Final Ruling: Best Post-"Aliens" Franchise Sequel

[Mage]

AvP should have been rated R...but that said, it still wouldn't have made that movie good. Paul W.S. Anderson only had one or two good movies in him, and AvP ain't one of 'em.

You mean it should have been rated R as it is?

And sure, I'll give you that one. Anderson is usually the go-to guy for videogame adaptations by now. I'm basically saying that AvP has a lot more potential than Requim did. Which, as you pointed out, had an R rating and still sucked the biggest donkeyballs I've ever seen.

 

[Tosk]

I wasn't refuting your post at all, just piling on.

I'm basically saying that AvP has a lot more potential than Requim did.

That's absolutely true.

You mean it should have been rated R as it is?

I just mean they never should have given it the go-ahead to be filmed as a PG-13. I know why they did it of course, (ain't it always the $) but creatively that decision was a dud.

 

[Gaith]

Rated R, PG-13, who cares?

Have you even seen Alien?

 

[Captain pl1ngpl0ng]

the one with Winona Ryder, of course...

 

[Admiral Jean-Luc Picard]

My point is, I don't care what rating a movie gets.

 

[Gaith]

My point is, I don't care what rating a movie gets.

Hint: it's not the rating that's important. It's the gruesome delights the rating reflects.

 

[Turd Ferguson]

I will say..... All of this talk is making me want to do a back to back viewing of Prometheus and Covenant.

I need to do that. I like Prometheus more than most people. It's beautifully shot and I absolutely love the air of mystery about it. I hate Covenant since they dropped the Engineers and went straight back to Xenomorphs. I thought the Engineers were the most interesting part of Prometheus. I can even overlook how dopey the cartographer and the other guy were with the obviously deadly space-cobra. The surgery scene was creepy as fuck and I love that CinemaSins always refers to things as "The Prometheus School for Running Away From Things" in their videos.

I also have a soft spot for Alien Resurrection. It's the first Alien movie I got to see in theaters. It's acted goofy and I love it. The Newborn is goddamn creepy as fuck.

I'm also one of the only people who like Requiem better than AvP. I thought the action was boring in the first movie. I'm a huge Predator fan, so I loved seeing the Wolf kicking some ass on Earth. I also love you can see him getting gradually getting more and more pissed off as the situation deteriorates over the course of the movie. Plus, the PredAlien scene in the hospital impregnating the maternity ward and multiple Xenomorphs popping out of wombs gave me nightmares for days the first time I saw it.

 

[Mage]

I need to do that. I like Prometheus more than most people. It's beautifully shot and I absolutely love the air of mystery about it. I hate Covenant since they dropped the Engineers and went straight back to Xenomorphs. I thought the Engineers were the most interesting part of Prometheus. I can even overlook how dopey the cartographer and the other guy were with the obviously deadly space-cobra. The surgery scene was creepy as fuck and I love that CinemaSins always refers to things as "The Prometheus School for Running Away From Things" in their videos..

There's a lot of talk about how Scott had the idea for a trilogy, and I still hope he'll get to do a third one. But I kinda get the feeling that a of the concepts he had for movies 2 and 3 were put into one movie; Covenant. And that made it messy and weird. With dropping the Engineers just like, straight to the xenomorphs and all. It feel there should have been a movie inbetween.

 

[Allyn Gibson]

Was the first AvP that bad?

I have a lot of affection for it because it was one of my best theater experiences ever.

I saw it opening weekend, and the theater in Raleigh was packed. There was a guy, down towards the front, who was super into the film and everybody knew it. His loud reactions were awesome because he was connection with the film and really enjoying it. That told me everything I needed to know about AVP -- it's a popcorn romp, nothing more, nothing less.

Prometheus ends up taking the best ideas in AVP and refashions them into something deeper. The two films share the same basic set-up; in one, the trail of breadcrumbs leads to Antarctica, the other, into space.

 

[PhotoBoy]

Aside from the first two Aliens films which pretty much everyone can agree are great I have weird ideas about which of the remaining films are good.

I probably like Resurrection best out of what’s in the list, while it does have a lot of flaws I feel it at least tried some new ideas to get the franchise back on its feet and set up for further adventures. Plus the room of deformed Ripley clones was really terrifying. It’s just a pity the alien costumes looked so badly made in that one.

After that, I dunno, I guess Prometheus. I wasn’t a huge fan of it at the time, but then I saw Covenant and it suddenly looked fantastic by comparison. It’s definitely the best looking film in the franchise I think.

Next would be AvP Requiem if it was in the list. I’ve never really got why people dislike it, I thought it was quite fun to finally see the aliens loose on Earth in something resembling an ‘80s slasher flick.

