Kind of an odd movie. Fincher definitely tries to go back more towards the feel of the first movie, with just one Xenomorph instead of Cameron's armies of them. And while there are theoretically more people to fight it than the crew of the Nostromo had, and they have the advantage of Ripley having faced and survived these things twice, they're hamstrung because most of the people they have available are seemingly idiots, and they have basically zero ability to even cobble together rudimentary weapons.
That said, it sure likes to show the Xenomorph on the screen a lot, in all its shoddy, early '90s CGI glory. Maybe it couldn't have worked going back to Ridley Scott's approach of just offering hints or glimpses of it. We've all seen the alien by now, and whatever Ripley might say, one that hatches out of a dog doesn't look that markedly different from one that hatches from a person.
But I thought the most effective scene was the one when Ripley goes looking for it alone, trying to get it to kill her. She's moving through that narrow maintenance tunnel with her flashlight and the pipe and in the edges of what the light can show, she and the audience keep thinking we catch glimpses of it. We know it's there somewhere, but where is it? When will she find it? The movie was able to capture the old suspense for that brief stretch, at least.
Despite the slow pace at the beginning - things don't really get cracking until about 45 minutes in - Fincher doesn't really build up enough of the inmates to where we'd care about them. Charles Dutton's character, sure, for all that I can't entirely pin his personality down. Like, I don't know if I believe his claim that he's in prison for raping and killing women, or if he was just trying to be unfriendly. Clements, the medic, who dies fairly early in the proceedings gets enough fleshing out to think maybe he's going to be helpful, but other than that, not so much. Maybe Andrews, the second-in-command, but his personality is primarily 'naive putz in over his head', so it's hard to feel much for him.
It's really mostly about Sigourney Weaver's performance. The way she's hurt and grieving initially, but finds a cautious hope, even having landed in a prison, that maybe the aliens are dead and gone. Then that's taken away in about the worst way possible. There's a despair and exhaustion that sets in, where she's just pushing forward because all she can do is try to clean up this mess one more time, and hope it actually sticks.
8 comments:
Was this the theatrical or the director's cut? I ask as this is one of those occasions where it really can make a difference.
The director's cut, while still not a brilliant film, is definitely better and does flesh out those characters a little more - not all of them, as many are just cannon fodder for the alien, but it certainly gives more screen time to the main ones.
As much as I like the series, I do wish it had ended here with Weaver falling gracefully into the fire.
I'm not sure which version it was. One that was free on Amazon Prime. I bet it would say so if it was the director's cut, so probably the theatrical release.
I'd have been fine with ending it with this one. There are parts of Alien: Resurrection I enjoy (Ron Perlman's always fun), but I wouldn't describe any of the films from that one on as essential. Maybe not even good.
I'm not a massive fan of 3, but I am fascinated by the many different versions of it that exist out there. I know there have been umpteen cuts of Fincher's version, and they published a graphic novel of William Gibson's version; I'd love to see the other scripts produced in some form so we could see them all, in particular Vincent Ward's "wooden planet" version, which sounds bonkers.
Wooden planet? I'm assuming this is not just some Eden-like forest world (now I'm thinking of setting Xenomorphs loose in Sherwood Forest. The Robin Hood/Alien crossover everyone demands!)
But yes, forget the Snyder Cut (of anything). Release the Wooden Planet Cut!
My understanding is that it was a planet literally made out of wooden beams, like a big spherical boat.
And I'm willing to bet that Dark Horse has probably done Robin Hood vs Aliens at some point.
More details on the Wooden Planet version here (assuming I can remember some basic html...)
Kelvin: Well not that Marvel hsa the license, we can do Hawkeye vs. Aliens. I'm actually surprised Marvel hasn't (as far as I know) integrated the Xenomorphs. Granted, they have the Brood already as their knockoff version, but already having one of something has never stopped Marvel before.
Gary: Reading that plot synopsis, and I'm left wondering why the guy who beats on Ripley's chest so she essentially barfs up a Chestburster doesn't just kill it, rather than letting it crawl down his throat. Also, acid can cause brush fires?
I think Marvel did do (or will be doing) some sort of miniseries crossing the aliens with the MU.
I've just remembered that the aliens are a canonical part of the WildStorm Universe (they killed Stormwatch, which led to the Authority) and so, I suppose, the DCU, although the umpteen Crises there have been since then have probably erased that.
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