Barbelith Underground > Film, TV & Theatre

Evil Scientists’ their firepower is nearly ineffective line is wrong, innit? - their weapons all work just fine on the aliens, they just a)can’t use them, then b) run out of ammo and get cut off from all the rest of their guns 'n bullets 'n stuff

I don't know if you've watched it recently, but nearly every scene in that film with gunplay involves a panic-ridden retreat in the face of overwhelming numbers. The only exceptions are the scene with the facehuggers in medbay and Riply's one-woman assault on the Queen (which rapidly becomes a retreat). The xenos through cunning and lack of concern over indvidual death make the lethal weaponary of the marines ineffective because all those fancy pulse rifles do is hold them back, just. But, as Hudsen learns, you have to keep falling back else they over-run (or under-run) you.

With Aliens, and despite all the fun that’s had with the Ripley/Marines interaction, you still pretty much know that *Ripley’s* going to survive, so maybe the need arises for it to add in a sort of love interest, and a loyal robot chum, and a cute kid for you to worry about too.

Part of what I like about Aliens as a film is the way it doesn't waste time monkeying about with the romance. There's a few moments of attraction between Hicks and Ripley but they're all too busy trying to survive to worry about that.

Bishop's loyalty is hardly unquestionable there are at least several moments where we, the audiance, are at least uncertain of his motives ("Hello Bishop, do you need anything else?").

I think writing Newt off as a "cute kid" is unfair to what I regard as that rarity in Hollywood, a non-irritating child character. She's a developed character in her own right, and something of a convention-breaker for much of the film in that she is hardly helpless and is probably the one who panics the least.

Alien3 is not, in my view, a terrible film. But at best I find it mediocre. Of course it isn't exactly the same, but I think re-hash is a fair accusation. The situation in both Alien and Alien3 is a group of unarmed humans effectively trapped in a warren of pipes and machinery with an unstoppable creature who exists only to kill. Their only hope is to drive it into the one area where they can kill it (airlock/steel works) before it picks them off one by one. Ripley loses someone she's obviously close to (Dallas/The Doc).

It doesn't help that the blue-collar workers of Alien have been replaced by "cock-er-ny" prisoners for the most part. The characters in Alien had dimension and I cared about what happened to them. The characters in Alien3 were generally walking cliches.

I dislike the killing off of Newt and Hicks (although it took guts to not only kill Newt but also have her autopsied). It makes their escape irrelevant, they don't die fighting as the natural survivors they are, they die in their sleep, utterly helpless. Even Bishop, who proves he's not a corporate plant, walks back on in the final scene mindlessly loyal to Weyland-Yutani and spouting Burke-isms like the second film never happened.

The first of the Aliens graphic novels (the black and white one) would have made a far better third film in my view. That would have been very "Aliens as disease".

Next, my disection of Alien Resurrection.

Which Alien film is best?