My first experience with Alien Trilogy was very fractured. And what I mean by that is that I haven't seen the films in chronological order, and I discovered them years apart.
Fairly often I notice online that the younger generation attributes admiring some of the sci fi classics to nostalgia. Even some directors do it, trying to cover their own inability to create an instant classic or at least a great and admired film. What some claim is that the hardcore fans of some films hold them in such high esteem because of the way they felt when they were young. That the wow factor they had seeing it as kids is psychologically engraved in them, therefore they tend to see the film through their young-selves' eyes. While it sounds plausible and perhaps is true in some instances, I disagree it's the only reason for loving a movie, and at least in my case it is completely not true at all.
Ridley Scott's Alien is not nostalgic for me, so my opinion on it isn't tainted by strong childhood first impressions. I haven't seen it as a kid, and considering when I watched other scifi classics, this one I saw relatively late. By late I mean in my early to mid teens. By the time I saw 1979's Alien I was already a superfan of many other movies for years and knew them by memory. It was actually the tail end of my interest in movies until my adulthood.
The Alien Trilogy I saw backwards. While I was well aware of Alien, I didn’t become a fan until I hit double digits in my age. As a youngster, I watched, but didn't want to dwell on horror movies. They were interesting experiences but they were too much for me. Gore, screams and cruel deaths thankfully didn't attract me when I was a kid, even if the horror was science fiction: a genre I worshipped, and throughout all of my single digit years, I was a superfan of robot movies. There wasn't a bigger fan of Terminator (The first two) and to a slightly lesser degree RoboCop films (the first two) and I could quote every scene as far back as I remember. My favorite Superman villain was Metallo, my favorite Marvel villain was Cyberiad and my favorite Batman: The Animated Series episode was Heart of Steel. See a pattern here? So Alien wasn't really up my alley
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ALIEN 3
I did see Alien 3 in 1993 when it came out on VHS. My much older sister, a huge movie buff, rented it with excitement when it hit VHS shelves and watched it with her friend and my other older sister. I studied the VHS cover and secretly watched the movie (I could see it from behind them, so they didn't know I was watching). Of course it was one of the most terrifying things I've seen. Elliot Goldenthal's score, the Fincheresque style of the movie would traumatize any kid. I saw it as another monster movie, and there were plenty of those at the time that I knew, trust me (The Cellar, The Thing, Leviathan, Tremors), but this one was much more eerie and dark. It made the sight of the space terrifying. It was definitely the scariest of them all. It was like The Thing, but the monster was faster, more aggressive, and they were all stuck in a big cellar structure on a different planet. There's no escaping that. And that place was a nightmare: dark cellar-like corridors, spiderwebs and dripping moisture, bugs and lice covering the walls, disgusting old infirmary. The dining area was the only clean place in there. That setting itself is creepy, especially for a kid. And the place is filled with obnoxious, bald British criminals, with a repulsive, eyeless monster on the loose that has a head like a back of a Beetle. And that soundtrack: it was like Omen in space. The score had strong religious overtones, and sounded like eerie old Church choir, bringing a religion horror vibe to the space movie for the first time
Beginning the series with the third part could be confusing though. For one, the movie doesn't make it clear how one gets infected if you're completely unfamiliar with the mythology, and you don't really know what the facehugger really is. That problem itself creates domino effect of confusion throughout the film. After seeing it, I thought the contact with Alien or its saliva either results in becoming infected/impregnated or, of course, sudden death. I also thought the alien doesn't have one specific form like The Thing (and Leviathan), mainly because of the Facehugger, which the viewer doesn't know anything about from Alien 3 alone. So it just looks like another mutated form of the alien organism. An idea supported by the fact that it resembles the spider-head Norris from The Thing.
So, even thought it was sci-fi, for me it was a monster movie strictly for adult audiences, not something to get into. The movie didn't just slip into obscurity in my mind because the tape was prominently featured in VHS rental places since it was a new movie, and I did see a couple of articles in my sister's movie and entertainment magazines. So I've always seen it in the horror section and always remembered how unpleasantly scary it was. The movie and the creature didn't cross my mind until a year later when it crossed into my comic book world - I grew up in Poland until the age of 16 and in 1994, Dark Horse's original Aliens vs Predator was published and pretty well hyped. I had to get it. From it, I learned all about the alien biology, and was introduced to the Warriors and the Queen for the first time. I loved that comic, and it was intense and very cinematic.
Even though the Alien entered my comic book world, I still didn't feel the urge to dive deeper into the movies. I still had the same outlook on it as I had before, that it was a monster horror movie that was so scary and creepy that it wasn't pleasant to watch.
Then in 1996, the Alien Trilogy game came out and was being promoted pretty well. I remember my friend showing a two page spread about it in a video game magazine, and I got the same magazine to have it too. It reminded me of Alien 3 and how spooky and dark that movie was, and since I was 3 years older (an eternity when you're a kid and a lifetime of a difference), I started getting a bit interested in revisiting the movie.
The announcement of the 4th film was all the reason I needed to finally do it. I hyped my best friend from school about it (and it didn't need much coaxing because he was excited for the Alien Trilogy game) and we decided to rent Alien 3 and watch it together in his apartment after school one day. We were 11 or 12 at the time.
It was pretty much what I remembered. It was scary, eerie and felt very much geared only towards the adult audience. The alien was indeed creepy. It looked so organic, so repulsive, so real. I remember shuddering at the thought of that thing being in the same room with me. I think the repulsiveness of it was even stronger than the fear of it. That head looked like giant bug.
