So onto part 3 of my analysis of the Alien Anthology, which will actually combine the last two films together, Alien3 and Alien Ressurection.
Naturally I will start 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 while not as strong a film as the first two films, definitely remains a credible 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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