Year:
1992
Studio:
20th Century Fox/Brandywine Productions
Movie:
3/5
DVD:
3/5
Aliens 3 is not as bad as most people think, yet it is still the
weakest of the Alien films. Whether or not it was Director David
Fincher's decision, losing Newt and HIcks from Aliens was quite
annoying. We're back with Ripley, a bunch of people, a big nearly
abandoned complex, and an Alien stalking and killing.
Ripley -- Lt Ripley now and I'm not sure why she was suddenly promoted
-- starts out in hypersleep with the others. An Alien facehugger got on
board the Sulaco and caused a fire. The hypersleep chambers are ejected
in an EEV (Emergency Escape Vehicle, I think) which crashlands into
Fiorina 161, a prison planet.
It's actually a nearly deserted prison planet with only 25 inmates,
plus two administrators and a doctor, to keep the mothballed machinery
from totally falling apart. Ripley is the only woman in a place full of
convicted murderers and rapists (Lance Henriksen says in the commentary
track that it's a rather "sorrowful" movie).
Inmates start dying and at first it's a mystery. But Ripley knows and
nobody believes her. Until the Alien finally appears, a new albino
Alien that's hell on wheels. Soon it's Ripley and alpha male convict
Dillon (Charles S Dutton) who organize the survivors to try to kill the
beastie. Lots of death and gore until the very end.
I remember Alien 3 being a "we're going back to the horror genre of
Alien". Now I do like Alien but don't like horror so Alien 3 was not
that impressive. It's also relatively dark and bleak with lots of bad
people and a shell-shocked Ripley. It's not a movie to be really proud
of, perhaps why David Fincher did not do any commentary (though that's
probably assuming too much on my part).
The Special Edition version of the movie does improve it. Lots of added
scenes to bring it up to the 2-1/2 hours of the previous two movie
Director's Cuts. There are a couple of changes I noticed. One is that
the Alien comes out of an ox instead of a dog, in fact we never see the
dog and it's only referenced in one scene. The other is that when
Ripley is falling the Alien queen doesn't burst out of her stomach and
she doesn't hug it, which was a rather silly bit in the theatrical
release.
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Commentary Track
Cinematographer Alex Thomson, BSC
Editor Terry Rawlings
Alien Effects Designers Alec Gillis and Tom Woodruff Jr
Visual Effects Producer Richard Edlund, ASC
Actors Paul McGann and Lance Henriksen
The commentary track is average I guess. Too much spliced in bits since
it's different commentaries. For a bunch of effects people they only
sometimes got into too much technical detail. McGann had some
interesting things to say about the acting process and his experiences
making this movie. Henriksen spoke about four times and at least had
the guts to say he didn't like the movie.
Also there's a certain amount of justifying and apologizing for the
film. Which just shows that there was enough criticism of the film that
the people involved feel they have to defend it in the commentary track.
Extras DVD
Pre-Production
Development: Concluding the Story [17:00]
Tales of the Wooden Planet: Vincent Ward's Vision [13:10]
The Art of Arceon: Conceptual Art Portfolio [71]
Pre-Production: Part III [11:40]
Storyboards: Archives [1072]
The Art of Fiorina: Conceptual Art Portfolio [34]
Xeno-Erotic: H.R. Giger's Re-Design [10:20]
Production
Production: Part 1 [18:00]
Production Gallery: Photo Archive [394]
Furnace Construction: Time-Lapse Sequence [4:35]
Adaptive Organism: Creature Design [20:30]
A.D.'s Workshop: Photo Archive [169]
EEV Bioscan: Multi-Angel Vignette [2:00]
Production: Part II [14:40]
Production: Part III [8:55]
Post-Production
Optical Fury: Visual Effects [23:20]
Music, Editing and Sound [14:50]
Visual Effects Gallery: Photo Archive [119]
Post-Mortem: Reaction to the Film [8:25]
Special Shoot: Promotional Photo Archive [56]
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