Every Alien Movie, Director's Cut & Short Film Ranked! 

Almost seemed to happen in "Alien: Covenant". The xenomoph popping out of the guy's chest and just standing around taking in it's long limbs. It really was THAT damn close to straight up feeling like something out of "Spaceballs" unironically.

I mean if that weird Isolation series I've never heard of made it, then why not

One of the best parodies! And while I go back and forth with which one I like better Aliens or Alien, I prefer the Special Edition of Aliens because Sigourney Weaver losing a daughter gives her a MUCH better arc!

Agreed lol

I always imagined he made a killing on his one man road show.

That's my thoughts exactly. Especially because you have what's considered the most terrifying monster in the universe, but you can't make it too action oriented because then it becomes too hoaky. Which, to me, makes Aliens even more unbelievably good

@@Madferit91 Yeah, specially Isolation. Not a good starting point for someone that doesn't play games

I haven't finished Alien Isolation, but what I have played is excellent. If you want another great Alien franchise video game, play Aliens: Dark Descent. In the way that Alien Isolation is like og Alien movie, Dark Descent is controlling a squad of Colonial Marines dealing with a xenomorph outbreak. Completely different than Isolation and equally as good. Not a first person horror game, it's real time squad-based tactical game, and it gets the adrenaline and fear going so well. That bioscanner beeping still haunts me.

I think maybe at least watching someone play it would be a decent experience, it is a pretty video gamey video game, it's been awhile but i don't remember the game explaining much, so someone who doesn't play games might get stuck or frustrated.

Alien Isolation has amazing atmosphere, but personally I hate games where I have an invincible enemy following me, that is faster than me and can kill me one shot. And at first you can't defend yourself at all. Also, the whole game is very "happened by chance" with unpredictable enemy AI and it doesn't feel great. I didn't even mention the fact that it takes a very long time until you even first meet the Alien and as far as I remember the androids were also kinda annoying. Great atmosphere though.

@@Madferit91 - eh, there's something to be said for "you can see quality". I don't care for Country Western music, for example, but I can appreciate Johnny Cash's American recordings. Same with Reggae - I don't seek it out, but it's super-easy to see that Bob Marley's Legend is an excellent [greatest hits] album. With that in mind, Alien: Isolation is currently sitting at 79 on Metacritic - I would put that at "it's good, but not necessarily a definitive entry into the genre". (For that, I would generally need to see scores in the high 80's, at least.) In looking at Metacritic's "best of 2024 so far", I would say that Minishoot Adventures (indie OG zelda-style shooter game, but with spaceships) and Ballatro (what if poker was a roguelike) would be the two I would start with as an "intro to video games"; maybe the re-make of Paper Mario: 1000 year door (although I've never played it, I've heard its fantastic.) Obviously that's not an Alien game (and thus getting away from the original question here), but rather I mention them as examples of what I would expect the minimum quality to be for the scenario of "what if someone doesn't like video games?" But yeah - while I disagree with your general stance, I agree with it in the specifics here. Alien: Isolation is a good game, but not good enough for someone who isn't into video games to really appreciate, IMO. (Although there MIGHT be the "it's a good Alien game", which may get someone who likes the franchise, but not video games in particular.)

Plp where furious about that lol. I remember all the Prom fan boys feeling rightfully betrayed

Fully agree. Prometheus had problems but it was enough of a start. Covenant could’ve made good on all those promises and it totally didn’t for me. Then finding The Crossing and Advent on the disc later.. my jaw has rarely dropped for a short film. I couldn’t believe this had been cut. And now… maybe we’ll never get the conclusion

I think that watch order at the end is horrendous. Almost as bad as watching the Star Wars movies in numerical order. I would just recommend people to see any available version of 1, 2 and 3. Then watch any other movie that you're interested in. I have a soft spot for 4 but it's not really necessary viewing...

Indeed! I remember it more vividly than I remember Prometheus itself

The online space has shown me that people will stick up for the worst/medicore things in the strongest ways. You keep that ear to the ground, it's bound to happen.

Its not my favorite, but it's in my top 4

@@killaxero86 you are a madman, but honestly all power to you👍

AvP: Requiem is the lone entity in this universe that makes me question, “Am I actually insane?” Because I’ve always thought it was perfectly fine. It’s not the best in either franchise, but I find it an adequate entry in both. I feel like each series individually has produced worse movies and, to me, the first AvP is the lesser mashup. But then I see how widely detested Requiem is and I wonder, “Am I broken?”

It makes it into my top 5 - it delivers on Alien 3's original promise of having the xenomorph come to earth (check out Alien 3's teaser trailer for that), the kills made by the xenomorph are brutal and live up to the film's R rating, the characters are more likeable than Resurrection, AVP, Covenant, Prometheus and Alien 3, you have the 2nd most badass female lead of the franchise (my ranking would go Ripley>O'Brien>Shaw>Woods>Daniels) and Alien has always worked best within the slasher genre more than the action, nihilistic drama, goofy comedy, exploration adventure or philosophical genres.

I'm with you there. I found Ripley waking up from cryosleep alone, with no one believing her experiences *again* , so repetitive. Fans can reference the Assembly Cut all they like, but the movie is flawed beyond repair given the inherently unlikable supporting cast (Charles S. Dutton is the lone exception, while Charles Dance is killed off before he can impact the story) and bad narrative pacing. The theatrical cut feels like it's missing key sequences, but the AC is way too damned long and slow.

