Alien 3 & 4

Colmo52

With Prometheus coming out soon I decided to go rewatch Alien and Aliens the last two nights. Still as brilliant as ever.

I've never seen Alien 3 & 4 and I was wondering if they are worth watching?

If so which version of Alien 3 to watch. The original or the assembly cut with 30 mins of extra footage. I read somewhere that the assembled cut is based on what Fincher originaly wanted. (could be wrong) Thanks.

They both aren't great to be fair but watchable all the same. If you're the kind of person that likes to see how the story ends etc watch it I guess. A lot of the stuff is repetitive stuff from the first & second films.

Basq

I really like Alien 3 tbh.... but Alien 4 was terrible!

ebbsy

I remember leaving the cinema after Alien 3 ( yes I am that ould ) and so disappointed with it, although it had a lot to live up to. There was various scripts discarded for it, ( I thought the monastery storyline would have been great ). Although other people liked it.

The 4th had some interesting ideas, such as the experiments, but I thought it was a poor mans alien 2.

Roll on the summer.

Zio

3 is ok nothing special, the two cuts are quite different at points but I prefer the original cut.

Alien 4 or Alien Resurrection as its called is a complete disaster just and awful film. The same person that wrote the script for buffy the vampire slayer series wrote the script for it. That should tell how bad the film is!

Alien and Aliens are classics best movies of the scif-fi genre out there no CGI can complete with the effects of Aliens imo.

It's amazing to think how different Alien and Aliens is though. One is Sci-fi horror and the other is just pure action. I don't know which I preferred!

spankmaster2000

Zio wrote: »

Alien 4 or Alien Resurrection as its called is a complete disaster just and awful film. The same person that wrote the script for buffy the vampire slayer series wrote the script for it. That should tell how bad the film is!

You mean Joss Whedon? Controversial opinion what with him directing the soon to be released Avengers film!

(But yeah, I agree - I'm not a big fan of his either, despite writing some of the original Toy Story)

Zio

Yea true Alien is more tense/creepy as you dont get more than a just quick look at whats killing the cast off for most of the film, but yea the second is more action but still has a good tense build up to it untill all the shooting starts, its my favourite though had it on vhs when I was a kid watched it so many times!

indough

the assembly cut of alien 3 is better if my memory serves me correctly. i watched it recently when i got the blu ray collection but i hadnt seen the original version in years. it does have some dodgy cgi which im not sure was in the original cut or not. the 4th film is fairly crap in my opinion when you look at it as part of the series, but it is watchable enough as a standalone film

krudler

Zio wrote: »

3 is ok nothing special, the two cuts are quite different at points but I prefer the original cut.

Alien 4 or Alien Resurrection as its called is a complete disaster just and awful film. The same person that wrote the script for buffy the vampire slayer series wrote the script for it. That should tell how bad the film is!

Alien and Aliens are classics best movies of the scif-fi genre out there no CGI can complete with the effects of Aliens imo.

Joss Whedon? he who wrote Buffy, Angel, Firefly/Serenity which is some of the best sci-fi ever, horror comedy insta-classic The Cabin In The Woods and directing The Avengers? its not like he's known as a bad writer, far from it.

Zio

spankmaster2000 wrote: »

You mean Joss Whedon? Controversial opinion what with him directing the soon to be released Avengers film!

(But yeah, I agree - I'm not a big fan of his either, despite writing some of the original Toy Story)

Yea thats him, really dont like his style full of stupid unfunny jokes and flimsy dialogue. Just googled him there and found out that co-wrote the script for waterworld, gick!

Looking foward to Prometheus though trailer looks promising but trailers can be deceptive!

CL7

3 is pretty good. I know 4 is meant to be rubbish but I still liked it afaicr. It's been a long time since I watched it.

ixoy

Alien 4? There's only 3 Alien features: 'Alien', 'Aliens', and 'Alien 3'. I actually quite like the DVD/Blu-Ray version of Alien3 which is flawed but has some very interesting moments. But the franchise died after that until this year's movie. There are no other flicks starring everyone's favourite xenomorph. None - OK?

krudler

Zio wrote: »

Yea thats him, really dont like his style full of stupid unfunny jokes and flimsy dialogue. Just googled him there and found out that co-wrote the script for waterworld, gick!

