What Went Wrong With Alien? 

Alien Isolation is such a good game, it really does make the alien feel like an onholy horror that cannot be killed

Small correction about Xenomorph's crawler mode in dbd. It doesn't give the Xenomorph extra speed nor undetectable, it only gets undetectable while in the tunnels.

Fun fact, Alien Resurrection's whole plot with Ripley-8 and Call is continued in a little comic called Aliens vs Predator vs The Terminator The Dark Horse Alien comics in general actually do a lot of unique stuff that could be used as reference for the movies as much as Alien: Isolation is seemingly going to be for Alien: Romulus. One of my favorite stories in the expanded universe, Aliens: Apocalypse, establishes the Xenomorphs as a universal mechanism to regulate the reach of civilizations that advance to the point of reaching the stars, revealing that almost every species in the galaxy that dared to reach the stars has met its end at the reach of these Destroying Angels. I think that, for example, is a great concept that harkens back to their original depiction as a cosmic horror. Sad they had to go with "um actually they were created by robot Michael Fassbender like 50 years ago" with Covenant (even though I agree with David being a cool character, I seriously dislike that origin for them)

You know, I’m actually glad that Ridley Scott is not the director for Romulus. So just for that, I have somewhat high hopes for it.

About AvP movies. As far as I know, they were never meant to be canon either for Alien franchise, or for Predator. So AvP universe exists as a completely different universe for the sake of giving us such a crossover. Also Alien franchise itself is very interesting in that regard, because it basically has two universes. One includes Alien, Aliens, Alien 3 and Alien Resurrection, while the other one includes Alien, Prometheus and Alien Covenant

Oh wow, hearing the alien trilogy for PlayStation again after all these years is so nostalgic. I remember watching my dad play this and I’d hide whenever an alien came on screen 😅

oh my god bbq & chili, DMS + ultimate weapon AND POP? that's an evil build especially on xeno ngl joking aside, fun video ! also runner mode doesnt make you undetectable, your terror radius just shrink to a 24m and tbh it's M2 is more like a nemesis whip

Great video! I can't explain the surprise and joy I felt seeing this in my subscriptions today. Alien is one of my favorite franchises and probably my favorite film series, period. I bought Isolation on release and have played it annually since. I'll give my two cents on some things. I think there's a lot to love about Prometheus despite its laundry list of shortcomings. It might just be nostalgia talking since it was technically my first Alien film, but I genuinely think it's a fantastic movie with great ideas that is marred by a lack of focus. Maybe if it hadn't been so heavily marketed as an Alien film and it had been a surprise, it might have landed a little better. A lack of xenomorphs isn't exactly a fault; I agree that Engineers don't feel as cool, but they do leave a lot left open in my eyes. Did they make xenomorphs? Maybe they simply found them or something like them and wanted to recreate it, either out of reverence or a lust for power. Maybe they only made us so they'd have lab rats and not subject themselves to the horrific things the black goo and whatever else they have do. It's meant to parallel us and synthetics, especially David. I dislike a lot of Covenant, but I did love David's character in it. The opening scene with him and Weyland is one of the best scenes in that film and makes both Prometheus and Covenant a lot more interesting to me. Weyland discussing David's eternal life and the latter's claim that perhaps he can surpass humanity is refuted by Weyland asking David to pour him tea; the second he sees a hint of David surpassing him, he tries to put him in his place. It's these things that Ridley Scott's new series was meant to pursue and I think this is where it really didn't stick the landing. It changed too quickly and too overtly without much concern for the original films at the same time that it often pretends to be one of them. It reminds me a lot of Doom 3 and Halo 4 in that they're fantastic but have major drawbacks on top of not feeling like the rest of their respective series. The new movies simply never commit to being one specific thing despite their high quality. It's poetic to me, then, that a movie most often disliked for its lack of answers is about exactly that: the pursuit of answers where there were none. Maybe next time, don't get Damon Lindelof to help write it. I'm cautiously optimistic about Romulus. I've grown to appreciate even some of the worst media over the years and believe that almost any work deserves some sort of credit and has merit. Except something like a snuff or shock film. I'm mostly worried about the cast, since Fede Alvarez really struggles with that and a young cast of characters in an Alien film is uncharted territory besides AVP:R. Evil Dead 2013 was decent and Prey, while unrelated, was good enough that I have faith that it'll at least be an entertaining movie. Only time will tell, though.

