Alien 3
I recently rewatched Alien 3 for the first time since its premiere in 1992. I even watched the special addition, which fixes at least one narrative hole. I still don't like the film. Two reasons:
- It reinterprets the previous story arc.
- It's far more a horror film than a sci-fi film.
I really like the story arc formed by the first two films -- Alien and Aliens. Protagonist Ellen Ripley defeats the first alien at the cost of her career, her family, and much of her sanity; but she again confronts the alien menace and not only defeats an alien horde, but also regains some sanity and builds a new family.
This optimistic conclusion of Aliens is immediately destroyed during Alien 3's credits sequence. Ripley loses her new family, loses her chance to return home, and (unrealized at first) receives a mortal wound. Ripley's dead at the start; we're just watching how she plays out her last few hours of life. From optimism to crushing pessimism. The film offers no replacement protagonist, no glimmer of hope, merely a temporary setback for corporate greed.
I would not like this sort of film were it independent. But since it undermines the work of films I like, Alien 3 becomes intolerable.
I do understand that argument that the alien *should* be an unstoppable force, that Ripley should never have been able to escape in the first place. But not only do I not appreciate this idea, it leads directly to my second complaint:
Alien 3 is really a horror film.
I don't like horror films. I never have.
I do like Alien, despite its horror elements. But Alien is not solely a horror film; it includes quite a bit of science fiction. The first 20+ minutes have not even a hint of horror film. Instead, Alien lavishes attention on its environment and situation -- many shots of the spaceship, the technological processes of wakening the crew and landing the ship, the confrontation of a strange new situation (the beacon, the planetoid, the alien ship). There's a sense of wonder, an appreciation of spectacle and experience. This is what draws me to sci-fi films.
There is nothing equivalent in Alien 3. The technology is stripped away. The environment is retrograde -- a cross between an abandoned (low-tech) factory and a giant sewer. There's no sense of exploration, no discovery, no examination of process. Alien 3 is just the massacre of a collection of unpleasant people, with an undertone of greedy folly.
The alien creature itself displays this changed attitude. In Alien, there's a sense of purpose -- an inhuman purpose, perhaps, but you get the impression that the alien is doing *some*thing. (The director's cut expands on this, with the Brett being used to make a new egg and Dallas secured as a new incubator.) Then Aliens explicitly observes intelligence ("How could they cut the power?!?") and introduces hive behavior and an unarguably intelligent Queen. But Alien 3's antagonist seems to have no design beyond murder (perhaps even only killing for food). We don't wonder what the alien is doing, we wait for it to pop out and kill people. This is no longer a sci-fi element, but just a horror-film monster.
So Alien 3 undermines films I like, strips out the elements I liked, and promotes elements I don't like. It may be an excellent horror film. It may be an excellent expression of existential despair and futility. But I lack the proper perspective to judge; I'm too biased against the film.