Movie Defense Force: Alien 3

[el_kabong]

Loved the video. Good stuff. I don't agree that Aliens 3 is the best of the series. The original film (see also: studio hack job) left too many plot holes and cut down on a lot of the atmosphere that David Fincher did best at the time (see also: crushing despair). However, the director's cut of Alien 3 is definitely on par with the rest of the films, though I don't feel that there's a clear winner.

 

[InvisibleMan]

Agreed (with Jim Sterling, not with the haters).

 

[karamazovnew]

I also loved Alien 3 more than the rest. The last minutes of the movie are simply sublime, a perfect coda. Viewing it as part of the trilogy, it's the most mature, dark and personal. Even though the action takes place on a penal colony, somehow, it feels as the end of Humanity. What I love the most is the cast. I'm surprised that Jim has not included Pete Postlethwaite and Danny Web(Morse). While not as developed, they are truly memorable.

 

[Spearmaster]

I remember falling asleep in the theater watching Alien 3, good characters/character writing helps make a good movie sure but does it make a good Alien movie? It was the same movie with slightly different location and different alien and a new pool of people to kill, ohh and some survivors guilt.

Rather than make the third installment interesting they made the same movie and just slightly altered the elements to make it seem like something new. No not a ship this time...a prison, just as isolated but even more boring because it doesn't move or need to be flown. Lots of empty depth characters...ohh, wait I see Ripley standing over there, I guess they all have to die anyway...just like every other time.

 

[Shoggoth2588]

Awesome show and I look forward to more! Thank God for Jim. As for the topic at hand...I don't think I've seen a single Alien film from beginning to end. I should fix that.

 

[VonBrewskie]

Good points all. I still don't like Alien 3 as much as the first two. I loooove me some Aliens, no matter which film I'm watching, don't get me wrong. I read the Dark Horse comics as a kid, and own all of the films in all of the formats they have been released in, for the most part. However, I thought that the improvisational style of Alien was really great. It captured how I think people would actually react to a space monster slaughtering their friends in an inescapable place. They aren't friends in the penal colony in Alien 3. I didn't think it was as personal as the first film. There's a deeper sense of desperation and darkness in Alien 3, I will certainly not argue that. That has its own charms and depth. But I just happened to like the style of Alien more.

Ripley was not chosen at random in Alien, in my estimation. You can see her taking command at various points in the film, or at least battling for that command with Dallas. Ripley is the one who discovers that "the crew is expendable" from the Mother computer. She survives because she is inquisitive. I think the film is saying that, much like you pointed out Jim, that the Alien is an inescapable force of nature and that the only way a human can even hope to survive against it is to outsmart it. Then in Aliens, you get lines like "They cut the power? How'd they know to cut the power? They're fucking animals man!" This begins to add layers to the desperation and you watch throughout the entire film as the colonial marines go from confident "mother green and her killing machine" bad-asses, to scrabbling piles of fear desperate to just survive.

Then comes Alien 3. And the depression is just thick as all hell. The (near) perfect wrap-up to the first two films. Ripley crash lands on a hostile penal colony, two main characters that served as the only happy-ending catharsis from Aliens are dead without us even seeing them go and another, terrifying Alien is born. This one is smaller, faster, and far more terrifying than any of the others so far I think. Alien 3 has some hammy acting and chunky scripting. It's almost too depressing. Almost like it overplays the depressing angle to the point where my brain overloads with depression and I find the film less interesting because of it. I think that was the point though. Just my opinion. I did actually really like the ending of Alien 3 though. I mean Jesus Christ, (spoiler, haha like anyone is going to read my bullshit. Still, etiquette. Pinkies up! Spoilers!), Dillon fights the xenomorph hand to hand in a molten lead trough and then gets molten lead poured over him. Fucking best...ending...ever (imo). And Ripley jumps into a pit of fire while holding a Xenomorph queen popping out of her chest. That was pretty good too.