There was an Alien short film anthology released on RU-vid a few years back that was actually pretty good, worth checking out. Totally agree with your take on Prometheus, it over explains the xenomorph to the point it's not "alien" any more and further removes its impact

can't get enough of your videos!

Definitely Could Do with A part 2 of The Deep dive into all the Alien Games.

"What went wrong with Alien?" You made it more than a trilogy.

Random compliment but absolutely love the Metroid Dread music in the background man. Fitting game series to reference in an Aliens vid bro

I’d really love to see a future movie that uses the Xenomorph designs from the 90’s toys by Kenner. Yes, they made action figures based on Alien. The thing that was special about them was not only that they were paired up with Kenner’s Predator line, but that each figure was based on an animal that the alien inherited the traits of. That resulted in designs based on rhinos, gorillas, and even mantises. Imagine watching an Alien movie and seeing the mantis alien in it.

Small prediction. Being that Romulus as you mentioned refers to the founder of Rome, perhaps Alien: Romulus will be a dive into the very first Xenomorph queen? Might give us further depth into alien hierarchy and ecology. Also, just as a fun recommendation, another entertaining video game allowing you to run around as xenomorphs (and various types of them) is Space Station 13's Colonial Marines. Oldschool 2d graphics, but very fun to run around as a xeno and planting face huggers on human players.

Alien in DbD feels more like Alien Isolations than the movies tbh

I love how you have the aliens trilogy menu screen music there. I have it on Sega Saturn, and I remember that Erie stuff like it will never go out of style.

Great job!! I'm quite older and when the first Alien was released I was a freshman in highschool. The movie resonates with me because I played hooky and was blown away! It was playing at the Chicago theater and the sound system there was phenomenal! Like myself my buddies were comics and sci fi fanatics and when I got home wide eyed they were excited and we made a mass pilgrimage to the theater and loved every minute. To me that was something of a sci fi golden age with the subsequent release of Star Wars, blade runner and (sadly not the first) Star Trek movie series (Wrath of Khan went far for redemption). Thank you.

There's actually an AvP comic miniseries from 1990. That was the first time they crossed over, and it's quite good

In my own head cannon for Alien Covenant, David doesn't create more replicates the Xenomorph, as It feels more realistic as to why the things all end up converging and not having to recon the several thousand year old crash on LV-426

The fact they tried recreating ripley almost every single time is hilarious to me. The only time it worked in my opinion is Alien Isolation. It makes sense in that instance. Dr Shaw didn’t feel like another ripley clone and I was excited to see her journey continue in a sequel but alas we got Covenant instead. I also wish that Call was the main character in Resurrection instead of Ripley 8. It was interesting that we had an android that was fighting for humanity’s survival and was hiding her identity like a super hero. I wonder if Romulus is going to do a sit and switch on us like then director did for Evil Dead(2013). Probably not because this is 20th century/disney we’re talking about, but that’s part of what made original Ripley great. She was a survivor and a subversion of expectations for a sci fi/horror film. A standard Sci Fi film would have had Kane or Dallas be the main character and a cliche horror film would have had Lambert be the final girl. So Romulus has a very tight rope to walk.

21:16 Based on the behind the scenes images, the predalien did skinned dead predators in the crashed ship. They made two skinned Predators hanging upside down, but unfortunately this scene got removed from the final cut

finally, someone other than me likes the story of isolation.

your dbd videos go hard asf

I believe that the problem with Ripley is that she became popular in that time, maybe Terminator level, Neo or other horror icons such as Jason that killing her off after only 3 movies wouldn't have felt the same I mean, if you ask someone what is the first thing that comes to their mind when you say Alien (excluding the Xeno) they would most likely say "Ripley", it's like the Sarah Connor of Aliens AvP i believe it was more of a 80s thing collab more than anything, just like Terminator vs Robocop, is basically "too good it should be a crime not to do it"

small fun facts about the predalien, in the original concept it was supose to skin the two predators it killed on the ship and wolf would find the bodys hanging behind him, and you can see him if you focus really well or brighten up the scene her collecting a thropy by ripping out the cook spine and skull so it has predator tendesies..

alien isolation is my favorite horror game of all time. #1!

