in color and vanish into the background during many scenes. And AvP: Requiem features some human characters who are about as memorable as gray paint. I’ll admit that AvP: Requiem does include some decent action scenes featuring the new “Predalien” hybrid, but don’t watch this movie. Instead, save yourself the trouble and just look up the six or so cool moments on YouTube and forget this trainwreck of a film ever happened. I mean, the creative team behind the ongoing Alien and Predator film franchises have done that. So you should too! — Zack Zwiezen
Alien vs. Predator
AvP isn’t a cinematic masterpiece. It’s fan service pretending to be a movie and designed solely to give fans what they had wanted for years: A live-action fight between Xenos and Yautja, something we had only previously seen in comic books and video games. And the movie does that. The fights between the Aliens and Predators are great and feel ripped out of some silly comic book from the ‘90s. However, AvP is quietly a really solid, well-paced, and fun sci-fi action film, too. That’s the secret to why so many people give this film a pass. Though its sequel, as mentioned, was a hard-to-watch, overly gory, and canon-destroying mess of a movie that nobody should suffer through.
But AvP is a mostly self-contained adventure that ends up doing something impressive, considering this is more fan service than a movie. By the end of AvP, I was actually invested in a friendship between a large lizard alien with dreads who doesn’t talk and a human woman using parts of a Xenomorph as weapons. Huh? Weird! Yeah, it’s not nearly as good as even the “bad” Alien sequels, but it’s a tad bit better than you might expect. Which is a big improvement over Requiem. — Zack Zwiezen
Alien 3
Hoo boy, this is a pretty bad movie, though it is the source of the iconic Alien meme. Alien 3 was directed by David Fincher, which is such a bummer since he makes some great movies (Se7en, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Zodiac, Gone Girl—it’s an impressive filmography), but even he can’t save it. And even he hates it. The threequel already had the cards stacked against it, having to come after the fantastic Aliens, which offered a completely unexpected sequel to the original film—and then it was bad to boot.
Alien 3 starts off in an absolutely baffling manner, with Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) crash-landing on a prison planet and both her lover (Hicks) and her sort-of adopted daughter (Newt) dying off-camera. And it doesn’t get better from there—it’s bleak, cruel, and badly written, and clearly suffered from being needlessly rewritten to death. It at least looks pretty good, but deciding to end it with Ripley sacrificing herself after fighting for so long is just depressing.— Alyssa Mercante
Alien: Covenant
Alien: Covenant looks pretty good on paper: a sequel to the also pretty good Prometheus, starring Michael Fassbender, Katherine Waterston, and Billy Crudup, with tons of throwback references to Alien lore that even includes an appearance by Peter Weyland of Weyland-Yutani fame (played by Guy Pearce). Ridley Scott even directed it (he’s only otherwise done the original Alien and Prometheus), so people were hopeful the 2017 film would be rock solid. And there are some shining moments in this film, particularly in Scott’s clear determination to ask and examine existential questions that the original movie only briefly touched on.
Unfortunately, Alien: Covenant tries too hard to be both an Alien movie and a Prometheus sequel, which results in it kind of feeling like neither. Though many people can (and do) argue that Prometheus sticks out like a sore thumb in the Alien pantheon, I think it’s more egregious to try and make a film that fits in both buckets. Covenant is by no means a bad movie, but it just falls a little flat, especially if you watch it back-to-back with Prometheus. — Alyssa Mercante
Alien: Resurrection
The fourth main entry in the series, Alien: Resurrection could have played it safe and hoped that it could bring in the money and fans via the iconic name, some xenomorphs, and Sigourney Weaver as Ripley. Instead, Resurrection is very weird and at times uncomfortable, but it’s never a bland sci-fi romp, and it has some genuinely clever moments and ideas.
If you ask me to mention anything from Alien 3 it’s just that meme everyone knows and the terrible decision to kill Newt from Aliens. But Alien: Resurrection, on the other hand, is a movie that burned many scenes and images into my head. Stand-out moments include the bit where the Xenos attack one of their own to use its acid blood to escape containment, the creepy and sad moment when Ripley (a clone in this movie) has to kill a barely living and different Ripley clone, and when someone kills another person using the chest-burster exploding from their own body like an organic alien spear. Good stuff! And let’s also not forget one of the coolest moments ever captured on film: That time Weaver nailed a behind-the-back basketball shot and made Ron Perlman break character.
Sure, yeah, the ending is wild and depressing. And yeah, at this point the film is arguably not a part of the current Alien canon—though what is and isn’t canon in this franchise is a wild mess that’s not worth thinking about. But whatever, I really dig Resurrection for taking some risks, doing some weird shit, and trying to create something new and not just rehashing the past few films but with some new actors. And while I’m excited to see Romulus, the latest film in the series, I’ll admit that I’m a bit sad to see that the film is so dedicated to perfectly recapturing the look of the old movies while treating the franchise like it’s a precious artifact that can never be broken.