Pick up the comic books and the adaptations of the original Alien 3 script. I think there’s an audio drama with both Michael Beihn and Lance Heinricksen

No matter how disappointed you are with it, David Fincher hates it more

Excellent list. Switch Alien 3 and Resurrection around and that’s my exact list. I too liked Prometheus and Covenant over Romulus.

What about the comics and novels?

Amazing game!

Based on Dan’s watch list order at 36:15, where would you place these games?

Isolation is after alien and dark descent after aliens​@@benfranklin1533

Nah, plp ridiculed and mocked them back in the day too and were confused as to why it wasn't included in the movie

@@alexsilva28 Yes, like I said, I wish the prologue scenes were in the Alien: Covenant film

@@brucecrawford_17 And like I said, nobody liked they weren't in the movie. So it wasn't good marketing like you said

I haven't watched Romulus yet but I agree with the list, except I would put Covenant at #5 and AvP second to last, or maybe above Resurrection.

Fair

Not having AvP2 last is wild 😂

@@ZachBobBob AvP2 is a dumb movie that knows it's dumb. Covenant is a dumb movie that thinks it's smart. That's the one thing AvP2 has over Covenant.

@@SpedeVesku I guess I can get behind that reasoning

Amanda Ripley doesn't have a happy ending she's lost in space

​​@@michaelelmes2135you clearly need to rewatch aliens again the special edition anyway because in it they explained that Amanda Ripley passed away 2 years before Ripley was found so no Amanda was not Lost in space although I do believe in the theory that Amanda Ripley never actually died of old age but that Weyland yutani actually froze her in hypersleep because she knew too much and they just lied to Ripley to get her to go to LV 246

I am of the firm belief that Resurrection is the third best Alien film. And it can watched directly following Alien and Aliens, as the pertinent info from 3 is briefly covered. Sigourney Weaver has a lot of fun as a crazed part-human, part-alien clone, Winona Ryder gets to be a memorable synthetic, the Alien Queen evolves mammalian reproduction only to be murdered by the new human/alien crossbreed, and best of all, Brad Dourif gets to shout maniacally as a mad scientist.

Yes haha, think his name was Jerry

I guess it depends on what you’re looking for in a movie - Covenant (very flawed but very original ideas) VS Romulus (entertaining but essentially a ‘greatest hits’ of all Alien movies/pastiche). Romulus is essentially Halloween 2018.

@@Dobbsy79 What are you on? Alien Romulus features tons of great new ideas! The zero gravity scene is genius, same with the facehugger body heat scene. Plus the use of teenagers instead of adults as the crew provides a refreshing take with great results. It does have callbacks but it doesn't lack in great and original ideas with 1% of the flaws convenant has.

Covenant over Prometheus is insane!

@@CalvinCrack also true

I actually agree with him. Romulus had boring ass characters I couldn't care less about and too many ridiculous story turns.

It needs redoing as Alien: Convent and be about some aliens who are nuns.

i would LOVE a PotA ranking video

Does the Xenomorph dread Mondays in that one? 😂

@@Chri228 Yeah a couple people do not have a good day in that one.

Agreed. I mean, I just don't know why a parent would go out on a job to make money. It's almost like it may go to supporting a kid or something. Though, I can give or take with your other complaints. I understand where you are coming from on those at least, even if I personally think seeing Hadley's Hope being thriving for a second and learning what happened was another example of Weyland-Yutani using obnoxious redtape to keep people uninterested in probing too much. And admittedly, the myster of how it happeed on a whole is still kept in tact, even with some of those additions.

true, i only watch the theatrical cut of aliens

100%. No where in Alien is it implied Ripley has a family. Also, the gender essentialism in Cameron’s feminism is so annoying. Ripley can just be a good person who wants to protect Newt. She doesn’t need to have been a mother to do that. It was rightly left out of the far superior Theatrical Cut. Aliens is overrated. And Romulus actually accentuates its implausibility. Why didn’t Weyland-Yutani take over the site of the derelict on LV-426? The whole shake and bake colony and needing Ripley for the mission and everything is just so dumb. The film is a technical and acting masterpiece and overshadows how dumb it is. Romulus further exemplifies this. The company WENT TO THE SITE OF THE NOSTROMO AND TOOK IN BIG CHAP. why wouldn’t they also control the derelict’s perimeter. Alien 3 Assembly Cut is better than Aliens.

Yeah, I completely agree with all this. I respect the director's cut version and it's interesting to see the deleted scenes, but the theatrical cut is MUCH better paced and builds up the tension/drama better.

@@BoarderEthan Yeah, I don't agree with this. I feel the Alien 3 Assembly Cut is overrated and I don't necessarily feel the added scenes improve the movie, but make it feel longer. You also don't care about the supporting cast in 3 like in the first two and the way they open the movie through a plot inconsistency (how did the alien egg get there) is frustrating.

I think it is the most underrated movie in the franchise, I really love it. But maybe it's the Jean-Pierre Jeunet fan in me. Anyway, there's at least two of us, cheers! 😂

Give me one good reason why not😂

@@marcwilliams5051FACEHUGGER: OK, I’ll give you a good reason. Give me a hug, and I’ll whisper it in your ear 👾

They do give good hugs