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Alien 3 (Collector's Edition)

Alien 3 (Collector's Edition)

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Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Hubris Kills "Alien"
Review: Written as an exponent, the 3 in Alien 3 should have been a denominator. It's an unworthy sequel to the stunning first two "Aliens" films. It was endlessly rewritten, and its patchwork character shows. Moreover, Sigourney Weaver used her producer's credit to make changes which detract from the film.
Ripley crashes on a planet which is a combination leadworks, prison, and monastery (three scripts there). Her fellow survivors from "Aliens" have perished (focusing all attention on Weaver). No ingenious gizmos or weapons are shown (reflecting Weaver's Luddite preferences).
The only fine aspects of the film are Charles Dance's performance as a haunted ex-doctor, and Elliot Rosenthal's beautiful musical score. It's not enough.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: David Fincher Buries Alien With This One
Review: The third installment of what would become a four-part (so far) series, Alien3 is by far the weakest entry. The story isn't bad, though not terribly original, either. Ripley, having escaped with Newt in "Aliens" lands on a prison planet. There she fends off a smaller, faster "Alien" along with some inmates. All of the actors are good in there roles, and Director Fincher does create a truly grimy, often overwhelmingly depressing atmosphere. But that's the film's achille's heel too--its depressing. In a trend that Fincher would "fine-tune" in his later film "Seven", he creates a true Bummer of a film from the opening scenes. When Ripley is discovered alive, it is also revealed that Newt, the lovable little girl who went through hell with Ripley to make it out alive at the end of "Aliens" is dead--killed by another Alien as she slept. Why? No reason given--other than setting up Fincher's obsession for bleakness. Bottom line, Fincher, who got his start in Madonna videos, might make a good Director of Photography, but he's a lousy director. Bleakness aside, this film has none of the suspense of Ridley Scott's original or the energy and action of James Cameron's follow-up "Aliens". Like a fat feline that just got back from the groomer's, it looks good but just lays there. Stick with the first one if you want scares, the second if you want thrills.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Shame !!!
Review: Okay, look. My brother and I have a personal grudge against this disapointment. First off, how in the heck did an alien get on board the SULACO ?

Sigourney Weaver (aka Baldy in this one) didn't care to even preserve the characters who survived, so killing Hicks and Newt- poor Newt, so she can cash in on her pay.

And the effects were not good. I could tell the alien effects were not generated well. Again, shame !!!

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Underrated for what it offers
Review: Alien 3 is commonly seen as the worst of the trilogy, by some people even worse than Alien Resurrection (most unnecessery addition to the series, if you will!). Personally I think most people just wanted to see another Aliens movie instead of this - more guns, more marines, more aliens. But what would be the point of doing something that has already been done quite well? Instead of complaining, I'll concentrate on what it has to offer.
This movie may not be as scary as Alien, not as action-packed as Aliens (some parts here do drag), but when it comes to atmosphere and emotion, it's another story.
The story, soundtrack and images all mix perfectly to create a two hour long trip of hopelessness and despair with the best end scene of all Alien movies. I believe this "nihilistic" character of the movie is another reason why so many people dislike it.
I like Fincher's direction here. Whether you like the movie generally or not, I would be surprised if people would disagree with me that some of the scenes during the first 30 minutes of the movie are awesome. As in Seven and Fight Club, everything here has this sort of worn-out, rusty look, another thing I like.

Being the music fan I am, I must add that I haven't seen another movie where music is used in such an amazing way. If you like this movie, you'll love the soundtrack. Listening to the last song (and theme for the ending), Adagio, it sounds exactly like an end to a long, hard story. The opening track (Agnus Dei) on the other hand sounds exactly like waking up from a happy dream (see: ending of Aliens) to reality of nightmare.

All in all, this is a movie that needs to judged for what it is instead of what it's predecessors were.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: That's Why They Call It Puppy Love!
Review: After escaping LV-426 in pretty horrendous condition, the remaining crew of the Nostromo (Ripley, Newt, our surviving Colonial Marine, and Bishop) run into a little problem in the crash landing department. This kills two of the three residents in their stasis pods right away and trashes the synthetic Bishop beyond salvageability, leaving Ripley sitting amongst the residents of a prison planet that has been tucked away and forgotten. Still, she's safe because there aren't any Xenos on this rock, right? Unbeknownst to her or the residents of this unarmed rock (unless you call a few flares, some flammable liquid, and some handtools having weaponry), however, she did bring a little bundle of joy into the fold here and, more importantly, she herself finds that perhaps, in this big misadventure, that she has finally managed to step into a pothole of enormous proportions.

