The rare and special sequel that is not only worse than its predecessors but that makes its predecessors seem worse too. Seem, more exactly, to have been not worth the bother. Set in an extraterrestrial penal colony and crackpot religious sanctuary, where the shaven-headed inmates call each other "wankers" among …
Ridley Scott finishes what he started in Prometheus: the story of David (Michael Fassbender), a sentient creation who discovers that his creator is laughably inferior, but still potentially useful. (There’s a bang-up opening scene featuring David’s awakening — physical and otherwise — for those who may have thought they were …
This creature-feature has, and is, a good time, but it works very hard and spends a lot of money in order to have it. The question is, is it worth it? This question comes up not only because this movie seems much too heavily endowed for the simple, 1950s-style monster …
Dimly socially conscious sci-fi about interplanetary (more than just interracial) cop partners, on the trail of one of the alien's fellows. (We are given a derogatory term for them -- "slags" -- such as must accompany all minorities; and we are invited -- no, begged -- to laugh at their …
Ripley, believe it or not, has been cloned from a drop of her own blood, with new superhuman strength as befits her stature as a Cultural Icon. But it is not for herself that she has been brought back from the dead. It is for the alien queen inside her, …
Well, that was a surprise. The plan seemed clear enough: over the course of Prometheus and Covenant, the Alien franchise had gotten a little too far from its nightmarish roots — body horror, monster scares, and corporate malfeasance giving way to existential searches for meaning, the war of creation vs. …
Space colonizers come face to face with the most terrifying life-form in the universe while scavenging the deep ends of a derelict space station. Directed by Fede Álvarez.
The cross-series combat continues on a crash-landed spacecraft in Colorado, and spills into the small town of Crested Butte. The brothers Colin and Greg Strause, visual-effects technicians in their feature directing debut, appear to be on very poor terms with human beings, and not a whole lot better terms with …
This creature-feature has, and is, a good time, but it works very hard and spends a lot of money in order to have it. The question is, is it worth it? This question comes up not only because this movie seems much too heavily endowed for the simple, 1950s-style monster …
To feel affection for the grade-Z science-fiction films of the Fifties, especially as their descendants get ever more deluxe, is perfectly natural and no cause for shame. (A Not-Guilty Pleasure.) To set out in the 21st Century to make a grade-Z science-fiction film of the Fifties, purportedly shelved and now …
Plural, more accurately: Aliens vs. Predators, facing off in the arena of an ancient pyramid under the Antarctic ice. Notwithstanding the outward hostilities, it's a pragmatic pooling of commercial assets by the Fox studio, profit motive only. A clearer motive, at any rate, than that of the dreadlocked Predators, who, …