Alien (to the power of) 3 (1992)

Ok.

Ripley has now escaped from the aliens, TWICE. She has gained a child that she can dispel her maternal warmth to. She has pushed aside her prejudices to save a droid. She has ran a gazillion miles away from the aliens. She deserves a damn break. Nope.


In a way, I should have seen it coming. Twice now Ripley had been the one to go to the aliens. The aliens were just  staying put, pooping out those eggs. The first movie her ship had answered a distress call from the first group that got entangled with the aliens. Second time, she was saddled with a gun blazing group that just set fire to everything in sight. From the perspective of the aliens, I would be plenty damn pissed. I would go after them too.

Just not in the way that the movie contrives it.

The last time we left our hero, Ripley, the a droid (i can never remember his name), and Newt were safely sailing through space away from the super duper awesome Queen that they just left in a burning inferno. A BURNING INFERNO. Somehow, some-damn-how, the Queen was able to place an egg on the landing gear which was able to enter the ship.How?? How??? HOW?!?!??! No answer. All we see are headache-inducing cuts of a flashing pod with broken pods and random readouts.

My first thought: this has become an artsy fartsy movie. hmmm...lemme see....ahhh. Directed by David Fincher. Same director of "The Curious Case of Bejamin Button" and "Fight Club". I have not seen "Fight Club" (Ow...ow...I know...it's on my too-watch list) but the style of the movie makes so much sense. Alien has a sci-fi theme similar to Kubricks. Aliens was explosion orgasm of fun. And now we get artistic style of violence with splurts of deep emotions and humor.

So...back to the movie.


Ripley lands on a prison planet inhabited by prisoners that have become religious zealots .Hey, they have been isolated on planet with barely any security. After all the murderous riots die down, they must have strives for some sort of order in their lives. It turns out that Ripley is the only female on the planet. This arouses some resentment and  frustration in the prisoners. This could have easily turned into a rape-sorrow story if it wasn't for one vital thing. Ripley is now carrying an alien. And here's an added twist: her incubation time is taking longer because she's carrying a special kind of alien.

Then the movie becomes a survival story. Where the first two, she was surrounded by people that she could trust in friendship (Alien) or power (Aliens), she has no reason to trust these prisoners. In the end, they all work together for the common goal of defeating the alien.

Just for good measure, the Company still wants the alien. Now they want Ripley with the alien.

Ok.I know I'm bashing on this. I really hated it after I first watched it. I was indignant at Ripley having sex and the weird religious prisoners, and the bloody egg getting into Ripley. But then I thought about it.And I have come to appreciate it as a good conclusion to the trililogy ( it's a trilogy dammit!!! the fourth one is a drunken-induced mess). If I follow Ripleys psyche, she goes from leading a pretty trangquil life to seeing the brutal lives of her comrades ripped apart to witnessing firsthand the horrors of what space can emit to realizing that she missed her daughters life to almost gaing sanity in Newt then having Newt ripped away from her. Ripley has been thrown into the blender of shit and spun until the motor burned out. It is no wonder that she loses her characteristics that we have come to admire and love from the previous movie.What human can withstand all those horrors in such short of a time. Your morals would have splintered into oblivion. If ( just play along here) I was her place, I would have been grabbing on to any human being for some sort of contact. Any contact.

I do have mention that I really dig the idea of the alien taking some attributes of the being that it incubates from. So when the other egg (which I still don't fully understand how the hell that happened) hatches from a bovine creature,it's a four-legged creature ( I would definitely recommend everyone to watch the behind the scenes for the previous ideas for the creature- the greyhound idea was absolutely adorable!).

So this movie wasn't  my favorite but I can definitely appreciate what it was trying to pull. This movie really splits fans apart but it makes sense. I really love the idea that it began with Ripley and the Queen and it would end with Ripley and the Queen.

WHY THE FUCK COULDN'T HAVE BEEN KEPT THAT WAY!?!?!?!?

Aliens (1986)

Sigh. I'm going to have to side with the masses on this one. Of all the movies in the franchise, this was just plain freaking fun to watch. It didn't add any new ideas to the sci-fi genre like the first one did. It just did what every person wanted to do after watching the first one. See those alien fuckers burn. Eventually.

What can you expect from a movie directed by James Cameron. Cameron = explosions, lots and lots of explosions.  What comes in even greater surprise, is that this sequel was done SEVEN years after the first movie. Seriously, Sigourney Weaver is an immortal. I am insanely jealous and in awe of her.

Ripley has been floating in space for a good amount of time. When she gets picked up, she finds that its been at least 60 years. She is astounded to find that a colony has been growing during the time she has been gone. Outraged, she finds that the big wigs don't believe her. Until they lose contact with the colony and then they want her help.She refuses until persuaded by a company man to go along as a consultant with "promises" to exterminate them. Armed with a rag tag  group of armed marines, they soar off. When they arrive, they find a deserted colony with one lone survivor, a little girl. And on top of that, there is not just one alien, there are a whole bus load of aliens. Oh, and they're stranded. Shiiiiiiit.


Not only is survival the goal of the game but there's a a great growth of maternal connections between Ripley and Newt ( the rescued child). During the time that Ripley was in space, she had lost her own daughter to old age. The scene where she finds out her own daughter died as an old woman struck me. The pain on Ripleys face was so strong that I teared up a bit. What even impresses me even more is the parallel connection betwen Ripley and the Queen. Both are strong female representatives of their kinds. Both are dead set to protect their brood. Both are equally strong. That is some serious conflict!

There were so many teeth biting moments. The part where Ripley and Newt are stuck in the med lab with the face huggers?! Ugh! I was scrambling to tuck my legs in. The part where they're walking through the nest? Ewww.. The whole chase scene through the plant and then the final stand off? Wow!!! The gun turrets running out? Ahhh!! Run!!!!

My absolute favorite part of the movie was seeing the Queen. Oh my gosh she was so bad ass. I didn't realize that Starcraft was based on Aliens. I could definitely see where Zerg was inspired from (Zergs are awesome and can kick anyone's ass!!!). This was a beautiful piece of animatronic art. It was designed mainly by Cameron and I bow down to his visual creativeness.

The marines were so weak for me. Just a bunch of loud talking military muscle who freak at the first sign of unknown factors. The clearest distinction between the groups was when the group watches the ship crash, it is only Ripley and Newt who calmly stands to survey their next movie. For some reason, the hispanic marine female irked the bejeesus out of me. So irritating. And I seriously wanted to kill Hudson.


On a random side note, I couldn't help but mentally compare Aliens to the "Water of Mars" episode in Doctor Who. I wonder if Russel T. Davies was influenced by Aliens?

Someone posted up a great thought on one of the boards. The distinct possibility of the aliens all being DNA related to Newt. Twisted.

Alien Trailer (1979)