The
third instalment in the alien saga, and by far the worst to date, follows
directly on from "Aliens", with Ripley, Hicks, Newt and the android
Bishop in their hypersleep chambers on the Sulaco, as it returns to earth.
Unfortunately a facehugger had somehow stowed away on board (how?), and
tries to break into one of the chambers. Injuring itself in the process,
acid blood flies everywhere, an electrical fire starts, and the ship
explodes moments later (blimey, next time I'll take the train).
Ripley and co are saved by the ship's computer, which transfers their chambers into an escape pod, but their problems are far from over as the pod crashes down on a prison colony, and only Ripley survives the impact. To make matters worse, something else survives the crash (no prizes for guessing what), with unfortunate consequences for the inmates.
So the scene is set for another onslaught, as several of inmates fall prey to the creature before they realise what is going on. Unfortunately, the rest of the film basically consistes of the prisoners being chased round in circles by the creature, as they try to lure it into a trap, and very little else (b-o-o-o-o-ring).
Part of the problem with the film was Sigourney Weaver's insistence (who, as we know from her comments about "Aliens", is a staunch gun control advocate) that they don't have any guns in the film, as she thought trying to outwit the creature by other means would make a more interesting movie (WRONG!!!!). The other problem was the story was basically a mixture of different script idea's, from numerous writers, that were cobbled togethor by the producers, and didn't really work out when put together.
Marking the directorial debut of David Fincher, who went on to have better luck with the film "Seven", "Alien 3" was intended to be more like the original, a dark, sci-fi/horror. But instead, proved to be a boring mess and, to put not too finer point on it, just plain awful. Whilst the film was notable for including a number of well known British actors, including Brian Glover, Charles Dance, Pete Poslethwaite and Paul McGann, this was not enough to make up for the fact that the plot stinks, there's no real action, no real suspense, or fear (despite what the trailers claimed) and there's not enough shots of Sigourney Weaver in her underwear.
Not only this, but killing off Hicks, Newt and Bishop, who were extremely popular characters from the last film, during the intro was a really bad idea (though Lance Henricksen does appear breifly in another role) and so I would wholeheartedly recommend you give this film a miss, except that you really need to see it to understand parts of "Alien 4".
