A wholly pointless sequel

Rating: 3/10 (28 October 2007)

Unlike some Alien fans, I was gripped by Alien3. I found it to be a very worthy and successful return to the claustrophobic low-tech horror feel of the first, classic Ridley Scott film. It was also an appropriate and dignified end to the series, I thought and to Ripley's character in particular.
And so we thought the beast had been destroyed.
I guess the money-men and suits in Hollywood did not agree.
Sigourney Weaver must have been paid a hell of a lot to appear in this rubbish.
When I heard there was to be a sequel with Ridley "resurrected", I thought that surely this was an empty cash-in on a great idea, dragged out beyond its natural course.
As a great fan of the first three films of this series, the fourth in the franchise seemed redundant, unnecessary and quite frankly stupid and unappealing with stock characters and really inappropriate and distracting 'humour'. This was a long long way from the dark, intense Gothic masterpiece of the first in the saga. This was a cartoon of a crude kind, barren of ideas. A facsimile of a facsimile of a great idea.
It added nothing to the already distinguished heritage of the series, and to my mind devolved an intriguing frightening sci-fi legend into the sort of B-movie cheesy nonsense that Alien could have been had not Ridley Scott and his team got their hands on Dan O'Bannon's original script.
A backward step in all areas of film making.
A sorry and shoddy end end to a great film franchise.
One to miss of you love great films and the Alien legend.