I feel like Annie Wilkes from Misery...

Rating: Null/10 (25 August 1999)

I would like to begin by pointing out the most glaring error of this movie--the Queen Alien simply could not have brought eggs on board. I have watched both Aliens and Alien 3 enough to know. Either she laid them (which could not have happened since we saw her after she exited the drop-ship, and she probably needed her reproductive apparatus), or she carried them on board (another impossibility, she wasn't holding them, and even if she was and simply tossed them out while the camera wasn't looking, why would the blasted face-huggers wait for the 30 min - 1 hr period it would take for Ripley to shower, change, fix Hicks up, clean poor Bishop up, and enter the cryo-tube before they {or it} jumped out to latch on. That is assuming they even found their way to a part of the ship close enough to the cryo-tubes.) Phew! I feel like Annie Wilkes from Misery when she railed about the chapter plays--that simply isn't what happened. As a friend of mine pointed out, 20th Century Fox needed to know then they didn't need Ripley to continue the series. The need to include (and bump off) the series' leading lady landed them in that difficult, albeit impossible storytelling position. Alien 3's previews hinted at a possible earth-battle, the epic Alien story we all imagine in the future, but it obviously failed to deliver. The special effects of the alien were sadly lacking in this film--the prequels succeeded far better. The feel of the movie is somewhat unusual, dreamlike, but not what I would call good or bad. I do believe the movie's attempt to provide modernism is a little over the top. My goodness, Alien and Aliens weren't "overly Romantic" because Ripley survived. Good Lord, virtually everyone died in each film! To the remainder of the character, Hicks, Newt, and unfortunately Ripley was truly a waste to me. It totally nullified the second film. It cheaply tried to mimic the first film by providing the suspense of a hopeless group stumbling in the dark against the perfect predator. All too familiar, right? The other films at least tried to add to the series with some new idea. I can't totally bash the move though. It does continue the tradition of providing colourful characters, although they all do perish. My overall thoughts--the movie, apart from the series, could stay afloat as a B class science fiction thriller.
But it fails miserably as an attempt to carry on the series called "The Alien Legacy." It attempts to be so much, but achieves so little... My suggestion--watch it and attempt to wade through the pretense. But watch the other three, too, because... We know Alien can do better!