The Tragic End.

Rating: 10/10 (8 February 2006)

Review 3 of 4
Looking at Alien 3 as the final film in a trilogy I have to say that it is one of the better final acts in film history, even though it is perhaps not the final act that many would have wanted. If you follow this guideline for a trilogy: Part one sets up the story, Part Two expands on it, taking it in new and interesting places, and Part three brings closure, then Alien 3 works just fine. I think of this film as a tragedy. Ripley loses everyone she ever cared about. Her situation is bleak, the setting is grim. Where Alien was subtle and Aliens was flamboyant, Alien 3 is more thematic. Much is present in the subtext. There is much religious and symbolic imagery to be digested. It is a very layered film that requires several viewings to take it all in. Again, Sigourney weaver gets much praise for her performance in Aliens, but here I believe she does her best work of the series. How does someone react when everything has been taken from them? What has their life amounted to? What was it all for? These are all questions posed by the film and to her character, and it is not an easy thing to play. This film has an elegiac quality that is absolutely unrelenting. The Extended Version of the film is much more layered and provides much more character depth, but there is one thing that really differentiates Alien 3 from its predecessors (especially in the special edition), it is almost solely focused on character to the point of the Alien not being all that dominant in terms of screen time and moments of suspense. The thematic elements of the film are very dominant; life, death, faith, and internal conflict. Many religious allegories are made with the most obvious being "the last temptation of Ripley" at the hands of Bishop II. The score in this film is much more dominant than either of the previous films, and there is a greater emphasis on the character's faces rather than set design or technology. Alien 3 seems more personal than the other films, perhaps because it centers entirely on Ripley's character. Several other memorable characters are introduced like Clemens, the soft spoken doctor, and Dillon, the religious leader. Golic is a fascinating character who's entire character arc was cut from the theatrical version but thankfully is in the special edition. Alien 3 is a difficult film for a mass audience because it doesn't have the horror or action aspects of the first and second that an audience can easily latch on to. It is a film about loss and internal conflict, not exactly the stuff one thinks of with popular entertainment, but I've always looked at the Alien Trilogy as more than just movies. Alien 3 has it's flaws, mainly the looming question of where the alien egg at the beginning of the film came from (but then again we never found out where the ship in the first film came from did we?) This film gives such a sense of completion and finality to the series that I wish no more installments had been made after it. It has one of the best endings in film history, but seeing David Fincher's subsequent work with Seven, The Game, and Fight Club, great endings are a trend in his films. This is a very rewarding film, but not an easy one to watch if you are looking for mindless entertainment. There are greater ideas and themes at play in Alien 3. Watching the first three back to back as a trilogy creates an amazing experience much like following a well loved character through a series of novels, sharing in their hardship and triumph as they go along.