Resurrection shows that it’s often more memorable and interesting to do something weird and take a big swing than just do Alien again and again until the heat death of the universe. — Zack Zwiezen
Alien: Romulus
Alien: Romulus is viciously vibey and absolutely beautiful, with an impressive cast of young actors that help propel its rather familiar story forward. Set after the original film but before Aliens, Romulus tells the story of a derelict outpost drifting towards a Weyland-Yutani mining colony, and the ragtag group of teenagers determined to escape their life of indentured servitude by any means necessary. Directed by Fede Álvarez, Romulus looks incredible—it leans on more tactile, practical set design like the original film, so much so that it feels, at times, like it was made in the ‘70s. And when Álvarez does deploy digital effects, he does so with a deft hand. The perfect blending of the two makes for a visual feast.
Unfortunately, too much of Romulus relies on references, including the addition of a cringey, de-aged version of an iconic character who sours the entire experience. When it’s not tripping over Easter eggs, Romulus is an absolute blast—a film that could very well usher in a new generation of Alien fans. But if you already know the franchise, and have had your fill of nostalgia plays, this may be a bit too much for you. — Alyssa Mercante
Prometheus
Though its detractors will point to how Prometheus deviates from the tried-and-true Alien formula, I’d argue that’s what makes the 2012 film so special. Directed by Scott (the first Alien film he helmed since the original), Prometheus seeks to explore the origins of the xenomorphs and humanity—it is more epic tale than horror film, more fable than action movie. It’s an inspired deviation from expectations, and one that I think pays off in spades.
Understandably, this can feel a bit strange in the context of the other Alien movies, but Prometheus is so beautifully shot, so well-written, and so expertly acted that it doesn’t matter. I remember leaving the theater after and furiously scribbling theories on a notepad—and only a good movie can move you to do something like that. Plus, any movie that gets Noomi Rapace on the big screen is a banger in my book. — Alyssa Mercante
Aliens
I nearly put Aliens at the top of this list, which would have sparked some serious conversation. It nearly took the number one spot because, while Alien is a horror masterpiece and perhaps one of the most important movies of all time (its invaluable impact argued expertly by Kotaku managing editor Carolyn Petit on the next page), there’s something incredibly special about a sequel that follows that up by completely flipping the script. Aliens could have been another slow-burn sci-fi horror flick, but instead it offers us a shot of adrenaline straight to the chest.
The 1986 film, directed by James Cameron and starring Sigourney Weaver, Michael Biehn, Lance Henriksen, and Bill Paxton, is high-octane action from the jump, as a group of highly trained soldiers take on the terrifying xenomorphs with Ripley in tow. Brilliant performances from Biehn and Paxton help justify such a large ensemble cast, and the super-powered action propels you through a runtime that is slightly longer than the original with such force you almost feel like you’re out of breath by the end of it.
It is the quintessential ‘80s action movie, but it is so much more than that—some think of it as a stereotypical shooty film, but if you go back and rewatch it today, you’ll be reminded that no one actually fires a weapon until almost an hour in, and the first chunk of the film focuses on Ripley’s attempts to reckon with the fact that she is the sole survivor of the Nostromo, and over 50 years have passed since the traumatizing event. It also calls into question the morality of the military industrial complex and war in general—think about how quickly the hoo-rah soldiers go from confident to terrified. It’s brilliant, and Aliens holds up incredibly well during a modern re-watch. — Alyssa Mercante
Alien
The first film in the increasingly expansive Alien saga remains, in my view at least, the very best. Though Ridley Scott’s more recent entries continue to expand the lore of the franchise with varying degrees of success, what remains most compelling to me is what he did so well right at the very beginning. As we meet Ripley, Dallas, Brett, Parker and the rest of the Nostromo crew, what’s immediately foregrounded is the mundane reality of their lives as workers in service of a company that’s already exploiting them for little pay and will gladly screw them over in a heartbeat if it sees profit in it. The alien that stalks the crew and picks them off one by one is chilling, but what really makes it resonate is that larger theme of capitalist fuckery, so economically and efficiently communicated by the wonderful line, “Priority one — Ensure return of organism for analysis. All other considerations secondary. Crew expendable.”
But themes, no matter how well executed, aren’t enough to give a film soul. No, what makes Alien so exceptional is the way its characters are embodied so naturally by its outstanding cast—Sigourney Weaver of course, in a star-making performance, but also folks like Tom Skerritt, Harry Dean Stanton, and the wonderful Yaphet Kotto—who, as we get to know them in the film’s opening scenes, so well-directed by Scott, interrupt and talk over each other in such a natural, believable way, the sort of thing you rarely see in American cinema after the 1970s. Also, like Spielberg’s Jaws four years before, Alien’s strength so often lies in what remains unseen, left to our imaginations. The Nostromo, more than many movie settings, feels believably lived and worked in, and naturally conducive to giving the xenomorph stalking the hapless crew plenty of places to hide. Later films in the franchise have been more intense, more elaborate, and more expensive, but the tightly focused humanity and horror of the series’ progenitor remains, arguably, the best the series has ever been.— Carolyn Petit
