Nine movies in, assumptions start to pile up like a precarious Jenga tower that every ounce of originality’s been squeezed out of the lucrative “Alien” franchise Ridley Scott erected. Just burn that ...

Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights. I write about TV shows, movies, video games, entertainment & culture. First of all, no, Alien: Earth is not a nature documentary.

“Alien: Earth” opens with a dense ream of exposition, though it boils down to just a couple important takeaways. (As Hawley pointed out to my colleague Daniel D’Addario in a cover story for this ...