So onto part 3 of my analysis of the Alien Anthology, which will
actually combine the last two films together, Alien3 and Alien
Ressurection.
So I'll kick off with Alien 3,
which is by far the better of the two, and the film re-introduced the
concept of the single alien, running rampant and killing everyone,
rather than a whole hoard of them. This time the film takes place on a
penal colony, on the planet Fiorina "Fury" 161, of which its inhabitants
are all convicted criminals, guilty of rape or murder. During an
electrical fire on the Sulaco, Ripley and the remaining crew (Newt,
Hicks and Bishop, who is badly damaged) still in hypersleep are ejected
in an escape pod, which lands on Fury 161. Ripley, who is the only
survivor, is soon found by the inhabitants of the planet, and brought to
the colony, where there criminals are kept in order by a small staff of
prison officials, lead by the warden Andrews (Brian Glover). Ripley is
also treated for her wounds from the crash, by the prison doctor
Clemens (Charles Dance) whom Ripley soon becomes romantically involved
with. Ripley however is concerned by the nature of what caused the
ejection of her escape pod and Hicks and Newt's deaths. Due to the
nature of Newt's death (drowning in her cryotube) Ripley requests an
autopsy of her body to see if there was any possible chance of her being
impregnated by an alien, however the results showing nothing. And at
round this time, a dog wandering round encounters what appears to be an
alien creature which attacks the dog, which one of the inmates later
finds that dog. Ripley also being the only woman on the colony, is a
temptation to some of the criminals, and narrowly avoids being raped by
some of the inmates, when their religious leader Dillon (Charles S.
Dutton) stops them. Ripley also soon finds the mangled remains of
Bishop's body from the escape pod, and manages to get him working long
enough to find out there was indeed an alien onboard. At the funeral
for Newt and Hicks, during the proceedings, the dog elsewhere starts
convulse violently, and soon enough a baby alien bursts from its chest.
And before we know it, the alien grows in size and starts to pick off
the inmates, leaving the Ripley and the criminals to fight for their own
survival against the alien menace.
Alien 3 is definitely a credible
and entertaining sequel and its setting on the prison planet gives the film a welcome
moody atmosphere. The film also features a strong cast with Sigourney
Weaver once again playing Ripley perfectly, with the usual mix of
toughness and vulnerability. Particularly among the cast is Charles S.
Dutton who gives an excellent performance as the religious leader of the
inmates, Dillon, who is the only really spiritual member of the group,
and despite his past crimes, utilises his faith to keep himself from
temptation and helps Ripley in the latter half of the film. Charles
Dance is also good and plays Clemens, in a very understated way, as the
prison doctor with a troubled past, and Brian Glover and Ralph Brown are
also very good as the prison officials.
The film
despite its unremittinlgy grim tone, also has a few little moments of
humour too, especially when Ripley arrives in the mess hall and speaks
to Dillon for the first time, who says to her "You don't wanna know me
lady, I'm a murderer and rapist of women!", and Ripley replies "well, I
guess I must make you nervous." Ralph Brown's character, Aaron, is also
target of ridicule of the inmates as they one time secretly grabbed a
look at his file, which reveals his IQ as 85. There are also some very
good scenes in the film, one highlight is where Ripley (PLOT SPOILER
HERE!!) finds out she has been impregnated with an alien, and she begs
for Dillon to kill her, which he doesn't. The film's resolve which
takes part in the prison's leadworks, is also worthy of mention, where
Ripley once again is victim of the company's duplicity where a man,
Michael Bishop (Lance Henriksen again), whom apparently created the
Bishop android, comes and offers to take Ripley away, where they will
operate and remove the alien from her chest. Ripley then refuses and
throws herself into a pit of molten lava just as the alien bursts out
her chest, she grabs hold of it, as she and the alien are incinerated in
the pit. Even though this part is in itself ridiculous, in the
director's cut, they changed the scene to just have Ripley fall into the
pit without the alien bursting out (which works better to be honest).
For
me though the films only negatives are perhaps the film's overall tone
is so grim, that it threatens to alienate (no pun intended!) the
audience, especially with pretty much every single character being
killed off, except the gobby inmate Morse (Danny Webb). I also think,
while I guess it is appropriate that there is too much swearing in the
film, as it feels like we are at a football match at times, with all the
"shut the fuck up, ya fucker!!" etc etc. But again it is set in a
prison so they won't be saying "Oh crumbs, there is an alien in here!",
the language has to be raw and it certainly is, I just feel there is a
bit too much of it at times.
