10 Alien Mistakes Neill Blomkamp Should Totally Erase

Most of Alien 3, basically.

Ask anybody who likes the Alien movies what the biggest problem with the franchise is and you'll probably get an answer along the lines of: "Everything they did after Aliens." Which would be something of a glib reply, of course, but not an entirely unfair one. After all, David Fincher's follow-up, Alien 3, is credited with having made some of the worst narrative judgement calls in the history of any franchise, ever. And the decision to bring back Ripley after her death for another go-around in Alien: Resurrection... well, "she's a clone" was never going to do the series justice, was it? Last week, it was revealed that Neill Blomkamp, the South African director behind the modern sci-fi masterpiece that is District 9, and not quite so great (but still interesting) second and third features, Elysium and Chappie, has signed on to deliver a brand spanking new movie. Not Prometheus 2, mind, but an actual, fully-fledged sequel to be considered in the same pantheon of motion pictures as Ridley Scott's classic and James Cameron's similarly classic sequel. How he plans to approach the material remains vague, however. There have been a few rumours circling in and around the possibility of a retcon, given that Blomkamp has made a few comments regarding his new film as something of a "follow-up" to Aliens. Which, of course, implies that Alien 3 and Alien: Resurrection are to be written out. Blomkamp has denied that his sequel will remove said movies from the established canon, but failed to explain, exactly, the context in Alien 5 will fit in... However he sets out to do it, then, here are 10 mistakes that Blomkamp should find a way to erase from the series in order to craft the best movie imaginable, given he's presented with the opportunity to play around with the canon however he chooses...
Contributor

Sam Hill is an ardent cinephile and has been writing about film professionally since 2008. He harbours a particular fondness for western and sci-fi movies.