Alien 3

[FearlessFreep]

But, about Pitch Black, I thought that was a great portrayal by Keith David. Or is it David Keith. Anyways, that was a good, well-written role and a good performance.

I liked the character development of the main (three) characters as the story went along and thught there was some good texturing of several of the others.

[raj]

Alien was a great thriller/horrror movie, lots of tension, and a very unpleasant way of dying.
Aliens  was a fun action/shoot-em-up movie.
Alien 3 was um, wait, already been done.  We now know what the alien does, and we've had the shoot out.  Not much is left to surprise us.

[Velvet Brotha]

I'd like to forget that film ever existed.... It was a HUGE disappointment next to ALIENS. Some sequels should never be made if they're just gonna take up valuable space, time, and money. There's my .2 cents.

[Ryan]

... Velvet guy.. You thought ALIENS was a huge dissapointment?

Right. Moving along.

Queen clung onto giant airvents on dropship: Okay, plausible explanation. When the dropship got back into the bay on the Sulaco, she'd have enough time to hide while Ripley & co. were getting out.

Now, as for the whole 'eggs on the drop-ship' debate. Maybe when she clung onto the airvents on the dropship, she had two eggs attached to her back-spikes (forgive me if I don't know what they're called), or something along those lines. I don't know how they'd get INSIDE the dropship.. but whatever.

Hell, maybe she put them in there while Newt was under the metal flooring. It must've been dark down there, and who knows? Ripley wouldn't have seen. Too busy prepping the power loader.


And there's my five bucks worth.

[Dave Munger]

The atmosphere in #3 was just ripped off from the planet in the first two movies. I was left with the impression that all planets look like that in the future, so as to avoid any variations in tone in sequels. They couldn't even decide if they wanted it to be a prison or a monestary, tried to do both, if you call that trying. I'm actually very prejudiced against the filthy papists, but I almost threw popcorn when the guy said he saw a dragon. A guy born and raised in an interstellar future society has a conversion experience, and this causes him to regress 1,500 years and not recognise an alien. All that we learn of the characters is that they're all depressed and badass.

Newt has my eternal loyalty just for being a little blonde girl in a movie that isn't a bad seed and dosen't say "They're heeeeeeeAAAAAAAArrr". She's one of the ten greatest characters in the history of fiction. The only thing I can think of that she did that anyone could find annoying is scream when monsters chase her.

I've probably mentioned this before, but just before they go into coldsleep at the end of #2, Newt asks, "Will I dream?" I take that to mean that the subsequent movies were  just coldsleep nightmares.

Thesis of Handmaids Tale: All who dare question Steinem are monsters.

[Prophet Tenebrae]

Alien 3 wasn't bad per se... it just made a lot of the usual sequel mistakes.

It made the heinous mistake of killing off 3 of the 4 remaining characters and Ripley was starting to wear thin by this point. Really, it should have been all or nothing. Keeping all of them or killing them all off.

The repeated rewrites show as the film is slow to start - but not really building up much in that time. As pointed out the whole eggs thing doesn't really make sense either. Wherever did that acid spraying facehugger at the strart come from? Where was the oppurtunity for them to get aboard - the Queen, I'll give you but all these facehuggers? Bit much.

[Susan]

Alien 3 was a decent sequel. Kind of the way that some of the Nightmare on Elm Street sequels were. It's Alien 4 that should have never been made.

Btw newt had to die, if it picked up where it left off from the previous movie and they were frozen in hypersleep - it's been years since Aliens. The newt actress grew up, i wouldn't have wanted to see a replacement kid. Plus there was no need for a kid.  I heard that they originally thought of having Alien 3 at a monistary, imagine a bunch of monks shooting up an alien..lol

I like Aliens best, even tho the vasquez/hudson relationship was nearly intolerable

[JohnL]

>Alien 3 wasn't bad per se... it just made a lot of the usual sequel mistakes.

Yes, like thinking that as long as the movie had an alien in it, they could do whatever they wanted with the rest of the movie and the fans would be happy.

>Btw newt had to die, if it picked up where it left off from the previous movie

But it didn't have to pick up right where Aliens left off.

[Ryan]

Intolerable? What do you mean, relationship? I think you're talking about Vasquez and Drake, the guy at the beginning who says, "You're just too bad" and she slaps him playfully.

And in that case, no, I don't think it was intolerable. It just showed even more that they were like regular marines. Only in space.

