The Bitch Is Back! (Alien 3 (DVD))

Member Name: wampyrii

Product:	Alien 3 (DVD)
Date:	20/08/01 (102 review reads)
Rating:

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Alien 3 is the imaginative title applied to the third installment of the popular Alien licence. Alien was a brilliant piece of movie making, like a haunted house in space, packed with a claustrophobic tension which could not fail to have you on the edge of your seat throughout. Aliens, James Cameron now in the director's chair, saw the claustrophobia of the original blown away to be repaced by an all out action flick which somehow managed to retain much of the tension of the original but also multiplied the nasty beasties to the thousands. Alien 3 returns to the original ideas of the first movie, but with David Fincher(Fight Club) at the helm, stood a tough task in meeting the brilliance and success of the previous two.

Well, he didn't manage to do that, I think the jury is final on that decision, but rather than give the movie the slating that the movie press etc. gave it because of this, it would be much fairer to take it on its own merits. Were this a standalone movie, without the burden of former glories to live up to, then you would have a good movie, but just not brilliant. The major flaw in my eyes is the plot itself and there isn't much that anyone can do to rescue a movie which fails to deliver in this respect. Its a simple idea, but one which is so full of holes and often totally implausible that you really despair. Once again Ripley(Sigourney Weaver) finds herself up again a single alien, as in the first movie. The escape pod from the second movie carrying her and those few others who escaped ending up on a prison colony populated entirely by males, and ruled over by a sadistic warden(Brian Glover). Pretty soon it becomes apparent that Ripley wasn't the only survivor from the pod and that once again she has to face one of the aliens. Better still, this colony carries no weaponary or defenses of any kind...

Ok, so what is so bad about the movie, because it sounds ok from that premise. Well, it is the plot holes which are t
he huge problem - something which neither of the other movies suffered from. Ripley crashlands in a military vessel - and yet no guns. A penal colony with some of the toughest most evil prisoners around has no weaponanry. Later it becomes apparent that she has been impregnated with one of the aliens during hypersleep, but a view of the capsule shows no sign of being infiltrated...tooooo many holes - and these are just a few. Another problem is the acting. A host of British bit-part players and Sigourney Weaver to link the other movies in. Who thought of that idea? The only two actors of note are Brian Glover and Charles Dance(yes we are scraping a barrel here) and they are killed off early on to leave the poor c-grade cast to get picked off one by one. Admittedly a large portion of the movie is taken to running through tunnels screaming whilst being chased by a rather nastie beastie, but even so...

But anyway,its far too easy to snipe at this movie, when its all been done before. The first two movies were so good, and this one is so much more inferior but not a really bad movie - it just feels that way. There are some good ideas. The sets are good, although I do feel more could have been made of them, and the scenes where the alien chases people through the tunnels are excellent - guaranteed to get the adrenaline pumping. You get to see the chase through the eyes of the alien as it charges along the ground, scuttling up walls and even running along the celing in its helter-skelter pursuit. Great fun. The alien effects are good again and the atmosphere is one of depair and desperation. It works on these levels.

However.

I feel Fincher tried to emulate the claustophobia and terror of the original and simply didn't come close. There is a little tension here, but somehow it never really builds, perhaps because of the acting ineptitude of the majority of the cast. It left me feeling somewhat empty and if not cheated, then a little disappoi
nted because of the two which preceeded it. By itself, if you have never seen the previous two movies, then you will probably think its great. For the rest of us, its merely 'good'. There are too many dead periods, the beginning is too long with no action and, although I never would have thought I could have said this about a movie in this series, some parts were just plain BORING...and for long-ish periods of time too. Its ok, but its not as great as it should have been and its a disappointment when compared to the others(well except 4 which sucked :P). Worth the watch, but nothing to shout about.

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