20:53 it’s not a lighting issue (if I remember correctly) It was darkened in post production to conceal some of the gor and violence. The MPAA are the worst.

I remember Covenant purely because it came out while I was still scared out of my mind of the Xenos and I saw the trailer in theaters then didn’t sleep for a solid week.

Resurrection is my favorite Alien movie... it's fun and Ripley got to be super awesome. And it's got Ron Perlman in it and he's my favorite. It just hit the perfect popcorn flick for me.

Amazing breakdown, i love what you had to say. Its good to see another alien covenant enjoyed, I LOVED that movie and had nobody else to talk about it with cause either nobody else had seen or it the ones who did didn't like it. I also really like Prometheus but not as much as covenant. The only ones I hated were 3 (my least favorite) and 4. I haven't seen the AVP movies cause they don't interest me.

I am so hyped for Romulus. It seems like they are returning to the horror aspect of the original and actually giving us a normal modern day Xenomorph.

You know you have a true fan when the Alien Trilogy OST is thrown in

I have all the movies on blu ray, recently rewatched the Assembly Cut of Alien 3 and I like it a lot more than I remember. It's not perfect, obviously, but it's not a bad movie. I know a LOT of people hate Alien Resurrection, but I also like that one. Again, not perfect, the explanation for bringing Ripley back might as well be magic, but I actually like the oddball characters and morally dubious Ripley.

We all know it'll turn out "Romulus" is just the name of the ship they're on with a vague thematic tie in💀

I think I saw a costume xeno at the end of the alien Romulus trailer.

Great video essay. One small gripe: David is in essence trying to recreate the Xenomorphs, perfecting the creation of the Engineers. The Mural fro. Prometheus shows that these things emerge repeatedly from the machinations of the Accelerant -- canonically explained as a radical form of AI. Creation destroying its creator.

I wish they would make movies about some of the books/comics. The story about ripley and what happend between Alien and Aliens. Or the story about hadleys hope before they came there. great books and already voiced for audible for example. I am just happy whenever i see anything slightly good with the xenomorph :D

When i rlly enjoy the whole series (accepting that most of them as kind of fanfic) and someone in internet tear this fun movies apart xd

So many great points addressed in this video. For the predalien comment: I think the main difference is the xenomorph acts on its instincts where as for the Yautja, they’re more similar to humans that we have a culture that grooms us. So the predalien wouldn’t have been able to exude those qualities because it was never raised only kind of created? Also for the comment about the franchise choosing a new lead, I think the lead shifted from Ripley to the A.I.. Think about it, even more than Ripley, the Artificial Intelligence has been in more movies of the franchise than even Ripley. Maybe Ridley has a perspective of how consequential imbalance can be to biological life. Almost like human made the actual Villian (the various A.I.) and the A.I., aware or not, then creates the xenomorph species to balance or “correct” the lack of balance created by human greed and capitalism. Similar to how Godzilla was Japans way of telling the story of the imbalance of nuclear warfare but making it an actual creature, Godzilla.

I think inventing new iterations of xenomorphs isnt really great idea. Isolation did what pretty much ALL other projects in the Alien franchise failed to do - it made the same monster feel scary again. It didnt go the cheap way of inventing a brand new character so new toys could be printed, they worked with source material and they made the Xenomorph truly scary again. Every time they invented new xenomorph type, it was almost always left forgotten. The only one that really sticked was the Queen variation and arguably because it was a part of one of the first movies which built the foundation for the main lore. Deacon, Neomorphs, Protomorph, to me it felt like someone's fanfiction where they couldn't think of something more original than slightly changing Xenomorph's appearance and just shoving it into the plot somehow so there's more to look forward to than the actual Xenomorph. We need more than xenomorphs, but constantly making up new variation and coming up with plot excuses why is it there is not making the movies better. They could show OTHER alien lifeforms that have nothing to do with Xenomorphs, because the cosmos in Alien universe isnt barren. Aliens hinted that there are other aliens out there so what if they were shown instead? It could be a great way to set up a contrast between these other aliens and xenomorphs to emphasize the danger and lethality of the latter as they (or just It) kill(s) the humans that were just easily dealing with other aliens. We could be shown that it's not humans and their containment measures that are dumb and not working, but that they're actually rather effective and it's Xenomorph(s) that breach whatever containment measures and surpass human intelligence. I really hope Romulus tries to go the hard way. That it won't just show us the good old tropes of lifecycle, but with more gross details (hello facehugger scene from the trailer, sexual implications are supposed to be IMPLICATIONS). That it won't invent a new xenomorph type for the sake of inventing it because it fails to make the original one not boring. That it actually puts an interesting spin or perspective on the known premise of Xenomorph infestation incident. That it doesn't try to give answers for the questions that should never be answered. One could only hope.

