A Train Wreck Of A Film

Rating: 1/10 (30 January 2009)

First point i'd like to make is that I am a BIG "Alien" fan and love the Sci-Fi Horror genre. I mean the first film Alien and James Cameron's Aliens are among my top films of all time and I love them. Recently I just watched the third Alien film and opinion: absolutely awful. I mean the film literally throws out everything that made the other two films great: Horror thats actually decent, suspense, setting, good alien design, STORY, acting, soundtrack, giving the audience what it wants etc. and replaces it with a David Fincher concoction thats a total mockery. I have no good points to make about the film so I'll just get on with what gave the film a despicable 1 out of 10 in my opinion.
Firstly why and I MEAN WHY kill off the two characters we had hopes that they had LIVED through the nightmare in the previous film. I mean James Cameron does a fantastic job of characterising Corporal Hicks and Rebecca(Newt) and it leaves the audience with relief that they survived and fully we believe or should believe they fully deserve it. Then here comes along David Fincher and chooses to kill them off in a crash that is literally seconds after the opening credits like we had no emotional connection to them whatsoever what were you thinking...D**K!. Another point about the actual Alien is how come they can breed inside buffalo? when breeding inside humans was a major aspect of the story. The actual design of the alien is also poor hardly horrifying at all in fact instead of moving like a serpent with heavy movement and a lent over posture it prances along like a cat, not even half as good. Next after a bit of tender loving care Ripley is found to be O.K and Fincher seems to be characterising the Medical Officer that does most of the looking after so logically we should be thinking he is the important one and the one that survives right? or at least has a very dramatic death at the end. But once again little bit of emotional scene between him and Ripley alien comes up behind him middle of the film I might add and dead, just as quickly as he kills off the two surviving characters earlier on. Then few seconds later Commanding Officer is killed but he hasn't been characterised, we don't know him, maybe dislike him a bit so who cares. And this process is repeated slavishly through the rest of the film over and over and over again until only one man apart from Ripley remains. Oh and I forgot to mention for some stupid unexplained reason Ripley happens to have an alien queen inside of her so she has to kill herself then end of film. A few hints if Fincher can read this on how to have improved YOUR film: Firstly characterise characters you actually want to survive it is very confusing for the audience to portray someone as good and great then kill them with no one left characterised to hope to survive the ordeal. Secondly stick to the aliens breeding inside humans I mean it IS an aspect of the story that they breed inside humans so changing it is just pure stupidity. Thirdly improve the setting by a mile or scrap it all together i mean its supposed to be a Sci-Fi horror for most of the film I thought they were battling the alien in a hospital on earth, space is infinite if your going to call the planet Fiorina 161 at least have an imagination. I also have one important question for Fincher himself why? why kill off the best characters from the previous film within the first five minutes for no reason whatsoever?, why use a script that is utterly poor and the most basic of storys?, why does David Fincher expect sympathies or an emotive reaction from characters he didn't even characterise? and why did he have to ruin a franchise that had so much potential left? so through an awful plot, awful story badly trying to repeat aspects from the first film, awful characters and making a total mess of the film overall avoid watching this at all costs you WILL be very disappointed.