Thirty years after watching Alien 3 at the movies, I've watched the Assembly Cut.
It's effectively a whole new film and a very enjoyable watch.
The story now (mostly) makes sense.
The only issue remaining is how two xenomorph eggs made it onto the Sulaco.
If you haven't seen it, look it up and you won't be disappointed.
I HAVE NOT SEEN IT MYSELF...BUT I WATCHED TONY FROM HACK THE MOVIES GO THROUGH IT.
shareThe only issue remaining is how two xenomorph eggs made it onto the Sulaco.
That is pretty much a fundamental issue, isn't it? But anyways, there were never "two" eggs, there was always only one egg and one fachugger... how did it impregnate both Ripley and an Ox (in the Assembly cut) then? Well as stupid as it sounds, a new facehugger, a "super facehugger" was invented for just this reason. This fella can impregnate exactly two hosts, one with a queen (Ripley) and one with a "warrior" alien for defense. So there is that... "solution".
If you really did not know that before, then I guess the whole scenario just got even stupider than before. You're welcome!
Honestly, I don't find this any stupider than the basic queen idea. This simply supports the very flexible and utterly opportunistic view of the Alien. It is a being that may be able to eat almost anything (We have no idea what it ate to grow so quickly on Nostromo (Not counting Alan Dean Foster, who was simply coming up with a logical explanation. Being a smart writer, he naturally strives to plug holes in screenplays) and is capable of reproducing in any number of ways.
Incidentally, a reasonable theory would be that ANY facehugger should be capable of impregnating multiple hosts and the one seen in Alien was - having spent a VERY long time in the egg chamber on that alien ship, simply past it's sell-by date and barely functional.
20 or more years passed since I've watched it for a last time and it is worse than I remember. The last time must have been the theatrical, because I remember the alien coming out of a dog.
The opening scene makes no sense, but I guess this is what they came up with to bring Ripley and the alien together. Sadly, this is followed by few others non-sensical scenes, like the sex scene or the guy releasing the alien. And the hunt itself - we have seen it all in the previous movies, but it was funnier with big guns and flamethrowers.
The whole thing is very subdued, eventless, without much care for the details and overall it feels like a slasher movie. David Fincher was a nobody back then and I'm not sure how much of this comes from him, but whoever cooked this thing, clearly does not understand science fiction... And when characters make references to Shirley Temple, I'm wondering if the writer is conscious about what he is working on.
What I liked is that they kept the industrial gothic style, some good cinematography, the gore and the costumes. In the previous movies the costumes were standard issue sci-fi costumes, but this time they were bolder in that department and I think it fits the overall style of the series. Ridley apparently liked it, because he also cared about this in the later movies.
I suppose the opening scene will always bug some people. I would hope that Ripley would have searched pretty carefully to be sure there were no additional stowaways, but I'm happy to assume that the queen brought aboard any number of stealthy, sneaky facehuggers.
The sex scene doesn't bother me. Ripley has needs. So?
The guy releasing the alien is a basic point in the plot. It is well supported in the film, at least in the Assembly Cut, but I recall it seeming reasonable even in the theater. The guy was a really malignant psychotic even among a population of outcast criminal dregs of society. We saw a couple of the prisoners try to rape Ripley and we saw and heard enough of their interplay to expect the worst.
I will have to agree about the anachronistic dialog - Not only Shirley Temple but, Cholera? However, I see that sort of thing as the equivalent of films set in a foreign country but the actors are speaking English. We are to understand that they are speaking their native language which we are hearing as English for convenience. In this sort of science fiction would you rather the reference was to Hansa Mandeville (a futuristic character analagous to Shirley Temple but we would not know that without a footnote) and Xenopolycythemia (a fictitious illness you never heard of unless you are a Star Trek fan) instead of Cholera?
And the hunt, particularly in the assembly cut, is pretty damn riveting to me... Not sure about the funny nature of guns and flamethrowers, but the point of this film was to eliminate the advantages for the humans.
The assembly cut is definitely interesting to watch but I still prefer the theatrical version. What I love about the AC is them showing how Ripley landed on the planet and Clemens finding her on the beach. The problem with the AC is that it doesn't flow as well as the TC but it's still nice to have it as a companion piece.
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