{"id":1224,"date":"2024-07-22T17:27:32","date_gmt":"2024-07-22T17:27:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=1224"},"modified":"2024-10-14T14:09:45","modified_gmt":"2024-10-14T18:09:45","slug":"alien-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2024\/07\/22\/alien-3\/","title":{"rendered":"Alien 3"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Alien 3<\/strong> (1992)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 20th<\/sup> Century Fox\/Sci-Fi-Horror-Action\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 145 minutes (Assembly Cut)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (strong monster violence, gore, language, attempted rape)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: David Fincher\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: David Giler, Walter Hill and Larry Ferguson\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Elliot Goldenthal\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Alex Thomson\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: May 22, 1992 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Sigourney Weaver, Charles S. Dutton, Charles Dance, Paul McGann, Brian Glover, Ralph Brown, Danny Webb, Christopher John Fields, Holt McCallany, Lance Henriksen, Christopher Fairbank, Carl Chase, Leon Herbert, Vincenzo Nicoli, Pete Postlethwaite, Paul Brennen, Clive Mantle, Peter Guinness, Deobia Oparei, Phil Davis, Niall Buggy.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Box Office: $55.5M (US)\/$159.8M (World)<\/p>\n

Rating<\/strong>: *** \u00bd<\/p>\n

\u00a0Most people are shocked when I tell them Alien 3<\/strong> is my second favorite movie in the series (after Aliens). Some are horrified that I have the unmitigated gall and questionable taste to put it ahead of Ridley Scott\u2019s 1979 original. I then remind them they\u2019re talking to a guy who loves other unpopular horror sequels like Exorcist II: The Heretic, Halloween III: Season of the Witch and Friday the 13th<\/sup> Part V: A New Beginning. It doesn\u2019t make my case any stronger; it merely reaffirms my identity as a man of singular taste.<\/p>\n

\u00a0I liked Alien 3<\/strong> well enough to see it three times during its theatrical run. It was so different from the two films that preceded it. It was certainly different from the movie promised by the teaser trailer which premiered the year before attached to Terminator 2: Judgment Day. It indicated the action would take place closer to home. The narrator states, \u201cIn 1992, we will discover on Earth, everyone can hear you scream.\u201d That\u2019s the movie audiences wanted to see. That\u2019s not the movie they got. Apparently, the three-quel went through many script changes and directors including Vincent Ward (the medieval time travel fantasy The Navigator: A Medieval Odyssey) before filming commenced in early 1991. By that time, the action had been relocated to an all-male penal colony on a desolate planet.<\/p>\n

\u00a0By then, Ward was out and David Fincher was in. It was the first feature film for the music video director who previously helmed Madonna\u2019s \u201cExpress Yourself\u201d and \u201cVogue\u201d, both of which won him consecutive MTV Video Music Awards for Best Direction. He had his work cut out for him. He started without a finished script that would ultimately be credited to David Giler, Walter Hill and Larry Ferguson with story credit going to Ward. It was a difficult shoot, but Fincher managed to have it done on time for its May \u201992 release date.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Alien 3<\/strong> has been around for over 30 years, so I feel comfortable talking about it in detail. This is the one where Ripley (Weaver, Ghostbusters) dies at the end. That bummed everybody out. I was sad too, but it\u2019s the ending that makes the most sense given her character\u2019s circumstances. A happy outcome would have been both anticlimactic and self-defeating not to mention unbelievable. It\u2019s this type of boldness that makes Alien 3<\/strong> the unique cinematic lifeform it is.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The story picks up right where Aliens left off with Ripley and the other survivors in hypersleep heading home after their ordeal on LV-426. They\u2019re not alone. They have a stowaway of the alien variety. It causes Ripley and the others to be ejected from their spacecraft in an escape pod. It crash lands on Fury 161, a foundry\/maximum-security prison populated by dangerous criminals- murderers, rapists, child molesters and mental defectives. Ripley is the sole human survivor. In yet another move that angered fans, Hicks and Newt (the characters played by Michael Biehn and Carrie Henn in the previous installment) are killed.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Obviously, it\u2019s not an ideal situation for Ripley being the only woman among a group of violent criminals in a place effectively cut off from the rest of the world. The inmates, led by rapist\/killer Dillon (Dutton, Q&A), have formed a quasi-religious community. They see Ripley\u2019s presence as disruptive, a temptation they might find too hard to resist. The warden (Glover, An American Werewolf in London) orders her to remain in quarantine under the care of medical officer Clemens (Dance, The Golden Child) until a team from the Company arrives to evacuate her.<\/p>\n

