Just doesn't work (Alien 3 (DVD))

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Product:	Alien 3 (DVD)
Date:	24/12/00 (0 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Solid Opening; Good Lead performances

Disadvantages: monotonous action; dismal story development

While preferable to ALIENS, which was unimaginative and mechanical, ALIEN 3 doesn't come close to the original's all-out brilliance; in fact, taking into account the apparent hard work and thought that went into it, it isn't even good. There were numerous reports that the preproduction stage was a mess here, with the screenplay being rewritten and rewritten, driving everybody from star Sigourney Weaver to director David (SE7EN) Fincher nuts. Judging from the final product, it's easy to believe that what's up on screen isn't exactly what was intended.

Trying to revert back to the original's logistics of having just one creature to deal with, ALIEN 3, which takes place in a dank prison, initially seems to be heading in the right direction. The first 30 minutes or so are assured and eerily effective as we take in the clausterphobic settings and nicely detailed production design, which exudes a highly texturized sense of doom. There's even an AIDS parable worked into the mix, with the first killing occurring right after Ripley and the doctor (magnetically played by Charles Dance, who's woefully underused) have had sex.

Granting ALIEN 3 all of this, it quickly starts a downward spiral. The screenplay is definitely at fault, which, aside from a few wry touches, dwindles down to an array of trap-the-monster sequences that fail to garner much interest. And aside from Weaver's Ripley, Charles Dances' doctor, and Charles S. Dutton's fiery inmate leader, the rest of the characters and performances are of no consequence.

Unfortunately, the dour direction by David Fincher does the film in. Coming from an MTV background, ALIEN 3 is Fincher's first feature film -- and it shows. While he has no problem (and shows quite a deft hand) shaping and getting the most out of his sequences, Fincher isn't as highly developed in terms of scene-by-scene transition; while the editing is precise, the overall flow
to the film is awkward, choppy, and it eventually turns monotonous, draining most of the pleasure right out of the film. In addition, the gifted Alex Thompson's cinematography is all on one level -- gray, dank, gray, dank...The creature effects? Nothing to write home about.

I'm not ramming this film because it doesn't deliver the kind of thrills the original did. It's that, all in all, it really doesn't deliver much of anything, except an overall oppressiveness that doesn't result in anything in particular. The plot developments near the end may seem inspired and risky, but, due to the lousy writing up until then, they don't have near the impact they should. ALIEN 3 is a maddeningly inconsistent film that threatens to work but keeps pulling itself back, refusing to break out and go all the way with its ambitions.

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