As fun and versatile as it has proven to be, even die-hard Alien fans can’t deny that the franchise has been struggling since its beginnings 45 years ago. From the anxiety-inducing huis-clos of Alien (1979) and its war film sequel Aliens (1986), the film series has had more downs than ups. David Fincher reimaged it as a prison thriller in the fairly maligned Alien 3 (1992); Jean-Pierre Jeunet gave it a good go but ended up botching Alien: Resurrection (1997); and Ridley Scott’s return to the series with 2012’s Prometheus was one almighty lore-obsessed mixed bag. The less said about the Alien v…