Are You With Us? Alien³
By Ryan Mazie
May 21, 2012
BoxOfficeProphets.com
The similarities do not stop there. Both franchises have had a long dormancy between part two and part three and the latest installment is not meant to close the series, but reignite it. Both began filming without a finished script. While we will not know how much of a problem that will play on the quality of MIB3 until this weekend, for Alien 3, it created now legendary behind-the-scenes turmoil.
In fact, one of my favorite directors, David Fincher, has essentially disowned the movie, claiming it is a product of Fox studio rather than his own (Fincher swore he would never work with Fox again, but buried the hatchet seven years later when the studio distributed Fight Club). Not only was the production a nightmare for Fincher, but also I’d imagine the studio was losing sleep, too. The budget ballooned to over $60 million (some $7 million was used to build sets that were never utilized due to the constant re-writes).
I loved the first two Alien films and it is hard to think of a franchise that has been a career-starter for so many great directors like Fincher, Ridley Scott, and James Cameron. I have never actually seen the threequel or the fourth installment until now (but I did subject myself to the torture that was the could-have-been-cool Alien vs. Predator but instead was a money-making train wreck).
I have to admit; I thought Alien 3 was not too bad, all things considered. In fact, I enjoyed it very much. The thing is, it never reaches the heights of its predecessors and I think that was the problem upon release. After a six-year build up of excitement, people were expecting more than what they got. While the first two Alien movies were groundbreaking, Alien 3 just treaded over the same-old, same-old. A satisfying movie and a fun summer blockbuster,
Alien 3 is a good standalone movie, but a terrible threequel.
Fincher and crew (six people were credited with the script although plenty of more fingers touched it) wipe out all of the hard work Cameron and Scott put into the franchise by killing off all of the characters except our main heroine Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) in a rather un-heroic fashion during the film’s opening credits.
Cameron expressed frustration with this move and I can see why. However, from Fincher’s perspective, it would have been nearly impossible to top Cameron’s work, so why not just hit refresh?
Crash landing on an all-male prison planet after an alien attacks the spaceship during the crew’s hyper-sleep, Ripley is found to be the sole survivor. However, there is one more survivor unbeknownst to the inmates – an Alien.
The problem Alien 3 is that we are always three-steps ahead of the characters at all times. We know that the Alien survived and that the violent inmates turned religious zealots are not reverting back to their old God-less ways. While this doesn’t make for a horror-thriller classic like Alien 1 & 2, it does make good for a summer popcorn blockbuster.
Unfortunately, in the heat of the moment, critics did not see it that way, panning the film, sitting at 39% on Rottentomatoes. As time wears on, I feel as if there has been a turn in critical reaction to the film for the positive. Especially ever since the “Assembly Cut” (an unofficial director’s cut version released by the studio as a part of the Alien Quadrilogy box set) was released in 2003. To clarify, I watched the theatrical version for this column, but the “Assembly Cut” which runs an additional half-hour has several key plot point additions and differences, just showing how much money was wasted on the film due to a lack of a script.
I found the plot to move quickly and snappily. While the characters are closer to characterizations, not much more was truly needed for what the film was setting out to do – create a fun summer thriller covered in blood.
Weaver gives another incredible performance as Ripley and Charles Dance as a prison doctor and Charles S. Dutton as an inmate all contribute some of the better acted moments to the film.
The action sequences are well shot and edited with a great sense of space and distance. The physical sets are a sight to behold, but the CGI exteriors do not hold up. In fact, the first two films look more credible when it comes to their special effects than this newer edition surprisingly. Luckily, those shots are kept to a minimum.
I can easily see how the troubled script affected the film with plot twists that are unexpected for all the wrong reasons and a finale that does not know where (or how) to end. But otherwise, the production has only seemed to result in more behind-the-scenes turmoil than what actually happens on it.
So many great screenwriters took a stab at writing this threequel that I could write an entire page on it. Instead I will spare you and tell you to look at the film’s Wikipedia page for all the names, to see how each writer’s ideas helped influence the final script.
Released May 22, 1992, Fox overestimated their sci-fi horror franchise, only opening in second place with $19.5 million and $23.1 million over the four-day Memorial Day Weekend. Another threequel, Lethal Weapon 3, was on top. Word-of-mouth quickly spread (the film’s marketing campaign came under fire for making it seem as if the movie was set on Earth, which it was not), dropping 57% in week two – an alarming number for the ‘90s, when films had legs. Quickly falling, Alien 3 wrapped up with $55.5 million ($106 million today). $30 million less than the last installment, a big overseas bump made the movie profitable enough for Alien Resurrection to be released in 1997, although with more diminishing domestic returns.
Fox revived the franchise seven years later along with their Predators property with the maligned Alien Vs. Predator (a sequel was made, but grossed less than half of AvP’s $80 million total, killing the fight-to-the-death series).
Now it looks like Alien will come into the cultural conversation again with the June 8th release of Ridley Scott’s quasi-prequel Prometheus, which with the benefit of 3D and IMAX surcharges can finally make the Alien franchise have a film that has grossed over $100 million (although adjusted for ticket price inflation, the original Alien has made nearly $250 million, a figure Fox will be wishing Prometheus will make given its well-over $100 million budget).
Flashy and flawed but not soulless, Alien 3 is spunky enough to stand alone, but crumbles when compared to its predecessors. Fincher’s (although no one is really sure how big or small his involvement really was) bold move to restart the series within the first minutes creates a suspenseful environment where all of the previous rules are erased. Unfortunately, he does not have many of his own rules to create.
Verdict: Not with us
6 out of 10