Plot
Following the escape from LV-426, Ellen Ripley is once again awakened from stasis to discover that she has crash landed on a planet called Fiorina 161, and that her companions Newt, Hicks and Bishop have all perished. Fiorina-161 or ‘Fury’ is a planet that houses dangerous criminals, none that have seen a woman in many many years.
Believing they are in danger, she soon discovers that yet another Alien has followed her. With time running out before The Company comes to take the Alien – she must find a way to destroy it. But is it the only Alien on the planet?
Direction
Directorial debut from David Fincher (who has since distanced himself from this film).
I quite liked his style, and some of his future stylistics come through.
Cast/Characters
Sigourney Weaver of course returns as Ellen Ripley, being the only person to appear in all three films.
Lance Henriksen returns as Bishop in some brief but important scenes.
New players include Charles Dance as Clemens, the prison Dr who bonds with Ripley, Charles S Dutton as Dillon a now religious inmate. Pete Postlethwaite, and Hot McCallany also play other inmates.
Breakdown
I quite enjoyed the expansion of The Weyland-Yutani Company – and the reveal of “Human Bishop” in the last part of the film. The company has always held a backseat to the goings on in the franchise, being aware of the alien.
The new characters in the film are sound too, especially Charles Dances and Charles S Duttons Clemens and Dillon respectively. I wanted more of Pete Postlethwaite, but as this pre-dates his Oscar nomination for ‘In the Name of the Father’ perhaps he was not ‘name’ enough yet. Pun intended.
Because of the large quantity of nameless characters, there are many deaths of these – but they seem much more tame at times than what we have seen previously. This is somewhat disappointing, and I wonder if this was due to studio interference on Fincher.
To date this is the weakest of the film saga, and the ‘adventure’ that Ripley goes through in this film, feels repetitive (landing on a new planet, coming out of stasis, teaming up with a new team to take down the alien). What it does get right is ‘seemingly’ closing the door to the Alien’s return.
Ellen discovering midway through the film she has an alien inside of her, she sacrifices herself to kill the alien once and for all, after a fairly creative way to kill off the main alien (the molten metal sequence).
Overall
A solid third outing, but what hurts it is the repetitive nature of Ellen’s journey, despite its ending.
Some great supporting cast in the likes of Dutton, Dance and Postlethwaite, but it is less scary than the predecessors.
3.5/5
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