Return to the roots

Rating: Null/10 (8 May 2003)

It is beyond me why so many reviewers highly praise Cameron's Aliens and bash this one. I liked the set design of Aliens, but that is about it. Otherwise, it took away the most interesting premise of Alien, namely the fact that the creature is indestructible by conventional means and leaves everyone pit against it utterly hopeless. In Aliens a burst from a Marine's M16 (woo hoo, go USA) kills half a dozen of them. It felt like "Dumbed-down Alien meets Arnold Schwarzenegger".
In Alien 3 we're back to the original idea of one single, nearly indestructible creature against the fears of a group of people. I much prefer this approach which allows for a type of heroism that doesn't look like a caricature of the Gulf War(s).