Why ‘Alien’ Director Ridley Scott Hated ‘Alien vs. Predator’
Ridley Scott’s Alien remains one of the most acclaimed horror movies of all time. The spinoff Alien vs. Predator, however, is not as beloved. Scott revealed he had issues with Alien vs. Predator and the Alien franchise as a whole.
Ridley Scott said the ‘Alien’ films were ‘dead in the water’
Scott forever changed science fiction and horror when he released the original Alien in 1979. Since then, he put out popular science fiction movies like Blade Runner and The Martian and films in other genres like Thelma & Louise and Gladiator. During a 2019 interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Scott discussed the evolution of the Alien franchise.
“You get to the point when you say, ‘OK, it’s dead in the water,'” he said. “I think Alien vs. Predator was a daft idea. And I’m not sure it did very well or not, I don’t know. But it somehow brought down the beast.”
Why Ridley Scott felt the original film worked
Scott returned to the Alien prequel Prometheus on his own terms. “And I said to them, ‘Listen, you can resurrect this, but we have to go back to scratch and go to a prequel, if you like,'” he said. “So we go to Prometheus, which was not bad actually. But you know, there’s no alien in it, except the baby at the end that showed, itself, the possibility. I mean, it had the silhouette of an alien, right?”
Scott explained the reason why the creatures from the original Alien were so frightening. “The alien [origin concept] is uniquely attached to Mother Nature,” he opined. “It simply comes off a wood beetle that will lay eggs inside some unsuspecting insect.
“And in so doing, the form of the egg will become the host for this new creature,” he added. “That’s hideous. But that was what it was. And you can’t keep repeating that because the joke gets boring.” Well, that didn’t stop the production of many Alien films, novels, comic books, video games, rip-offs, and spoofs.
‘Alien vs. Predator’ was a blockbuster but it didn’t launch much of a franchise
Regardless of Scott’s comments, Alien vs. Predator was a financial hit. Of course it was! Crossover movies were rare back then, so a film that combined the popular Alien and Predator franchises was sure to strike a chord.
Box Office Mojo reports the movie earned over $80 million in the United States and over $97 million in other countries. Combined, Alien vs. Predator grossed more than $177 million. That’s a massive haul for a horror movie! The actual test of a film’s success in the modern era is whether or not it inspired a sequel. Alien vs. Predator spawned Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem. However, the crossover franchise stopped there and fans aren’t clamoring for another entry. At best, Aliens vs. Predator is considered goofy fun, but nobody thinks it’s a good movie. It’s often brought up in the same breath as Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man, another crossover horror film that wasn’t very good.
The Alien franchise has yet another chance to recuperate with the new film Alien: Romulus. Maybe it’ll be the first quality film in the franchise since Aliens. Or maybe it’ll be another mediocre science fiction monster movie.
