Plot Details: This opinion reveals minor details about the movie's plot.

Let's get something out front at the start here, "Alien3" is the weak sister of this series. (Note: I haven't seen AVP yet and, from what I hear, it gives A3 a run for the money in the stink-o-la department, we'll see...) Unlike many people I know who saw this movie and hated it, I wouldn't call this movie a complete bomb.

A3 is the third film in the "Aliens" series inaugurated by Ridley Scott in 1979 with "Alien". In 1986 James Cameron followed up with "Aliens". Both were commercial successes, "Aliens" in particular. So it seemed that a third iteration was a can't-miss cinch.

Wrong.

What went wrong? Well, how about straight out of the box we dispose of all but one of the surviving characters from "Aliens"? Hicks? See ya! Newt? Bye-bye! Bishop? Off to the trash pile! Literally. They couldn't kill Sigourney Weaver, she was a co-producer. Next lets set our scene on a dismal prison planet inhabited by bald-headed men who with one or two exceptions look the same and talk with interchangeable working class British accents. Make sure to under-light everything and use a lot of echo in the soundtrack. Mix in Weaver walking around through the whole movie like she's got a pesky case of intestinal gas. There! You've got "Aliens3".

Story synopsis, now. (I may have to discuss plot details from movies I and II here...spoiler warning...) Lt. Ripley's ride home after the events on LV-426 detailed in "Aliens" is interrupted by a...technical problem. She ends up, unconscious, on Fury 161 home of a disused lead smelter run by a skeleton crew of convicts. These guys are a bit on the nutty side and have embraced "religion", a sort of ding-batty Christian fundamentalism, the theater cut doesn't go into any details. The place is cold, dark and dismal. It's also infested with nasty lice so everybody has to shave, heads and elsewhere. The place is a junk-heap with only two "minders" to keep the jail-birds in check. The warden "Andrews" (no first names for anybody again" is played with quirky British supercilious condensention by Brian Glover. His helper is Aaron, aka 86 from his IQ (played by Ralph Brown). The real leader of the prison is Dillon played by Charles S. Dutton. Dutton is really the only stand-out in the cast. He's a combination preacher, enforcer and psychiatrist who keeps the lid on the others. The sudden presence of Ripley stirs things up. She's female and they've all taken a vow of celibacy, you see...

I suppose that this could have all worked well. Unfortunately it really doesn't. Ripley isn't as compelling a character as she has been before. Maybe her worn-out "oh, I'm so tired of fighting these things," stichk starts to grate. This attitude was what made the first half of "Aliens" drag a bit and it's a decided anchor here. Couple this with a lack of interesting or even differentiated characters and you've got problems. Aside from Dutton's character and the doctor character, Clemens, played by Charles Dance, it's tough to tell the prisoners apart. Not good.

The story is grim and a bit nihilistic, much more like the first movie than the second. Everybody's terrified of the bug, only one this time, again. There aren't any effective weapons available and they're plenty of dark crannies for the nasty to hide in. The principal reason why this formula worked in "Alien" and not so well here is that here you really don't give a crap about the characters. Not good.

You'll hate the ending, too.

This review is based on the DVD packed in the "Alien's Quadlilogy" box set. I'm not sure what extras are included in the stand-alone DVD issue. The disc comes with two separate cuts, the original theater cut and an "extended cut" which includes a fair bit of deleted scenes. These scenes are taken from a working cut and the sound is often muddy, probably because the use of on-set recorded audio. It's interesting to see what was left out, mostly establishing scenes with Dutton. Great. Smooth one, guys. Leave out at lot of scenes with your only compelling character. Brilliant. There was also a different gestation mode for the bug.

From what I've read here and there, this was a troubled production from the get-go. The cast walked off the set demanding a complete re-write. The original story, supposedly was set on a monastery in space (wait, it gets better!) made out of...ready?... wood. If you look hard you can still see some of the monastery motifs in the prison sets. I think if I were presented with a script like this, I'd take a walk too. The trailers didn't include any footage form the movie, not good. So I guess it could be said that things might have ended up worse.

For all of the above, this isn't a complete pile of crap. Once things reach the finale the "catch-me-if-you-can" luring of the bug is rather well done. The bug is imagined differently than the past two movies, artist H.R. Giger returns to design it after being benched for movie number two. The extended cut shows much more of it than the theatrical version. This isn't good. First because the CG effects used to create it were still a bit on the youthful side and it really doesn't look right. (Update: Upon further review... The extras disc in the Quadriliogy reports the bug I reffering to was actually a rod puppet, it just looked like crappy 1st-gen CGI.) Also, it looks kinda' small and, frankly, not that frightening... Not good.

I have a gripe with the technical features of this whole set. I watch DVDs on my computer with PowerDVD and it really doesn't work right. The details can be had here.

This is a two-and-a-half star movie and I probably won't decide whether to round up or down until the last minute. If you're a big fan of movies I and II and don't expect too much from it, A3, may not be a waste of your time but don't think you're getting another bash-up ride here.

Recommended: No

Viewing Format: DVD
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 13 and Older