ALIEN³ - 1992
20th Century Fox
Ratings: USA: R |
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Being a male
homo sapien, I have a hard time understanding why women like sad movies.
Crying is not fun. Why would you want to cry? Like most of my kind I prefer
action and heroism. But sometimes there is heroism in the bleakest tragedy.
ALIEN³ was directed by David Fincher (SE7EN, PANIC ROOM) and written by David Giler (ALIEN, ALIENS [story]), Walter Hill (ALIENS [story]) and Larry Ferguson (HIGHLANDER,
THE HUNT FOR RED OCTOBER), based on a story by Vincent Ward and based on the characters created by Dan O'Bannon
and Ronald Shusett. Man, that is a boatload of writers! Is writing talent additive? Let's find out.
The opening credits are devastating, especially if you're a fan of the first
two movies (ALIEN and ALIENS). Before the
movie really even begins you see that everything Ripley (Sigourney
Weaver: ALIEN [all], GHOSTBUSTERS [all]) fought so hard for is lost. Her tremendous fight against
hordes of alien warriors and the huge alien queen in the last movie and
the thrilling rescue of her surrogate daughter, Newt, was all for nothing.
While she, Newt (Carrie Henn in the last movie but
Danielle Edmond here), Corporal Hicks (Michael
Biehn in the last movie but no one here because he's dead)
and the android Bishop (Lance Henrickson: TERMINATOR, ALIENS, NEAR DARK) lay in hyper-sleep (suspended
animation for the long space voyage) we see one of the spider-like
facehugger creatures (which must have come aboard with the queen) crawl toward the hypersleep tubes.
Damage caused by the facehugger using its super-acidic blood to burn through the
tube causes an electrical fire on board the completely automated ship
and the computer heads for the nearest inhabited world on its flight path.
The sleep tubes are placed in a lifeboat-lander, which lands very hard
indeed on Fury 161. On screen text tells us this planet is home to a combination
mineral ore refinery and "double-Y chromosome" work correctional
facility. Men born with two Y-chromosomes have a tendency toward violent
crime. In other words this is a mining colony where extremely violent
criminals are used for slave labor.
Or at least it used to be. The Weyland-Yutani Corporation (referred
to in all the movies as "The Company") used to have a
5000 prisoner facility here, but apparently it wasn't profitable.
They shut it down but left behind a skeleton crew of 25 former prisoners
to maintain the infrastructure in case they decided to do something with
it later. These prisoners, almost all double-Y's, have found religion
and don’t wish to return to the temptations of society.
Ripley is the only survivor of the lifeboat crash. Hicks is impaled in the wreckage
and sad, brave little Newt drowns in her sleep tube. The android Bishop
is smashed beyond repair and the pieces tossed on a trash heap. The locals
take her to the see Clemons (Charles Dance),
the closest thing they have to a doctor. A large dog owned by one of the
prisoners stays by the crashed lifeboat, barking at something inside.
Ripley wakes up and is given the bad news. She's in very rough shape and one eye
is horribly blood shot. One of the things I admire about Sigourney Weaver
is that if a part requires her to look bad, she goes all the way. That
takes more self-confidence than most gorgeous, appearance-conscious movie
stars usually have.
Superintent Andrews (Brian Glover: A COMPANY OF WOLVES, AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON) and his assistant Mr. Aaron (Ralph Brown) inform Ripley that her presence will be very disruptive and upsetting to the men and she’s
not to go anywhere unescorted. A message has been sent to the company
and a rescue squad is expected in about a week.
When Ripley inspects the lifeboat and sees the burn marks on the sleep tubes, she
insists on performing an autopsy on Newt. She had been holding it together
emotionally but this almost pushes her control past its limit.
Newt’s autopsy reveals nothing but in another part of the complex a very sick
dog will shortly be put out of his misery.
The superintendent holds a very perfunctory service for Newt and Hicks. During the service
a prisoner named Dillon (Charles Dutton: MIMIC) steps forward and says a few words of his own. His eulogy moves Ripley. Dillon is a sort-of preacher to his brothers in exile here.
Ripley finds a friend in the sort-of doctor, Clemons (lots of
"sort-of" people here) but she keeps the details of her
past secret. But when people begin dying or simply disappearing, Ripley
knows what’s happening. She barely has time to tell the disbelieving
staff what’s going on when she herself is confronted by the alien.
It gets up close, inches away and her fate seems sealed. But then it leaves
her unharmed. Why?
Asking questions always makes me hungry for a
!!!SCIENCE MOMENT!!!:
I must give kudos here for showing that the form of the alien depends
on the host. Bursting forth from a dog created a smaller creature that
runs on all fours much of the time (in the original
storyline it was going to be a cow instead of a dog. Talk about sour milk!)
ALIEN3 also gets an
!!!UNFAIR RACIAL CLICHE ALERT!!!:
Like all of the ALIEN movies, this too follows the UNFAIR RACIAL CLICHE ALERT. Follow this link to see why: URCA/Alien3. But beware! there are Spoilers there!
Through all the movies Ripley has been a rock. Even though she was an emotional
basket case in the beginning of "Aliens" she still held it together
and faced her worst fears. But this movie is about her worst fears come
true and then some. It’s a departure from the horror / action theme
of the first two films and really tests the depths of Ripley’s character.
Even in the face of tragedy piled upon tragedy, she manages to maintain,
even though that may not be enough.
I liked this movie, but it did have problems. One plot issue I do have is why
is "The Company" so intent on getting Ripley, when back on LV
426 (the planet in the last two movies),
there's still a whole crashed-alien-ship full of these creatures
(the alien ship was many miles from the colony blown
up at the end of ALIENS – it's still there)? I have to
take points off for such a big plot hole. I give ALIEN³ an appropriate 3 shriek girls.
This review copyright 2003 E.C.McMullen Jr.
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