As far as the Alien series (or Legacy, as the box set indicates) goes, this movie is oftentimes cast off as something that is worth forgetting. In many ways this is because it is a reversion toward the die cast in the first movie and forgotten in the second, where only one alien menaces a group of people instead of an armada of them and where the people find themselves without enough "heat" to "pack." Still, being a fan of the idea and of the furthering of the Alien concept, I didn't exactly see it in that light. Instead of seeing it as a reversion in any sense, I saw the storyline as something that explored the outskirts of the society that they had landed within as it explored how the people managed to get along and the power structure involved therein. This touched on their belief system, the fact that even a hairless (because of the little Lice problem that the planet has) Ripley can be considered a supermodel amongst a colony of forgotten "lifers," and that they find someone shouting "Xeno" much the same as anyone else would. Further, it explores the way the Alien adapts to its host, showing you the body difference in the beasties that come from the atypical human model vs. something that manages to come from an animal like a dog. With the dogburster this requires a little creative ingenuity and it looked pretty good, holding the characteristics of its kind and its host's bodytype quite nicely.

The only problems I had with the whole thing was that Newt, someone we had to watch salvaged from the jaws of a Queen in the 2nd installation, is dead on arrival and doesn't really give while the giving is good, and that the Alien's view is sometimes shot through its eyes. Personally, I thought this was something of an insult to the people that watched Ripley trudge through the depths of LV-426 for what amounted to futility, and I wanted to see something tragic happen besides drowning in a stasis chamber. Also, the view of the alien, while interesting when its running up walls, is something that you have to be in the mood for. It does add an odd prospective to the viewing, but I'd sometimes like to watch the man and monstrosity meet in an awe-inspiring puddle of fear-driven demise.

This is a movie that I like in quite a few ways, but that I know isn't exactly the most embraced chapter in the storyline. It doesn't involve the dripping of acidic blood in most of its chapters, the alien decides to check in and say hello when it feels the need, and you really don't get anything like you did in Aliens. So, saying that you will or won't like it is something of a rocky road. If you were a fan of the first two then I'd recommend you watch it, and if you like movies of this type then you should check it out as well. You simply have to keep in mind beforehand that the movies are different from one another and, although the gore emitted by the dooms of so many is a nice thing, the storyline is a little on the easily guessed side and there are some flaw in it. Still, its all about the engine of destruction and the doom it brings, and in that the Alien quite simply never disappoints!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: The Ultimate Conclusion
Review: When I first saw this movie, i hated it. I was a young boy and realised it didn't live up to my expectations. Until I realised why. All I wanted, as a "so-called alien fan", was another modified version of the two previous films. The first one, of course was really inventive, but all Cameron did for the second film was to multiply the exciting aspects of the first one : more guns, more aliens, plus a REALLY big one at the end to surprise us all ( as a 9 year-old i really enjoyed it) and more action. Its exactly like every sequel: MORE MORE MORE, but nothing new or nothing to say ( Indiana Jones 2, Star Wars 2, The Mummy Returns, Back to the Future 2 and so on). And then came the third one. The one that most Alien fans hated. WHY? Because its not about aliens anymore. That's why. Because its not a modified version of the others. There are no guns, no big queen, no more cool marines to care about, no more spectacular action sequences, but only one quick and shy alien. At last, we see something new : A whole movie about Ripley. Her character is the center of the storyline. This movie isn't 'bout aliens, its all bout Ripley. Now we can see what was skipped at the end of the second film : her reaction after the 2 previous experiences, what is left of her life,and how she sees the future. It's more of a psychological drama than a simple action flick. And in the end, i must say that i first hated the conclusion. I didn't understood why. And it came to me that this is the only way it could end. Ripley's death. No one's waiting for her on earth and the ones she loved are all dead. There is nothing left for her. So she decide to die with the creature that ruined her life. They are somehow related and they die together ( with the queen i mean). I think its a really profound ending. But that's just an opinion.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: I kinda liked it.
Review: Flying in the face of public opinion, but let's give it a try.

We have a modern society, in an age so technical, it's possible to set up a colony in the most distant reaches of space. It takes hours for a radio message to reach Earth.

Bad news, in this case, would be a smarter, faster, acid blooded alien psycopath stuck in a prison with you.

