Alien 3

I don’t remember the last time that I saw this movie, but I remember not liking it so much, and it just being one big “chase sequence” around a bunch of dark underground hallways. Well, having just finished watching the “special edition cut” of this film (not the director’s cut (David Fincher) but the one presented to the studio before they cut it the way they wanted to back in 1992 – part of the ALIEN QUADRILOGY dvd set), I have to say that I quite enjoyed the movie, especially after having seen ALIEN and ALIENS, a little earlier.

First of all, I like the connection to the previous film. I like how they tied all that together. I also liked the overall “look” of the film, dank, dirty, sweaty and ugly (and yeah, I’m referring to Sigourney Weaver…natch!). Seriously though, the film’s look, mood and ultimately, suspenseful storyline (was there an alien on the planet, are these killers really nuts, will one of them rape Ripley, etc…?) kept me tuned in all the way, despite the film lasting almost two hours and a half. Unlike I remembered, only the film’s last 10-15 minutes took place around those dank corridors. They were shot in a pretty cool POV way too, so that worked for me as well, by that point in the film.

What didn’t really work for me was the film’s characters, most of whom weren’t unique enough to sustain me all the way. If you look at the first two ALIEN movies, part of their greatness was the fact that many of its characters were unique and memorable. Other than the great Charles Dutton and the doctor-dude, not many of the rest of the men in this movie brought much to the game. Their accents were also a little too strong, which annoyed me since I didn’t really see the point of having all of these British folk in prison (no Americans were stationed there?). A bad casting call.

The alien scenes were all pretty cool, particularly all of the kills which were surprisingly packed with blood and goriness, but some of the “action shots” of the alien in question looked a little too computer-generated for my taste. I liked the film’s ending, it was a nice way to finish off the trilogy, and most of all, I continued to appreciate the great work presented by Sigourney Weaver, who as Ripley, continued to personify the ultimate female action lead, with a great mix of strength, fear, sexuality (particularly in this round) and ass-kicking toughness.

I would have preferred a little more action and few more interesting characters, but overall, this was still a pretty decent installment in the ALIEN series, especially as I saw it tonight—which was the original producer’s cut.

(c) 2021 Berge Garabedian