But despite that the film
is definitely helped along by David Fincher's excellent direction, who
at the time, made his film debut with Alien 3. Fincher himself was
previously a music video director, and he did a great job here in
creating a visually superb, bleak view of the future, also with some
great camera work, especially in the scene where the inmates run around
the corridors, using themselves as bait to lure the alien into the
leadworks. Fincher at the time, also endured some terrible flak from
the executives at 20th Century Fox, as he had to deal with the pressure
of schedule and the problems he encountered during the making of the
film. The film itself remains one that Fincher refuses to talk about,
so obviously his memories of the film's production were far from
pleasant. Regardless of Fincher's misgivings of Alien 3 and his
experiences on it, it was the film that jump started his career in
cinema.
Also worth of note in the film is Elliot
Goldenthal's excellent score, which complements the mood and atmosphere
of the film perfectly. One of my favourite passages of music in the
film is where Ripley examines Newt's body, and we hear some haunting
piano played in the background (perhaps the pianist was sitting playing
next to Ripley! ;-)). Goldenthal's music from them film has also been
used many times for various film trailers since, so it definitely has a
memorable quality to it.
And with that, that's my Alien 3 critique done with. Now onto that other one....
So....
Alien Ressurection to be honest in my opinion is undoubtedly the
weakest of the four films, and it really doesn't deserve too much
analysis, so this will be fairly brief.
Quickly the
plot of the film, which takes place far in the future, where Military
scientists have created a genetically enhanced version of Ripley, taken
from a sample of her DNA prior to her death. And with her DNA sample,
they have not only recreated Ripley, they have also managed to
extrapolate from that a tissue sample of the alien that was in her body
at the time. As a result the scientists are able to create many aliens,
which they use for their experiments, however as usual, the humans
underestimate the big double jawed menaces, who soon escape and wreak
havoc on the ship, but eventually some of the crew escape, however so do
the aliens. Ripley along the way meets up with a crew of mercenaries
lead by Frank Elgyn (Michael Wincott), among them the gruff Johner (Ron
Pearlman), the parapleigic Vriess (Dominique Pinon), and Annalee Call
(Winona Ryder) who is later revealed to be an android sent to kill
Ripley. But of course the events of the aliens wreaking havoc and
killing everyone gets in the way of all that, and before we know it, its
up to Ripley to help them fight for their survival.
Alien
resurrection is definitely the most disappointing film in the series,
and with the director being Jean-Pierre Jeunet, who was responsible for
such cack as Delicatessen and Amelie, I really didn't expect much from
it. Overall the plot is pretty ludicrous and very disappointing, the
effects are also overly gory, and a bit too OTT, even for the Alien
series. In the end, the film offers precious little in the way of
subtlety, suspense or even interest, of which there are too many scenes
that are just nothing but chronic. Especially towards the end, where we
see Ripley comfort her new alien "son" with the malicious (and at that
point cocooned) Dr Gediman (Brad Dourif) looking on in awe. And the
ridiculous scene where one of the ship's crew is about give birth to an
alien as he grabs one of the baddies and thrusts he chest against the
baddie's head, and the alien bursts through the guy's head. Just plain
daft!
However to be fair though, Resurrection does
have one or two redeeming qualities, the main one again being Sigourney
Weaver, who plays the android Ripley, as being somewhat almost aloof,
sarcastic and more assured than her original counterpart. The film also
has a couple of good sequences, the best probably being where the
mercenaries are being chased by the aliens underwater through the ship,
and they have to try and climb their way out. Also the scene where
Ripley meets the mercinary crew and toys with them by playing basketball
and refusing to give the ball to Johner.
But overall
Alien Resurrection is a big letdown, and not the best way to
(presumably) end the series. I only hope that maybe they will make
another sequel to make up for the lacklustre way in which the series has
so far finished up until now. Because three out of four of the films
are definitely worthy, just a shame about the fourth.
Annnnnndd on that note I shall end my analysis of the chest bursting, double jawed menaces.
Scuttle, scuttle, hiss, hiss. (OK enough).
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