Looking foward to Prometheus though trailer looks promising but trailers can be deceptive!

flimsy dialogue? watch Serenity right now, flimsy is the last thing you'd call it

Zio

krudler wrote: »

Joss Whedon? he who wrote Buffy, Angel, Firefly/Serenity which is some of the best sci-fi ever, horror comedy insta-classic The Cabin In The Woods and directing The Avengers? its not like he's known as a bad writer, far from it.

I never seen cabin in the woods which I think he co-wrote but I might check it out to see it but I hate all of those series you mentioned wouldent consider them top notch sci-fi at all, but thats my opinion.

Turtyturd

Zio wrote: »

I never seen cabin in the woods which I think he co-wrote but I might check it out to see it but I hate all of those series you mentioned wouldent consider them top notch sci-fi at all, but thats my opinion.

Check out Astonishing X-Men 1-24, it's his best work.:D

Thoms Yorkie Bars

I enjoyed Alien 3. Took the series back to what Alien was, although not as scary.

Resurrection I also enjoyed but only because of Ron Perlman and that actor whose name I can never remember

Canis Lupus

I've no problem with Aliens 3, enjoyed it a lot although let down by some dodgy assed cgi.

Alien Resurrection (I assume that's what you referring to as no4) was, is and ever shall be a complete abomination of a movie.

Phony Scott

I remember reading a leaked script for Whedon's Resurrection and thought, that's it, that's a true sequel to 'Aliens'. It felt epic and the last third of the script didn't seem to go completely off the rails.

The off-kilter tone of the film itself killed it for me, I don't know what the film was aiming to be; a pseudo western body horror comedy with a bit of the old European arthouse weirdness? Certainly feels like it.

I saw Alien 3 at the cinema back in 1992 when I was 14. I found it depressing and disturbing from the get go, glued together brilliantly by Sugery (I can never spell her name :P) Weaver's performance. I think she is at her best as Ripley in the third film.

The last third is highly generic though, all that boring running around gets tedious fast and it is damn confusing because nearly everyone looks the same. Love the final moments though, very dramatic.

The film is deeply nihilistic and simply won't sit well with some people. On the other hand, there are people out there who think the whole family unit business of the second film was mawkish and wince inducing...

klose

Alien 3 is pretty good if ya ignore the dodgy cgi, at one point the alien is a shade of red, then black like the original films then a shade of green or something?? tis odd! I never get why people hate on it so much, its certainly not as good as the first two but not bad. Alien resurection can feck right off, dosent make sense and is just so...soooooooo ****.

Off topic but avp2 was on the other night, said id watch a few minutes of it. Ya cant see a bloody thing in it!! Amongst every other aspect of its awfullness..


But ya check out alien 3 if ya can!!

Ryaller

Thoms Yorkie Bars wrote: »

Resurrection I also enjoyed but only because of Ron Perlman and that actor whose name I can never remember

I'm guessing that would be Dominique Pinon?

Thoms Yorkie Bars

Ryaller wrote: »

I'm guessing that would be Dominique Pinon?

No. Michael Wincott

pixelburp

I think Alien 3 gets an unfair rep for being a poor sequel, particularly when the infamous studio interference gets brought into the analysis; outside of all that baggage however, I believe the third film is stronger than people give credit. As mentioned already, it's a gloomy, depressing affair with few chinks of light, where Ripley's own desperation & fatalism is manifest in the very surroundings. A gothy horror story really.

Among the gung-ho marine crap of the second film (that in of itself has ruined the Alien franchise), it's easy to forget that these films were always Ripley's story, not the xenomorph's. It was a trilogy of movies charting one woman's personal vendetta against something unstoppable that plagued her life; that no matter how far flung she is across time and space, this monster followed her. The ending in the furnace is poetic and proper - it could only ever be Ripley who disposes of this menace.

As for the 4th film, well that's where the wheels started to come off really. It was where the monster became the focus - the celebrity - not the characters. I actually think the failed scripts are far more interesting to read than the final product: including the one draft where the Xenos became an airborne virus, capable of infecting anyone & victims would literally tear themselves to pieces to allow the Alien to burst out. Nasty. But the final film was a dreadful piece of cinema & a huge miss-step by everyone involved, from production to staff.

