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With Alien: Earth and Predator:Badlands coming soon, I was going to do a marathon of Alien/Predator films.

The question is, should I watch them via release date, chronological, or just watch the best ones in the series (Because there are a lot of them).

Alien franchise:
Alien (1979)
Aliens (1986)
Alien 3 (1992)
Alien Resurrection (1997)
Prometheus (2012)
Alien: Covenant (2017)
Alien: Romulus (2024)

Predator franchise:
Predator (1987)
Predator 2 (1990)
Alien vs. Predator (2004)
Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem (2007)
Predators (2010)
The Predator (2018)
Prey (2022)


(And no, I didn't include Blade Runner/Soldier in this list, just because in the 20th anniversary Alien DVD from 1999, which includes the files of all the crew, and mentions Dallas performing duties for the Tyrell Corporation).

Watch the first 3 alien films and the first 2 predators and then go do something better with the time you will have saved by skipping all the other dross.

Here, I'll save you a lot of time.


Alien franchise:
Alien (1979)
Aliens (1986)

Predator franchise:
Predator (1987)
Prey (2022)

Predator
Predator 2
Prey

Tremors 2. (Don’t ask just watch)

Alien
Aliens
Starship Troopers

(Wait one year)

Alien 3 and Romulus
I Come In Peace



This is the optimal order.

 Ahtman wrote:
Here, I'll save you a lot of time.


Alien franchise:
Alien (1979)
Aliens (1986)

Predator franchise:
Predator (1987)
Prey (2022)

This is Predator 2 erasure. That film had Bill Paxton and Gary Busey, AND a voodoo druglord with a cane sword.

 Ahtman wrote:
Here, I'll save you a lot of time.


Alien franchise:
Alien (1979)
Aliens (1986)

Predator franchise:
Predator (1987)
Prey (2022)

these are some BAD takes
Predator 2 is really good, alot of people have come around too it
Predators, while mediocre, is still watchable, and if you like predator lore, theres tones, like how all of them are bad bloods mostly
Killer of killers in enjoyable.
Romulus is peak Sci-fi.

Alien and Predator really only cross over after AVP and beyond - before that they are entirely separate film franchises and only cross over in things like comics (though even then there's a lot of separation in general).

My view is there are 5 good Alien films
Alien
Aliens
Alien 3 Directors extended whatever cut
Alien 4 Resurrection
Alien Romulus


Alien 3 you want the directors extended because they put back a lot of the story and scenes which were originally cut for the cinema and the film actually makes sense. There IS one valid reason to watch the original cut and that's because the alien hatches from a dog not a cow and the hatching scene is possibly the second best after the original in terms of how actually horror inducing it is. It also helps explain where the dog went. The new cut changes to a cow and its - its a decent hatch but its just nothing like as scary/horror inducing for the franchise.


Alien 4 is good fun; yes the whole blood dna cloning is a bit quirky on the science; but its actually a solid fun action take on Alien. It was historically also the first time we really saw them doing a lot of action sequences and such without half the screen being black .



For Predator
Predator
Predator 2

I will freedly admit after the AVP films I've not kept up with watching the predator series

 Overread wrote:
Alien and Predator really only cross over after AVP and beyond - before that they are entirely separate film franchises and only cross over in things like comics (though even then there's a lot of separation in general).

My view is there are 5 good Alien films
Alien
Aliens
Alien 3 Directors extended whatever cut
Alien 4 Resurrection
Alien Romulus


Alien 3 you want the directors extended because they put back a lot of the story and scenes which were originally cut for the cinema and the film actually makes sense. There IS one valid reason to watch the original cut and that's because the alien hatches from a dog not a cow and the hatching scene is possibly the second best after the original in terms of how actually horror inducing it is. It also helps explain where the dog went. The new cut changes to a cow and its - its a decent hatch but its just nothing like as scary/horror inducing for the franchise.


