Andrew Dufresne said:
The consensus I'm reading is that the theatrical release of Alien 3 is the "best of the bad Alien movies".. whereas the 2003 Special Edition (Assembly Cut) of Alien 3 flips it to being the "worst of the good Alien movies"
Would you agree with this assessment?
Yes, I would agree with that.
That movie was so infuriating. The first trailer I saw for it showed prior to Terminator 2, a year before its release. That trailer was simplistic but very appealing, with an alien egg in earth orbit, splitting with that light and screeching sound used so effectively in the original film's ad campaign. Lots of implications in that trailer, and not a one was in the final movie.
Then consider the end of Aliens, with 3 surviving human characters and the top half of an android. By the time the opening credits for Alien 3 were done, 2 of those characters were dead. Slap in the face to one of the best sequels ever made.
The movie itself was pretty bleak with mostly bland and indistinguishable characters. I did like the doctor, who of course dies early in the movie, and 88 was also decent. The big leader prisoner was compelling as well. And I give them credit for sacrificing Ripley. But there were simply too many issues with the making of this movie, and that was abundantly clear in the movie.
Alien is the best science fiction and monster movie ever made, and Aliens is the second best sequel ever.
