The Alien Legacy (Alien / Aliens / Alien 3 / Alien: Resurrection)
An interesting feature ofAlien,Aliens,Alien 3, andAlien Resurrection, worth watching together if only for the  chance to see how different directors handle essentially the same idea. The results are decidedly mixed. Ridley Scott'sAlienis the most traditional of the bunch, essentially a haunted-house picture set on a space freighter, where a monster is picking off crew members one by one. James Cameron'sAliensis the all-out adrenaline bath, a pulse-pounding action thriller from start to finish. It plays a little like a Western in outer space, where the settlers are waiting for a cavalry that never comes--and the Indians are acid-veined aliens. And David Fincher'sAlien 3is the rock-video version, in which substance and storytelling are sacrificed to editing and imagery, as the aliens attempt to take over a space penal colony.--Marshall Fine