unfortunately underrated

Rating: 10/10 (16 February 2004)

contrary to what other viewers might say, i actually find this one the best installment of the Alien TRILOGY. (note the ALLCAPS on the TRILOGY. that means THREE MOVIES. not four. THREE.)
each of the three movies is great in its own way. Mr Scott's Alien, of course, started it all with its beautiful simplicity. Mr Cameron brought his own twist to it and made a fine yarn indeed. but with Alien3, i think the story of Lt. Ripley finally comes onto its own.
unlike most of its detractors, i actually believe the third installment does NOT disregard the second movie. in fact, i believe it used Mr Cameron's Aliens as the perfect set-up for Ripley's final descent and eventual transcendance from the Alien.
this installment is definitely more thoughtful, a lot slower and more of a character study than the first two films. the first was about surviving the Alien. the second was about kicking the crap out of a whole swarm of 'em. this one, this little underrated much kicked-about baby over here, this one's all about Ripley, and how she eventually accepts her fate, starcrossed as it is by the presence of the Alien. oh, and it's also about a bunch of hopeless baddy-types, who turn out to be the most upliftingly, almost heart-achingly human of all the characters we see in the TRILOGY.
it is most unfortunate that Mr Cameron and even Mr Fincher himself totally abhore this film. though i can understand Mr Fincher's distaste (being involved in it and having the movie "made for him" by the dictates of "The Company", i can totally understand his opinion, and would probably feel the same way in his shoes), i am totally baffled and outraged by Mr Cameron's opinions. though some may say otherwise, just cause he made the biggest-budgety-looking and most successful of the three films doesn't make the trilogy "his".
certainly this is a slow trod for an Alien film, but despite the cliches, this movie for me has the most substance of the three films. here, we actually see humans using their wits and grit against what has become an almost omnipotent killing machine. and though this is also the darkest of the three films, it is also, in its own way, the most uplifting.
i daresay, it's almost arthouse. certainly the gore is a little gratuitous (the almost sensual "cruelty" of the Alien from the first film reduced to a simple cold efficiency in this one---which makes more sense to me), and the effects are pretty obvious, B-movieish in fact, but it in no way detracts from (my personal) movie experience. unlike the blustering Aliens, this is not a big-budget, hollywood special effects movie, though it may have cost a lot in the making due to all the corporate s***e. the specialest effect we see here is in the characterization. the "acting" as you will. and the story is cooler than cool, cliches bugs and all (hey, Casablanca was chockful of cliches, and no one ever complains about that little doozy).
say what you want, see it for yourself. this is the tightest of the three films IMHO, and though i've only seen the "unwanted" cinematic version and not the DVD version, alls i can say is, I LOVE THIS FILM.
FYI, my ranking for the films in descending order: Alien3, Alien, Aliens. but i love them all, and wish they would all just live happily together. without THAT other one, of course. now THAT was such a blasphemy, i don't even want to write its name.
dreamwell. c