ALIENS 3 (1992) REVIEW!!! THROWBACK FRANCHISE

Initial release date: May 22, 1992

Studios: 20th Century Fox/Brandywine Productions

Tagline: 3 times the suspense. 3 times the danger. 3 times the terror.

Plot: Ellen Ripley is the only survivor when she crash lands on Fiorina 161, a bleak wasteland inhabited by former inmates of the planet's maximum security prison. Once again, Ripley must face skepticism and the alien as it hunts down the prisoners and guards. Without weapons or modern technology of any kind, Ripley leads the men into battle against the terrifying creature.

Cast

Sigourney Weaver - Ellen Ripley

Charles S. Dutton - Leonard Dillon

Charles Dance - Dr. Jonathan Clemens

Paul McGann - Walter Golic

Brian Glover - Harold Andrews

Ralph Brown - Francis Aaron

Danny Webb - Robert Morse

Christopher John Fields - Daniel Rains

Holt McCallany - Junior

Lance Henriksen - Bishop II

Christopher Fairbank - Thomas Murphy

Carl Chase - Frank Ellis

Leon Herbert - Edward Boggs

Vincenzo Nicoli - Alan Jude

Pete Postlethwaite - David

Paul Brennen - Yoshi Troy

Writer(s): David Giler (Undisputed; Beverly Hills Cop II)

Walter Hill (Dead for a Dollar; The Assignment; Undisputed)

Larry Ferguson (Rollerball; The Hunt for Red October)

Director: David Fincher (Netflix's Mank; Gone Girl; The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo)

Rated R for monster violence, and for language (114 minutes)

So far I have been really enjoying going through the first four movies of the Alien franchise. Alien and Aliens are really enjoyable and are definite classics. Now, I moved on to the 1992 sequel, Alien 3. And, let's just say it's kind of a mixed bag.

The concept of the alien going after Ripley and other people on a remote prison planet is really cool. And there are a few moments that can be really thrilling, such as when Ripley makes the ultimate sacrifice to ensure the alien that's inside her is born her (slight spoiler here!!!). And really that's about it ...

Some of the visual effects for the alien kind of didn't look all that great. I know the 1992 CGI wasn't the best. But Jurassic Park came out a year later and the dinosaurs looked more realistic than some of the shots of the alien running around and climbing around.

The first two movies only used the alien creature sparingly, which really works because it made it mysterious. And, in this sequel, you see a lot of the alien which sort of takes away the intrigue a bit. Also, it's kind of messed up that the two fan favorite characters that were in the 1986 movie, Newt and Hicks, were killed off between movies. Usually when sequels do that to characters, it's not a good sign.

Ripley is still a kick ass character and will always be iconic. So, overall, Alien 3 is not the best of the Alien movies. But, it's just simply meh at best. When I finish up for the first four movies, I will also include a ranking and possibly check out the cross-over movies and the prequels at a later time.

Here are some fun tidbits for Alien 3!!

• At one point, David Fincher was denied permission by the film's producers to shoot a crucial scene in the infirmary between Ripley and the alien, where the latter menacingly closes in on Ripley. Against orders, Fincher grabbed Weaver, a camera and shot the scene anyway. This scene not only appears in the final cut, but also featured prominently in trailers, and many regard it as the movie's most iconic shot (which I agree with).

• After the first rough cut of the movie was made, the film spent over a year in editing while additional filming and later re-shoots were conducted.

• One of the main causes of the movie's troubled production (including script re-writes, crew replacements, excessive res-shoots and a budget that increased from $45 million to $65 million) was the fact that Fox was in need of a commercial success. Alien 3 was green-lit by the studio because it was considered to be a sure hit, but a release date had already been set before a screenplay or even a story outline was written.

• The first film in the franchise where they show the alien (Xenomorph) eating their victims.

• After a lengthy and complicated shoot, Fincher spent a year editing the film while also doing additional filming, but the studio rejected his intended version and wanted a shorter movie, which required extensive re-shoots. This was reportedly the last straw for Fincher, who walked away for good after this. The re-shoots reportedly pushed the budget to $65 million, and were done in LA with an almost entirely new crew.

• Filming began on January 14, 1991 at Pinewood Studios without a finished script and with $7 million already having been spent.

• Alien 3 was released in the US on May 22, 1992. The film debuted at No. 2 at the box office, behind Lethal Weapon 3, with a Memorial Day weekend gross of $23.1 million. It was considered a domestic disappointment with a total of $55.5 million, although it grossed $104.3 million internationally, for a worldwide total of $159.8 million.