Quick questions about Alien 3 (1 Viewer)

[TommyT]

I'd rather not find out where the aliens came from! I think NOT knowing is better because it keeps the tension associated w/the species from becoming mediocre. That would also erode the mystery we all felt upon seeing the derelict spacecraft in the 1st film.

I actually like 3 myself, I think it benefitted from some great acting by some great actors. It was more of a survival drama than a sci-fi flick. It was also a great allegory for HIV/AIDS.

What disappointed me when this film premiered is that I'd been waiting for it for over a year after seeing the teaser trailer from summer '91 that announced "On earth, everyone can hear you scream." with the cracking egg & the eerie green light.

I also like Resurrection. I think it's trashy fun with a great, mostly underrated performance from Weaver. The gory stuff makes me laugh every time!

 

[Robin Warren]

i am interested, however, in taking issue with statements made by people that have got nothing to do with their preferences, and which seem to me to be mistaken.

But my preference is to have a movie at least show some respect for whats come before it. In ALIEN 3's case this is not done. They don't even try to respect whats happened previously and to me thats not right. If they had never mentioned the previous movie, I would have been happy with it but they make direct mention to it.


This is all just my opinion and I can see why others may like it, but it just was a bad outing in my book.

 

[JayDerek]

I enjoy Alien3 more everytime I watch it. I love the look of the film and despite everything, dig how it does try to be different from the first two films.

It still does bug me to no end that Hicks and Newt are killed off immediately. I invested so much in the characters at the end of Aliens that it broke my heart to see those two killed off right away. I'm not saying that they should've survived the whole way thru Alien3 though. Hicks was in bad physical shape anyways...having him sacrifice himself for Ripley and Newt midway thru the movie would have been good. I also thought it would have been nice to have Newt survive the whole movie w/ Ripley falling at the end. That way the future movies could really have Newt being the central character...

Just my thoughts

~Jason B

 

[Mikel_Cooperman]

I can clearly say John after reading your post that I dont like the movie and the movie is bad.

It took them something like 20 rewrites for this?

Like many reviews said, if you have a heroin (Ripley) that doesnt want to live and is depressed the whole movie how can you expect the audience to route for her?

But my preference is to have a movie at least show some respect for whats come before it. In ALIEN 3's case this is not done. They don't even try to respect whats happened previously and to me thats not right. If they had never mentioned the previous movie, I would have been happy with it but they make direct mention to it.

I totally agree with this statement. Why undo everything that happend in the movie before it?
I think the makers were so intent on getting a movie out that they didnt think of the audience or the characters of the movie, they thought Only about their financial gains.

I know there were drafts of the script (Ive read some) with Hicks and Newt in them so why throw it all away????

 

[John Doran]

In ALIEN 3's case this is not done. They don't even try to respect whats happened previously

and now we get down to it: both of these statements, if you'll notice, are claims about the movie, and not about you or your preferences.

so. let's talk about what it means for one movie to respect another, and why you believe alien 3 fails to do so with regard to aliens.

- jd

 

[Dan Rudolph]

I don't liek Alien 3 either. Besides feeling it negates the end of Aliens, they set up a bunch of characters you don't get to know or care about, then kill them. Every time someoen dies, it's just "There goes another one. Which one was he again?" That's slasher film crap, not the more involving approach from the first two movies, where you knew and cared about the crew and the marines.

 

[John Doran]

Why undo everything that happend in the movie before it?

(A) it has yet to be demonstrated that alein 3 "undoes" anything;

(B) and even if it has, why not undo it in the pursuit of the exploration of other thematic elements? i'd like to see a convincing argument that "undoing" the plots of previous movies is inherently bad.

screw it - i'd settle for an actual argument of any kind...

- jd

 

[Robin Warren]

so. let's talk about what it means for one movie to respect another, and why you believe alien 3 fails to do so with regard to aliens.

Cool.
1. Respect of character arc. Aliens was a tense thriller which made me really grow to care that Newt and Ripley made it out alive. They needed each other and were a perfect fit. I was involved in their relationship and was relieved when they made it to safety. Alien 3 basically did not pay the proper respect to this development when Newt was killed off. It felt like they couldn't fit a story with Newt left alive so they had her whacked.

