No matter how good the movie, nor how timeless a concept, most movie franchises have a finite shelf-life in the public eye. This isn’t due to some failure on their part — some singularly bad entry in the franchise that killed off all future sequels or losing the face of the franchise — because any number of franchises have survived these losses.
Batman and Robin was merely a setback and X-Men: The Last Stand turned out to be something that Fox just had to power through. Bond has famously outlived any of the actors cast in the lead role and even the Marvel movies have been forced to recast key actors who dropped out of their sprawling cinematic universe. Hell, they keep making those new DC movies year after year, and nobody seems to like them all that much.
No, what kills franchises is their relevance to the culture at large. Studios might bull-headedly charge through with new installments thinking that this movie is going to be the mega-hit to revive the series, or cash in whatever good will it had banked over the years as a nostalgia property that nobody wants to see, but the writing’s pretty much written on the wall for everybody to see. Even former industry giants like Terminator and Power Rangers have their expiration dates.
So when I ask if the Alien franchise is still relevant, it’s not a question of how well the first movie holds up (better than ever), if the titular monster needs an design update (it does not) or if the concept of “Jaws in Space” still works (Life already proved that it does). It’s a question of whether or not this specific film property is still, in and of itself, worthwhile. It’s not just a matter of “can they make another good Alien movie,” but whether it’s even worth trying anymore.
Even the most die-hard Alien fan out there will admit that they haven’t made an obviously good movie since the second one more than thirty years ago. Although a noble effort, Alien 3 was botched by studio interference: with scenes cut to the marrow to make room for more kills and little to keep your attention over its gratuitous runtime. Despite being helmed by a renowned French auteur and penned by genre fanatic Joss Whedon, Alien Resurrection was a schizophrenic mess that didn’t know if it wanted to be a horror, action or comedy film.
While fun, I don’t think that anybody will seriously defend the two Alien vs Predator movies are being any good whatsoever. They’re a reskinned Freddy vs Jason directed by the singular talent responsible for Event Horizon. And don’t even get me started on Prometheus.
The best the franchise has ever managed was futuristic creature feature, a genre riff on the Vietnam war and that one good survival horror game that basically just remade the first movie with new characters. The franchise is tired and has been without anything to show for itself since 1986. And if not for the bullheaded insistence of Ridley Scott, who directed the first and latest two movies in the franchise, it probably would have been put on ice years ago.
That being said, there is still hope for the franchise to make a comeback. Although the early word on Alien: Covenant is increasingly troubling, it still looks like the best Alien movie since the first two. Life‘s success proved a need for the exact kind of creature feature that this franchise has always excelled at. And though not breaking any new ground, Alien Isolation demonstrated that compelling stories and interesting characters can be made using the pieces at this franchise’s disposal, it’s just that nobody’s been able to do it on the big screen for decades.
So yes, the franchise is still relevant, even if the movies haven’t been for ages. If Fox stopped chasing Prometheus sequels and brought things back to the basics — an isolated crew, a badass female and the perfect predator — these movies might actually be worth watching again.
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