David Fincher is considered one of the best directors working today, and rightly so, but it almost didn’t turn out that way considering he had such a terrible time working on the film. Alien³. It’s a wonder he didn’t assume that every film he made would be an equally tough experience. The type that results in a compromised product, and make no mistake: Alien³ is clearly a compromised product.
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This is especially true when you compare it to the two previous films, both of which were the result of the very specific visions of a few very different directors. Vincent Ward was initially set to direct the third film, with Fincher brought in during pre-production, but his vision for it would subsequently be changed by the studio as well. But despite all the hustle and bustle behind the scenes, there’s a lot to appreciate Alien³especially now that other divisions have also arisen entries in the franchise (Prometheus, Alien: Covenant, Alien: resurrection), two laminated copies (the AVP films), and a critically acclaimed crowd pleaser (Alien: Romulus) who have not allowed it just now be compared to the two masterpieces that preceded it.
It’s tonally different in the same way Aliens Was tonally different then Stranger
One of the greatest crimes Alien³ could have committed, but didn’t, was also copying and pasting Stranger or Aliens hoping to replicate their critical and commercial success. Alien³ does have similarities to Ridley Scott’s original film, especially in the space atmosphere haunted house movie and the fact that there is only one xenomorph, but it is essentially the diametric opposite of James Cameron’s sequel. That helps the sci-fi prison film function as a trilogy capper.
And if anything, that’s how the Stranger Quadrilogy should be seen: as a trilogy. Alien: resurrection is as hollow as it is overly glossy and by the end of its running time the audience feels like they’ve just seen a vastly inferior version of Aliens. It’s also strange to see Sigourney Weaver playing a version of Ellen Ripley that really couldn’t be further from the character audiences had already come to know and love. The Ripley van Resurrection is, well, a resurrected version, but none of the personality has been brought back. The Ripley audience had learned that she was motherly, compassionate, and when all else failed, sacrificial.
An organic way to send Ellen Ripley away
Weaver only agreed to play the lead role Alien³ if several conditions are met. She loved the character of Ripley, but Fox’s decision to cut out some crucial scenes Aliens the actor rubbed her daughter the wrong way. Two of those conditions were that the film would not be so dependent on weapons and that the character she had developed from the beginning would be killed off at the end of the film.
Both conditions were met, even if the latter was ultimately reversed. And it’s a shame that this happened Resurrection because, as far as sacrificial scenes in studio films are concerned, Alien³‘s is up there. It feels completely in line with the character to throw themselves backwards toward sacrifice, as opposed to the opportunity to live longer, since the price for survival would be Weyland-Yutani finally possessing a living xeno.
The presence of Charles Dance
Excluding the two AVP films, the xenomorph saga has always been blessed with extremely impressive casts. The third film was no different, with Weaver’s layered and grounded central role work ably supported by talented performers like Charles S. Dutton (Rudi), Brian Glover (An American werewolf in London), Pete Postlethwaite (The city), and Holt McCallany (Mindhunter). It’s a wide selection of xeno bait, and not all of them really make a full impression, but the cast of actors helps elevate the film from a sci-fi slasher.
And yet it’s the performer playing a character who dies quite early who makes the biggest impression. Such as former inmate Jonathan Clemens, who has remained on site as the prison’s doctor, Charles Dance (Game of Thrones) takes all his scenes to the next level. He constantly keeps the audience guessing as to what his character’s past entails, just as he makes them believe that his empathy for Ripley is simple and genuine.
(RELATED: Sigourney Weaver reflects on the David Fincher controversy Alien³)
It contains some of the most iconic shots of the Xenomorph
By the time the audience has seen a few xenomorphs in Cameron’s Aliensthe novelty has worn off and so is it become less scary. The first film had the drooling antagonist completely hidden and shrouded in darkness for the vast majority of its running time. But in the sequel they are out in the open and they are shot apart. Alien³ finds a middle ground.
While the shots of the CGI xeno clambering across ceilings have aged remarkably poorly, the practical effects-generated shots of the creature are some of the best screen time it has ever seen. There is an emergence from a ventilation shaft to the surprise of Murphy, who is then torn apart by huge swirling fan blades. Then there’s the xeno looking up just before he’s enveloped in molten metal. But the most iconic shot of the film, perhaps the entire franchise, is the face-to-face shot with Ripley, just after he kills Clemens van Dance.
The score
While the scores for the first two films are true to the tone of their respective films (the first is very subdued, except in the trailer, while the second is bombastic), it Alien³ featuring the culmination of the franchise’s soundtracks. Elliot Goldenthal may not be a household name – as far as film composers go – that Stranger‘s Jerry Goldsmith or AliensJames Horner was, but his work on the third film is phenomenal. It was also only his fifth film as a composer, after 1979 Cocaine Cowboys80s Empty generationand 1989 Pet Sematary, and the woefully underrated Drugstore Cowboy.
The highlight has to be a wide shot of a prisoner running across Fiorina 161 (the planetoid the prison is on) just after discovering Ripley’s crash-landing capsule. The music soars grandly over the audience, helping to convey the excitement that the action is about to kick off, while also having a warning undercurrent.
Alien: Romulus is now streaming on Hulu