Alien³

[ferretchucker]

I rewatched this film last night after probably about 3 years. You know what? I genuinely didn't mind it. Granted, the storyline doesn't quite match up to its predecessors, and of course, the absence of Hicks and Newt is somewhat frustrating. But as a whole, despite the poor superimposing of the alien...I quite enjoyed it.

The sense of isolation and hopelessness actually surpassed the original in my opinion, as I genuinely felt that the characters were totally alone with no hope. The acting was passable and to be honest I thought it was fairly brave of Fincher to take the story in a totally different direction.

The atmosphere on fiorina maintained that bleak future image of the original wherein, whilst it takes place far into our future, it isn't quite silver suits and laser guns. It's a grimy prison facility in the arse end of space.

Whilst I'm not suggesting in any way that this film is better than Alien and Aliens, it definitely has a charm that I didn't appreciate upon first viewing. And I think we can all agree it is far better than the very Hollywood Alien: Ressurection! :p

What are your thoughts?

[TheWickerFan]

Just 'meh'. It wasn't truly horrible, but not particularly memorable.

[Fearonsarms]

I see where you're coming from like wickerfan said it isnt very memorable compared to the earlier films but a fair try.

[ferretchucker]

What got me thinking was the line "You've been in my life so long...blah blah blah etc."

Ripley's personal timeline goes...

Events of the Nostromo (about 2 days?)
hypersleep (which presumably just feels like a normal sleep)
About a week on the space station recovering
Events of Lv-426 in Aliens (Again, 1 day?)
Hypersleep
Events of Alien3 (2-3 days?)
Death - cloning (instaneous?)
Events of Alien: Resurrection (for her from cloning, maybe a fortnight?)

So really, by the time she delivers that line, in [I]her conscious timeline, it's only been about a week and a half since Kane's baby was born. By the end of Resurrection it's only been about a month. I just find that quite interesting to mull over, considering it's never really addressed in the films.

[Angra]

Just 'meh'.

Exactly...

[Diabolical]

how did you make the word to the third power?

[BookZombie]

I love all the Alien movies, that being said I like number 3 the least. I do not like that they just toss aside the character of Newt for example. It being survival horror I would not mind if she died, however to just have it off screen as in, oh and by the way one of the major characters from the last movie she died in the crash, sorry.

Other than that I liked the film, it was Chaotic and not as memorable as the others, it was more just a standard space monster film, but all in all I did enjoy it.

[ferretchucker]

I love all the Alien movies, that being said I like number 3 the least. I do not like that they just toss aside the character of Newt for example. It being survival horror I would not mind if she died, however to just have it off screen as in, oh and by the way one of the major characters from the last movie she died in the crash, sorry.

Other than that I liked the film, it was Chaotic and not as memorable as the others, it was more just a standard space monster film, but all in all I did enjoy it.

Very true. That was a total kick in the teeth, although with the production issues they faced I don't think they had much choice. Still, I agree, when I first watched it I was just like "Oh...okay then. Ouch." I also felt Bishop's ending was just...annoying. So sudden, and Ripley didn't even seem to mind. He's the only other survivor of this ordeal and she just disconnects him. She should have at least used him as proof of the Alien's existence!

@Diabolical...I just copied from Wikipedia :o

[BookZombie]

Production issues or not. The little girl playing Newt is not a that expensive actor, surly they could have hired her for a few scenes to have her killed off properly if they want to be rid of the character, and as for Bishop, yes you are right, Ripley is like, oh the robot is toast, ah who cares. It did not feel right.

[ferretchucker]

Production issues or not. The little girl playing Newt is not a that expensive actor, surly they could have hired her for a few scenes to have her killed off properly if they want to be rid of the character...

True, but the issue arises when one considers the 6 years between the two films. Newt would have aged too much, they'd have to explain that etc.

It would just have been a lot of hassle. Not that I condone their total lack of respect for the preceding installment, just try to understand it.

[BookZombie]

What about explaining it with a glitch in her stasis chamber thing, it have been done before. Or they could have used another kid and had her face partially bandaged for wounds suffered during the crash, after all they would only need her for a few scenes so they could have the character die in a way which was not just showing the finger to everything that happened in the second movie.