Numbers 1, 2 and 3 form a complete story & a rounded trilogy. Number 4 is like the answer to the question nobody asked.

Also: mentioning the AvP movies in this thread - hell in this forum - should be a bannable offence.

ziedth

I didn't mind Alien 3 so much TBH. I was crushed as a young Fella because Hicks was my favourite movie character growing up and he wasn't even in it but its definitely good enough to watch.

Alien 4 was poor with a handfull of decent moments. poor but better then Alien V Predator.

Mickeroo

Pretty sure the failure of Alien: Ressurection had very little, if anything to do with Whedon. One of the best screenwriters in hollywood imo.

Jonny7

Alien 3 - passable, awful Alien CGI and scriptwriter/director

lazily decide to kill everyone

Alien 4 - heresy plain and simple, utterly stupid, however if you enjoy Vin Diesel films then may be up your alley, otherwise avoid.

Zio

Zio wrote: »

Alien 4 or Alien Resurrection as its called is a complete disaster just and awful film. The same person that wrote the script for buffy the vampire slayer series wrote the script for it. That should tell how bad the film is!
.

Ah, but he also did come up with Firefly/Serenity, so that is redemption in my eyes.

Jonny7

pixelburp wrote: »

Among the gung-ho marine crap of the second film (that in of itself has ruined the Alien franchise)

Good gravy man, you were expecting a black and white art movie?

Almost every scene, character, line, creation, set-piece from the second film has become absolutely iconic, and for good reason, it's a 1986 film that has since rarely been matched let alone surpassed.

Sad Professor

I would recommend watching both versions of Alien 3. However, if you are only going to watch one version then watch the assembly cut. It's not what Fincher wanted, but it's a recreation of the last cut of the film which he had a hand in. He's pretty much disowned the film and refused to have anything to do with the extended cut. Interviewers have a hard time even getting him to talk about it.

As for Resurrection, I like Whedon too, but he has to take some responsibility for the film. The last time I checked he was blaming everyone but himself:

Joss Whedon: Uh...you know, it wasn’t a question of doing everything differently, although they changed the ending, it was mostly a matter of doing everything wrong. They said the lines...mostly...but they said them all wrong. And they cast it wrong. And they designed it wrong. And they scored it wrong. They did everything wrong that they could possibly do. There’s actually a fascinating lesson in filmmaking, because everything that they did reflects back to the script or looks like something from the script, and people assume that, if I hated it, then they’d changed the script...but it wasn’t so much that they’d changed the script; it’s that they just executed it in such a ghastly fashion as to render it almost unwatchable.

Source

Lemming

Alien 3, as bad a rep as it has, suffered from having three different directors AFAIK, but it was, as people have mentioned, a very nihilistic, depressing affair that builds and builds ultimately allowing us to see what moves Ripley to her final choices. The final scenes are poetic.

Alien Resurrection (#4); I'm really not sure where to go with this. It has its moments that are good, & I can see the mixture of Alien with Aliens in that it's not constant action, and a bit more creepy at times, but just ... failed to engage for the most part.

Character-wise; Sigourney Weaver's "new" Ripley was an empty pair of boots for most of the movie, and Winona Ryder's character killed any on-screen moments with her presence alone; the character just jarred and seemed completely out of joint and ... yeah, the director could have done the movie a favour by just leaving her on the cutting room floor. The rest of the cast were either non-entities, or amusing in some way shape or form.

But jesus did it take a turn for absolute debacle in spectacular fashion with the

evolution of the alien birthing process to create that absolute freak of an alien

With the impending release of Prometheus; I'm apprehensive. This movie will either r0xx0r in my b0xx0rs, or destroy the myth and mystery around the first two movies regarding the 'navigator' and the alien ship, and ultimately bury the Alien franchise.

johnny_ultimate

I must admit to not being particularly fond of Alien 3. It's a film that IMO struggles to find a reason to exist: occasionally resembling an iffy reimagining of the tone and atmosphere of the first. It's a film that I have largely forgotten in the years since I seen it. It's not a bad film, and certainly has things to like in it (if I recall correctly: as said, my memories are hazy) but I'd have very limited interest in revisiting it based on the first go-around. I do vaguely remember it being a militantly bleak film at times, though, but alas not a strength that negates the other flaws.

Have never watched Resurrection, and have little interest in doing so given everything I've heard.