Every Alien Film, Ranked From Worst to Best

The Alien franchise has finally returned after whatever the weird offshoot that Ridley Scott’s last two films were with Alien: Romulus. Now that it’s out it’s time to take a look at how every Alien film ever released ranks against each other.

Every Alien Film, Ranked From Worst to Best

9. Alien vs. Predator: Requiem

Coming off the success of the first film, Alien vs. Predator: Requiem seemed to be heading in the right direction as the studio allowed for an R-rating after the tepid PG-13 of its predecessor. Well, at least they got that right. The rest of the film is an absolute mess of a movie involving a Predator/Alien hybrid, a cast of horror-movie cliche characters, and a story that just screams that they somehow didn’t have any good ideas for a second film. Instead of expanding on the previous film’s lore, the movie simply turns the two aliens into monsters of the week fighting each other in a small town. Desperate to be interesting at all, the movie’s only saving grace (even the blood and gore are poorly done) is its perverse willingness to kill off any character at any time.

8. Alien 3

It is hard not to want to love Alien 3. A David Fincher film set on a penal colony with a bunch of criminal religious zealots trying to take out an alien brought to the planet by Sigourney Weaver’s Ripley? Hook it up to my veins! It is, unfortunately, even harder to actually love it. Yes, Fincher’s director’s cut solves some of the movie’s myriad of issues, but even with the changes, the movie is still a mess. A slog of a beginning finally seems to be ramping up to something, only to deliver a nearly nonsensical conclusion involving a chase through tiny corridors. Everything went wrong with this movie, from studio meddling to rushed productions to rewrites, and it shows in every aspect outside of Fincher’s signature style. No wonder the director has disowned the movie despite it being his first major motion picture.

7. Prometheus

Is Prometheus a better-made film than many of the movies below it on this list? Yes, of course. Is it also so far up its own butt? Also, yes. Nearly incoherent in its storytelling, full of cliches, and not actually all that fun to watch, Prometheus is barely an Alien film as it attempts to fumble through an origin story for the xenomorphs but also be a metaphor for… stuff. You can make a well-made movie all you want, but if it isn’t interesting, then you’re not doing it right.

6. Alien: Ressurection

Almost no part of Alien: Ressurection makes sense. Set hundreds of years in the franchise’s future, the movie, written by Joss Whedon, is set on a military base where Ripley has been cloned back to life with an Alien inside her. This has given her superhuman powers, and somehow, she kept all her old memories. Things just get weirder from there, eventually culminating in the onscreen birth of a human/Alien hybrid that has to be seen to be believed.

It gets even stranger because no one has any idea what kind of movie they’re making. Half the cast seems to think they’re in a dark comedy, the other half a ’90s action flick, and the only person who seems to be in on the joke is Weaver, who spends the film tearing up the scenery like a xenomorph bursting from someone’s chest. Then there’s the strange choice of director Jean-Pierre Jeunet, whose unique style made Amelie an international hit. He turns an Alien action/horror/comedy/sci-fi film into something just campy enough to kind of be fun.

5. Alien vs. Predator

A showdown that fans had been clamoring for since the video games launched, Alien vs. Predator burst onto the screen with a decided PG-13 thud. The movie, which looked to fill in the backstory of the Alien franchise by using Predators, is directed with some skill by Paul W.S. Anderson. It functions as a fun bit of mid-tier action fodder but is dragged down repeatedly by its PG-13 rating. Telling the story of the discovery of an ancient temple where Predators hunted Aliens for sport, the film is a far cry from the AVP movie we all want, but it’s also not all that terrible either.

Related: Does Alien: Romulus Have a Post-Credits Scene?

4. Alien: Covenant

Someone clearly got to Scott and shook some sense into him after Prometheus. Picking up after that film but mostly making far more sense, Covenant is a more interesting and complex story that actually features the titular Alien. Michael Fassbender’s turn as the mad synthetic David is worth a watch in and of itself, and it feels like all those interesting ideas that Scott was tossing out in Prometheus are actually explored here. Still, the movie as a whole is a bit too big for its own good, and one would be hard-pressed to call it good. It is, in fact, a leap in quality from this film to the last three movies on the list.

3. Alien: Romulus

After directing two films that let down fans, Scott finally handed the reigns over to someone else, with director Fede Alvarez instantly breathing new life into the franchise. He brings his distinct horror directorial style to the film while utilizing the xenomorphs and facehuggers in new and thrilling ways – not to mention he’s the first director to consistently use the xenomorph’s acid blood. Not only this, but the film handles the horror and moral quandaries of synthetics better than either of Scott’s more philosophical outings. Romulus never quite reaches the lofty horror heights of the original, weighed down a bit by an infusion of lore and callbacks and yet another human/alien hybrid, but it is definitely a fantastic entry into the franchise.

2. Alien

There is no greater example of this franchise’s complete lack of tonal throughline than the comparison of Alien and Aliens, and how this list ends will be entirely based on what you prefer. Consider these two films entirely interchangeable, depending on whether you’re looking for horror or action. At the time of this writing, Alien comes in second place, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t an all-time classic. Directed with a kind of youthful arrogance that Scott lost later in life and full of gritty realism that much of science fiction still lacks today, Alien is a master class in horror, special effects, design, and everything else. There isn’t a moment of frame wasted in this movie, and it helped define the space horror genre.

1. Aliens

Aliens is not just a movie with one of the greatest sequel titles ever, but it’s also an absolute classic of the science fiction genre. James Cameron took the horror of the first film and turned it into an action masterpiece. Surprisingly deep in character development (Ripley’s arc is especially great), the film is expertly paced and crafted. The screenplay, which drops so many fantastic lines you probably quote it regularly without knowing it, is a triumph, somehow making you care for the unfortunate collection of space marines fighting off the xenomorphs and their queen. There are only a few moments more iconic in cinema than Ripley’s entrance in the mech suit and Weaver’s delivery of “Get away from her, you bitch.” I got chills just typing it.

And that’s every Alien film, ranked from worst to best.

Alien: Romulus is in theaters now.

The above article was updated on 8/22/2024 by the original author to include Alien: Romulus.