[Dave Munger]

If anyone had to die, it was Ripley. You would think the series was called "Ripley"! She was starting to overshadow the aliens, with this supposed feminist message of her "strong" character (who's suicidal junkie in #3). Newt could've grown up to be a serious alien killa, practically born fighting them. With minimal imagination, it's easy to see her pod having been ejected, picked up by some bounty hunters, pirates, or anyone UNCONNECTED TO THE COMPANY (which was already a tiresome offscreen heavy in #2), and raised in space. Next movie opens with her and other basically all new characters facing the aliens on some planet that's spooky without being an EXACT COPY of the first one with some nonsensical atmospheric details thrown in like an ecosystem comprised entirely of lice or it's a monestery/prison. BTW, that planet WAS a monestary, they just thought the prison planet idea was cool too, so they mashed the two ideas together incoherently.

Anyone else get a headache from the clumsy Christ imagery (pose Ripley strikes when she says "kill me")? This is what they get for hiring a Maddona video director. Oh, I forgot he's a genius now because of the over-the-top incredulous cartoon violence (he force fed the guy till he exploded? WTF?!) in his lame Doctor Phibes ripoff. NYARRRGGG!!!!!!!

[Dave Munger]

If anyone had to die, it was Ripley. You would think the series was called "Ripley"! She was starting to overshadow the aliens, with this supposed feminist message of her "strong" character (who's suicidal junkie in #3). Newt could've grown up to be a serious alien killa, practically born fighting them. With minimal imagination, it's easy to see her pod having been ejected, picked up by some bounty hunters, pirates, or anyone UNCONNECTED TO THE COMPANY (which was already a tiresome offscreen heavy in #2), and raised in space. Next movie opens with her and other basically all new characters facing the aliens on some planet that's spooky without being an EXACT COPY of the first one with some nonsensical atmospheric details thrown in like an ecosystem comprised entirely of lice or it's a monestery/prison. BTW, that planet WAS a monestary, they just thought the prison planet idea was cool too, so they mashed the two ideas together incoherently.

Anyone else get a headache from the clumsy Christ imagery (pose Ripley strikes when she says "kill me")? This is what they get for hiring a Maddona video director. Oh, I forgot he's a genius now because of the over-the-top incredulous cartoon violence (he force fed the guy till he exploded? WTF?!) in his lame Doctor Phibes ripoff. NYARRRGGG!!!!!!!

[Prophet Tenebrae]

I totally agree Dave, Ripley's role in 3 escalated out of all reasonable proportion. She wasn't bad in Aliens but it all got a bit silly after that. I can really see where you're coming from on wanting to get away from the company too - the whole "developing aliens into the perfect weapon and f**king it up" theme has been done ad nauseum in the books and comics and it really isn't that exciting an idea.

Although, personally I think the plot of the AvP2 game would have made a super film.

[Dave Munger]

I just remembered what I forgot to write in there with all my foamin' and double postin' -
Taking on the traits of the host is the ANTITHESIS of parasitism! The whold point of parasitism is that you get the use of anitomical features without having to grow them yourself. Hence, parasites tend to lack things like limbs and eyes. Whatever your host has, that's what you don't need, it'd be redundant. Implying that an acid blooded xenomorph absorbs mammalian DNA and splices it right into it's own genes (for no apparent reason, it's a perfectly functional organism to begin with, it's going to a lot of trouble to take on traits from INFERIOR organisms), without screwing itself up makes the alien into the one from "Split Second", or maybe the bugs in "Speicies".  I probably shouldn't get myself started on my problems with all the Dark Horse stuff though, or I'll NEVER get a girlfriend.

[Prophet Tenebrae]

But the Aliens aren't true parasites - in that they only require a host for breeding, they don't actually exist inside the host... I remember some technobabble explanation for why the  "adaption" the xenomorphs showed... I can't remember exactly what it was but it sounded ok. Though I don't claim to know enough about biology to know - although to be fair, one should never try to rationalise these things too hard.

[Ash]

Definition of parasite:

parasite  
SYLLABICATION: par·a·site
PRONUNCIATION: AUDIO: pr-st     KEY  
NOUN: 1. Biology: An organism that grows, feeds, and is sheltered on or in a different organism while contributing nothing to the survival of its host.
2a. One who habitually takes advantage of the generosity of others without making any useful return. b. One who lives off and flatters the rich; a sycophant.
3. A professional dinner guest, especially in ancient Greece.  



The alien needs a body, preferably a mammal, in which to grow and mature to chestburster stage.

So there you have it right out of the dictionary...it IS a parasite.



Post Edited (07-29-04 01:50)