I watched the original Alien films

During the past few days, I watched most of the Alien movies, due to the release of the new TV series Alien: Earth, and because I had never given them a proper watch at them except for the original. Somehow I was blind to one of the most popular franchises among science fiction and space horror fans, and it was time to change that.

Some early memories

To be honest, the design of the Alien has always been ingrained in my head, I don’t have memories where I thought of an alien and the xenomorph didn’t pop-up first. Still, I didn’t grow up with the original series at all.

I was a kid when the original Alien vs Predator movies came out, and I have clear memories of watching some bits of the first one (or maybe both of them) on public TV via Canal 5. I do remember watching the first and second Predator, but I won’t talk about those today.

I don’t even know how I got away with watching them at all, given how gruesome they can be, I don’t really recall any nightmares or anything to be honest. I watched a couple of clips on YouTube and they still seem like something fun to watch, and the kind of movie that the fans of both franchises would go crazy for. I remember liking them, they were just so cool, seeing the two most iconic aliens in the same place was surelly mind-blowing for the people who saw the originals back in the day, I’m sure the forums at the time were going wild.

Anyway, despite that, I really hadn’t watched Alien at all, I knew of how cool Ripley is through cultural osmosis, but at the time I was unaware of the wonders of the internet, and my parents very rarely rented movies, and if they did it wouldn’t be a gruesome horror film like Alien.

At some point in time, around 2015 or 2016, My interest in these films grew. I got into space opera stuff and old monster films, I’d say it was my love for the Halo games and the Flood aliens that made me look into other monsters that inspired it. Now that I think about it, watching Stranger Things influenced me as well, given the similar creature designs.

I remember watching a lot of videos on YouTube about aliens, zombies, kaijus, and the visual effects used on those older 80s films. Specifically Godzilla¹, the Of The Dead zombies, The Thing—my absolute favorite horror movie²—and of course, Alien.

What made me do this

I must admit I didn’t see this marathon coming at all. I saw the original Alien earlier in the year with my sister, and I had seen it before too, but none of the rest until now.

Scrolling around on the TWG Discord server, someone asked if anyone was watching Alien: Earth. I didn’t even know what that was, but it’s a new TV show airing on Hulu and Disney Plus. I have access to Disney Plus and I had some free days to spare, so I decided I would give it a watch.

Of course, since I hadn’t watched anything but the first film and the AvP spin-offs, I didn’t want to start the TV show without doing my proper homework, so I did the typical online search of “Alien movies to watch before Alien:Earth? reddit” and well, to be honest, I could’ve skipped this as the answer was clear. I was going to at least watch the ones from the 80s and 90s

The films

I don’t really have fully-fledged reviews of all the movies, these are just general thoughts about it and my experience in watching them alongside the latest series. Spoilers ahead.

Alien

The original Alien is a classic, but I didn’t rewatch it as the last time I did was just a few months ago. It is a great film that holds up well except for maybe a couple of scenes. Honestly I have nothing new to say about such a masterpiece, just go watch it if you haven’t. It’s pure cinema.

Aliens

The one that started the marathon was Aliens, the one sequel that is considered to be equal, or even better than the original. I had heard about it already, and it definitely delivers in my opinion.

Ripley was in hibernation longer than expected, in that time, a colony now lives in the planet where the first xenomorph was found. When she wakes up, she warns everyone of the danger, nobody believes her, until an emergency signal is sent from the settlement, she’s now has to go to the planet with a group of mercenaries to look for any survivors, and obviously, the people in charge have their own not-so-hidden motives.

This movie features some incredible action scenes. But I think that the horror of it all isn’t far behind from the original. The first reveal of the alien nest was a masterclass in suspense, and nobody can forget the fantastic shot when the little girl is taken away to the nest.

Right, the Queen was also an interesting addition to the lore of the franchise, I wonder if it was what Ridley intended from the start since the eggs must come from somewhere in the original film. In any case, the design of the Queen and the nest is fantastic, and I also really enjoyed the layout of the station buildings.

Androids in Alien are super interesting to me, they are quite difficult to read, and it always feels like they are scheming something. Ripley’s mistrust of them is justified given the previous film, and I enjoy how they play around with that relationship until the very end.

Another cool concept was the cargo exosuit. The scene where all of the machinery is showcased in motion with extreme detail to all the cables and joints was a pleasure to watch, I’m sure the fans of mecha anime were having a blast too. And the last scene where it’s used to put an end to the Queen, just epic.