Alien 4 is good fun; yes the whole blood dna cloning is a bit quirky on the science; but its actually a solid fun action take on Alien. It was historically also the first time we really saw them doing a lot of action sequences and such without half the screen being black .



For Predator
Predator
Predator 2

I will freedly admit after the AVP films I've not kept up with watching the predator series

alien 3 is half a good film. It looks amazing (deffo the most 40k looking film ever made), everything is rusted and broken. Superb cast too (who are mostly wasted). Given how much of a nightmare the production was it’s a miracle it’s as good as it is.

The main problems are that after the setup the story goes nowhere and they don’t do anything interesting with the monster. Ripley is kind of passive and just hanging around until the story requires her to do something decisive. The last act is a load of bald men running around corridors screaming. I’ve seen the directors cut thing and it’s got the same issues imo.

4 sucks but at least it has a cool French director with a bit of style.

Romulus was just another rehash of the greatest hits.

Wait, Alien³ was changed to the xenomorph popping out of a cow?

I've never seen that. What version is that?

Whatever the latest revised version is for it.


You can catch the scene itself here:

We’ve also Alien Earth coming first.

And I swear that’s a Yautja ship that stacks it in the trailer, and we here that signature clicky noise too.

I don’t get why they’ve never crossed over Gremlins and Critters. They’re both from space, both violent, and both love misappropriating technology.

The Gremlins novel opens with the Mogwai bringing down a galactic civilization. Surely such desperate times allow for the formation of some kind of suicide squad of the galaxy’s worst, Crites. Throw in some shapeshifters playing both sides for intrigue, and boom, blockbuster nostalgia bait.

But yeah, Aliens and Predators should in theory work, too.

Alien Resurrection was a fun rewatch after I realized that Joss Whedon wrote it.
For example, if you can hear the merc crew's lines and performances with a Firefly flavor, it changes the tone.
Unfortunately, it was quite literally lost in translation to the director.

Alien Resurrection has a lot going for it, and is genuinely underrated. Its main crime is not being as good as Alien or Aliens.

My main Big Tick? Soon as it all goes tits up, there’s no attempt to try to recontain the threat. Set the self destruct, everyone out as quickly as possible. We cannot fight these things. And like cheap toilet paper after a strong curry? Trying to do so is just going to make more a mess.

Its main issue the whole Hybrid not really working. The colour is very wrong, it had weird genitals digitally erased from its gut area (which looked super weird in a good way). And inexplicably Had No Tail, which unbalanced the whole thing.

So despite an otherwise competent and interest film, which only used CGI where it was the only answer (and the swimming aliens still look great)? People only remember the hybrid for the wrong reasons.

 skrulnik wrote:
Alien Resurrection was a fun rewatch after I realized that Joss Whedon wrote it.
For example, if you can hear the merc crew's lines and performances with a Firefly flavor, it changes the tone.
Unfortunately, it was quite literally lost in translation to the director.

Whedon actually had the nerve to complain that his video game level script was mishandled by Jeunet - a director whose worse film is still 10000% better than anything Whedon ever did.

All water under the bridge now as Whedons hasn’t worked for years and his career is over.

With Alien, matter of taste if one prefers original cut or Directors cut. They're bit of a different movies. OC is maybe better.

In Aliens, original cut is actually better IMO. Extended cut add more scenes, but they don't really add much to the movie except runtime.

I like Alien 3, but it is one of those sequels which negates the ending of original movies (example: all Terminator movies since T2). I just hate that. I haven't seen the Cow cut.

I have seen A4 only once, and I don't really remember much except it had some fun stuff, but I hated the hybrid thing. All the 'hybrids' are screenwriting equivalent of jumping over a shark pool wearing leather jacket.

Prometheus is garbage, so is Covenant. They don't add anything meaningful to the 'lore', and really aren't good movies in general. Haven't seen Romulus.

Predator 2 is otherwise decent movie, except for the lead. I like Danny Glover, but he's big time miscast here. He is just not believable in so physical role.

I haven't seen Prey, but most people seem to have liked it. I don't think it is chronologically tied to other movies, one might just as well start with it I suppose?

