Alien: Earth has this week brought the popular sci-fi horror franchise to the small screen (Hulu in the US, Disney+ in the UK) for the first time.
Show creator Noah Hawley has done a first class job expanding the universe first conceived by writers Dan O'Bannon and Ronald Shusett, artist H.R. Giger, and director Ridley Scott. Set two years before the events of the original Alien movie, it brings the horror back to planet Earth:
In a sci-fi universe not so far away, Predator: Badlands is also due to hit cinemas on November 7th. After successfully reconfiguring the franchise with 2022’s Prey, Dan Trachtenberg brings the series back (or rather forward) to a more familiar futuristic timeline – albeit with a whole new twist on the lore. This time, the extraterrestrial antagonist becomes the protagonist.
These two modern day monsters have come razor-toothed face-to-face several times in the past, though not always with the best results. Indeed, both the Alien and Predator series respectively have turned out their fair share of duds in among the masterpieces.
All of which has encouraged us to smoosh together all of the live action cinematic outings of both IPs and rank them in order, from worst to best — so contentious are some films in the series, that even the editor of this piece demanded a re-ordering. The last word in sci-fi horror, pitting these two against each other is the only face off that really matters.
14. Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem
Release: 2007
Director: The Brothers Strause
How do you make an Alien vs. Predator movie that’s worse than the schlocky original? We don’t know how, but somewhat impressively, Requiem manages it. The film relocates the action to small town America – just about the blandest setting in the history of either franchise – with the most annoying and one-dimensional cast of teens to supposedly root for.
13. Alien vs. Predator
Release: 2004
Director: Paul W. S. Anderson
Take two of Hollywood’s greatest and deadliest monster creations, place them in a shared environment, and press record. It must have sounded as close to a sure thing as it was possible to get back in 2004. What Paul W. S. Anderson actually produced was a braindead action B-movie that does minimal justice to either property. The tagline of "Whoever wins - we lose" takes on a resonance the producers probably didn’t intend.
![The Predator | Official Trailer [HD] | 20th Century FOX - YouTube](https://img.youtube.com/vi/WaG1KZqrLvM/maxresdefault.jpg)
12. The Predator
Release: 2018
Director: Shane Black
The pairing of a then-resurgent Shane Black with the Predator series, some 30 years after he appeared in the original as an actor (his character died early) seemed appropriate. The resulting fourquel, while promising much, delivers only scant pleasures, with a crass and callous script that will leave you struggling to care who lives and who gets eviscerated by a shoulder cannon.
![Alien: Covenant | Official Trailer [HD] | 20th Century FOX - YouTube](https://img.youtube.com/vi/svnAD0TApb8/maxresdefault.jpg)
11. Alien: Covenant
Release: 2017
Director: Ridley Scott
Alien: Covenant took us on a shortcut from the disappointingly tangential Prometheus, via some whiplash-inducing exposition, to a scenario and cast that might be more familiar to Alien fans. The result, however, turns out to be an even less worthy production than its immediate predecessor. At least Prometheus possessed a sense of intrigue and grandeur – Covenant, for its part, is just a less effective version of what went before.
10. Alien Resurrection
Release: 1997
Director: Jean-Pierre Jeunet
Giving oddball French director Jean-Pierre Jeunet the reins of the blockbuster Alien series was a commendably brave decision, but it doesn’t quite pay off. His quirky European sensibility fails to sync up successfully with Joss Whedon’s quippy script and the straight up monster movie at the film’s core, with tonally jarring results. It looks stunning, though, and you have to love Sigourney Weaver’s rendition of a not-quite-human Ellen Ripley clone.
9. Predator 2
Release: 1990
Director: Stephen Hopkins
Predator 2 gets a bad rap, and it’s easy to see why when you compare it to the masterful original. This is certainly no Aliens (though Bill Paxton does feature), and its vision of a near-future LA plagued by gang violence sure ain’t nuanced. However, there’s a sense of lurid fun to the way it transposes the action to the urban jungle, with Danny Glover’s weary detective providing a different flavour of hero to Arnie’s butch marine.
