LOVING THE A L I E N

Alien, Aliens, Alien3, Alien Resurrection: four films four talented directors and one particular species of Xenomorph.
Those eggs laid on LV-426 have got a lot to answer for. But there's one character holding it together Ellen Ripley superbly portrayed by Sigourney Weaver despite the variances in quality. 

Alien is the superb father of the franchise and had instant classic status the moment after I first saw it at the Odeon Marble Arch in 1979. It's intricacies and suspense cross genres and the shock that the movie instilled in audiences was and is unforgettable.

Aliens was the offspring that approached the subject for a different angle and manages to be a triumphant war movie to sit alongside it's claustrophobic parent.

When watching Alien3 it seems clear that there was a great degree of muddled thinking and interference. Fincher's vision by all accounts  seemed clear but comes across muddled. Hiding in this movie is a far superior product: a case of what might have been



Alien Resurrection has its moments but the final reveal of the hybrid alien ruins any of the previous good work: a flawed but valiant attempt at injecting something new.

So we await Neill Blomkamp's addition to the cannon and, based on his films to date, I have high expectations: that and the fact that he is purportedly picking things up from the end of Aliens. We shall say, and hopefully I will still be loving the Alien after seeing it.