Great review Mr. Jim Sterling. I look forward to watching more of these. Keep up the good work, you crazy bastard.

 

[CAPTCHA]

When Aliens was released it was a real game changer, there was some expectation that something similar would happen with the next, or that at least it would follow in its footsteps. Instead it reverted to being a remake of Alien which put off a lot of Aliens fans. As for the origional film, saying whether it or Alien 3 is better is a matter of taste (perhaps you like the adlibbed simplicity of the first or the crafted team-written screenplay of the third) but there's no doubt that they are the same film in essence. That's going to create some polarising views and people have a natural tendency to pick sides with things like this.

The second reason I can see that Alien 3 is looked down upon is because there is an air of betrayal about it. The success of Aliens created a whole expanded universe, the most popular of which are the three comics that were sequels to the film. These comics followed the stories of Newt and Hicks years after the event. For these fan favourites to not only to be left out of the film, but be dead on impact leaves a bitter taste in the mouth.

So who was Alien 3 made for? Not fans of Aliens (it's a different genera) and not fans of the expanded universe (it killed of the main characters). Fans of the first film? Possibly, but a lot of what made the first film so popular (the casual acting, simplicity and origional design) are lost in the third. In the end Alien 3 becomes its own creation with its own audience. As a stand-alone film it works for all the reasons Jim stated, but it's a let down to people who wanted more Alien/Aliens respectivly.

 

[Jeyl]

Before I start I just want to get this out of the way. Jim, if you're going to bring up the film's visual merits, I recommend showcasing what was seen only in the theatrical version rather than the Special Edition as seen on DVD and BluRay. The theatrical edition is what the studios released and what the world was exposed to. I think it's disingenuous to defend a film for material it didn't even use. Also, it's not appropriate to call the alternate version the "Director's Cut" since David Fincher's party specifically told the DVD/BluRay producer not to call it that. Fincher has said that the only way to do a Director's Cut would be to do the entire film from scratch. Also, shi**y CGI? That was not CGI, it was a model Alien that was moved around like a puppet on sticks.

I know some like to label the aliens an unstoppable "always winning" killing machines that you cannot escape, but the thing is, neither the first two movies portray the alien as such. What the Alien has is a strong guided instinct that allows it to adapt to it's environment and put it to better use than the people who work/live there. This did not make the alien unstoppable. One of the head writers for the film, Dan O'Bannon, said in his interviews that he didn't want this creature to be portrayed as 'invincible' but at the same time didn't want it to be something you can simply shoot at and be done with, which is where the alien acid comes in. If they killed the alien, it would compromise their ship effectively killing everyone. If it took one tiny cut to burn through three decks, imagine what a whole blood splatter would do.

Another downside of ALIEN3 is how it portrayed the alien itself. In the first two movies, the Aliens didn't always kill their victims, but incapacitate them. These aren't creatures who want to kill you, they want to capture you, rape you and kill you by a painful birth. The first Alien film gave hints of that, while ALIENS solidified it. The alien in Alien3 on the other hand is just a simple killing machine. No incapacitation and no nesting. Kind of out of character especially when it knows a QUEEN IS ON THE WAY. What good are the Queen's eggs going to be if there are no hosts?

As for newt being spared an agonizing death, well....

That doesn't look like she was unconscious at all. More like she was actually awake when the EEV crashed, and was trying to pound her way out of her cryo tube while it filled up with water. This may not be as painful as having an alien burst through your chest, but it's still a terrifying ordeal, especially for a child who is isolated, alone and cannot do anything to save herself.

I'll probably be back for more to showcase how the first 15 minutes are some of the most stupidest attempts at bringing the alien back when it clearly shouldn't have.

 

[maximara]

Cool new show, I like it.