I am trying to understand it, and I am giving this movie allot of slack as it is a Alien movie, and I do like it. I just do not like this part of it, I think that could have been handled more elegantly.

[ferretchucker]

What about explaining it with a glitch in her stasis chamber thing, it have been done before. Or they could have used another kid and had her face partially bandaged for wounds suffered during the crash, after all they would only need her for a few scenes so they could have the character die in a way which was not just showing the finger to everything that happened in the second movie.

I am trying to understand it, and I am giving this movie allot of slack as it is a Alien movie, and I do like it. I just do not like this part of it, I think that could have been handled more elegantly.

I guess so, there are a few things that they could have done.

I think what they were trying to do was make it work as a standalone. When you look at each of the Alien films, they're so vastly different - the only consistent cast member is Ripley (and to a much lesser extent, Bishop) - that anybody can watch them quite easily without having to have watched earlier films. I'd much prefer them to link films better, but opening it up to all audiences might have been their intent.

[BookZombie]

It can be that they intended the movie as a stand alone and I guess it would work as that. But yes I agree the Alien saga would have been better if they had linked the movies more together. However if you just want a standard science fiction horror with people shooting at and getting killed by space monsters then Alien 3 works, but while the other movies also are very different from one another I think this one is the one which is most out of place compared to the rest.

[_____V_____]

With so much interference from the studio honchos and a constant scratching of script ideas, it's a miracle they were able to end up with a product which was more or less very faithful to the original saga's timeline.

Let's admit it, Scott made a masterpiece (IMO, anyway) and Cameron upped it by a big notch. It would have taken pretty big (and really strong) shoes to follow those two's steps, and that too with full freedom guaranteed by the studio. The only person I think who could have made a mind-blowing 3rd Part was Sergio Leone, if only he ventured into such films.

Fincher did his best with what he had.

I downloaded a bunch of all the proposed Alien 3 scripts and the best one I read was the one where Ripley gets kidnapped by the aliens while still in her hypersleep, and Hicks and Newt come out of it prematurely to find out Ripley was missing, and follow her tracks to the aliens' Planet (more like a breeding ground) to rescue her. There they come across a new and extremely fierce species - Navigators (the huge dead fossil encountered by Dallas, Kane & Lambert inside the derelict spaceship in Scott's Alien), who are much more aggressive and deadly, and use the aliens borne by captured alien Queens for their own death games across the universe.

Imagine what a killer Alien 3 that would have been!


EDIT - btw FC, this is for you - http://time.absoluteavp.com/time1.html
Enjoy. :)

[ferretchucker]

With so much interference from the studio honchos and a constant scratching of script ideas, it's a miracle they were able to end up with a product which was more or less very faithful to the original saga's timeline.

Let's admit it, Scott made a masterpiece (IMO, anyway) and Cameron upped it by a big notch. It would have taken pretty big (and really strong) shoes to follow those two's steps, and that too with full freedom guaranteed by the studio. The only person I think who could have made a mind-blowing 3rd Part was Sergio Leone, if only he ventured into such films.

Fincher did his best with what he had.

I downloaded a bunch of all the proposed Alien 3 scripts and the best one I read was the one where Ripley gets kidnapped by the aliens while still in her hypersleep, and Hicks and Newt come out of it prematurely to find out Ripley was missing, and follow her tracks to the aliens' Planet (more like a breeding ground) to rescue her. There they come across a new and extremely fierce species - Navigators (the huge dead fossil encountered by Dallas, Kane & Lambert inside the derelict spaceship in Scott's Alien), who are much more aggressive and deadly, and use the aliens borne by captured alien Queens for their own death games across the universe.

Imagine what a killer Alien 3 that would have been!


EDIT - btw FC, this is for you - http://time.absoluteavp.com/time1.html
Enjoy. :)

Couldn't have put it better myself. And I know the film was essentially made just for the profit, living off the name of the films that preceded it...but there was at least some passion put in. And as you say, they stayed faithful but at the same time put their own stamp on it.

That script sounds interesting as hell - especially the navigator space jockeys. I just hope this new Alien (the name they released escapes me) does them some justice. I heard about one script which put Ripley aboard a monastery ship (something which would have been very interesting visually, as the insides would seem more like a wooden library than the modern metal ships we're used to.)

Cheers for the link :)