Ranking the Alien Franchise, from Classic to Calamity

by Cláudio Alves

They call it a perfect organism. The beast brings forth destruction like nothing else in the universe, designed for maximum lethality and single-minded bloodlust. It slays and reproduces, only ever caring about the perpetuity of its kind over other living creatures. There are many ways for it to come into the world, whether through a mysterious black liquid or intelligent spores, an infection, or insemination by a violating face hugger. It is the product of mutation, ravaging existing beings as incubators or raw material for a further step in monstrous evolution. So, is it perfect or just good at killing and hard to kill? Is it perfect or an abomination? Am I talking about the xenomorph or the franchise that birthed it?

Through transforming genres and crossbreeding with other movie legacies, through artistic inspiration and corporative rot, through thick and thin, masterpieces and mediocrities, the Alien movies have persisted across decades. With its ninth installment now in theatres, it's a good time to take a look back at the saga and rank its nine films...

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Sony is Finally Serious About a "Dragon Tattoo" Sequel

Chris here. Just when you think the Lisbeth Salander ship has sailed, Sony keeps dangling a Girl With the Dragon Tattoo sequel potential in front of us even without original director David Fincher. Well now we have some concrete news: the studio is fast-tracking The Girl in the Spider's Web for a production start next year and they are courting Don't Breathe's Fede Alvarex to take the helm.

Curiously, this skips the two novels that follow Dragon Tattoo, which had at one point been discussed to be combined into a single film. Dropping those stories means we'll miss out on some of the series's most thrilling moments that are also heavy of Salander's background. Not written by original author Stieg Larsson, Spider's Web could be a more standalone piece to keep those reported high costs at bay. Either way, after Don't Breathe was a sharp and tidy thriller (and inching closer to a stunning $90 million gross) it's clear Alvarez is ready for a larger project.

So does this mean that Rooney Mara and Daniel Craig will be totting back to the Sweden's underbelly? Mara's interest is still piqued as of the last time she was asked (depsite rumors of an Alicia Vikander swap), but will the Brady Corbet-directed 70MM musical Vox Lux conflict? Craig can't seem to decide on whether or not to be Bond again, so I'm guessing no Mara would mean no Craig - he also has the miniseries adaptation Purity to keep him busy. Is the series worth exploring without the Fincher/Mara/Craig trifecta?