Brief (and scattered!) Thoughts on the Alien Franchise

The Alien franchise has really had some very interesting names at the helm. Ridley Scott did the first, James Cameron the second, Fincher the third and Jeunet the fourth. The first movie in any franchise is always unique but the Fincher and Jeunet sequels are also quite interesting.

Even otherwise the sequels have remained quite true to the original concept. Cameron’s was just a blockbuster type film but the third and fourth parts have given the subject interesting twists and also played out the logic well. Having said that I hope there isn’t another one.

The ‘aliens’ certainly appear very phallic but of course these are ‘drones’ in a sort of bee analogy and the ‘mother’ is the terrifying, gigantic, maternal, ‘real’ (in a Lacanian sense)! I therefore find it interesting that a woman is the ultimate survivor against these aliens, there is an all male society in Fincher’s sequel and of course the ‘woman’ here is part alien! As the sequels progress there is this interesting Durga/Kaali analogy where the terrifying death-giving ‘mother alien’ (the system is matriarchal even here as she engenders the alien system!) is the obverse of the life-preserving Ripley. Finally in Alien Resurrection Ripley in the clone form actually incorporates the Alien genetic code!