The next one is probably Alien 3, preferably the assembly cut. I certainly think in terms of set design, cinematography and atmosphere this is one of the best in the franchise. It’s just a shame it kills off all the survivors from Aliens and doesn’t really excite or thrill me like the first two films.

After that is AvP, I thought it was pretty naff and Paul WS Anderson seemed to recycle so many ideas from his (also disappointing) Resident Evil film, right down to making Colin Salmon the leader of a team of mercenaries/cannon fodder with a 3D map on his wrist computer that covers the transition to the next scene/location.

Last has to be Covenant. You’d think they’d have learned the hard way from Alien 3 about killing off characters between films. Plus I was expecting the Engineer home world in this film; instead of getting a biomechanical nightmare planet, we got some sort of Ancient Rome knock-off. Plus the “twist” at the end was really badly done because David should have had an obvious hole in his chin from when Daniels stabbed her small pendant in there but the wound was entirely absent.

Still, I live in hope that one day someone will come along and make another great alien film. I had high hopes for Bomkamp’s Alien 5 but that’s likely never going to happen now.

 

[DarKush]

A few years ago it would've easily been Alien Resurrection for me. I've been re-watching several of the Alien films recently and I got to put the Alien 3 special edition, or whatever, above Resurrection. I wasn't a fan of the Alien 3 theatrical cut, but I liked the special edition. And Resurrection hasn't aged as well for me, though I still enjoyed the film and a lot of the characters.

Third would be Alien Covenant. It's not a great film, but it felt more like an Alien film than Prometheus. I did like the ambition of Prometheus, but the story and characters (not the actors) were very lackluster.

I also have changed my mind somewhat on AVP. I thought the Unrated Version wasn't that bad. I wasn't a fan of the theatrical cut. I liked AVP:R right off, even though it was not well lit.

So I rank them:

(Original question):
Alien 3: Special Edition
Alien Resurrection
Alien Covenant
Prometheus

(With the AVP films):
Alien 3: Special Edition
Alien Resurrection
AVP:R
AVP: Unrated
Alien Covenant
Prometheus

 

[Nightowl1701]

I feel like we should throw 'Alien Isolation' into this list. Both it and 'Ghostbusters (III) - The Video Game' have really blurred the lines between movies and video games as far as franchise sequels.

 

[Vger23]

I feel like we should throw 'Alien Isolation' into this list. Both it and 'Ghostbusters (III) - The Video Game' have really blurred the lines between movies and video games as far as franchise sequels.

Alien Isolation was an amazing experience. If that were an option, I might pick that over all the other films.

 

[Mage]

So here's a disturbing thought.....

I just watched Prometheus again for the first time in quite a while. And at the end, Shaw is quite set on finding the Engineers. Connecting with 'God'. Could it be, either by manipulation from David or her own free will, everything that happened to her according to Covenant was because she wanted to get closer to her creators?

 

[CorporalClegg]

Is it wrong that I like both Alien 3 and Ressurection more than Aliens, which I feel is one of the most overrated movies of all time?

 

[Nightowl1701]

So here's a disturbing thought.....

I just watched Prometheus again for the first time in quite a while. And at the end, Shaw is quite set on finding the Engineers. Connecting with 'God'. Could it be, either by manipulation from David or her own free will, everything that happened to her according to Covenant was because she wanted to get closer to her creators?

The mythical Prometheus was bound to a rock, and an eagle picked at his internal organs every day and night (the organs regenerating at dawn) for all eternity.

Elizabeth Shaw was bound to a table, and David picked at her internal organs and used them to (re)create the ultimate killing machines, leaving her remains lying embalmed and preserved for, if not all eternity, then for many decades to come. The artwork he generated ominously hints that he was able to resurrect (using the black goo), regenerate, and kill her again several times over in the course of his experiments.

 

[Anwar]

Is it wrong that I like both Alien 3 and Ressurection more than Aliens, which I feel is one of the most overrated movies of all time?

Aliens is probably the most generic of the movies. It usually gets a pass because it was the FIRST time James Cameron did that kind of story though, just like Tim Burton's earlier movies get a pass despite having the same cliches as his later movies.

 

[Tosk]

How is Aliens "generic"?

 

[Vger23]

Is it wrong that I like both Alien 3 and Ressurection more than Aliens, which I feel is one of the most overrated movies of all time?

 

[Anwar]

How is Aliens "generic"?

The generic Super-Alien giving the orders that has the final battle with the hero at the end, the cute little kid survivor, the slimy company man/civilian, it's all fairly predictable.

But like I said, it gets a pass for being the FIRST time Cameron did a fairly basic plot.