From: ccoprdj@prism.gatech.EDU (Jorge Diaz)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.movies
Subject: Re: Natives Down the River (was re: ALIEN^3 Eggs on Sulaco)
Date: 18 Aug 92 15:58:12 GMT
Organization: Georgia Institute of Technology

In article <4830@blue.cis.pitt.edu.UUCP> seawasp@vm2.cis.pitt.edu (Sea Wasp) writes:
>In article <Bt3Lxr.EC6@acsu.buffalo.edu> v075q5fr@ubvmsb.cc.buffalo.edu (Scott J Gorcey) writes:

>	I actually found Burke at least shocking, and his behavior chilling.
>Releasing facehuggers so as to use Newt and Ripley as incubators... Ripley
>basically said it; tough to see the Alien as so evil when one of your own
>is willing to use you that way.

But we already knew this from the first movie.  Ash had orders from the
Company (that's people, you know - human beings) to bring back an Alien -
CREW EXPENDABLE.

What's so shocking about seeing the same thing again?

>	As it happened, my guess after seeing the first movie was implemented
>almost exactly by Cameron: that those eggs came from something analagous
>to a queen bee, which would be created from one of these warrior/worker 
>types.

So, you have as little imagination as Cameron.  Is that something to
be proud of?

>	Cameron paid quite close attention to the first movie, even putting
>in little things like characters that behaved very much like their parallels
>in the first...

Oh?  Who paralleled who in the first and second movies?

>	Like, maybe it's time the poor lady got a F*CKING BREAK??

"When it rains, it pours."

>	Yep, but it invalidated all the emotional development of their 
>relationship BEFORE. Most of ALIENS drove them together, and in ten minutes
>of film in ALIEN^3 they once more rip away everything that Ripley cared
>about. To put it bluntly, THAT SUCKS. BADLY.

Why?  Because you didn't get the happy ending that you wanted?  Because
everything didn't turn out OK?  To put it bluntly, THAT'S LIFE.  Things
don't always turn out OK in the end.  For years, my biggest criticism of
Hollywood was that their movies always ended unrealistically.  Somehow,
everything always turned out just peachy.  They've finally gotten away
from that, and I, for one, am glad.

>	There wasn't a single gun in evidence in ALIEN, but I liked it.
>Don't get all elitist, eh? 

Actually, there was.

>	I expect heroes to survive, there's my first major gripe.

Yes, you want the sappy, teary-eyed endings.  Sorry, but that's just not
the way it always works.  Had you written the story of the Alamo, not a
single American would have been killed.

>I dislike
>gloom and doom, and BOY was there gloom and doom in this film. Like, nothing
>BUT gloom and doom. Even Ripley's SACRIFICE is utterly meaningless. There
>are a couple hundred more eggs back on LV426 and The Company (that you
>like so much) can now pop over there and get a couple dozen.

And the person gets fucked and the big bad company wins.  Happens all
the time in real life.  You're blaming the movie for being too realistic.

>	All the achievements that Ripley made in both movies are now 
>meaningless because all that fighting only gave her, what, maybe three
>months total of life (coldsleep doesn't count).

You're right!  Hell, every person with AIDS, or cancer, or any other terminal
illness should just up and shoot themselves right now.  All that fighting will
only give them a few more months (maybe even a year or two) total of life.

>	All the guts she had, not only to face her fears but to dare to
>care about people, even in the face of Aliens all around her, mean nothing
>because everything worth caring for is once more swept away.

>And you say this thing doesn't ignore ALIENS? Bull again. Those things hated
>the flamethrowers, and molten lead is a HELL of a lot worse than flame
>throwers. At that temperature, any organic bonds would be shattered to nothing.

Maybe the thing about flame throwers they don't like is the *light*, and
not the *heat*?


-- 
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