Prometheus actually did have a small connection to the previous AvP entry in the mapping technology that was used, being very nearly identical and actually showing that yutani corporation was invested in reverse engineered alien technologies from that movie. It is also implied that Peter Wayland actually was the son of Charles Bishop Weyland. Yes all of these films are connected in some manner actually.

Can we do more of the weird birds story I want to hear the rest of it because I can’t have the app that he posts on please

Probably to late to comment on this, but just want to share my take. When it comes to 3 failure that lies on the studio meddling, it was David Finchers first outing as a director and look at his future films, he was not the one at fault. For Alien R. Joss Whedon should never have been allowed to pen an Alien script. Now I'm going to give a bit of a hot take going on from those 2 to Prometheus and Alien Covenant with that being, Ridely Scott gets to much credit for Alien's success and not enough credit goes to the original screenwriter Dan O'Bannon. This is a writer who's original script for the film still holds up today and he's one of the fathers of the cyberpunk genre itself, he is the one behind the original genius of the first film. Scott keeps trying to push ideas of AI and Creation into the Alien story-line. Emphasizing ideas done by Mary Shelly and Isaac Asimov which just don't fit with the franchise. Its very obvious from the first film that Alien intrinsically pushes lovecraftian themes, the horror and intrigue comes from the unknown. Scott seems to be unable to understand what should remain a mystery and what elements you reveal more of. There's a reason why more people where looking forward to Neil Blomkamps Alien soft reboot than Scott's next entry the concept art for the film still looks amazing. My own personally want and take film is that I think you could show the Xenomorph homeworld and still have their origins shrouded in mystery similar to stories like At the Mountains of Madness. I'll end my rant with that, this my own personal take that I've had for a while. Enjoyed the vid keep up the fantastic work.

I Liked the Different Evolutions of the Xenomorph. But Not if it's just A reboot of The Same alien.

For xenomorph I’m dbd… like why flame turrets. They should have been flame throwers like in the movies. You use them like flashlights to slow down and weaken the xeno but never kill. Instead of these awful dinky turrets that take 12 years to set up and fail anyways

Man, i was with you until you got to Alien 3. Aliens is the weakest in the trilogy. It's a fun detour and a solid film. However, it definitely has its flaws. It's the most lighthearted and hopeful film in the trilogy. Alien 3 was a return to form, and in some ways, it was even better than the original. I still put the original alien as the best one overall, but alien 3, i think, surpasses it in the score, atomsphere, the alien creature design, and i find it to be Sigourney weavers best performance as ripley. Alien 3 perfected the look of the xeno. It also had the best demise for the creature instead of repeating the airlock. Alien 3 is the most faithful sequel to what the original alien had established. Aliens went against that a little bit it comes off campy at times, and it doesn't have the dread and bleakness of the 1st and 3rd film. I'm with you on both AVP films requiem gets too much hate, and i applaud it for having the balls to go as far as they did.

Wtf is up with the camerawork in 4? It feels like camerawork for a demented kid's movie, like it's supposed to be whimsical. It's also an absolute GAUNTLET of stress and nauseating visuals. It focuses so hard on the character's reactions, their emotional and physical suffering, and it never. Lets. Up. I felt drained like I'd witnessed a war crime. Throwing horrible suffering with a cutesy cartoon camera felt like the director was sadistically laughing in my face. One of the top unintentionally worst film experiences I've ever had.

