Kind of funny how Jim says Alien 3 had developed characters when I thought exactly the opposite. I didn't know who any of the characters were because all of them were the bald British guy. There's a gag at the end where the guy who lived was the chap who earlier had stated that he'd made a deal with god that he would not die. I didn't get this gag when I had first seen it because none of the characters stood out because they were all the bald British guy. When someone died, I didn't care. Still don't.
I can see where he's going RE: the death of Newt, but I disagree. But then, I also hated the Special Edition of Aliens and though Ripley had a stronger bond with Newt without having lost a biological daughter than with. it was better that their bond was that they were both survivors of this alien threat and the motherhood theme worked more organically without that ham-fisted device. The death of Newt, and Hicks, I guess just does the otherwise triumphant ending of the previous movie. It's like how Exorcist II: the Heretic was laughed out of theaters because it simply did not fit with the previous film. Besides, having her die between films due to a cryopod malfunction or whatever is just cheap. I would have accepted it better if it wasn't so cheap, but it's goddamned cheap and that we waste a good chunk of the film with the autopsy was just shoving the cheapness into our face, rubbing our noses into the film's filthy, stained underpants. Remember this character you came to like in the previous movie? Well, fuck you. She'd dead. No, nothing special about it. She's just dead. Because we didn't feel like dealing with the character but for reasons of absolute stupidity we still needed Sigourney Weaver in this movie, we're just going to kill off these two other characters for no reason other than to use it as a reset button so we can have that character alone with a bunch of bald British rapists. And a token black guy. It was almost, but not quite, Highlander II as a sequel goes. Just sweeping portions of the previous film under the rug because they proved inconvenient to the story they wanted to tell. They could have just as easily avoided that by going much, much further into the future with Ripley doing the space trucker thing again, leaving Hicks and Newt back on Earth, like Jones. (Hey! The cat got to live. I guess the aliens don't always win. Eat it!) But it turns out her ship is transporting alien eggs and it crashes on a prison planet and she's the only survivor and there you go. But, no. For some stupid reason they felt the need to follow on directly from the previous movie and ruin that previous movie if you don't just ignore the third. Which I do.
Yeah. I just didn't get a feeling of threat from the alien over the death of Newt and Hicks. I got a feeling of pointlessness to even trying. A nadir and a malaise and other fancy words I'm likely misusing. It didn't ramp up the tension but defused all the tension because the monster is going to win no matter what (except for Ripley who always lives and still returned in the next, terrible movie). It's kind of funny how making the monster an insurmountable obstacle that cannot be escaped makes them a less credible threat. Aliens did this better where Ripley was plagued by nightmares back at Earth until she decided to go back to face the demons. Even when she was safe, they still haunted her. That's better at making the treat inescapable.
That all said, Alien 3 is the strongest of the not good Alien sequels. I had tagged the director as someone to watch in the future and I turned out to be right. Go me. It's watchable unlike Alien Resurrection which I can only recommend to Firefly fans and indecisive suicidals. Alien 3 competently made, competently shot. I just don't think it's a very good part of the franchise. It could have been better, though, which I doubt can be said of the Alien vs Predator movies.
One additional thing: how Alien 3 established some addition cannon to the xenomorph's life cycle, I honestly don't care about that. That's mostly been used in video games to give us different kinds of aliens to rest the cross-hairs upon, and the Aliens arcade game did that without this justification, so it wasn't necessary.
Pretty much, I can see someone liking Alien 3. I can respect someone for doing that while anyone who likes Alien Resurrection is obviously as sharp as a sack of wet mice. Alien 3 has things to like about it, but also much to not like about it. If it had managed to kill off Newt and Hicks and take me with it on that, it would have been a work of genius. It didn't, so it's not.
I can see where he's going RE: the death of Newt, but I disagree. But then, I also hated the Special Edition of Aliens and though Ripley had a stronger bond with Newt without having lost a biological daughter than with. it was better that their bond was that they were both survivors of this alien threat and the motherhood theme worked more organically without that ham-fisted device. The death of Newt, and Hicks, I guess just does the otherwise triumphant ending of the previous movie. It's like how Exorcist II: the Heretic was laughed out of theaters because it simply did not fit with the previous film. Besides, having her die between films due to a cryopod malfunction or whatever is just cheap. I would have accepted it better if it wasn't so cheap, but it's goddamned cheap and that we waste a good chunk of the film with the autopsy was just shoving the cheapness into our face, rubbing our noses into the film's filthy, stained underpants. Remember this character you came to like in the previous movie? Well, fuck you. She'd dead. No, nothing special about it. She's just dead. Because we didn't feel like dealing with the character but for reasons of absolute stupidity we still needed Sigourney Weaver in this movie, we're just going to kill off these two other characters for no reason other than to use it as a reset button so we can have that character alone with a bunch of bald British rapists. And a token black guy. It was almost, but not quite, Highlander II as a sequel goes. Just sweeping portions of the previous film under the rug because they proved inconvenient to the story they wanted to tell. They could have just as easily avoided that by going much, much further into the future with Ripley doing the space trucker thing again, leaving Hicks and Newt back on Earth, like Jones. (Hey! The cat got to live. I guess the aliens don't always win. Eat it!) But it turns out her ship is transporting alien eggs and it crashes on a prison planet and she's the only survivor and there you go. But, no. For some stupid reason they felt the need to follow on directly from the previous movie and ruin that previous movie if you don't just ignore the third. Which I do.
Yeah. I just didn't get a feeling of threat from the alien over the death of Newt and Hicks. I got a feeling of pointlessness to even trying. A nadir and a malaise and other fancy words I'm likely misusing. It didn't ramp up the tension but defused all the tension because the monster is going to win no matter what (except for Ripley who always lives and still returned in the next, terrible movie). It's kind of funny how making the monster an insurmountable obstacle that cannot be escaped makes them a less credible threat. Aliens did this better where Ripley was plagued by nightmares back at Earth until she decided to go back to face the demons. Even when she was safe, they still haunted her. That's better at making the treat inescapable.
That all said, Alien 3 is the strongest of the not good Alien sequels. I had tagged the director as someone to watch in the future and I turned out to be right. Go me. It's watchable unlike Alien Resurrection which I can only recommend to Firefly fans and indecisive suicidals. Alien 3 competently made, competently shot. I just don't think it's a very good part of the franchise. It could have been better, though, which I doubt can be said of the Alien vs Predator movies.
One additional thing: how Alien 3 established some addition cannon to the xenomorph's life cycle, I honestly don't care about that. That's mostly been used in video games to give us different kinds of aliens to rest the cross-hairs upon, and the Aliens arcade game did that without this justification, so it wasn't necessary.
Pretty much, I can see someone liking Alien 3. I can respect someone for doing that while anyone who likes Alien Resurrection is obviously as sharp as a sack of wet mice. Alien 3 has things to like about it, but also much to not like about it. If it had managed to kill off Newt and Hicks and take me with it on that, it would have been a work of genius. It didn't, so it's not.