A friend and I are watching the Alien Trilogy tomorrow. She is puzzled why I'm excluding the 4th film (well, because it's excrement), but I've always maintained that David Fincher's first film is a good one--especially considering all the trouble surrounding it. Any other fans of "Alien 3"? "You're all gonna die. It just depends on how you wanna check out. Do you want it on your feet? Or on your fuckin' knees--begging? Well, I'm not much for begging. Nobody ever gave me nothin'. So, I say fuck that thing--let's fight it!" --Dillon (Alien 3)
OK, OK. I can buy people saying that the first 2 are superior films--heck I might even agree. But COME ON. "Alien frickin' Resurrection"? I mean, it's like Jean Pierre Jeunet made sure to eat a lot of fiber and filled a brown paper sack accordingly. When the film wasn't trying to rip off Terry Gilliam (with every other shot done in wide angle), it inserted absurd bits of humor like Dan Hedeya getting killed by the Alien and then slowing realizing he's toast. Blech!
Yep. Ripley ate some bad space cheese before she went in. I believe that. Ripley spent like the ENTIRE 2ND FILM trying to save that kid - then they kill her off screen in the next movie. It's like...well, I know in real life happy endings aren't guaranteed, but it just kinda makes everything that happened in Alien 2 pointless. My kids and I watched Alien 2 this past summer, and afterwards my 8yo, she was like "Now I wanna see the next movie, I wanna see what happens to the little girl!" And I was like..."Uh...yeah...the...um....video store doesn't have it...neither does Netflix...yeah...nobody does. It was so bad, the nuked all the copies...from orbit. It was the only way to be sure."
Alien 3 was a finely crafted film - that was a complete abomination when it came to the story. Easily the worse of the three. Most fans just ignore it. Hell, the comics and novels were a better continuation of 2 than 3 was.
Both 3 and 4 were pretty poor. But Resurrection was actually entertaining in some parts, even though the plot was dumb. It really lost its way towards the end, with that stupid human/alien hybrid creature. Alien 3 was just plain boring.
On its own Alien 3 is a decent film but when compared to the first two movies it blows. The worst part is it's boring, we all know what's happening, what's going to happen the only mystery is why Ripley continues to survive what should be certain death situations. The answer is the films only interesting concept. I can understand maintaining a connection to the previous films but it would've been better to find another way, there is no reason why Newt and Hicks needed to die to set up the movie. Plus they'd be great characters to return in future films or even later on in Alien 3. Ripley saves Newt, Newt tries to return the favor. Heck we could have had Alien spin-offs staring Newt and/or Hicks. That said, I understand what the movie was trying to do, it wasn't awful it just didn't come together.
3 just felt... pointless. It was like plastic fruit, looked good enough to eat, but tasted damn foul when you took a taste. Resurrection had potential. Wasted potential, but potential. Always thought they should've taken the Ripley clone concept down the Rogue Trooper route. Armies of Ripley hybrids vs armies of Aliens... See, that's what CGI was invented for in my book. Plus you could have a whole theme on individuality, intellectual property of a persons DNA and betrayal.
Wow. No love for "A3" here! While I freely admit that it has its flaws, I found it one of the most powerful SF films in the last 20 years. Its basic premise about facing one's own mortality was pretty profound for me. The scene where Ripley must make the choice of whether to finally have a normal life or save the human race from destruction was heart-wrenching--and Sigourney Weaver sold that scene in a heartbreaking fashion. I guess we'll have to agree to disagree.
I can remember coming out of the theater and saying that Alien 3 was the "feel bad movie of the year." And I have yet to change my mind. Besides Ripley, the only characters worth caring about were killed off during the opening credits and offscreen. Why would I care about a bunch of vicious rapists and convicts? I WANTED the alien to get them.
3 was good. Most people hate it because it tears you down emotionally in the first few minutes. Alien 3 was the first one I saw in a theater and I was just numb for the first half hour. Completely shocked and feeling hollow over the deaths of 3 major characters from the second film (which is my all time favorite movie). However, the movie itself was intense. It had some really creepy scenes, some heart-pounding chases, and really cool lighting. I particularly like the cremation scene. Dillon gives his sermon while they drop the bodies into the furnace. At the same time the alien is bursting from the dog's chest. Alien Resurrection was horrible. Nothing about it was right. The look, the characters, the dialogue . . . it was all something else. It was so incredibly disconnected from the other films. I can't even explain. Alien 3 was FAR superior to this pile.
