The 10 Best Alien Films Ever Made

PJ Media ^ | 12 Apr 2018 | Lauren Spagnoletti

[Rummyfan]

What is the first thing you think of when you think of an alien movie? Does Sigourney Weaver's bald head pop into your mind as you picture her battling extraterrestrials in Alien 3? Or do you think of something unconventional, like Cloverfield or District 9? The alien genre is one that has certainly evolved over the years as special effects and computer-generated images have improved far beyond anyone's wildest dreams. But the fact of the matter is that for an alien movie to be good (actually, for any movie to be good), it has to tell a really good story, have character development, and be entertaining. Even the most beautiful film can be terrible if you just don't care about the people (or aliens) that you're watching.

Here are my picks for the best alien movies—for various reasons—dating back to 1982. I don't believe that older necessarily means better, but I also don't believe that higher budget means better either. See what you think.

[yarddog]

I ordered “The Invaders” from Netflix back when you had them ship a DVD to you.

It was not as good as I remembered and it took a few episodes to get me back into it, but it was a good series.

[BenLurkin]

Edge of Tomorrow

[SgtHooper]

Alien Resurrection was good, too!!

[Steve_Seattle]

It isn’t exactly an alien movie (unless you consider the Morlocks to be aliens), but I liked the 1950’s version of “The Time Machine.”

[MarkL]

Falling Skies was really excellent. I also really loved the reboot of BattleStar Galactica.

Mark

[yarddog]

I can’t stand movies which are basically liberal propaganda.

That is what all the Aliens films were. Women are so much superior to men.

[P.O.E.]

Invaders from Mars—the original version

Agreed.

That movie scared the heck out of 8-year-old me when I saw it many moons ago.

[SgtHooper]

Funny, yet a fine movie! How about The Cabin in the Woods!?

[Steve_Seattle]

My favorite “Invaders” episode was the one with Suzanne Pleschette as an alien exotic dancer, and Edward Andrews as the alien journalist, Evans (”Vincent, my name is Evans. I’m a newspaperman; these are my credentials.”)

[Flick Lives]

OK, I’ll check it out.

The original TV series was quite good for the first few episodes, then went really badly downhill.

The feature film? When I bought my first DVD player, Magnavox had a surprise DVD included in the box, and it was “Lost in Space,” with Mimi Rogers and Matt LaBlanc. Somebody owes me money for the hour and a half I wasted trying to watch that horrible movie.

But I’ll check out the Netflix version, based on Freeper recommendations.

Mark

—

I’ve only watched the 1st episode of the new Netflix series, but it seems very well done. Sort of a homage to the original, but with some very interesting twists. The Robot being one of the more major twists!

I’d agree the movie version that came out back in the late 90’s was kind of weak.

[43north]

All of the films previously mentioned are good. My absolute favorite is Battle Los Angeles with Aaron Eckhart. USMC vs. Aliens in urban combat. If you haven’t seen it I recommend that you do. The Aliens are unique and appear to be unstoppable but the Marines eventually figure out their weaknesses and prevail. Lots of USMC fighting spirit, history, and modern high tech war fighting covered in the movie. Makes one proud to be an American!

[Zeneta]

“There will be War”

Interesting.

I’ll look it up.

The problem I have with most fiction writers is this desire they have to describe their characters and the setting in order to create an impression. It’s all fake.

[MarkL]

Two Sci Fi movies that are incredibly fun and entertaining, but are really bad movies are "The Fifth Element" and "Starship Troopers." I remember reading that the second was originally going to be billed as "Robert Heinlein's Starship Troopers," but Virginia Heinlein threatened legal action for how they changed the story. Other than some character names, two totally different stories. But both are really fun to watch.

And so is John Carpenter's "They Live." Something hilarious is that South Park's Trey Parker and Matt Stone exactly choreographed their "Cripple Fight" from the fight scene in "They Live."

Mark

[lone star annie]

I think I was about the same age when I saw it and the ending was enough to give me nightmares for a month! We would sleep with the windows open so the scene with the curtains blowing in wind before the saucer landed gave me the creeps!

[henkster]

They come with instructions, but who reads them?

“What are these leftover parts? I don’t know; the thing still works. Must not be important.”

[\/\/ayne]

I had seen a few episodes of The Invaders (1967-1968) when I was a kid and remembered how cool it was that the aliens burned up when you shot them. So about a year ago I watched the two seasons. It was surprisingly good science fiction.

[Rockingham]

Unaccountably, the 1982 version of The Thing with Kurt Russell is omitted.

[dfwgator]

My favorite cartoon about Aliens....

[henkster]

The Mysterians; nice catch. That movie was bascially a Toho special effects love fest. Highly underrated and little known movie. And not readily available.

[Tawiskaro]

Perhaps, but anything is better than E. T.