10 Reasons There Are Only 2 And A Half Good Alien Movies

8. Technology Goes Backwards

Prometheus Website
Fox

A great deal of Alien’s atmosphere comes down to its clunky, imperfect technology, from CRT monitors to flickering lights and static-filled radio transmissions. While some of this can be ascribed to the technology level of the 1970s, it is also a deliberate analogy to the idea of a ‘haunted house in space’, where the Nostromo is just as shabby and run-down as a decaying ghost-filled mansion.

Skip forward (and back, kind of) to Prometheus and the latest offering, Alien: Covenant. Suddenly spaceships are run by holographic displays instead of coffee-stained keyboards. The Prometheus is somehow advanced enough to boast a whole hidden wing and a !*$% pool table, along with a magical healing robot booth thing that would have been pretty damned useful in the first three movies. And yet Prometheus is a prequel, set before Alien, and so technology seems to have gone backwards in the intervening time.

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Ben Counter is a fantasy and science fiction writer, gaming enthusiast, wrestling fan and miniature painting guru. He was raised on Warhammer, Star Wars and 1980s cartoons that, in retrospect, were't that good. Whoever you are, he is nerdier than you.