Why does the world hate Alien 3?

[Dead kate moss]

Remind me how the alien(s) die at the end of Alien 3. It's the only one where the one at the end doesn't cop it by being sucked out into the vacuum of space, right?

[Spiteface]

Ripley and the prison inmates try and trap it in the lead moulds (the prison planet is an abandoned leadworks). It gets out, covered in molten lead, and one of them turns on the water sprinklers, causing it to explode.

[Small Man Big Horse]

Hell of a lot better than Alien:Resurrection, put it that way.  I went to the cinema to see that with a girl I was seeing at the time.  She nearly cried at the end when the alien crumbles to bits when it gets sucked out of the airlock because at one point "he looked a bit like a big frightened dog".  _{We parted company soon afterwards.}

I quite liked Alien: Resurrection, though I didn't see it until ages after it's release and wasn't expecting much due to the reviews. It's messy for sure, and is nowhere near as good as the first two films, but I like the way it's shot and some of the ideas it had.

Joss Whedon was massively disappointed by it though:

"It wasn't a question of doing everything differently, although they changed the ending; it was mostly a matter of doing everything wrong. They said the lines...mostly...but they said them all wrong. And they cast it wrong. And they designed it wrong. And they scored it wrong. They did everything wrong that they could possibly do. There's actually a fascinating lesson in filmmaking, because everything that they did reflects back to the script or looks like something from the script, and people assume that, if I hated it, then they'd changed the script...but it wasn't so much that they'd changed the script; it's that they just executed it in such a ghastly fashion as to render it almost unwatchable."

And apparently an entire third act set on Earth with humanity fighting the aliens was cut, as the studio didn't like it.

[Blumf]

I quite liked Alien: Resurrection...
And apparently an entire third act set on Earth with humanity fighting the aliens was cut, as the studio didn't like it.

What was the deal with Earth in A4? I can't work out if it was a wasteland before the ship crashed or if that was a result of it crashing. If it's the former, what happened? If it's the latter, how does a small (relative to a planet) ship cause so much damage? (looks like it crashed into a part of Africa I think, but you see Paris in ruins)

[kidsick5000]

What was the deal with Earth in A4? I can't work out if it was a wasteland before the ship crashed or if that was a result of it crashing. If it's the former, what happened? If it's the latter, how does a small (relative to a planet) ship cause so much damage? (looks like it crashed into a part of Africa I think, but you see Paris in ruins)

The Paris bit is a cut scene. Basically a final cruel joke at Ripley's expense - They spent all this time trying to save the earth not realising everyone had left a long time back.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PnmMksVK8pY

[gatchamandave]

I think that the poor reception is understandable for the time. Thus a lot of the criminals in the film are now much loved British thespians, at the time the likes of Ralph Brown and Pete Postlethwaite were less familiar to the man in the street. The standard prison look doesn't help- I've seen him in so many things, I've watched the film half a dozen times, but I still can't tell which one is Paul McGann. Or what happens to him (don't tell me, it's one of the reasons I watch it again)

Also, if you think Prometheus was eagerly awaited, that was nothing compared to the sweaty anticipation fan-boys like me had in '92. Heck, we wanted a dramatisation of the Dark Horse comic, no, wait, scratch that, we wanted the William Gibson script, or maybe the Walter Hill one, is that the one with the monks and the wooden spaceships, cos that would be awesome and kewl...and so on.

[Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth]

McGann's role was cut down to almost nothing in the theatrical release. He plays a more pivotal role in the assembly cut.

[El Unicornio, mang]

I remember Ralph Brown (just realised there's two Withnail cast members in the film) saying in an interview that the reason for a lot of the cuts was because of them showing it to a load of young guys in California, who said there was "too many bald British dudes".

[SavageHedgehog]

It seems to me like one of those films I more want to like for what is trying to do than actually like for what it does. Resurrection in contrast I find to be unambitious fun.

[Replies From View]

Alien:Resurrection = Itchy and Scratchy do Aliens

Yeah, that was the bollocks film.  Alien Resurrection undid the sacrifice, made the company win anyway, and tried to give the fans of Aliens what they were wanting with all guns and stuff.

[Nuclear Optimism]

just realised there's two Withnail cast members in the film

Fincher wanted Richard E Grant for Clemens, to complete the set, but Grant turned it down.

[El Unicornio, mang]

Richard Griffiths as Andrews might have worked :)

[Beep Cleep Chimney]

Alien:Resurrection = Itchy and Scratchy do Aliens

Yeah, that was the bollocks film.  Alien Resurrection undid the sacrifice, made the company win anyway, and tried to give the fans of Aliens what they were wanting with all guns and stuff.

Did any of you fellow Alien:Resurrection haters ever see the alternate opening titles that were included on the DVD?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zwCWzGje8Ds

Rightly dropped as it makes it look like you're in for some quirky, comic, knockabout Alien fun.

I mean you'd expect something like that for any other film made by the Delicatessen/City Of Lost Children/Amelie lot, but it's really out of place for Alien 4.

[ZoyzaSorris]

The opening of Alien 3 is nice, with the brutal industrial backdrop and so on, but it rapidly turns into a fairly bleak unappealing dirge of which you care very little. And the atmospheric looks dont really persist. And the special fx are rubbish. Alien 4 was possibly more entertaining despite being a much worse piece artistically. Really bad CGI, certainly. That alien dog thing is hilarious, is it supposed to be scary?

[Blumf]

I mean you'd expect something like that for any other film made by the Delicatessen/City Of Lost Children/Amelie lot, but it's really out of place for Alien 4.

