Artistic approach and an awesome finale of a brilliant trilogy

Rating: Null/10 (18 June 1999)

I'm going to be quick here: Alien = Scott and Giger's typical horror flick buried in fifteen tons of brilliant art and design. Graphically astounding, but plot-wise it leaves a lot to be desired. In the year of 1999 the cast looks unbelievably seventies, and the movie is utterly un-rewatchable (if you can say such a thing), as the initial scares are long gone. Awesome movie because its so graphically perverse. The whole alien-popping-out-of-chest thing was unwatchable, kudos to John Hurt for that. Fabulous movie in its time.
Aliens = All-out americanised highly enjoyable action flick, taking the usual american sequel-recipe (make it bigger and louder) to new heights. Adds a new alien design and the whole hive-structure thing to the aliens. The queen looks bloody retarded, a caricature of Giger's original alien designs. The reason this movie seems to be the number one of the trilogy is simply because its so incredibly easy to understand. The soundtrack is simple, the plot is simple (actually), the characters are fantastically simple (and therefore easily likeable) and they packed in a lil annoying kid too (although it added a good touch to the plot) that does nothing but get into trouble and gets saved a lot. Bleargh.
A cliched simple action movie sporting fat designs and a dark, brooding industrial-type sci-fi atmosphere, but still graphically nothing compared to the first movie.
Alien3 = This is pure depression, despair, anger, realism. It takes the whole "we can take them on" feeling you got after a while in Aliens and slams it through the pavement. Without our big guns and fancy technology us humans are really nothing but a bunch of treacherous gits. Apart from the first obvious plot hole (the alien egg), which was absolutely necessary anyway if there was going to be a second sequel, the plot stands out as the cleanest of the lot. Its deeper, more terrifying than Alien, and infinitely more sophisticated than Aliens. We see the new dog alien (cleaning up the question wether aliens take on their hosts physique) and we see how dark and terrible the world of Alien really is. The imagery is fantastic, sometimes almost like a painting, mostly browns and reds and fabulous camera angles. The scene where the candles along the ground get blown out is like icecubes down my spine, and the first glimpse of the alien is awe-inspiring. The religious theme, the past evil of the prisoners, the only-female-on-a-male-dominated-planet bit, the i'm-gonna-die-soon-anyway bit, the we-dont-give-a-damn-about-you-if-you-dont-help-us bit... Ahh this movie is fabulous. Alien resurrection is disowned from the series in my eyes, it shows too much. This movie is awesome, it shows just enough. "Alien" = Stranger, new, different, unknown. Aliens managed to hide the aliens well enough, and alien3 finishes off perfectly. David Fincher is a sheer visual genius.
This is a 100% good movie. Actings good, effects are brill, and on the subject of "we dont like the characters" i have this to say: Thats the point. Youre not really supposed to like ANYONE exept from ripley. They're all filthy b*****ds.