Better than Aliens but not as good as the original

Rating: Null/10 (25 May 2003)

Where Alien was taught, claustrophobic, original and downbeat, the sequal was flashy, overheated, cliched and like a video game, this third installment falls between the two. Not as gripping or original (how could it be) as the first, not as dumbed down as the second. Not a bad film, generally and maybe underrated in the same way that Cameron's ALIENS was over rated? Weaver is once again rock solid as the tough but tragic Ripley, Charles Dance is sinister as the medical officer and Brian Glover sounds all wrong with his unfamiliar 'posh' accent (normally he played a stock line of dour or dim Yorkshireman with a strong north-of-england accent as in AMERICAN WEIRWOLF IN LONDON). The plot is rather weird, the prison planet-turned interstellar monestry/factory/powerstation isn't fully exploited or explained - neither is the reappearance of that damned Alien. But that aside it moves along quite well and the gore-fest of the previous movie is thankfully avoided with rather more suspence and a lot less explosions! Weaver with shaven head is virtually asexual and the plot line that a woman on this all-male station would cause havoc is a little hard to accept when the woman in question looks like a man, speaks and fights like a man and has all the sex appeal of a potato sack (sorry Sigourney but you look much better with long hair!)- but then these guys have been in prison a long while I suppose! I watched all three movies in sequence, for the first time, over the course of a week and while the series hardly goes from strength to strength in terms of basic quality , it does poses a certain drawing power, which no doubt explains the seemingly impossible appearence of a fourth installment, it's amazing what box office returns can produce! All in all not a classic movie, but much better than it's predecessor. Perhaps if Ridley Scott had remained at the helm of the entire series it would have been better?