Yep, I like Jean-Pierre Jeunet's stuff, but he is totally wrong for the Alien universe. Too fantasy/comic, in contrast to Alien's gritty outlook.

[biggytitbo]

Alien 3, to me, always came across as a poor mans Moontrap with Walter Koenig.

[Blumf]

Moontrap

Now that's another film that I think deserves more recognition than it gets.

[Replies From View]

Well, Alien Resurrection is like a poor man's Mouse Trap that couldn't even afford Steve Johnson.

[Replies From View]

Did any of you fellow Alien:Resurrection haters ever see the alternate opening titles that were included on the DVD?

I've seen all of that alternative version.  It's pretty pointless.

[Desi Dubs Dallas]

It's also great the way the film mercilessly snatches away Charles Dutton's character just as Ripley is warming to him.

strangely enough Dillons death was the one thing i hated most about Alien 3, since by that point it was established that Ripley was doomed yet he lays down his life to buy her the time needed to push the big red button.of course at the time i was unaware that by then he'd already fulfilled his role as the M****** N**** http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LTBbuQmeWvM
with a rousing speech to the troops

[Replies From View]

Sorry, I got the name wrong.  I meant Charles Dance's character.

[mbedd]

Did any of you fellow Alien:Resurrection haters ever see the alternate opening titles that were included on the DVD?
Rightly dropped as it makes it look like you're in for some quirky, comic, knockabout Alien fun.

Baaaaasssssstaaaaaaadddddds!!!

[Replies From View]

BOGLIN ALIEN HEADS!!!

[SteveDave]

Alien 3 had me from the 20th Century Fox opening

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vic6bO14CZg

Creepy

[Dead kate moss]

Rewatching it now, the main problem is not that they killed Newt - egregious as that was - or that it's too talky - that's fine although nobody says much of interest. The problem is that Fincher cannot make the Aliens and their attacks scary. I'm not afraid of them at all in this, the scene where one pops down and grabs Brian Glover elicits no emotion, surprise or fear. It's empty. An Alien film needs a director who can handle the non-action stuff, that's vital. But if they can't handle the action/suspense/horror bits, it's a complete waste of time. The religion angle is annoying, pointless and tacked on too.

The only good thing (aside from some ok acting all round) is they had the guts to kill Ripley at the end, but that was probably because they weren't planning any more or wanted a cheaper actress than Weaver. This film deserves its poor reputation.

[Hangthebuggers]

I quite liked it. It (in some ways) returned to the claustrophobia of the first film, with the single lone entity picking off the prison population. The change of alien was quite a nice touch too. And for all those saying it was too 'gloomy' , well I actually prefer the idea of the isolation in some flea-ridden cesspit prison planet. It provides an alternative threat to the monster. The humans in this place are all pretty much worthless murderers or rapists, yet confronted with the shadow of the alien, they become slightly more human.

It was far from perfect, but i'm glad they stepped away from the action packed marine stuff from the second film, and subdued it back into horror territory (to a degree). As for the deaths of Newt and Hicks (and Bishop) - you're forgetting that they served to create a very unsettling scene of the autopsy when Ripley desperately searches for any signs of impregnation on the corpses of Newt and Hicks(almost a mirror to the flea's which plague the prison planet - hence the shaved heads, avoiding infestation).

And somebody mentioned the cold and ruthless corporation at the end of the movie. Very good touch to bring them in. The greatest threat in the whole trilogy (fuck the fourth film) was not the alien itself (well besides its acid bleeding, skull puncturing, tail slashing, mouth raping nastiness) but the fucking corporation who wish to use these fuckers as bio-weapons and research. And have no qualms about sacrificing whole colonies and planets in their bid to play god.

[holyzombiejesus]

I don't remember too much about it as I went to see it with a friend and on the way bumped into a fellow that we knew who offered us some acid. We bought 2 tabs each (apparently double dipped strawberries) and dropped them as soon as we entered the cinema. The main thing that I remember is getting the giggles during the autopsy on the little girl and when she tries to mend that robot thing, and then passing out during a part of the film that just seemed to comprise of fire blazing through tunnels.

(The kind hearted fellow who sold us the acid gave us a lift home at the end. We went through Rusholme and all the neon signs for the curry houses made me think I was in Las Vegas.)

[Dead kate moss]

As for the deaths of Newt and Hicks (and Bishop) - you're forgetting that they served to create a very unsettling scene of the autopsy when Ripley desperately searches for any signs of impregnation on the corpses of Newt and Hicks(almost a mirror to the flea's which plague the prison planet - hence the shaved heads, avoiding infestation).

Oh yeah I forgot how great it as that the really likable character that Ripley had spent the previous movie saving to our great relief and pleasure was not only killed off-screen, but then had a gruesome autopsy performed on her! Yes I know these aren't happy-ever-after Disney movies, but that scene did not improve the movie, even if it was 'unsettling.' And as I said, my main complaint is the aliens, who had previously been terrifying, were just not scary at all, there was very little tension, so the film didn't succeed as a return to 'horror.'

[batwings]

One of the things I like about Aliens is that it does't try to repeat the first one. Alien 3, however, just feels like Alien but this time in a prison. Aliens wasn't a horror movie but there was still plenty of tension. Alien 3 somehow managed to make the Alien seem dull. Those endless POV shots as it runs around murky corridors with interchangeable baldies running from it - jesus.

[Replies From View]

One of the things I like about Aliens is that it does't try to repeat the first one. Alien 3, however, just feels like Alien but this time in a prison.

I think it gives the trilogy a very decent symmetry.