Alien 3

Rating:
Summary: OK, Maybe It's Not the Best ...
Review: ... the ALIEN 3 has been bashed for many years for being simply that; an inferior follow-up to two great first installments in the saga. Certainly, everyone can concede that it would be extraordinarily difficult to match up to the sheer scare power of ALIEN or ALIENS, and ALIEN 3 deserves a second look on its own merits.

That said, this outing finds Lt. Ripley crash-landing onto a prison world, where she faces a cadre of lustful killers who -- in an odd twist of fate -- are already too late: a seed has been planted inside her, and it's her worst nightmare come true. Ellen Ripley carries an infant alien, the next generation of horror, and thus ensues the race against time to battle both a full-size predator on the loose, the one germinating inside our heroine, and the evil forces of the company who've learned that there's still an alien out there for them to the world of business.

In one tidy little package, ALIEN 3 is a well-paced allegory for all that Ripley has feared. Standing alone, it's a nice little film -- not a great one -- that probably has been stripped by fandom of its ability to be just that: one nice little scare. Being part of a trilogy (well, until the next installment anyway) where the first two parts equal a sum far greater than ALIEN 3 could match, its swallowed up like prey.

Rating:
Summary: Alien 3, rating as a sequel -- zero
Review: I remember seeing the first of the trailers for the third Alien movie, known as Alien 3 in movie theaters. I could not wait to see this movie when it came out. Boy, was I disappointed. This movie is uninspiring, boring, and just plain depressing. The end of the film has an ending from another film that I won't mention here that looks like it was pasted onto it, because the writer and director didn't know how to end the film.

The great continuity that exists between the first and second alien films is completely lacking in this third installment. David Fincher should stick to directing music videos. The logical idea for a third alien film would have been to find the true homeworld where the aliens came from which hasn't been addressed in any of the four alien films. The theme of corporate greed over human safety and Ripley's survivor instinct is forgotten in this film, which makes it an imposter of a movie.

I own the DVD of this movie, but the medium does not provide much, unless you're interested in seeing this movie in French.

Rating:
Summary: The BEST of all 3 films!
Review: Alien 3 is the final chapter of the great sci-fi trilogy, and without a doubt the best of all 3 films. Director David Fincher takes us not into a horror world of aliens like Ridley scott did in the first film, not into an actionpacked bulletfest like James Cameron did in the second film, but a great mix of the 2 with a Chocolate coating of "dark" layered all over it.
The film starts with Ellen Ripley's ship crash landing on a remote planet where she is still in hypersleep after the second film, she's found and brought back to a station that's used to hold the most diabolical sinical criminals in the universe, sort of like an Alcatraz+. One of the small alien parasites makes it onto the planet and empregnates a dog to which later 1 Alien is born. The parasite has also empregnated Ellen Ripley herself as she later discovers. So now the Alien rieks havoc among the prisoners, killing them one by one.
The best thing about this film is the setting, it's very dark,dirty and truly believeable, so you yourself feel as if you've been taken onto planet Hell. The actors are excellent and Segourney Weaver gives another amazing performance as Ripley.
The next best thing about this film is that the prisoners don't have guns or any automatic weapons, so it's going to take sheer intelligence to figure out how to kill this Alien. The film pulls you in and never lets you go, it's not too long, it's not too short, the script is excellent, the films editing is clean and superbly done, and it's just overall very entertaining. It then takes you to what I think is the best ending to any film series ever made.
Any respectable sci-fi/horror fan must own this series, it's definitely a classic and will live on and be talked about for decades to come. I love this movie!

Rating:
Summary: a stylistic tour de force withbeautiful content
Review: those that do not appreciate fincher's work here have truely missed out. this film is more than merely a sequel as it is not pap. look at the hardcore machismo of aleins to see what a sequel should not be. yes i enjoy aliens on a gungho level but alien 3 carries over the feel of isolation in the human condition from alien well. this film resonates.

Rating:
Summary: In a word... DARK.
Review: Those who dislike this film can truly not appreciate how artistic, atmospheric and dark this movie is. I, for one, think it is a perfect movie. I realize that some wanted a carbon-copy of aliens, with another warm and fuzzy ending, a million guns, and NO atmosphere; but that is simply the opposite of what Fincher did. And I'm glad he did it, too. This is a dark film from the very first frame, comletely destroying all of Ripley's victories in one fell swoop. Ripley also finally has to cope with her worst nightmare: alien impregnation; that now her inner conflict with the beast has to end, in both fighting not only for a bunch of inmates on a godforsaken planet, but for the fate of the entire universe. It all comes down to a final conflict between Ripley, the beast, and the company drawing to a dramatic and equally depressing close.