I have to leave work now, but will finish up some of my thoughts after I watch Alien3 tonight....

 

[Mikel_Cooperman]

I think the overall box office prooves "The Claim" that people overall were not happy with what they did with the character of Ripley, the plot and the overall movie in general.

 

[Alex Spindler]

That is a solid position.

An alternative view might be this:
The Alien films have thus far involved really only one complete arc; The fated prey, Ripley. I would contend that Newt exists as a tool for Ripley to stand up to them, in much the way as Jones acts as a method for her to act selflessly. Assuming that you are willing to buy into the direction for Ripley's arc, Survival->Resistance->Martyrdom/Closure, it would be necessary to have her be in a situation where she could close the book on the Aliens and any chance for Weyland Yutani to get access to them. You may say that it has no respect for the previous film, but I would counter that it not only respects the previous film, but counts on you having an emotional connection with Newt. If it weren't for that connection, the autopsy of Newt wouldn't have near the impact on the audience (me, at least) as well as on Ripley. By using the cachet that Newt had with Ripley, the scene is gut wrenching in ways that it could never be if Newt was Colonist #23.

I can respect that you, and tons of other people, don't like the direction the film took, but I think an argument can be made that it did not head that direction blind to the implications and that it accomplished its objective of creating a film even darker and bleaker than anyone expected.

But, that is just one more perspective based on perception and opinion.

 

[Norm]

If they do an Alien 5 with the Cloned Ripley/Alien crap, I don't care who's director, I won't bother seeing it!

 

[Alex Spindler]

George Lucas presents a Steven Spielberg film, from a story by cowriters David Mamet, Peter Jackson, and Wes Anderson, Alien 5 : The Clone War.

Norm : "Crap!"

 

[DAN NEIR]

I didn't know Alien3 was of such high "quality" that it made it to the AFI top 100, oh wait yes I remember it was after Citizen Kane. And ahh, so what if the movie is hated by the series core fans. What do the fans of the series know?
Now getting back to the original question posted, did anyone confirm that the company planted those eggs. I know I either heard or read this somewhere.

 

[John Doran]

I didn't know Alien3 was of such high "quality" that it made it to the AFI top 100, oh wait yes I remember it was after Citizen Kane. And ahh, so what if the movie is hated by the series core fans. What do the fans of the series know?

sigh. ok, you got me. i should have known better than to think anything as silly as reasoned argument would be able to engage such a carefully thought-out and clearly articulated position as yours. :rolleyes

 

[DAN NEIR]

 

[DAN NEIR]

Duh, sorry we can't all be edumacated enough to enjoy them high brow quality flicks like Alien3.

 

[George Monroy]

I enjoyed Alien 3 very much. Does it break the continuity? Sure somewhat. Does 4 really screw with things? Yes. But oh well.

Super Mario Brothers 2 was an awesome game and it was only a dream in the series.

So why not let 3 and 4 be dreams. We all know Ripley had messed up dreams. They could actually do it kinda cool for the beginning of 5.

 

[DAN NEIR]

They could even make it that Ripley, Newt and Hicks were kept in check so that none of them could tell the truth about what happened. Each one could have spent several years dreaming that they were the sole survivor of the crash and forced to die over and over at the end. Someone could break them out and then the story would go on from there.

 

[Jason Walstrom]

Now getting back to the original question posted, did anyone confirm that the company planted those eggs. I know I either heard or read this somewhere.

The whole point I was trying to make was that it does not matter! there is no hidden plotline to explain this, you're not supposed to ask or care, the filmakers of ALIEN3 sure didn't.

Eliot Goldenthal score was awesome though.

 

[Steve_Tk]

The first time I saw this movie I was wondering the same thing. Trying to think of all the possibilities. By the end of the movie I just said to myself, "who cares, that whole movie was terrible." It wasn't worth my time to try and justify something that went unexplained in the movie. And I can't understand how a good director, like this movie had, could leave this up in the air.