A Retrospective Look At 'Alien 3'

TV & Film

Oct 21

The original Alien by then rookie director Ridley Scott is a masterpiece and widely considered one of the greatest horror movies of all time, and indeed, many lists do have it at the very top. The follow-up, Aliens, went a completely different direction, ditching the slow-burn horror of the original in favor of heart-pounding action, creating what is nearly universally considered the greatest action/horror film of all time. With the successes of those two films, a sequel was inevitable, so in 1992, the world was introduced to Alien 3 or Alien Squared, as many people jokingly call it.

We all pretty much wish that they left the franchise alone.

The very, very first thing that the film does is kill everybody that isn’t Ripley. The positive ending of Aliens that left hope that everything would be alright? Nah. Let’s just undo all of that. The film as a whole is a bleak mess. It has none of the slow-burn horror of the first and none of the great action of the second. It’s inferior in every way.

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The frustrating part is that it has a halfway interesting idea. The alien bursts out of a dog, and thus, it takes on some of the aspects of the dog to create a new kind of alien. That’s kind of cool. However, with that, we did get the predalien from AVP Requiem, so take that how you will.

Now, let’s be a bit fair. The film was directed by David Fincher, who has made some amazing movies in the past. It suffered from severe studio interference, and by all accounts, it was a constant fight between Fincher and the studio, with each wanting to make the film that they wanted and ultimately nobody being happy. Of course, it was next to impossible for the third film in a franchise to match the levels of its near-perfect predecessors (isn’t that right, Godfather III?), but this film probably wasn’t going to be the critical success of the original films anyway.

Another big ding against the film is the effects. The alien suffers from that early 90s CGI look, and outside of a few closeup shots, it looks horrible, which takes you out of what could be solid action moments.

The performances are still pretty solid. Sigourney Weaver is still giving it her all, and the film is elevated further by performances from Charles Dance and Charles Dutton. People definitely tried to make the best movie that they could, but it just didn’t come together.

This is a film that didn’t need to be made. But, well, there was money to be made, so I suppose the film had to be made. Everyone involved is trying their best, but it’s too bleak to be enjoyable and not scary enough to be a good horror film. Given that the series only gets worse from here, it’s probably a good idea to just stop after the second one.

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