Ridley Scott made his own sequel toPrometheus, but last year’sAlien: Romulusserves as a much more faithful and satisfying sequel than Scott’s ownAlien: Covenant.Prometheusmarked Scott’s long-awaited return to theAlienfranchise more than three decades after he helmed the original 1979 masterpiece.Rather than giving audiences what they wanted with another chilling, atmospheric horror film set in space, Scott gave them what they weren’t expecting: a prequel detailing the xenomorphs’ origins with a haunting Biblical allegory.
AlthoughPrometheushas since been reassessed as an underrated gem,on its initial release in 2012, it divided theAlienfan base. There were some complaints that the movie wasn’t scary enough, that the characters made stupid decisions, and that the xenomorphs didn’t need an origin story, since they’re more effective as an inexplicable cosmic mystery. In response to these complaints, Scott relented and madehis follow-up toPrometheus,Alien: Covenant, a more traditionalAlienmovie: a haunted house in space.
Alien: Romulus Was A Better Sequel To Prometheus Than Alien: Covenant
Romulus Is More Interested In Explaining Prometheus' Mysteries Than Covenant
WhileAlien: Covenantis technically the sequel toPrometheus, it’s more of a standaloneAlienmovie that jettisons most ofPrometheus’ plot points.The ending ofPrometheusset up a fascinating story with Elizabeth Shaw traveling to the Engineers’ homeworld to figure out why they want to destroy humanity. ButAlien: Covenantgets rid of Shaw and follows a brand-new cast of space colonistsas they answer a distress signal and run afoul of the xenos. It’s a decentAlienmovie, but it’s pretty disappointing as aPrometheussequel.
Alien: Romulus' 10 Most Disgusting Scenes, Ranked
Alien: Romulus takes the Alien franchise back to its grisly body horror roots, and it has some truly disgusting and disturbing sequences.
Fede Álvarez’s most recent effort,Alien: Romulus, was specifically conceived as a standaloneAlienmovie, and yet it serves as a more satisfying sequel toPrometheusthanCovenant. UnlikeCovenant,Romulusis actually interested in exploring the mysterious black gooand the complicated life cycle of Engineer-black goo-xeno-human DNA-Engineer.It madePrometheusmake sensewithout having to retcon anything from it. The Engineer-like hybrid thatappears inAlien: Romulus’ final act, “The Offspring,”is a perfect escalation ofPrometheus’ biological enigmas.
Alien: Covenant Threw Away Everything That Made Prometheus Interesting
David Is The Only Interesting Component It Kept From Prometheus
Scott and his team ditched everything that madePrometheusinteresting in creatingAlien: Covenant.It was pretty clear that the studio wantedCovenantto be a more traditionalAlienmovieafterPrometheus’ divisive reception. The result was a movie that was neither aPrometheussequel nor a particularly strong standaloneAlienfilm.Alien: Covenantdoes retain the best part ofPrometheus—Michael Fassbender’s duplicitous android character, David— but that was it.
