I literally blurted out "FUCK. YES!"
Alien 3 has always been the black sheep of the franchise. Hicks and Newt, in particular, got a terrible resolution because of the way Fincher tore down the world Scott and Cameron created. I'm glad Biehn in particular is coming back for this one - after seeing the special features on the Quadrilogy/Anthology, they treated him terribly and tossed him aside because of the script issues. I would love it if they retconned his whereabouts.
And because I'm feeling vain...
Hell, there's a sizable part of the fanbase that still refuses to acknowledge 3 and 4 as part of the franchise. They really were that bad in terms of content and scare value.
I get tired of Alien 3 fanboys using the "Aliens was a happy ending!" argument. Aliens was bittersweet, not happy - most of the Marines still died, and the entire planet was nuked. Yeah, there's an uplifting part (the fact that Cameron intended Hicks, Ripley and Newt as a pseudo-family unit), but it had to be there in the face of all that darkness, or it wouldn't have felt effective and earned.
3 is out-and-out pointless, especially in light of the following film. The characters were mostly forgettable, the tension barely there, and the effects (rod puppet or CGI dome-cracking) look laughable compared to the prior films.
3 was entirely black-and-white. The majority of the prisoners had no characterization whatsoever, and there was little (if anything) to make the audience susceptible or sympathetic to their feelings when the creature starts offing inmates. Clemens got offed just as he got some characterization and the warden was a one-note character who never changed his ways. Dillon and Aaron were the only two who had anything more than a cursory line or two. Sure, you can say Junior and Golic got development, but even those were cursory, and they were relegated to deleted scenes.
I will be very happy if they retcon 3 out altogether. It's still an incredibly weak film (Assembly Cut or not), and the sooner it's forgotten, the better.
Alien 3 has always been the black sheep of the franchise. Hicks and Newt, in particular, got a terrible resolution because of the way Fincher tore down the world Scott and Cameron created. I'm glad Biehn in particular is coming back for this one - after seeing the special features on the Quadrilogy/Anthology, they treated him terribly and tossed him aside because of the script issues. I would love it if they retconned his whereabouts.
And because I'm feeling vain...
3 and Resurrection did a good enough job of killing any sequel prospects for the franchise. 3 was (and still is) the lowest-grossing of the four films, and did terribly on its release in the U.S. in 1992. Resurrection did marginally better money-wise, but was a critical failure.j-e-f-f-e-r-s said:
Hell, there's a sizable part of the fanbase that still refuses to acknowledge 3 and 4 as part of the franchise. They really were that bad in terms of content and scare value.
It still had more horror than 3. When even the producers and executives of Fox admit that they don't think 3 was scary, there's a serious problem. Both 3 and 4 went for gore and shock value than out and out horror. Aliens is still well-regarded for ratcheting up the suspense for a solid hour before introducing the xenomorphs.
You say it's scary, most say it's just a retread of the first film, set in a prison instead of a spaceship. You say that horror should be unpredictable, and forget that (as I mentioned above) the second film did something completely impossible at the time, and kept the "villains" offscreen for a third of the film. You can even characterize the ultimate conflict of Aliens as a fight between two mothers (Ripley and the Queen).
I get tired of Alien 3 fanboys using the "Aliens was a happy ending!" argument. Aliens was bittersweet, not happy - most of the Marines still died, and the entire planet was nuked. Yeah, there's an uplifting part (the fact that Cameron intended Hicks, Ripley and Newt as a pseudo-family unit), but it had to be there in the face of all that darkness, or it wouldn't have felt effective and earned.
3 is out-and-out pointless, especially in light of the following film. The characters were mostly forgettable, the tension barely there, and the effects (rod puppet or CGI dome-cracking) look laughable compared to the prior films.
No. Giger's concept was that the creature "rapes". The theme of the film was "truckers in space" meets "terror in the unknown", as stated by Scott and Dan O'Bannon.
Where was the nihilism in the first film? The first movie was setup to subvert expectations - the unlikable warrant officer is the one to survive, and triumphs over the "impossible to kill" creature. It ended on a hopeful note (Ripley's report of reaching the frontier). It can be characterized as a "haunted house in space". Any nihilism in the franchise is completely a product of the third film.
That's funny. I remember, prior to Aliens, few (if any) films dealt with space marines, especially not in the way that Cameron intended. The film subverted their concept, as the macho Marines mostly lose their cool after the initial battle and have to pull themselves together to take on the superior force.
3 was entirely black-and-white. The majority of the prisoners had no characterization whatsoever, and there was little (if anything) to make the audience susceptible or sympathetic to their feelings when the creature starts offing inmates. Clemens got offed just as he got some characterization and the warden was a one-note character who never changed his ways. Dillon and Aaron were the only two who had anything more than a cursory line or two. Sure, you can say Junior and Golic got development, but even those were cursory, and they were relegated to deleted scenes.
Considering that the Sulaco was originally considered to have been destroyed as of the third film (it was even scripted to explode on-screen before production of the third film), they've already retconned more than you realize.
I will be very happy if they retcon 3 out altogether. It's still an incredibly weak film (Assembly Cut or not), and the sooner it's forgotten, the better.