You can't really have Resurrection without A3. You could explain how events offscreen led to Ripley's DNA being mixed with an Alien Queen's, but the plotline of A3 explained all that and added to the whole of the series. If you want to be pissed about Newt or Hicks' deaths, get pissed at the actors. Hicks wanted more money and Newt grew up too much to play a little girl. Plus the logistics of a little girl living with rapists and pedos in a prison doesn't work out too well, it works for Ripley because she can kick ass, but a little defenseless girl... not so much. I wouldn't even begin to be pissed about the Replicant. They're expendable as all get out and it isn't as though the actor didn't remain in the series.
A4 was also a bad hypersleep dream. So were AvP and AvP:R. Ripley really needs to wake the hell up. Newt could have been recast. That actually would have really dark actually...Ripley trying to protect Newt from monsters...and monsters. Okay, maybe too dark. That poor kid already went through enough trauma that she will never live down. But the penal colony script should have been ditched. Hell, that script went through so many fraking writers and rewrites, it should have been dumped in a hot forge itself. With A3...everyone was expecting "Aliens on Earth"...hell, when the first trailers for that film aired, it looked like it was on Earth. It wasn't. It was on some place nobody cared about. People wanted Earth. Also, AvP should have been Aliens vs Predators vs Colonial Marines. NOT on Earth. Damn it!
The special edition of Alien 3 was a much needed improvement over the theatrical release. But it still sucked. And Alien 4 was abominable. Hey, let's take away the humanity that made the Ripley character so great. Morons!!!
Just for the record, my movie watching companion, really liked "Alien 3". In fact, she liked it the best of the 3 movies--citing the strong dialogue and the fact that it had a major pair of cojones. I don't feel quite so out of place in the world now! END OF TRANSMISSION.
I love the special edition because it fixed some of the silly holes in the story, like an Alien "baby" that big popping out of a Rottweiler, and fleshed out some parts of the movie that needed more attention, like the attempt to burn the Alien out of its hidey hole.
I would've enjoyed the concept of 'Alien 3'---Ripley fighting aliens in a subterranean prison with no weapons---if the filmmakers hadn't taken a great big greasy camel dump over 'Aliens.' The offhand termination of Hicks and Newt---occurring about 5 minutes after the narrow escape at the end of 'Aliens' from their perspective---makes 'Aliens' completely pointless. Better Hicks and Newt and Ripley and Bishop had been blown up by the reactor failure than to be left to the fates the 'Alien3' screenwriter gave them. I remember sitting in the theater simmering with rage a few minutes into Alien3; the trivialized deaths of characters I had a stake in so alienated me (pardon the pun), that Alien3 could not win me over at that point no matter how it unfolded. There is 'Alien', a classic sci-fi/horror movie directed by Ridley Scott. There is 'Aliens', a worthy, ripping good sequel from James Cameron. There is no 'Alien3.' There is no 'Alien: Resurrection.' I've heard rumors that there was an 'Alien vs. Predator' or two out there, but, frankly, that's just too silly to be true.
I like A3, and I didn't mind them killing off Newt and Hicks early on in the film as I think it added more to the sense of hopelessness of the situation that Ripley was in. The directors cut was far better than the theatrical version and my opinion of A3 is based on the directors cut in preference to the original cut. My only problem with the film remains with the impregnation of Ripley. Where did that facehugger come from, since the queen detatched itself from its egg producing sack thing before stowing away on the ship and had no way of laying more eggs? As for the future of the Alien series, I have heard mention of Aliens on Earth which is certainly an interesting direction to take, but I would really like to see a film where they go to the Alien homeworld (either a mission to destroy them or whatever).
Alien Resurrection has killed both of those two suggestions. Aliens on earth would be pointless since the earth set in Resurrection is already a post-apocalyptic wasteland (as shown in the extended DVD version). And if the aliens were still around on a homeworld, why would the scientists in Resurrection go to all the trouble of cloning a 200 year old dead Ripley? Surely they would have found aliens somewhere in the galaxy if they still existed? From what we know in Resurrection, the aliens are most probably extinct, hence why they resorted to cloning Ripley. Of course all of the above would be rendered moot if your suggestions take place before Alien 4, or if the movie was to become de-canonised.