So a little side note here for your understanding. The Predalien does indeed partake in some of the features Predators do. Not sure if they peel the skin off of their victims they do in fact do the whole spine ripping thing Predators are normally seen doing. Although for granted, they don’t know why they do so. So their are some attributes more than just looking like a cross between a Predator and an Alien, it’s just those attributes weren’t shown in the movie. Edit: after watching through the end of the video, I could say for certain that there are a few things I would disagree about your statements. There are some things that you say that I see as being very loose at most. Not trying to say that your opinions don’t matter, frankly you have also said some good points in this video, but you have also mentioned things that just doesn’t make sense to me or that it doesn’t hold up as well as you make think. But hey, that’s what happens when you post something like this on the internet. All in all, this video was great, despite this being my first interaction to your channel, I’ll be happy to see another video from pop up in RU-vid’s algorithm some day.

Sometimes i feel like like in the long term AVP did more harm than good, then i remember A4 and how aliens where already fucked Predators have avsolutelly gotten bad thanks to AVP lore

Let's see if Alien Romulus will be HORROR again.

You are way better at using Xeno in dbd than I am lol

I must know: what are your thoughts on the original Xenomorph funko pop?

Alien 3 does have 1 funny scene in the cafeteria

The dark horse comics had some interesting alien storylines like earth being overrun by xenos haven’t read any of the marvel alien comics other than seeing an image of a xenomorph goddess

I really forgot how insane the first Alien actually is i kinda forgot the whole Cyborg crewmate part

In my opinion I think the Alien movies can be way too slow like it takes its time way too much really sometimes. But maybe that’s because I’ve watched the Directors cut of Alien, Aliens, & Alien 3

I'm unfortunately not excited for Alien Romulus mainly due to Ridley Scott is a producer on it and the director wants to somehow link this film to Covenant despite it taking place between Alien and Aliens.

Friendly reminder that, according to Ridley Scott, the Alien saga was about the... dangera of the IA and the conception of creation by humans? And that scene of Ash trying to kill Ripley was a supressed sexual desire...? Wtf Scott?

As a long time alien fan, well the alien series is more mixed with some great movies ie avp and the first two, but alot of medicore to bad movies, its done better in the realm of better video games, the avp games are pheonimal, alien isolation is a masterpiece and despite bhvr being lazy the xenomorph in dbd is one of my favorite killres to play, its just a pity most of the other material not listed is pretty bad.

12:50 the company no longer exists, this is what I guess you would call a black-ops ship that is acting outside governmental/military authority.. there is even a scene where they say Weyland got bought out by Walmart.

Idk why but I laughed to myself if the pred that killed Waylen was actually called “lung cancer”

The Xenomorph Queen sure is something.

A lot of people seem to forget that the crew in alien were normal people. Aliens, and AVP has the Xenomorph going against Trained military and the other most dangerous species in the galaxy.

I need an AVP anthology series like Netflix's Love, Death, and Robots

Hey DMuted, skibidi toilet 72 part 2 came out today. I thought I'd let you know.

i was really confused cuz i watch a lot of dbd youtubers so it took me a minute to realize you were a fnaf fella not a dbd fella lolllll

Funny enough, Alien Vs. Predator was originally a comic! It was made in 1989 and continued untill 2020, wherein Marvel would pick it up in 2021.

I rewatched all of the Alien movies about 2 weeks ago when I had a week off from work. Well, I say all of them.... after 30 minutes I turned Alien Resurrection off...that film is horrendously bad!

What went wrong? well like every franchise, they simply made one after the other (Terminator/Predator) getting worse and worse, even now, they are still at it. The curse of why Hollywood sucks balls...never knowing when to stop.

Tail attack is super slow with wonky hitbox in DbD, they changed the music to something really generic and terrible. Nice use of the Ps1 trilogy ost here though 😊

Despite Alien Resurrection being a extremely bad film I did alway wonder how big the Newborn would be if it was still alive and explore ruined Earth.

Prometheus is fire

Causaly connecting the alien's existence with humanity is irredeemable - it killed the series for me.

It's funny that if Riley had never said anything they might never have known about the derelict spacecraft and never got infested to begin with. That was the real reason she went along for the ride, it's because she felt partially responsible and didn't trust the company to do the right thing by the colonists.

