Movie Review: Alien³ (1992)

[Dave Gray]

Premise: Ripley's ship crash lands on a prison planet, where technology and weaponry are scarce and outdated.  Before long, she realizes that an alien parasite made the trip with her, and vows to use her only asset - the will of men - to destory it.

Rating: Decent.

This movie gets a lot of crap for being the decline of the series.  It's unfortunate, in that the sole problem is in the concept (a pretty big problem) -- not with poor execution.  With the first movie, you dealt with one alien in a confined space.  In the second, you dealt with lots more aliens, with the characters having weapons to defend themselves.  It seems that the natural run of the story would bring Ripley back to Earth, where they would try to "tame the beast" with tragic results.  It's sort of the point of the whole saga...that Ripley saw the damage that the creatures would do if they ever got out.  So, this movie takes us back to one alien, without firepower, in a confined space.  ...but at this point, you couldn't recreate the slow building anticipation that the first film had done.  ...you had to go for more action, like in the second film.  ...but there was less to work with.  After seeing many aliens getting busted up with grenades and guns in part 2, simply trying to trap a single one in part 3 was unfulfilling.

Also, the entire "trapping" sequence was confusing...the plan didn't translate to film.  ...a bunch of guys running around, locking doors behind them didn't have a punch to it.  Since survival was no longer Ripley's goal, it didn't seem like there was as much at stake (especially since everything was in vain, as there is an Alien 4).  It's too bad, because this movie did have lots of things that the others didn't.  ....there were some very good shots of the alien itself, and cinematically, it was on par with the first, but overall, just didn't take the series to the next level.

A few questions:
SPOILERS:

1) How did Ripley get an egg inside her?  She mentions that it must have happened in hypersleep, but in the beginning, we see that she is still sealed in her chamber, and there are no marks on her face (unlike the dog).

2) Why did every other character that's been infected sprout an alien from their chest shortly after the parasite detached, but with Ripley it took what seemed to be well over a week?

3) How did Ripley know that the creature inside her was a queen, rather than just a regular one?

4) Ripley claims that these aliens have been a part of her life for so long, but in all three movies, only a short amount of time passes, as they literally butt up against one another?  Time has passed, but she's been asleep for the majority of it.

5) The hot lead pool fails to kill the alien, until it is cooled down and blows up from the pressure change (I assume).  Why then are we to believe that it kills the alien when Ripley jumps into it?

[GUATARICCAN]

A few questions:
SPOILERS:

1) How did Ripley get an egg inside her?  She mentions that it must have happened in hypersleep, but in the beginning, we see that she is still sealed in her chamber, and there are no marks on her face (unlike the dog).

- I took it as either the one face hugger laid 2 eggs or the one that impregnated Ripley died off on the ship and a second one stowed away on the escape pod. Or the David Fincher Super facehugger theory, but I don't think you like that one.

2) Why did every other character that's been infected sprout an alien from their chest shortly after the parasite detached, but with Ripley it took what seemed to be well over a week?

- I felt it took longer than usual because she was carrying a queen, which probably takes longer to develop.

3) How did Ripley know that the creature inside her was a queen, rather than just a regular one?

- From the scan she could she it had the Queens head plate armor. Instead of the banana head of the drones

4) Ripley claims that these aliens have been a part of her life for so long, but in all three movies, only a short amount of time passes, as they literally butt up against one another?  Time has passed, but she's been asleep for the majority of it.

- But in the long run these things ruined her life pretty much. So I think it's just a saying type of thing.

5) The hot lead pool fails to kill the alien, until it is cooled down and blows up from the pressure change (I assume).  Why then are we to believe that it kills the alien when Ripley jumps into it?

- Cause it was a fetus. It wouldn't be able to pull itself out or develop it's protective exoskeleton.

[JVides]

My rating for Alien3 : craptacular (especially when compared to the previous two).

As for your questions:  Ripley began to suspect she had a queen inside her when the hunter / killer alien backed away from her instead of killing her.

[Thundergod]

My rating for Alien3 : craptacular (especially when compared to the previous two).

Craptacular indeed.  The decline of the entire series.  Batman anyone?

[TonyB0D]

this movie blew