Predators has cool ideas and settings, but mostly weak casting and execution. If one wants to watch it, it comes after P2.

The Predator is unbelievably bad and should not be watched by anyone. It does not understand what the Predator movies are about.

AvP is really dumb and makes no sense, no practical connection to other movies, has maybe 1 or 2 okay scenes. Skip unless you're completionist.

Requiem again has a hybrid - see above. Also it's really dumb, again. However I actually like the character "Wolf" there. But again probably better to skip it.

Killer of Killers is mostly a fun romp.

Let's get weird: Chronological order (Assuming you don't start chopping things up and watching bits of movies in the exact order):

Prey
Predator: Killer of Killers
Predator
AvP: Alien Vs Predator
AvP Requiem
Predators
The Predator
Blade Runner (In the DVD extras for Alien it says that Dallas worked for the Tyrell corporation before joining Wayland-Yutani)
Soldier (1998) (the writer considers it to be set in the same universe as Blade Runner, and therefore Alien. There are some references to Blade Runner in the movie)
Blade Runner 2049
Outland (Not officially part of the series but shares an aesthetic and some of the same production team)
Prometheus
Covenant
Alien:Earth (when it's out)
Alien
Alien: 40th Anniversary Shorts
Alien: Romulus
Alien Isolation: The Digital Series (animated series of the game)
Alien3
Alien Resurrection
Predator: Badlands
Firefly (Wayland-Yutani exists in the Firefly universe, as seen in this screenshot of the HUD from the Firefly pilot episode)
Serenity

Make sure to consider the Alien 3 Legacy Cut Project

https://www.a34k.net/

Pistols at Dawn wrote:
Watch the first 3 alien films and the first 2 predators and then go do something better with the time you will have saved by skipping all the other dross.

The correct answer to the original question came pretty early on in the thread, congrats


I’m glad to see at least some love for Alien 3 here. While it’s not in the same league as the first two films I think it deserves repeated viewings, if only because it finishes the Ripley story well. Resurrection is not only a terrible Alien film (not so terrible if you just view it as an action sci fi film unrelated to the franchise) it also completely unnecessarily brought Ripley back.

If you are going to do a marathon viewing of both the Alien franchise and the Predator franchise I wouldn’t overthink it and just watch the films in order of release. It’s not like we’re talking about Star Wars here. Alien Romulus takes place after Alien and before Aliens so there is that to consider, though I wouldn’t worry about that too much.

I would recommend...

Alien
Aliens
Alien Romulus

Predator
Predator 2
Predators
Prey

Alien 3 if you want to wrap up Ripley's story of sticking it to Weyland Yutani.

Prometheus and Covenant if you want context for the goo in Romulus (but these are not good).

Killer of Killers if you want to build on Predators core concept with some neat little stories by the creator behind Prey.

AVP is bad and if you want to see Aiens and Preds in the same movie watch AvP Requiem and just understand that the movie is way too dark but the Pred and Aliens behave appropriately and pretty great. My favorite Pred in this one.

Skip the Blade Runner/Soldier films and the Firefly/Serenity stuff. Saying that an Easter Egg ties the series together is like saying you need to watch Star Trek First Contact to enjoy Star Wars, because the Millennium Falcon is seen fighting the Borg.

Plus Joss Weldon says there's no aliens in the 'Verse.

 BobtheInquisitor wrote:
This is Predator 2 erasure. That film had Bill Paxton and Gary Busey, AND a voodoo druglord with a cane sword.

I was torn on Predator 2 tbh, and flipped a coin and this was the result.

 hotsauceman1 wrote:
these are some BAD takes

I should have made it clearer that I was selecting the only films I would consider must watch; it is not a list of good/bad. Many of the other films have good qualities but I wouldn't consider them mandatory for introducing someone who hasn't seen any of the films. Macho Man Randy Savage is only looking for the cream of the crop, not just the good ones.



Haven't watched Killer of Killers yet so no opinion one way or the other.

