The Alien collection
Seven films. Several kinds of bad decision. One persistently terrible company.
All seven requested films now have developed first-pass reviews. Each includes viewer advisories, a critical argument and ending analysis behind a closed spoiler disclosure. Verdicts and advisories are proposed; the drafts await the owner's editorial review.
The films, in release order
| Film | Director | Proposed verdict |
|---|---|---|
| Alien (1979) | Ridley Scott | Worth watching |
| Aliens (1986) | James Cameron | Worth watching |
| Alien³ (1992) | David Fincher | Watch with caveats |
| Alien: Resurrection (1997) | Jean-Pierre Jeunet | For the curious |
| Prometheus (2012) | Ridley Scott | Watch with caveats |
| Alien: Covenant (2017) | Ridley Scott | For the curious |
| Alien: Romulus (2024) | Fede Álvarez | Worth watching |
What changes between them
Alien makes a familiar workplace unsafe. Aliens tests military confidence against a threat it cannot manage and gives the rescue a strong emotional centre. They share an institutional problem while building suspense in different ways.
Alien³ turns towards grief, confinement and a prison community. Resurrection makes bodies and identities unstable inside a grotesque laboratory adventure. Their distinctive choices give them reasons to investigate, with substantial reservations explained in the reviews.
Prometheus enlarges the mythology into a search for creators. Covenant is most interested in the created being who wants that power for himself. Romulus returns to practical escape problems and a young ensemble, with strong staging competing against conspicuous callbacks.
These are editorial readings of the films, not a list of owner-approved recommendations.
Choose the edition deliberately
- Alien: the review uses the approximately 117-minute theatrical version as its baseline. The later Director's Cut differs.
- Aliens: approximately 137 minutes theatrically or 154 minutes in the Special Edition. The longer version adds family context, colony material and further defence sequences.
- Alien³: approximately 114–115 minutes theatrically or 145 minutes in the Assembly Cut. The Assembly Cut was prepared without Fincher's participation and is not an approved director's cut. Its animal sequence also differs.
- Resurrection: approximately 109 minutes theatrically. The later Special Edition runs approximately 116 minutes and changes opening and closing material.
- Prometheus, Covenant and Romulus: approximately 124, 122 and 119 minutes respectively for the theatrical releases used here.
The individual reviews link release records and explain relevant version limits. Runtime differences caused by presentation or rounding do not by themselves establish a different edit.
Where the prequels and Romulus fit
In story order, these seven run Prometheus → Alien: Covenant → Alien → Alien: Romulus → Aliens → Alien³ → Alien: Resurrection. Release order, shown in the table, preserves the sequence in which their filmmaking approaches and mythology developed. This is a chronology guide rather than a prescribed viewing order or an explanation of later revelations. The franchise filmography records the series and chronological setting.
Before you choose
All seven involve intense creature horror and invasive bodily threat. The details vary substantially: Aliens has sustained child peril; Alien³ includes attempted rape, child bereavement and edition-dependent animal death; Prometheus and Romulus contain particularly significant reproductive and medical horror. Resurrection foregrounds forced experimentation, while Covenant combines graphic bodily invasion with bereavement and captivity. The individual advisories give the useful distinctions before plot analysis begins.
Exact outcomes and detailed advisory contexts stay behind disclosures on the review pages. The first-pass manuscripts are source-based; no new viewing, numerical score or owner endorsement is claimed.