 |  Xenomorphs"*inhuman shrieking*"
source: www.rottentomatoes.com |
 Breakout Role: Alien Yes, it's something of a formality to list this here, but it's still worth mentioning. Originally titled Star Beast, it actually doesn't hold up quite as well as nostalgia would have you think. The computers are hilariously old, the crew smokes profusely, and the huge flaws in creature effects (most noticeable when it flees the crew members as an adult) are covered up by Ridley Scott's direction. Still, when you can get this sort of masterpiece made for $11 million (about $35 million in today's dollars) with woefully outdated technology, the movie fully deserves its place in history. |  Best Known For: Prometheus Can you be best known for your absence from a film? Ridley Scott tried to warn us that the film was no longer an Alien prequel, but plenty of moviegoers were hoping that was just a smokescreen after 15 years with no new Xenomorph movie. What we got was a script that obviously began life as an Alien prequel and was never fully converted into something else. If the Xenomorphs look different when born from Engineers, then why was the mural shown earlier in the movie obviously a traditional Xenomorph Queen? Inconsistencies like that abound in this mess. |
 Best Role: Aliens The introduction of the Queen and Colony elements to the Xenomorph social structure took them to a whole new level. Where Alien focused almost exclusively on the horror elements, Aliens added plenty of action as well, getting closer to capitalizing on all the Xenomorphs have to offer. One Xenomorph is a more than formidable threat, but a Queen is one that never stops growing. James Cameron overcame large conflicts with his British crew (Tea breaks? Seriously?) and even fired the Director of Photography for refusing to light a scene the way he wanted. He was right, by the way, as the DoP wanted the nest brightly lit, while Cameron wanted a much darker, more ominous lighting resulting only from the lights on the marines' armor. Alien movies work best when they're seamlessly blending sci-fi, horror, and action, and Aliens definitely did that. |  Best Movie: N/A I'll start by saying that if you held a gun to my head, it's Aliens. I realize that most of the Grid spots always have "so far" implied, but in my mind, there's so much more potential to the Xenomorphs than has been explored. The caveat that allows me to say they haven't had their best movie yet is that the original screenplay for Prometheus was actually much closer a straight Alien prequel and hit all of the notes you'd want in a Xenomorph movie. It's tough to pick a best produced movie when there's an unused screenplay that's the best so far. Scott has said that at least two more movies would be required to bridge the gap between Prometheus and Alien, so while it's hard to endorse him digging himself this hole, at least there's the potential opportunity to get it right if he sets aside Prometheus's obsession with raising more questions than it answered. |
The Queen in 'Aliens' I don't think it's too much to ask that I be allowed to Profile a fictional character (or in this case, species), especially not when they've had the impact on modern cinema that Xenomorphs have had. It will definitely make for a shorter Profile, as I can't fill space talking about the roles they like to take (extinction level events) or what they do in their free time (show tunes; Spaceballs joke alert!). I can, however, pontificate on their portrayals so far, and potential going forward. It probably goes without saying, but there will be spoilers for movies featuring the Xenomorphs in the next couple paragraphs.
H.R. Giger To say the Xenomorphs have a terrifying countenance is an understatement, to say nothing of their entire body, but you already knew that. Anything designed by H.R. Giger is going to be at the very least discomforting, and at worst the sort of thing that would make the Devil sleep with a nightlight. Seriously, look at that picture to the right. That is not the face of a man with normal thoughts. Limited by the technology of 1979, Giger and Carlo Rambaldi combined to create the scariest latex suit of all time that even included, in a move that should surprise absolutely nobody, part of a human skull for the head. While this obviously made it very hominid in appearance, even given the actor's 7'2" slender frame, the newer movies have used CGI or animatronics to continue to make them less like a human (save for one ill-advised return towards human that should never be mentioned again), giving them a digitigrade stance (standing on their toes; more birdlike), two fingers and two opposing thumbs on each hand, and making their tails more substantial.
Never speak of this again Prometheus set up an interesting genealogy with the Xenomorphs. Namely that the "Deacon" seen at the end of that film might be the progenitor of the eggs encountered in Alien (until the aforementioned trainwreck of a script moved it to a different planet designation). This would mean that the Xenomorphs who are still so formidable, have actually been "watered down" twice by human genetics, which opens us up to all kinds of interesting story options. If they've been designed as ultimate killing machines by the Engineers, isn't it conceivable they can integrate their different iterations (i.e. the quadrupedal Xenomorph born of a dog) into a combination for their next generation that would be stronger because of its genetic diversity? Exposed to a planet like Earth with plenty of species instead of just humanity would give them ample amounts of genetics to combine. Now that could make for one heck of a jumping off point for a movie...
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