Review – Alien 3

What is it about the number three sequel? The third time was definitely not the charm for either the Godfather films or the Jaws series. The third Halloween movie wasn’t even distantly related to the first two. And this third Alien movie is no exception to the rule. An under-exposed, grunge art director’s wet dream, the plot mopes on and on until I’m just about ready to root for the alien. Not that we get too many alternatives, inasmuch as the human characters range from mildly annoying to downright loathsome. Even the computer-modeled alien effects are pretty cheap by today’s standards. Maybe if the first two hadn’t been such genre classics, this one wouldn’t have been such a letdown. As it is, however, it comes across as an arrogant MTV-wannabe director’s attempt to make a film that amuses him rather than one that fans are likely to enjoy. The final irony: the filmmakers did their best to kill the series by incinerating the Sigourney Weaver character at the end. Well, I guess the studio had the last laugh on that one (see Alien Resurrection, or better yet don’t). Wish I’d skipped it