An interesting feature of Alien , Aliens , Alien 3 , and Alien 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's Alien is 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's Aliens is 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's Alien 3 is 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