8. Alien 3
Release: 1992
Director: David Fincher
And it had all been going so well. After two consecutive sci-fi classics, 20th Century Fox completely dropped the ball with entry number three. The troubled production of Alien 3 has become industry legend, with disagreements over the direction of the franchise, multiple rewrites, and an out-of-his-depth David Fincher making his directorial debut. All factors that conspired to produce a bloody mess worthy of the film’s dog-themed xenomorph, who terrorises a futuristic prison populated by British character actors. There are many defenders of Alien 3 (and some who will die on the hill that is the 'Assembly Cut' director's cut version) — but there's the sense they're in love with the promise of what this film intends to be rather than what it actually is.
7. Predators
Release: 2018
Director: Nimród Antal
Director Nimród Antal threatened to get the becalmed Predator franchise moving again as far back as 2010. Here a colourful crew of humanity’s most effective killers is assembled on an alien planet, then set against a group of familiar crab-faced foes. There’s a surprisingly high grade to the acting talent on display here (Adrien Brody, Alice Braga, Walton Goggins, Mahershala Ali) that belies the B-movie vibes, while the action is efficiently doled out.
6. Prometheus
Release: 2012
Director: Ridley Scott
Prometheus sets out with much epic sci-fi promise, as a striving humanity seeks answers to the biggest of questions. The response, when it comes, is brutally violent, but not in the way you might expect. The relative lack of links to Alien lore is somewhat disappointing, and the film undoubtedly loses its way in the second half. But you have to admire Ridley Scott’s bloody-minded ambition to try something different with the franchise he helped kick off, and more than a decade later its special effects still look epic.
5. Prey
Release: 2022
Director: Dan Trachtenberg
Of the two franchises, Predator got its modern day house in order first with this surprise 2022 hit. Writer-director Dan Trachtenberg smartly resets expectations by placing the action on the Great Plains of North America some 300 years ago. Meanwhile, in Amber Midthunder’s Comanche warrior Naru, he has a resourceful hero worthy of Arnie and Glover, albeit much less grizzled.
4. Alien: Romulus
Release: 2024
Director: Fede Álvarez
The most recent cinematic entry to either series marks a welcome return to form, even if there’s not a whole lot that’s original about Alien: Romulus. Indeed, it almost plays out like a tribute to the 1979 original, as a group of put-upon space miners finds itself in confrontation with a lithe alien threat. Among a young cast, Cailee Spaeny gives off agreeable Ripley vibes, while the tense set pieces are some of the most sharply constructed in the series.
3. Predator
Release: 1987
Director: John McTiernan
The movies that kicked off both the Predator and Alien series remain the best of their respective bunches, but in Predator’s case it’s not even close. With the possible exception of Prey, no other entry gets within a razored gauntlet’s swipe of the original. It’s all laid out perfectly, from the Arnie-led crew of elite marines to the steamy jungle setting. Even the pacing is exemplary, with a slow-burn build up followed by moments of intense action, and culminating in a cat and mouse chase for the ages between our butch hero and his formidable foe. It takes something special for Arnie to play second fiddle to anyone or anything in his 80s heyday, but here the classic monster is the real star.
2. Aliens
Release: 1986
Director: James Cameron
How do you follow up a movie that could quite justifiably be labelled as both one of the best sci-movies and one of the best horror movies ever made? James Cameron smartly concluded that you don’t. Not directly, at least. Instead, you take H. R. Giger’s single xenomorph creature, multiply it to a whole horde, swap out the bedraggled space crew for a fully tooled up squad of marines, then let the mayhem unfurl. Result: a sci-fi action masterpiece and a more than worthy B-side to the masterful original.
1. Alien
Release: 1979
Director: Ridley Scott
It all started here, for both series. Without 1979’s Alien, it’s arguable that we wouldn’t have a whole host of ‘80s sci-fi action-horror movies – including Predator. Ridley Scott’s original still stands up to scrutiny today, with its impeccable world building, set design and lighting rendering it almost ageless. Throw in a crew of fully fleshed out oddball characters (including Sigourney Weaver’s deceptively steely Ripley), who are steadily picked off by one of cinema’s great monsters, and you have a truly singular cinematic achievement. Not just the best film on this list, but one of the greatest of all time, period.
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