Alien 3

The Alien franchise has a rare occurrence going for it, in which all three of the initial films are directed by top directors as we know them today. The heir to the third instalment is none other than David Fincher, taking charge off from Ridley Scott & James Cameron. Numerous edits, retakes, reshoots and interferences happened during the course of making this motion picture. Setting all these aside, how is the final product?

Set in a weird and gritty post-apocalyptic world, you'll notice, technically there are issues with this feature. Sparing the heavy scores by Elliot Goldenthal, obvious musical cues during tense moments do not help. Most of the down angles & camera navigations are ugly. While selected parts of the computer graphics are okay, it's tacky for the majority including the green screens. Also, there's always a negativity vibe oozing across this movie.

But, do you want to know what saves Alien 3 from being a total disaster? It has a script. A decent, workable script. Somewhere inside it hides a great picture. While it is hard to connect with the despicable characters you see, as the runtime goes on, you'll be able to follow these guys. You'll understand why they are the way they are. These are past criminals trying to live with what they have by embracing religion and its practices. With this being said, the prisoners' only purpose in the show are to be disposable vessels for the Alien to kill & consume. We don't feel for the lives lost, as the story doesn't give us anything to care about these people.

We'll never figure out how Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) got an Alien Queen manifested inside her, but that's the point of the plot. It's unknown and functions well under that given circumstance. Technique to use text and image cross-cutting and narrate the proceedings in the beginning is effective. Our attention is 100% the moment the Xenomorph brews itself out of an ox! An effort is taken to show how the Alien looks like before growing into a large species. This is the part of the franchise that showcases a different form of Xenomorph - one that from an ox. It gives us a chance to learn about our favorite alien mass murderer here, who's shape and form is highly dependent on the type of its host. Animatronics for malfunctioned Bishop (Lance Henriksen) is excellent! We are looking at some first-rate quality stuff here! It would have been nice to see more of the relationship between Clemens (Charles Dance) & Ripley. Their past and gradual process of disclosing each other to one another, albeit a little fast, is really felt.

Acting performances by some is over the top by a notch. The use of excessive profanity comes off as just for sake without real purpose. But, part of the dialogues have good formal structure. Verbal expositions are loaded, but aren't embarrassing. It does help drive the plot forward. A few of the questions asked, actions done and refusals to cooperate do not make any sense. For instance, Golic's (Paul McGann) obsession towards the Alien cannot be understood and Dillon (Charles S. Dutton) simply throwing away his weapon in an attempt to save his inmate is downright silly. When did Ripley become a Lieutenant suddenly? If Dillon's isn't going to kill Ripley, he's not. There is really no need for him to flung the axe on the gate, besides it being just an audience moment.

Tension wise, certain sections work while certain don't. For example, one woman among 25 men, Ripley finding the cause of Newt's death, flooding the Alien with hot lead & dousing it with water, almost-rape, first member of brotherhood being killed, unavailability of weapons despite being idiotically illogical and alphabetically labelled doors being closed under a definite plan are well done. But, during every of the Alien's ambushes and attacks, the tension built dissipates. The way it appears out of nowhere randomly as the script wants it to precisely, doesn't flow that well. Also, the time the film takes to get to its conclusion with only one Alien entity to deal with, feels withdrawn longer than it deservingly should. The climax could have been way shorter too. All these melodramatic tone and biblical philosophies simply do not suit the premise & wastes a lot of precious time.