Just, Jim, please, for the love of Jim, PLEASE leave the Star Wars prequels out of this. Please.

i don't think there is much that had be said in defense of the prequel films. At least with Aliens 3 you can make a case that it did break new ground but it didn't deal with a key problem that the aliens had by that time--they just didn't seem to "fit" in a normal evolutionarily pattern. It certainly doesn't help that by that time some of the ideas seen in the anime knock off of Aliens, Lily C.A.T., had started showing up in the franchise.

 

[chozo_hybrid]

I always liked the first 3 Alien films, the 4th I watch as a so bad it's good film with friends.

 

[Mortamus]

Having never really seen the Alien movies, this has certainly made me want to pick them. I've watched parts of the first one and saw the AvP films which seemed to follow the whole "main characters can die. deal with it." thing.

 

[Arqus_Zed]

Hmmm...

Nope, I still like Alien and Aliens better.
Mind you, I never thought Alien 3 was a downright horrible movie, just inferior to the first two - and I stick by it.

Yes, the visuals are pretty nice (David Fincher delivers, but then again, so did Ridley and Cameron) and Clemens is a pretty good character.
But the story itself is rather dull, slow and insignificant. Besides, apart from Ripley and Clemens, I just didn't care about any of the characters.

The setup just didn't do it for me.

 

[StreetBushido]

A lot of interesting points! However, as others have already noted, the choice of background music was less than inspired: the whistling was incredibly distracting.

I look forward to more of this show, sans background whistling.

 

[Irridium]

Nice new show, look forward to more episodes.

Alien 3 may not be the best of the series, but its certainly not a bad movie by any means.

also wtf is podtoid.

It's the podcast of Destructoid, another website Jim does stuff for.

Here's [http://www.destructoid.com/podtoid-234-the-foot-clan-s-poopy-ooze-241719.phtml] the latest episode, The Foot Clan's Poopy Ooze. I also recommend their previous one, Anal Siege 2 - Analectric Boogalanal [http://www.destructoid.com/podtoid-233-anal-siege-2-analectric-boogalanal-241337.phtml], in which the hosts get drunk to celebrate the last Podtoid of 2012.

It's all good stuff.

 

[Irridium]

It's a shame that some of the points in this had been covered in the past on Podtoid.

show of hands, who here on the escapist knows of Podtoid?


(if not, fix that!)

googling podtoid to figure out what it is.... in 3 ...2 .... 1

They gave hitman absolution 8.5 ........... our tastes don't align. I'm not going any deeper

Hah, that's funny. Like they talk about video-games on Podtoid. But seriously, give it a listen, it's good stuff. Or it's absolutely horrid. Depends on what type of person you are, really. I suggest you go deeper. Deeper into the anus. You'll find out who's if you listen to Podtoid, I assure you.

 

[Reduced_Silver]

I recommend to everyone who liked the movie to read the book Alien 3. I think it's even better than the movie, and I wish they had done all the things in the book, in the movie. Perhaps they would have, if it hadn't had so many production problems.

I did really like Alien 3, but the book is so much better. As for Alien 4, I just couldn't stand the way they made the cell the aliens were housed in dissolvable by their blood. Good grief, they knew all about them by then.

I just never understood how there were reproductive aliens onboard the sulaco after the queen got blown out the airlock. Just a plot contrivance so there could be aliens in the next movie.

 

[GenGenners]

A new series? YES.
On a thursday, usually a dead day? YES.
With Jim? YES.
Alien 3 is first up? YEEEEEEEESSSSS!!!!!!!

Intro is a bit long though, and the BGM was a bit distracting at times.

 

[sindremaster]

Duly noted on the background music. I'll replace it with something else. It'll still be from Deadly Premonition though!

You're just too lazy to change the credits, admit it!

 

[CalUKGR]

Personally, I consider the original Alien the best of the quartet, with the fourth film, Resurrection, winning in the visuals department - no, seriously: the production design on Resurrection not only equaled the original, but surpassed it. Some achingly gorgeous sets framing that film.

But, yeah, Alien3 gets an undeservedly bad press. Charles Dance was fantastic in it, too.