Both owned by Fox and featuring battles between humankind and aliens, the Alien and Predator franchises seemed destined to eventually cross-over. From comics to cinema, Alien’s Xenomorphs and Predator’s Yautja have become two of popular culture’s most prominent behemoths, especially in the realm of sci-fi-horror. But despite numerous battles in numerous mediums, there is always the same question: who is better, Alien, or Predator?
In terms of in-world metrics, the answer remains to be seen, given how neither party seems to relent for long, but in terms of the two franchises, the conversation is far more undetermined. While Alien and Aliens are two of the most highly-acclaimed sci-fi films – and, debatably, films full stop – of all-time, the Predator franchise has more commonly been regarded as a fun piece of genre fare and nothing more. Both franchises have experienced high and low points, and while Alien is generally seen as having the higher highs, there is an argument to be made for Predator being the more consistent franchise.
So, not counting the Alien Vs Predator films, how do these franchises stack up? This article is a combination of public opinion and (mostly) author opinion, so should be remembered as such.
Quality or Consistency?
This is one of the biggest questions when it comes to something being perceived as ‘better’. Would you rather have two brilliant entries in a franchise with more misses than hits, or a franchise that has a more consistent but less-perceived quality? It’s in this discussion that the dichotomy between the two franchises can really be seen.
While I can’t deny how great Alien and Aliens are as films in the cinematic pantheon, I also can’t deny that I have no particular regard for Alien3, Alien: Resurrection, Alien: Romulus, or the prequel films Prometheus and Alien: Covenant (which more or less covers the same ground as Prometheus). While each of these films have some marks of quality (Michael Fassbender’s incredible performance as the enigmatic android David in Prometheus and Covenant, in particular), none of them manages to really hold more than a flickering light to their predecessors before they drop the ball. Again, in the case of the franchise’s prequels, both films were purported to explain the origins of the Xenomorphs, a race of monstrous aliens that were much more terrifying because of how little we knew about them.
On the other hand, Predator has proven to be a much more consistently enjoyable franchise. Predator is now a certified classic in the realm of action movies, and has enjoyed a second life in recognition of its early deconstruction of hyper-masculine cinema; quite a feat for a film which features more muscles than a Mr Olympia show. While Predator 2 isn’t the most beloved sequel in film history, it’s hardly as maligned as many of the instalments in the Alien franchise. Predators, much like its predecessor, proved another modest hit and even garnered some critical acclaim along the way, putting the humans into the hunting grounds of an alien world rather than bringing the aliens to Earth.
2018’s The Predator is the obvious low point in the franchise’s history, as low as Alien3, Resurrection, or Covenant. The less said about this film, the better, because it gives us an excuse to look at Prey, the incredibly popular franchise entry which recontextualised the Yautja hunting tradition to the 18th century, where a young Comanche woman has to contend with the challenges of more than one kind of invader. Following this up was the animated anthology Killer of Killers, which finally answered the decades-old question ‘how cool would it be if a Predator and a samurai fought? The answer: very.
Recent Developments
With the release of 2025’s Predator: Badlands, featuring a canon crossover of the two franchises via a Weyland-Utani android (not trying to kill our hero this time), and Alien: Earth, a TV show exploring transhumanism in the age of extraterrestrial horrors, both Alien and Predator show no signs of slowing down.
Where the battle of the franchises is concerned, this is one that will surely continue as the years go by, but for now, I think that the Yautja will rejoice with a victory click, because Predator is on top for me. Even if the franchise has never quite reached the highs of Alien, it has also never reached the number of lows that Alien has for me (and, for my money, has produced less bad films than Alien has).
Do you agree, or find that Alien and Aliens are enough to dig them out of the dirt of the battlefield? Share your thoughts, and in the words of the poster for Alien Vs Predator (which was honestly way cooler than the film itself), remember: whoever wins, we lose.
