30 Day Movie Challenge: Day 23- ALIEN³ (1992)

Earlier in the year I made it a mission when I was doing this that I was going to watch the rest of a couple of franchises and one of them was the Ridley Scott born Alien franchise which started in 1979 with the original before the sequel in 1986 that was directed by James Cameron. Now we fast forward six years later and we have the 1992 sequel ALIEN³ which was directed by David Fincher (The Social Network) and features the return of Sigourney Weaver (Aliens) as our beloved Ripley. We can only assume that it's some years later and they have been in cryogenic sleep, but what they didn't realize when they escaped is that a pod made it on to the spacecraft and after it try to implant itself on one of them, it caused a malfunction and forced the escape pod to crash on a prison planet where only Ripley survives. The only problem is that not only does she have an Xenomorph to worry about in this prison planet that has no weapons, but she has to deal with rapists and murderers too. The film also stars Charles S. Dutton (A Time To Kill) as Dillon, Charles Dance (Last Action Hero) as Clemens, Paul McGann (The Three Musketeers) as Golic, Brian Glover (An American Werewolf In London) as Andrews, Ralph Brown (Wayne's World 2) as Aaron, Danny Webb (Valkyrie) as Morse, Pete Postlethwaite (The Usual Suspects) as David, Lance Henriksen (Aliens) as Bishop II, and Holt McCallany (Fight Club) as Junior.

I get that there was really nothing they could do about certain things, but one thing I wish they had done was a better job with the CGI because it was so obvious and probably more so thanks to High Definition TV's. Anytime, the Xenomorph would come on to the screen, the CGI was just too obvious and too cringe worthy for my liking. Other than that, I enjoyed the film and I definitely liked the direction they headed in especially with the weapons option out of their hands. There was one point int he film when you thought things were done and where could they possibly take it, but they figured out a brilliant way to continue the story, but I will not be giving that away cause that is not what I do here. The one thing that I can say is that it definitely makes things interesting for Ripley and co. as they try to figure out how to stop it. The one thing I was disappointed in is that they show the one prisoner let the creature go, but we never see what happens to him and that is something I would want to know because I can only assume that the Xenomorph killed him. I also definitely love the fact that the Xenomorph does exactly what the last part of it's name means and that it morphs with whoever it's host is and that is what you get. In this one, it doesn't pick a human as a host so it makes things very interesting as he acts differently than past Xenomorphs. This definitely is not the best film in the franchise, but it was actually kind of fun to watch which is why I am giving this one an B because it lost lots of points for the CGI.

Aliens (1986)

One of the evolutionary films of the 20TH Century was 1979's Alien which was one of the first films to feature a woman as the main hero of the film. That was a huge move back in the day considering that most films featured men as the heroes and women were always rescued. That is why I decided to check out the sequel in 1986's Aliens which was written and directed James Cameron (Terminator: Dark Fate). The film once again stars Sigourney Weaver (Ghostbusters) as Ripley who has been frozen for over 57 years on her ship when she is found after the events of the first film. Since that time, as colony had already set up shop on the moon, but the problem is that they've lost contact and now Ripley is on her way back with Colonial Marines, but do they have the firepower to handle what is happening? The film also stars Carrie Henn (Alien³) as Newt, Michael Biehn (The Terminator) as Corporal Hicks, Paul Reiser (The Little Hours) as Burke, Lance Henriksen (Alien Vs Predator) as Bishop, Bill Paxton (Weird Science) as Hudson, William Hope (Captain America: First Avenger) as Lt. Gorman, Jenette Goldstein (Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas) as Private Vasquez, Mark Rolston (Rush Hour) as Drake, Al Matthews (Superman III) as Sgt. Apone, and Ricco Ross (Mission: Impossible) as Frost.

Prior to viewing this film, I had only seen Alien and Alien: Covenant so I didn't really know what to expect going into this one. I will say that the original had a certain magic to it thanks to Ridley Scott who gave it that horror element whereas James Cameron was going for the more big budget blockbuster style we had seen in plenty of his films. Now I am not taking anything away from his version because it was really good and it had me glued, but I liked that he added a more corporate element to it. The addition of Burke (Reiser) added a different element naturally because he looks at things in a dollars and sense kind of way and he would naturally have conflict with everyone else. Up until now, we never really had that element in the previous film so you need a more human villain and he was perfect. The Aliens themselves were absolutely awesome including the introduction of the very pissed off mama alien who does not appreciate what Ripley and Co. are doing. The element of suspense wasn't as great as the first film, but there were some really good intense moments in this one. I absolutely loved the cast of the film and I thought the choices were great especially the late Bill Paxton. Some of the special effects were a little noticeable at times, but overall it was actually pretty good and it has to be for a film like this. I think I am definitely looking forward to continue the journey towards having seen every film in the series, but I fear they are not as good as this one. I am going to go ahead and give this film an A- for a final grade.