Man your true

A misconception of David creating the aliens is due to the terrible writing of the prequal movies. David more so tried to replicate how the engineers made the aliens / deacon as he wasn't the original creator. And for those who don't know, AvP isn't cannon to the alien & predator series

Not letting go and studio greed

With all due respect, the film Alien 3 gets overlooked because of the producer's shit show behind the scenes. If you watch the assembly cut it plays like a completely different film. The opening is different and there is an entirely new subplot. It's a gothic drama with religious undertones, Ripley's story ends in a way that is satisfying where the Queen doesn't pop out and it reinforces her decision to end this cycle. She literally dies for the sin of others (it's a bit on the nose). The prisoners are also a parallel with what is going on with Ripley internally some have chosen a path of betterment whereas others died by their heretic ways. Each has a choice of how they can leave this world. (They should've used practical effects) It's a shame that we didn't get to see Fincher's true vision of that film.

Androids kissing each other in a series about aliens that's what went wrong

I am absolutly not agree with you with the "david is the creator of the xenomorph" I HATE this. The fact that a endroid is the creator is even worse than the enginer, its me the xeno even less alien but humain, and on the contrary the fact that a android create the xeno damage the "H is amaze by the creature" its was greate because the creature was "alien" unknown and that fact that "ho look its was actualy a another robot who create" complely ruin it and make it stupid and too random. aniway its my opinion on that

I feel that people like it better ¨Resurrection¨ because as dumb as it is, at least it didn´t try to take itself too seriously as Alien 3. That one has some cool stuff, but it feels more horror, but the majority of the time is a just depressing plot and the effects are very bad maybe the worst of the whole series. Resurrection has good cinematography (Jean Pierre Jeunet), and the maquettes are awesome.

Did you just call Hicks "generic"...??

The AVP films don't hold a candle to the comics, novels or games

Nothing went wrong, it’s still an really enjoyable series with a lot of good entries…..

Alien is my favourite horror movie too, it was my first X certificate at the cinema in 1979. I actually like the Alien 3 assembly cut alot but think Aliens has dated badly. Truth be told I never liked the whole queen idea in the first place and much prefer the original more alien like reproduction cycle. I actually think Aliens was the start of the downfall because it stripped away all the realism.

Aliens has become my least favourite in the series over the years. I find it incredibly corny, though it does have some fantastic action.

Hot take but reqium wouldve been awesome fun if the studios didnt darken the footage so damn much

Praises AVP goes on and on about how bad alien 3 and resurrection are …… credibility instantly invalided . Resurrection is amazing

05:41 Just 05:41

Andrew Gaska, whos the guy who kinda keeps the lore for Alien for Fox/Disney, has a whole write up regarding what is Canon in Alien. The AvP movies are not part of the official Alien canon. Those are more like monster mashes, similar to the old Dracula Vs Frankenstein or Mummy vs Abbot and Costello flicks. More or less one offs. Dont get me wrong, I enjoy the first AvP on a guilty pleasure level, and the original comic book was great, but AvPR was garbage.

Only a Zoomer would think AvP is better than Alien³ and Prometheus. I don't want to live on this planet anymore.

Fox didnt understand how to handle the franchise. Thats what went wrong.

👽

i cannot forgive u for calling her cat jones

AVP is fine, it’s like a throwback to stupid fun 80s monster movies. The sequel I hated, and also am simultaneously confused by because I couldn’t see what was happening most of the time.

I dislike Alien 3, Resurrection, Prometheus, and Covenant because of the writing and story

A3>Aliens

This is late so it won't be seen, but I do this you missed the point of the marines and the stakes using them. In alien 1, a drone killed the entire crew minus Ripley who barely escaped because they were untrained, unprepared and completely thrown into the dark in what they were facing. In aliens, they clearly had an idea of what a xenomorph was, and were fully trained. So if anything the fact that they all still died to the xenomorphs despite being combat trained and hella experienced is the tension and stakes, its a "oh shit, if they aren't enough then how will Ripley get out of this one." Its kinda adding a stronger enemy and making a stronger hero only to have the hero die to show the severity of the situation, only with many, many xenos and multiple marines

answer alien 3 thats what was wrong with it. just bring back ripley junior.