.<\/span><\/p>\n That all started to change in 1977, with the release and massive success of a small independent production from some nobody called Star Wars<\/i>. It\u2019s about a kid and a talking dog that go commit space crimes or something. Studios started chasing after the same success, and science-fiction started to become more focused on fantasy than on intensity. <\/span><\/p>\n To that end, Alien <\/i>closed out the decade by representing the best of both worlds. It just places us in a situation with these characters, lets us get to know them, and then lets us watch them get picked off one by one. It\u2019s Halloween<\/i>, but set in space and with more phallic undertones. When Ripley releases the Xenomorph through the air lock and destroys it in the engine, it\u2019s a definitive statement that this era of hard sci-fi is reaching its end. If Alien <\/i>were to become a franchise, it would have to evolve.<\/span><\/p>\n .<\/span><\/p>\n But if you look at the era in which it was made, of course it\u2019s that way. Aliens <\/i>was released in 1986, the heyday of big, bombastic, crazy action spectacle. Stars like Schwarzenegger and Stallone were household names. Stallone even had two of the three highest-grossing movies from the year before, with Rambo: First Blood Part II<\/i>, a movie where he wins the Vietnam War, and Rocky IV<\/i>, a movie where he wins the Cold War. <\/span><\/p>\n Over-the-top action was the order of the day in the mid-\u201880s, and Aliens <\/i>transcends the genre through its dedication to character work. There\u2019s over an hour of buildup before our crew even sees their first alien, and the time spent with those characters at the beginning makes the film much more visceral in its second half. Hell, Sigourney Weaver was nominated for an Oscar for Aliens<\/i>. How many action movie performances can you say that about?<\/span><\/p>\n .<\/span><\/p>\n But at the start of the decade, we saw blockbusters that took crazy premises and treated them relatively seriously \u2013 your Terminator 2<\/i>s, your Jurassic Park<\/i>s, your Point Break<\/i>s. And David Fincher\u2019s Alien 3 <\/i>fits right alongside them. Sure, it\u2019s not as good as those movies (especially in its original theatrical cut, legendarily cut to hell by the studio). But it captures the spirit of Alien <\/i>pretty well, scaling back the action of Aliens <\/i>to deliver a more isolated story that packs some punch. Time has been kind to Alien 3<\/i>, which initially courted controversy for beginning with the offscreen deaths of two fan-favorite characters and ending with the death of its fan-favorite lead. It\u2019s a bleak, nihilistic exercise that manages to still have enough going for it to recommend. Charles S. Dutton and Charles Dance deliver strong performances, and Fincher taps into some genuinely tense sequences. It all falls apart at the end, but man, the movie is a trip. <\/span><\/p>\n To Alien Resurrection<\/i>\u2019s credit though, it does feature Ron Perlman dual-wielding pistols while hanging upside down from a ladder. It\u2019s important to appreciate the little things in life.<\/span><\/p>\n .<\/span><\/p>\n Building on an Easter egg from Predator 2 <\/i>some 14 years earlier, Alien vs. Predator <\/i>has its moments. It even features the return of Lance Henriksen to the franchise. The whole thing feels a lot more lifeless than an all-out battle between two movie icons should, though. Interestingly, it wouldn\u2019t be the last Alien <\/i>movie to exist mostly to explain set decoration from a previous movie (hello, Prometheus<\/i>!). <\/span><\/p>\n The sequel, Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem<\/i>, is much worse, and looks like it was shot with the lens cap still on the camera. The AvP <\/i>movies represent the most cynical aspects of franchise filmmaking, smushing two popular properties together without giving any thought to how well they actually fit. Besides, they never made Alien vs. Predator vs. RoboCop<\/i>, so what was the point of this whole thing?<\/span><\/p>\nThe ’70s: Alien <\/i>\u2013 The Intense Sci-Fi Story<\/b><\/span><\/h3>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/Alien-LB.jpg\")
<\/a>\u201cIn space, no one can hear you scream.\u201d The tagline for Alien <\/i>was more of a mission statement than a marketing ploy. Throughout the 1960s and \u201870s, sci-fi films had begun to grow out of their \u201850s B-movie roots into something to be taken more seriously. Advancements in filmmaking styles and visual effects changed what one could do with science fiction, which resulted in a bolder, more intense, and often more cerebral kind of movie. 2001: A Space Odyssey <\/i>(1968) <\/i>is probably the definitive sci-fi movie of the era, and other movies like Solaris <\/i>(1972), Invasion of the Body Snatchers <\/i>(1978), and The Man Who Fell to Earth <\/i>(1976) kept science fiction for adults alive. <\/span><\/p>\nThe \u201880s: Aliens <\/i>\u2013 The Crazy Action Story<\/b><\/span><\/h3>\n
<\/a>And evolve it did. James Cameron was given the unenviable task of creating a follow-up to Alien, <\/i>and his idea was this: let\u2019s do the same thing, but bigger. He threw in more aliens, more characters, more explosions, more emotions. Aliens <\/i>is one of the definitive action movies of its decade, and a big 180 from what Ridley Scott did with Alien<\/i>.<\/span><\/p>\nThe \u201890s: Alien 3 <\/i>and Alien Resurrection <\/i>\u2013 Let\u2019s Throw Everything At The Wall And See What Sticks<\/b><\/span><\/h3>\n
<\/a>The \u201890s were a confused time for blockbusters, but it\u2019s safe to say that most of them were goofy as hell. The advent of CGI meant studios could let loose with all kinds of nonsense, and directors like Michael Bay, Roland Emmerich, and Paul W.S. Anderson proved you could make a successful movie by blowing up a whole lot of shit next to famous people. <\/span><\/p>\n<\/a>Alien Resurrection <\/i>is the opposite end of the spectrum, playing more like Independence Day <\/i>or Event Horizon <\/i>even as it recreates the setting of the original film. The late-\u201890s silly-blockbuster boom would probably reach its zenith with Wild Wild West<\/i>, and Alien Resurrection <\/i>is not far ahead of that in terms of quality. That\u2019s a shame given the level of talent involved; it was directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet (who would go on to make Amelie<\/i>) and written by Joss Whedon, of all people. But Jeunet\u2019s direction lacks the self-awareness of Whedon\u2019s screenplay, and Whedon\u2019s dialogue lacks the visceral punch of Jeunet\u2019s visuals. The pair were a bad fit for each other, and the result was a film that follows a Ripley clone who has super basketball powers 200 years in the future. The last 20 minutes make this movie a must-see for anybody interested in a \u201cwhat the hell am I watching?\u201d kind of movie \u2013 it involves an Alien Queen giving birth to an Alien\/Human hybrid and it recognizing Ripley as its mother before getting its brains and organs sucked out the back of its head through a small hole in the ship. <\/span><\/p>\nThe 2000s<\/b>: Alien vs. Predator <\/i>and Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem <\/i>\u2013 The Cynical Cash Grab<\/b><\/span><\/h3>\n
<\/a>Hollywood has always been obsessed with sequels, and as we\u2019ve seen in recent years, it has become more obsessed with cinematic universes. We can blame Marvel for that (though the Universal Monsters and Kevin Smith got there first), but the 2000s saw a couple of other stabs at universe-crossing. Freddy Krueger and Jason Voorhees faced off in 2003\u2019s Freddy vs. Jason<\/i>, and just a year later, our beloved Xenomorph fought against another iconic movie monster in Alien vs. Predator<\/i>. <\/span><\/p>\n