\u00a0As you might expect, an alien has also found its way to Fury 161. It\u2019s loose in the facility and the victims-to-be have no weapons to protect themselves against the vicious alien intruder. A sickly Ripley bands everybody together to eliminate their mutual enemy.<\/p>\n

\u00a0For some reason, the alien refuses to attack Ripley even though she gives it ample opportunity. It turns out she\u2019s pregnant with an Alien Queen. Her fate is sealed. She\u2019s going to die when it bursts from her chest. Not wanting it to reach that point, she contemplates taking her own life and the Queen along with her. First, she\u2019s obliged to deal with the Xenomorph killing everybody off.<\/p>\n

\u00a0It should be noted that this review of Alien 3<\/strong> applies to the longer Assembly Cut of the film. It contains about 30 minutes of footage the studio cut from the movie prior to its release. It\u2019s one of the reasons Fincher eventually disowned it. It\u2019s definitely the better version. It fills in a few plot holes like the fate of an inmate who simply disappears from the film after witnessing the killing of another by the alien. It also includes scenes of the planet\u2019s exterior when Ripley is found on the beach by an inmate.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Alien 3<\/strong> got a bum deal from audiences and critics. I think it\u2019s brilliant. I love that it\u2019s so dark and depressing. Moodiness doesn\u2019t usually play to the masses, especially when it involves a series as loved and revered as Alien. Fincher makes an auspicious debut with the three-quel. He gives us a preview of the visual mastery that would define future projects like Seven, Fight Club and Zodiac. The cinematography by Alex Thomson, who took over for the ailing Jordan Cronenweth two weeks into filming, is dark and sometimes dizzying. A bait-and-chase leading the alien to a trap is especially thrilling.<\/p>\n

\u00a0It might not be as fast-paced as its predecessor, but Alien 3<\/strong> doesn\u2019t lack for action even though it\u2019s more of a thriller than anything else. The special effects, once again, are top-notch. Stan Winston wasn\u2019t available this time so Tom Woodruff Jr. and Alec Gillis assume FX duties. They\u2019re mostly of the practical variety (miniature models, puppets, actors in alien costumes) with a few scattered CGI shots. They look great.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The cast does a phenomenal job. Weaver turns in an affecting performance as Ripley, a changed woman since losing a surrogate daughter and gaining an alien one. The actress convincingly portrays all five stages of grief as she struggles with depression and loss. Sporting a shaved head, she looks tough but vulnerable. It\u2019s a surprisingly complex performance. She\u2019s aided by a great supporting cast of actors made up to look like the scum of the universe.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Alien 3<\/strong> may not have wowed the masses, barely making enough at the box office to cover its $50M budget. That doesn\u2019t necessarily make it a bad film. It\u2019s not. It\u2019s a misunderstood and underappreciated one much like the titles I mentioned in the opening paragraph. Still, I don\u2019t expect to change anybody\u2019s opinion on the subject. If you don\u2019t like it, you don\u2019t like it. I might suggest you watch the longer version and reevaluate. You might be surprised.\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Alien 3 (1992)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 20th Century Fox\/Sci-Fi-Horror-Action\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 145 minutes (Assembly Cut)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (strong monster violence, gore, language, attempted rape)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: David Fincher\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: David Giler, Walter Hill and Larry Ferguson\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Elliot Goldenthal\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Alex Thomson\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: May 22, 1992 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Sigourney Weaver, Charles S. Dutton, Charles Dance, Paul McGann, Brian Glover, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1544,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[25,20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1224","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-horror","category-sci-fi-fantasy"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Alien-3-PIC.jpg?fit=620%2C348&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1224","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1224"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1224\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1864,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1224\/revisions\/1864"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1544"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1224"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1224"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1224"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}