The preferred watchlist:
ALIEN:
Alien (1979)
Aliens (1986
Alien cubed (1992)
read the dark horse comics

PREDATOR:
Predator (1987)*
Predator 2 (1990)
watch First Blood if you want a similar experience

ALIEN VS PREDATOR:
Contrary to popular belief, this was never a film series.
Play the awesome Capcom arcade game and the 1999 FPS if you want.

That's it. Shame they never made more of these films. It would be cool if they made a Predator revival in, I don't know, 2018 or something but it's a shame they didn't.

I’m gonna disagree that Predator is akin to First Blood.

The joy of Predator is how it starts off as Standard Arnie’s Army Action Flick. Then entire flips it on its head, where all of mankind’s nastiest weapons are of little use. Where our Apex Males are suddenly and shockingly utterly outclassed by Another - one adept as using the environment to its advantage.

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
I’m gonna disagree that Predator is akin to First Blood.

The joy of Predator is how it starts off as Standard Arnie’s Army Action Flick. Then entire flips it on its head, where all of mankind’s nastiest weapons are of little use. Where our Apex Males are suddenly and shockingly utterly outclassed by Another - one adept as using the environment to its advantage.

That is true, the script is pretty smart for that to be honest, but what I meant was if you wanted similar action, or just liked half-naked guys in forests/jungles shooting stuff up

 bullisariuscowl wrote:

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
I’m gonna disagree that Predator is akin to First Blood.

The joy of Predator is how it starts off as Standard Arnie’s Army Action Flick. Then entire flips it on its head, where all of mankind’s nastiest weapons are of little use. Where our Apex Males are suddenly and shockingly utterly outclassed by Another - one adept as using the environment to its advantage.

That is true, the script is pretty smart for that to be honest, but what I meant was if you wanted similar action, or just liked half-naked guys in forests/jungles shooting stuff up

The Internet says Predator had a deeper message.

I did not make this up:

Dutch's team represents a kind of blue-collar brand of toxic masculinity, but the Predator itself is The Patriarchy, which shows us just how unforgiving and indiscriminately oppressive these systems are. Dutch and his men are just as much victims of these systems as those they help to oppress.

That is just a pretty good interpretation of the movie.
is it what was was intended, probably not. But you can interpret it that way.

 Quixote wrote:

 bullisariuscowl wrote:

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
I’m gonna disagree that Predator is akin to First Blood.

The joy of Predator is how it starts off as Standard Arnie’s Army Action Flick. Then entire flips it on its head, where all of mankind’s nastiest weapons are of little use. Where our Apex Males are suddenly and shockingly utterly outclassed by Another - one adept as using the environment to its advantage.

That is true, the script is pretty smart for that to be honest, but what I meant was if you wanted similar action, or just liked half-naked guys in forests/jungles shooting stuff up

The Internet says Predator had a deeper message.

I did not make this up:

Dutch's team represents a kind of blue-collar brand of toxic masculinity, but the Predator itself is The Patriarchy, which shows us just how unforgiving and indiscriminately oppressive these systems are. Dutch and his men are just as much victims of these systems as those they help to oppress.

when i said it was smart, i moreso meant how it goes from dutch's team being hunted by an alien who we barely see, realizing by showing the alien it loses the horror, then quite literally flipping the script and reversing the roles, and still being thrilling. but i guess that kind of works too

Concept of 'Predator' is to take human stock characters, establish them as badasses - folks whom you would not expect to play victim role in a horror movie - and then put them against something even deadlier than them.

Predator 2 sorta follows this formula, in kind of muddled fashion, and partly works.

Predators got the formula right, but execution was partially botched. AvP movies, or The Predator, don't understand the formula, in those Predator is just a monster in an action flick.

Maybe I'll just stick to the best movies and leave the chaff for another day.

Thank you for the help!

Just remember the most important thing - we can't tell you what to like or hate.

You might love AVP and hate Alien 1 and Predator. And that's ok!