Aliens 3

And well, the third film virtually retcons the acomplishments of the second one, the side-characters that had managed to survive are now dead, and Ripley finds herself in a prison planet filled with criminals that are also religious zealots, also they haven’t seen a woman in decades.

As a ship is sent to rescue her, she realizes that a xenomorph was still in the ship, and now everyone is in danger. This time the alien has a much more animalistic behaviour, since it didn’t grow from human host. Prisoners die left and right, and hysteria grows among the group, until Ripley comes up with a plan to deal with the creature and save the day.

I can see why this one didn’t hit, killing off the surviving members and giving a bunch of weirdos instead was definitely a move. I still really like the setting though, a prison is definitely an interesting place for an Alien to hunt and move around in.

The creature here was fine, but the visual effects are objectively worse in general. They tried to use CGI but the colors are just not right for pretty much every scene, and it’s jarring to look at.

The final part of the movie is also kinda weird. Ripley figures out she’s a host for a Queen, and decides to kill herself by jumping into a lava pit, to not let her rescuers get their hands on the xenomorph, who they obviously want to study and use as a bioweapon. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a decent send-off to the character, but the way everything is shot is kind of goofy in my opinion.

Honestly, I didn’t look to hard and just understood the intent, and it was fine for me. This movie gets some bad reputation but I can respect it as a standalone film, and I also miss the times when a sequel would go for something crazy like this instead of how safe they play it during the recent years.

Alien Resurrection

Well, in the previous film Ripley died, but I guess the studio decided that they want to bring her back again and made this.

In a science research ship 200 years later, Ripley is cloned from blood samples retrieved from the medical facility in the prison of the previous film, to also get the xenomorph that was developing inside of her. The baby is removed and Ripley is left alive and studied. She now has enhanced strength and her blog is acidic.

At the same time, some ship of mercenaries arrives with some cargo, random people to use as hosts. This group is very varied and weird, like a bunch of Guardian of the Galaxy cosplayers. Eventually things go out of control, and they team up with Ripley to escape from the xenomorphs once again.

The tone of this one is extremely weird. Like, they decide that “breath” is a good security lock, and everyone acts super goofy, like a cartoon villain even. Winona Ryder shows up too but I like her character.

Ripley is really different from the previous film, she is still cool though, I think? Also, despite the weird sense of humor, the horror is more gruesome and disgusting than before. It’s just confusing.

The aliens look pretty good again, since CGI and practical effects are used wisely and there are some scenes with cool moments. But again, sometimes it just got way too much for me. That last alien is also way too ugly, it’s just terrible to me, what were they thinking?

At least there is a relatively happy ending, but what a mess.

Finishing up

In general, I really enjoyed the science fiction of it all. The universe and the aesthetics are honestly incredible, the set designs, from the original to Resurrection, manages to stay pretty consistent and realistic. It kind of reminds me of the classic Star Wars look where everything looks used and almost obsolete. Alien stands out though, because everything also looks functional and like it was designed to last for decades and to follow a set of standards. Given the fact the first 4 movies happen in the span of more than 250 years in universe, it’s honestly really neat.

I loved most of the Alien designs, the original is the very definition of iconic. Incredibly sleek and elegant and raw and terrifying, truly alien.

Overall, I think all of the movies kind of work better when taken as separate works. I think of them as an anthology of sorts, where they are trying to rehash the same concept in multiple ways and different parameters and they see how it goes.

Like, there’s the original Alien, Alien but many of them, Alien but in a prison, and Alien but it’s Ripley. All of them from different directors and going for a different flavor, each of them adding their own little something to the lore.

Yeah the first two are much better, but all of them felt worth the watch for me, if only for the concept and the ships and overall vibes of the settings.

Also, space looks super fun in these movies. Especially in Aliens, I absolutely loved how blue it looks during the shots of the spaceships, filled with stars and nebulas, just full of contrast and color, compared to the blackness seen more often today, it looked so awesome! I think they were paintings, because of how lively they were.

I also watched Prometheus and the first three episodes of Alien: Earth at this point, and I plan to watch Covenant and Romulus as well some other time, but this is enough.

But the way, Alien: Earth has been fantastic and has introduced a few more crazy concepts into the mix, I am enjoying it a bunch and I really do think that knowing how far the franchise has gone helps the experience. But hey, if you don’t feel like it, just watch the first two movies and skip to the show.

Well, I didn’t think I’d write so much about a bunch of movies, maybe I should do this a bit more often? For now, I’m out.