To say that the Alien franchise has failed to live up to its vast potential is an understatement. In the 40 years since Aliens, the critically-acclaimed 1986 sequel to its horrifying 1979 forebear Alien, debuted in theaters, the movie series has floundered more times than its iconic xenomorphs have been jettisoned into the never-ending void of space.
The lack of another critically-acclaimed sequel has not been for a lack of trying. Alien 3, David Fincher's feature-film directorial debut, and Alien Resurrection tried to do something different, but bombed at the box office. The abject Alien vs Predator crossover events, which saw the franchise's biomechanical killing machines battle another classic 80s monster icon, plus more recent entries like Prometheus and Alien: Covenant, haven't succeeded in revolutionizing the series, either.
