Travis here,
I know I have gotten behind on my planned Alien Review Series. (Problems with a out-of-state move will lead to a lot of headaches and delays) However, I thought I could safely share some of my thoughts on the last two movies of the “Quadriology” as it was called at one point, Alien 3 and Alien Resurrection.
And I should warn you… seeing as these movies have been out for a long time now, I will be talking freely about their plot. So…
First, a small amount of back history. Alien started the franchise with this amazing atmospheric, sci-fi horror film that was almost absolute perfection. It gave us a great story, a great cast (Tom Skerrit, Sigourney Weaver, Ian Holm, John Hurt), truly horrifying moments, and a strong female hero in Weaver’s Ripley that somehow manages to be the sole survivor. (Other than the cat, but he doesn’t count!)
“Heck if I don’t count! I’m the only reason Ripley survived!”
Seven years later, James Cameron gave us Aliens. It didn’t try to copy what Alien had been. Cameron could have easily rehashed the whole “In space, no one can hear you scream” horror flick again and made bank with minimum effort. Instead, he created a seamless action-thriller that is so different from the first movie, but one that is just as amazing. He took another great cast (Weaver, Lance Henriksen, Michael Biehn, Bill Paxton, et al.), completely fleshed out the idea of the Company as the real bad guys, (Weyland-Yutani), and crafted another amazing story with characters we actually cared about. In other words, he added to and built upon an already great legacy and made it that much better. Alien and Aliens are easily two of my favorite movies ever.
If you like the last two movies, you might want to get away from this blog now you… nah, that would be too mean.
That leads us to the problem with Alien 3 and Alien Resurrection. They simply added nothing to the franchise. Honestly, neither movie is horrible. If taken for themselves and themselves alone, they aren’t bad. I feel that is probably what the writers and directors were going with when they made them. This isn’t the James Bond franchise, however, where each movie stands on it’s own. (The last two Craig movies in that franchise not withstanding)
A certain amount of respect and reverence for the previous two films were needed to make these films successful, and they failed to provide that. Alien 3 is the bigger offender of the two in my opinion. Within the first five minutes, it kills off two characters that the audience has grown to love from Aliens in Newt (essentially Ripley’s adopted daughter) and Hicks (Ripley’s love interest)… WITHOUT EVEN SHOWING US WHAT HAPPENED. All we know is that the ship that Ripley, Newt, and Hicks were on apparently had a xenomorph egg on board, it hatched, and caused the ship to crash. Ripley wakes up and Newt and Hicks are dead. Boom.
The audience is expected to be understanding and be ready to move on to Ripley’s new adventure. Things really only get worse from there. Alien 3 quickly becomes a cheap ripoff combination of Aliens and Alien, except this time the setting is an ore refinery populated by prisoners. The audience is given characters that have no redeeming value as the new protagonists alongside Ripley and honestly… why are we supposed to care for them? These are murderers, rapists, thieves, etc. Why shouldn’t we want to see the xenomorph kill them?!
Honestly… do you care if anyone in this picture survives other than Ripley? Maybe Dillon…
That brings us to Alien Resurrection. I hate to down this movie because I know Joss Whedon (Buffy, Angel, Firefly, The Avengers, etc.) wrote it. The problem is is that it seems like he was writing a movie other than an Alien movie. Really, he was. He has admitted that the crew of space pirates in this movie was the basis for what would be come the crew of the “Serenity” on Firefly and Serenity. While that made for spectacular television and an awesome movie, it didn’t make for a good Alien movie. While 3 removed a lot of the heart from the franchise, this movie removed most of what was left. It was set so far in the distant future (200 years from the end of Alien 3) that it really had nothing to do with the Alien franchise. Weyland-Yutani is gone, LV-426 (The alien planet from the first two films) is gone, and the REAL Ripley is gone.
As I think back to it now, the entire movie seems like a potential pilot for Firefly with a coat of Alien paint. The space pirates take more of the focus than Ripley does, maybe because Ripley isn’t really Ripley. (She is supposed to be a clone of the original Ripley mixed with xenomorph queen DNA) The Ripley of this movie feels like, and is even played like by Weaver, as the original River Tam, who would become much of the focus of the Firefly franchise. It is easy to see my problem with this movie. I liked it… A LOT… when it was actually called Firefly and Serenity. I wish Joss had never written this one and moved straight to the amazing show that he made from the ashes of this failure of an Alien film. Plus, the xenomorph sex scene and resulting baby is creepy… Don’t ask if you’ve never seen it… It isn’t safe…
A group shot of the cast from Alien Resurrecti… Crud, I got them confused again
This turned out a little longer than I anticipated, but I just needed to get all of that out. It is kind of cathartic. Letting out this hatred kind of makes me want to see if anything remotely good can be gleamed from these two.
You have my NUMEROUS reasons why I don’t want to do a full write up of these two movies. While I don’t blame you if you watch them, I warn you to check your expectations at the door. That goes double if you are just watching the Alien franchise for the first time and just came off of Alien and Aliens. Also, if you happen to know Joss Whedon, please tell him I still love him 🙁
Be sure to check back for new posts soon! I have a lot of reviews and topics planned. Until then, see ya at the movies!
This has been part of the…
What about Alien Vs. Predator? Does it count in the series?
AvP is kind of a tough one. I don’t really see it as canon. Ridley Scott even kind of did some things in “Prometheus” that makes it seem like the AvP movies couldn’t have happened. Really, AvP is almost like those “What If” stories that comic writers like to do every once in awhile. Like… what if Bruce Wayne had gotten the Green Lantern ring and become Green Lantern instead of Batman. That kind of thing. For what they are, the AvP movies aren’t necessarily bad. If you can take them as just a monster mash-up, (in the same vein of Freddy vs. Jason) than they are good for some light-hearted fun.
The only thing that makes me upset about AvP is that they made James Cameron feel like he didn’t want to return to the franchise and do Alien 5 with Ridley Scott like he had been planning. He felt that Fox, who produces the Alien films, were just concerned about the cash grab and didn’t care about making a good Alien film again.
As an important entry into the Alien mythos though? No, I feel like AvP has been completely invalidated by “Prometheus.” Still good fun though 😀