Third time's NOT the charm....

Rating: 3/10 (18 May 2000)

There is a limit to how many times a story can be told....
For the "Alien" saga, that number is 3.
This third installment of the venerable saga basically plays out like a Greek tragedy where everything is desolate and everyone is in despair, either over personal loss or their own discontent. Ripley ends up on a prison planet and, of course, one of the aliens from the original has followed her, ensuring an onslaught of epic proportions.

UNFORTUNATELY, too much time is given to think about certain plot points. Such as:
Why are so many interesting characters introduced (namely Dance), then dropped so arbitrarily?
Why does Fincher's direction seem so shaky and unsure (in great contrast to his work in "Se7en")?
How could the same writers (mainly Hill and Giler) write a story that has little or no emotional impact and next to no development as far as plot, motivation or even (in the alien's instance) shock value?
And you'll notice, once you've seen this film, that it hasn't got the same sensibilities the first film had. There is too much time spent on the downbeat, the morose and the evil that men do that there is little to no time left for the sporadic alien attacks. Sometimes, it's easy to forget this is science fiction we're watching; it might as well be a prison drama for all this movie cares.
I won't give away how this movie ends, but to ask one question: if this was, indeed how the series was supposed to end, what are we to make of Ripley's act? Was she indeed being ascended to the Christ-like for her actions (as is made all too obvious by the final symbolism) or was she a martyr for the cause of good vs. evil? Or was it, as is my opinion, misplaced symbolism just for symbolism's sake?
Even in the theater I saw this in, many of those around me reacted to this film like they would one of "Alien"'s many rip-offs. Lots of exasperated sighs at different points, some non-amused laughter and at least one person commented aloud "Aw, jeez!".
My feelings, exactly.
Three stars for the effort but as far as sequels go, this probably wasn't as "Alien" a product as they wanted to get to the audience.