GREAT performances from the whole cast, Sigourney Weaver and Charles Dutton being the highlights. The most effort I have EVER seen put into the music of the film (Elliot Goldenthal wrote the score). Some of the best music I have heard in my life. The Alien is interesting and original also (the facehugger impregnates a dog) and is faster and more quick-to-kill than the other ones. Pacing is consistent, all building up to a few great action scenes and the alien's demise (thank god it wasn't blown out of the airlock again). Another original aspect is religion, which accentuated the moodiness of the movie, and there is even a few moments of subdued comedy, which eased the depression the film caused. This movie really stands on its own as the most well-directed film of the 20th century. Don't bother with Resurrection. I have heard that the director's cut is much better, and that it runs 30 minutes longer. The ONLY flaw was the DVD (not a word on the sound and picture). The lack of commentary and other featues sickened me; the movie needed a better DVD release than this.

This is the best movie I have ever seen, I hope more people will learn to appreciate it for what it is: a masterpeice.

Rating:
Summary: Dark film would have made a great end to the series...
Review: Now-film-great David Fincher made his directorial debut here in what should have been the last of the excellent sci-fi/horror series. The special effects here are fairly good, but the scares are lacking. What the movie succeeds in is giving us a great main character, the tortured soul of Ellen Ripley, played by Sigourney Weaver, the only female who can successfully lead an action flick. While it's not the best in the series, it is a great ending to the awesome series that started out with a crew of a commercial spaceship getting slaughtered and (sort of) ends with the last survivor of that ship finding herself stuck in one more battle with the beast that destroyed her life. Ignore the terrible fourth.

Rating:
Summary: Alien 3 -- Good or Bad?
Review: I remember when my dad took my older brother and sister to see this movie. They were VERY excited, because all of us enjoyed the first two movies. Sadly, they came home disgusted that night after paying almost $10.00 a person to see the first screening, and I really can't blame them.

What's so bad? Well, first off, Alien 3 had a very weak script. The main characters die off right when the movie begins. Characters from "Aliens" (The 2nd movie) like Hicks and Newt, who you grew to love. Talk about shock value. As the movie progresses, we're treated to listening to a bunch of fowl mouthed prison inmates who you don't quite care about anyway. Ripley gets close to one of the inmates in particular, but he's killed off rather quickly. Oh, and did I mention she now has an Alien inside of her? I guess paying good money to see this movie with high hopes could be considered the equivalent of being shot and kicked repeatedly while you lie helpless on the ground. I feel for the people who were severely disappointed.

I watched this movie quite a bit from the time it was released on video right up until it became a DVD, and even on television a couple of times. What intriques me about this movie? Unlike the 4th installment, it stayed true to the dark brooding horror which is what the first 2 films captured. Alien 3 was very dark. After your mind accepts the faults over a period of time, you're able to appreciate it a little more. Ripley's selfless act at the very end of the movie, the emotional and not to mention enthusiastic speeches given by Ripley and the inmates, the music. It's a depressing film to some, and everybody knows why. But what can you do? I was personally hoping they'd make a 4th installment which canceled Alien 3 out as nothing more then a bad dream in hyper-space, but instead we were given something even more disgusting and a phony/dumbed down version of our main hero who was cloned. But that's another story.

Rating:
Summary: Best of the 4
Review: I saw the Alien movies in order, and I'd say this is the best. I know it doesn't have Bill Paxton swearing and killing everything, but it gives more of a suspenseful feeling. Like the Resident Evil games, it's a story of survival seeing as how there aren't any weapons, but this movie uses that to its advantage. Although Aliens was good, they went around killing 'em like it was no big deal. In Alien 3, ONE alien manages to cause a world of hurt. The music adds to the feeling and the Sigourney Weaver/Charles S. Dutton speech towards the end really got to me.

To quote Al Pacino from Carlito's Way..."You ready? Here comes the pain!"

Rating:
Summary: A good movie with a single flaw.
Review: I like this movie for the most part. In fact the only thing I didn't like about it were a few of the special effects shots where the alien looked really out of place. Which ended up breaking the all important 'suspesion of disbelief'. Too bad because the rest of the film is great. Directed by David Fincher (Fight Club, Seven, etc.) Great sets, and action. Moody lighting and music. Overall a great movie.

Rating:
Summary: Potential for greatness lost
Review: This third installment in the popular Alien series gets close to greatness but doesnt quite make it. Alien 3 brings back the horror element of the series that was lacking a bit in Aliens, but in doing so we loose character development and a stable, tight, plot. The begining and ending of the film are brilliant and riviting, yet in the middle we have a seemingly endless blur of unknown people being conveniently wasted, to the point where it takes away the horrific edge. While a few moments of brilliance shine through (namely, Charles Dance's performance), its not till the very end that the plot kicks into high gear. And even then we are treated to one last barrage of bald unknowns being torn to pieces; (I dont see how it would have hurt the film to let a few more guys live). It is also most regrettable that the few characters that do become likable are killed off. The movie leaves me pondering how great it could have been, if only more time had been put into the writing.