Alien 3 *

Everyone knows about the troubled production that is Alien 3. The studio didn't like what director David Fincher was doing and because of this he has all but disowned the movie. Some movies can overcome these problems and still turn out to be a great movie. Alien 3 did not do this.

Some years have passed since Aliens. The ship that Ripley is on crash lands on a planet that is a prison. Ripley was in hyper-sleep when she crashed and does not know that she is the only survivor. She inspects the bodies and the ship and concludes that an alien has come with them. So she decides that they need to burn the bodies.

The prison colony is your typical prison colony. The prisoners are really into Jesus and keep the peace, but with a woman comes urges from the prisoners and before long, some of the prisoners try to rape her. The fact that this attack comes so late in the movie and is forgotten about as soon as it ends shows just how lazy the writing is.

The introduction of the alien is pretty stupid too. The alien has nested inside of a yak that the prisoners use to transport things. This would have been a fine way of introducing the alien, but one of the prisoners finds a face hugger and blows it off. If it were me, I would have brought something that I had never seen before up to others. This may have made them aware of what is going on. Ripley also hides the fact that they are dealing with aliens, but I'm sure that this is due to people not believing her and not dumb writing.

The movie is very well made. David Fincher's direction is tight and the production design is top notch. This movie was made during the CGI boom of the 90's and you can tell. The shots of the CGI alien are terrible. The alien doesn't even look like it shares the frame with the actors. The practical effects, on the other hand, are very nicely done.

After Aliens (1986), the Alien franchise took a dive and has never been able to pick itself back up. There have been rumors for years that the studio is going to make a fifth Alien movie, all that we have gotten are substandard sequels and "VS" movies. Hopefully with Predators being made will jump start the Alien franchise again.