missed opportunity

Rating: Null/10 (22 February 2002)

The movie wasn't terrible in and of itself...I think if it hadn't followed the fantastic Alien and then Aliens it wouldn't be judged quite so harshly. I saw it as a kind of return to the first movie, with the largely defenseless alien-fodder floundering about in fear, getting picked off one by one by a frightening alien creature which is obviously superior in both strength and speed. The movie looked very good I thought, the acting was good, the story was not bad either, yet I was disappointed in a way I wouldn't have been if I hadn't first seen the other two because after watching the first two installations unfold, I was looking for the third (traditionally the last installation in a series unless you're looking to make 'Alien 4 - This Time It's Personal'...which unfortunately they actually did, thus tipping the series into foolishness) to build on the other two and send it out of the park - I thought for sure the third installation would be the horrible thing we've been threatened with in the first two movies - that the 'Company' finally got its wish and brought the Aliens back to Earth for bioweapons research, where they escaped into the populace and...ah well. It wasn't bad as it is...but if you're looking for a movie to bring the franchise home and raise the bar yet again, you'd be sorely disappointed - this is a serviceable sci-fi horror that reads a lot like the first, minus the originality.