Worse would be discovering that in the middle of all this technology, and the aforementioned xenomorphic nightmare, you are reduced to the 21st Century equivalent of rubbing stcks together to make fire.

Yeah, the language is vile - it's R rated, and set on on a futuristic prison containing the absolute dregs of society. What d'ya expect, Barney? Yeah, there's a lot of gore, there's some god-awful alien beastie hunting people.

In my opinion, it's a tight, slick film. Dark and depressing, offers very little in the form of a "nice" day out, but where it sets out to scare you, it's on the money.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Alien 3, Bad WWWWHHHHHAAAAATTTTTTT!?
Review: So maybe this movie is dark, and spoils the fairytell ending of aliens,but what's the problem. This movie is better than Resurrection and at times I like certain aspects of this movie better than Aliens. Alien 3 again relies on atmosphere and the superb acting of Sigourney, to tell a story of hope that is surrounded by despair. In the movie "Spoiler" Ripley survives the aliens encounter to crash land on Fury 161. During this time she finds that she is the unfortunate victim of the queens last remaining egg(there is confusion here, is it one or two eggs) and finds that she is the last remaining hope for the survival of the prisoners and all of mankind. Most of the actors are british and that is one of the few negatives of the film. You can't go ten seconds without one of them shouting something raunchy in a dialect you cant understand. I found that turning on the subtitles will let you pick up certain tiblets of info that you may have missed during your theatric or home viewing of this film. The performances by Weaver, Dutton, and the actor that plays 85 are on the money. Some people think that this movie is somehow less believable than the other ones, but I feel that it is more real(not realistic)in the fact that you can sense the urgency of the situation, and feel the gloomy loss of hope that the characters in the movie are feeling. All in all I like the movies as they go in order, but I do think that this was a perfect way to end the trilogy. One womans sacrifice to
save mankind.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: ONE GIANT MISTAKE
Review: This film is so full of mistakes it's disgusting. The first mistake (and possibly the worst of them all) was to kill off the characters of Hicks and Newt in the beginning of the film. This completely negates everything in "Aliens". The director was quoted as saying something about how bringing only Ripley back would be the most powerful message. Right. Their death hangs over the entire film like a black cloud of death and despair. And these are never good emotions for a science fiction film. Bishop is torn apart, Hicks is impaled through the chest by a support beam, and Newt is drowned in her cryo tube. Ripley just happenes to be the only survivor and not only is she in good condition, nothing is broken and she feels fine the rest of the film. Another mistake is the planet she landed on. Who cares about a bunch of murderers and rapists? Aside from a few main characters the prisoners all look and sound alike (and by this I mean they all say the f--k word every five seconds, f--k this and f--k that and f--k you, great script writing here) you do not care when they die, and you cannot remember their names half the time. Hicks is missed in the film horribly, such as the gang rape scene for instance. Even with the horrible actors and plot and script writing, it would have been better if the characters from Aliens where around. Watch this film and you'll wish you had died with Hicks and Newt in the beginning. Another mistake is their religion bashing. If Weaver has something against religion I don't care but don't interject it into the film just because she thinks it will be interesting. Another mistake was making Sigourney Weaver co-producer. Whoever told her she knew anything about creating a movie aside from acting? The tag line for this film was "The B-tch is back", where they talking about the Alien Queen or Sigourney Weaver? Hard to tell. Another mistake was the sets. A big huge prison that looks exactly the same everywhere. Alien was different because the Nostromo looked different. It was just some big hallway. Another mistake was Ripleys character. She mourns the death of her friends in the first part, but then she's seen sleeping with the local doctor. Wonderful writing here. And why in the hell did they make her bald. The cover of alien 3 shows a bald Ripley in a tank top. What's that supposed to tell you about the film? As a stand alone this film is below mediocre at best. But as a sequal to Aliens? Never. Do yourself a favor and don't watch this film. I choose to end Ripley's adventures with Aliens.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Horrible! The Worst (-5 stars out of 10)
Review: Not only the worst in the series, but has to be one of the worst movies I've ever seen! It ruins it for wanting to see Ressurection. Now I've seen alot of bad movies, but this was horrible. I was expecting it to be good since Alien and Aliens were equally great, but I've never seen one like this. From the beginning, everything Ripley did in Aliens, saving Hicks and the girl was a waste. But it just gets worse. ***DO NOT LET KIDS VIEW THIS!*** It literally says the F word 40xs! It's in every single sentence.... Definatly rated R for a reason. Don't even waste $3 on it. Just skip this one.


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