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Underground > Film, TV & Theatre >

Alien3 actually quite good?

Brigade du jour

03:13 / 11.07.04

I say, may I have your attention please, Alien fanboys & girls (& dogs & cats)?

I have a wee message for those of you who dismissed Alien3 (as I did) as the weakest in the then-trilogy, and therefore haven't bothered to watch the recently-released special edition with an extra half-hour of footage.

I just watched it (at like one in the morning, always a good time for these things) and feel I should defend it as a pretty drastic improvement.

There are a very few extra complete scenes, but many key extant scenes have been extended to allow the characters to develop and interact more, e.g. the scene where Brian Glover reprimands Charles Dance (uttering the immortal line "You listen to me, you piece of shit, you screw with me one more time and I'll cut you into two thousand perforations!") has a brief prefix with Ralph Brown that not only introduces a little comic spice, but also adds to the overall dramatic momentum of the film.

Basically, the effect is that while Alien3 is still no masterpiece, and indeed probably still the weakest of the four, it does now at least make a lot more narrative sense. That extra half an hour wasn't just an excuse for more blood & guts or anything like that, it fulfils the dark tone which before I found merely depressing, but now find strangely uplifting.

But hey, this is a forum right? So come on in if you think I'm talking out of my big ol' bottom.

But if you agree with me, you win ... a cup of tea!

11:05 / 11.07.04

I went to an Aliens all-nighter a few years back and I can safely say I slept through the entirety of Alien3.
As much as I'm a Sigourney 'ho (cos I am, love her to pieces etc) the film failed to keep me interested in any way shape or form.
If the extended version makes it better I'll check it out (any excuse to get my bf to buy me the boxset) but I have issues with alternat-shape aliens. They just don't work for me.

It's a shame because aside from the story and everything I thought the cinematography was rather spiffy.

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

13:28 / 11.07.04

probably still the weakest of the four

What, worse than Resurrection? Seriously? (Please tell me the special edition of THAT one misses out all that "Newborn" bollocks at the end...)

Actually, when I first saw 3 at the cinema, I was fairly disappointed. Repeated viewings have seen me grow to love it as the underrated near-masterpiece than it is (though still not as good as the first two, obviously). I'm looking forward to seeing the new stuff.

Brigade du jour

20:59 / 11.07.04

Stoatie, I would lend u the dvd except I haven't had that Lemmy autobiography back!

Anyway, Resurrection does still have the newborn bollocks, but the title sequence is a bit more diegetic. And Jeunet comes on screen at the start and says something like "this eez not a directeur's cut, I was quite 'appy with the orizhinule. But, ze studio zey like this one best, so ... enjoy!" I'm not kidding, it's really good!

23:05 / 11.07.04

I rather liked 3 even though I had no idea what was going on first time I saw it (on video in DC on a sweltering night when there was a small gang war going on outside the house. I may have been distracted).
I reckon the angryalien site has the definitive version, though.

Brigade du jour

05:12 / 12.07.04

That is possibly the greatest website in the world.

How long til they do Star Wars? I estimate within three months. Just in time for the dvd release then!

Dude, you have to watch the new Alein3 version, seriously. It will make so much more sense.

15:17 / 14.07.04

I really enjoyed Alien3 originally, so my interest is piqued to see the extended version. I read an early draft of the script years ago (also remember reading an early script which had an ewok like settlement and a wood alien or something at the end, oh dear!) but can't remember too much as to what they cut from it. Much better than Reserection and more in keeping with the idea that one of these things is vicious enough (Aliens Gung Ho approach never sat well with me). BE good to see this, but bit loath to spend more money on this stuff, how many editions and box sets does one man need?!

Brigade du jour

23:23 / 14.07.04

Probably not worth buying it again Benny, just borrow it off someone. Or wait until the Special Edition dvd comes down in price, which probably won't take too long as I don't imagine it's a HUGE seller.

23:53 / 14.07.04

I really enjoyed 3.

And, er, I really liked Resurrection too. Yeah, even the bit with the Hybrid. What can I say? Jeunet directed it.

It's been a while since I last saw it, but I remember that one reviewer saw Alien 3 as a metphor for HIV/AIDS, and that made a lot of sense to me at the time. I'd be really curious to see if that survived to the director's cut.

And so help me, I can't wait for the next movie...

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

11:53 / 15.07.04

Oh, I don't think Resurrection was ALL that bad... it looked great (cheers, Jeunet!) and had some excellent scenes (even some pretty fucking good dialogue mixed in with the appalling stuff)... I was liking it right up until the Newborn. That smacked of the worst kind of "end-of-level-boss"ness, played merry hell with the biology we know of the xenomorphs, AND was a pretty shit piece of movie monster technology. It just looked stupid! And in a movie which largely until that point had succeeded on the strength of its visuals, it didn't fit at all.

22:32 / 15.07.04

Yeah, but you have to love the part where it gets sucked through a hole the size of a quarter.

19:54 / 19.07.04

I've always liked Alien 3 and felt that Alien Resurrection was an afront to right-thinking people everywhere.

I'd go with the HIV/communicable diseases metaphor in the theatrical releaser of Alien 3, but having just bought the special edition I can attest that it is a different beast altogether.

It's almost a misnomer to call it a special edition, since it's almost a completely new movie in its own right. (almost) out is the disease metaphor. Instead the religious undertones from the theatrical release are given prominence. Something quite strange happens. In the theatrical versio, the xenomorph is mentioned almost offhand as a 'dragon'; aligning it with the devil perhaps. In the Spec Ed, since we find out a little more about the inmates religious beliefs, we learn that they are waiting for the coming of God. They are waiting for their time of atonement. The xenomorph becomes a symbol of God's wrath and punishment brought down upon these sinners.

One character begins to worship the beast - akin to Renfield with Dracula - and even aids it at one point in the movie.

If you like Alien 3, and can see it as the end product of a monumental struggle (check out some of the documentaries - it's a wonder that this film ever got made at all)then you should be more than a little curious about the Spec Ed. It's not the version Fincher would have wanted - just getting us the movie we know today was a Herculean task - but it's a different pass at a movie that was perhaps never meant to be.

Very interesting.

20:46 / 19.07.04

Ok, so that re-adjustment of theme does make it sound better... but I still don't like the dog-alien.

The saving grace or Resurrection? (apart from bad-ass Ripley, I liked that)
Landing on Earth at the end... My geek-soul cries out for Aliens:Earthwar.

Brigade du jour

03:23 / 20.07.04

Thanks for the tip, re: the documentaries Hypocritamus, I think I may go watch some of them right now.

Or maybe after breakfast!