The original Alien - that is, the original design of the Xenomorph creature in the first movie - is perfect. With every subsequent movie in the franchise, 20th Century Fox have allowed those involved to tweak and change the Xenomorph in a variety of different ways - presumably in order to make things more "exciting." The truth is: none of the upgraded versions of the Alien had as much impact as the first. The creature doesn't need to evolve and morph and transform or reveal itself to have different abilities whenever there's a new installment. It's not important. The first version of the Xenomorph is, by far, the most imposing, frightening and memorable of all the designs. Whenever the filmmakers tweak the monster in order to make it more "badass," it loses something. And Neill Blomkamp looks as though he's planning on doing the same in Alien 5; his recent concept art appears to show another upgraded version of the Xenomorph. Why can't he just settle for the classic design? For Alien 5, then, Blomkamp needs to erase every "upgraded" version of the Xenomorph that has found itself shoe-horned into every sequel since Aliens (not the queen, of course; she makes sense). You can't improve on perfection.
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.