It's also interesting when you're only familiar with Alien 3 how the beginning affects you differently. You don't know who those people are, you don't know what are they survivors of. And the church-like score and whiteness of the scene made me think they must have been some Missionary workers. And Sulaco was almost like Marie Celeste, a ghost ship floating in eerie space, but not empty. Filled with few people who are unknowingly carrying this monster with them. And the name Sulaco was creepy in itself, like something evil in latin, fitting in with the religious overtones of the movie.
We enjoyed the movie and got curious about the other ones. So that's when we decide to see the first two.
After I saw the joke and abomination that the 4th movie was, it ruined the entire series for me so much, and did not fit with the others so much that I just couldn't look at the Alien series again. It was as if someone had thrown a piece of crap into a pool. You get out of the pool. It was the opposite of what the first three films were even while being different from each other (See HERE). It was self aware. It was humorous. It looked like any space scifi movie. It was ludicrous. That was the end of my interest in Alien for few years
I didn't get to see Alien 3 again until I got myself the Award Winning Alien Anthology DVD set well over a decade later. At the time I started rediscovering movies again (See Terminator Post for details). I wasn't scared as much this time around of course but I still thought it was really good. It was still one of the most "serious" sci-fi movies out there. It wasn't geared towards geeks, video game crowd or fans. The subject matter was taken as seriously as it can possibly be, and I very much applauded the movie for that. Around that time I discovered Dark Horse Aliens comics, which to this day I immensely enjoy, and that's when I became a diehard Alien fan. To this day, Alien is my second favorite mythology after Terminator, and it came relatively late to me.
After I burned myself out by watching those movies over and over since then, while I kept following and discussing everything Alien related , I took a break in watching the actual movies. I haven't revisited them in almost 10 years. Thanks to the break, I had such an immersive experience with all three, and enjoyed them like I had never before. With a different perspective, now being much older, a husband and a father, it was almost like watching them for the first time even though I knew them by memory for years, if that makes sense. For example, I could quote Alien for years, and I jumped! I jumped when the medical instrument got knocked off when Ripley, Ash and Dallas were looking for the facehugger. I also rewatched them together with my wife, who haven't seen them even longer than I did.
Alien 3 was my introduction and entry to this mythology, and I often cited it as my favorite because of its mood and feel. But this time, seeing it again after seeing the first two, it didn't really measure up. Not for me, and surprisingly not to my wife, who I expected to like this one the most since it's the most character centered and drama-like. I mean, a clear analogy of a woman with a terminal illness is there, and the movie focuses on her loss and despair. Not only Ripley loses everyone dear to her in a fatal crash, she also finds out she has a "cancer".
It's a drama set in a very bleak environment, with a very nihilistic tone and a strong horror element in form of a terrifying, disgusting creature that roams the ventilation system of the prison and kills on sight. The alien in that movie is just an appendage to the story. With little tweaking, in a broad stroke the movie would still be enough of a movie without it. So I would think that's a very attractive mix for people looking for a "serious" scifi. It is also the last good Alien movie for me personally, and the last movie that treats the subject seriously.
My wife said she didn't like this one at all for following reasons: Ripley seemed like a different character altogether, making very questionable choices (sleeping with Clemens). The characters weren't well defined for my wife's liking, as oppose to the characters in the first two which are very distinct, different from each other and that make you strongly feel/root for them. And the third reason she gave me, is that after watching the first two this one is just not as engaging.
I viewed it very differently myself. If course, I realize and I'm not hiding the fact that the movie has issues, I just don't see issues in places most people have. For example, it's criticized for having an all British, indistinguishable cast that nobody cares for. Sure, those are inmates, but we still fear for them because:
1. It's in human nature to place themselves in the character's shoes
2. Most of them are essentially evil in description only: other than Junior and the small team that wanted to rape Ripley, they all seem like harmless simpletons and don't mean any harm for Ripley or each other.
I also disagree they are indistinguishable from each other. I think Fincher was very brave to make them all look alike, because it makes it that much harder to make them individuals, without the benefit of visual props. But he did it, in my opinion. Not for all of them of course, and we also don't need so many characters. Some are of course still background characters. But you can't tell me you can't distinguish those guys. They're very well defined with very little. What I mean by that is, can you really say you can't tell them apart and that they all act alike?
The sets are fantastic. They don't draw attention to itself, and they perfectly continue the tradition of the original Alien of having a used and real looking future. Doors slide up, yes, but other than that it's all concrete cellar. It's only a tad more than, let's say, an old mining complex.
The infirmary for example, is an old, dirty place that looks like it's from some old abandoned prison. They could do some fancy scifi medical equipment but they didn't. Just like the previous two movies (and unlike any other sequels). They opted to ground the movie. Create "future" in principle only, but show us an actually already outdated technology, filth and decay. Likewise, Clemens uses a medical gown that is being used today. Doesn't have some Star Trekkie sci-fi uniform (like in further sequels). It all makes it the most real, grounded and "raw" science fiction
The soundtrack is one of the best, if not the best horror soundtracks of all time, and I don't think there are many who would dispute that, not even the biggest detractors of the movie. It's very church-like but haunting, creepy, and crucial in creating the eerie mood of the film. Cinematography is extremely well done as well, there's a lot of interplay between lights and shadows, and even thought Alien 3 sheds the Expressionist style that unified the first two movies, it delivers a great, moody look in its own style.
That style however, does date the movie. But I don't think the word "dated" is derogatory. It just means it clearly represents the era it was made in, and what is wrong with that if there was some great art in that era? The look and color palette of Alien 3 is very reminiscent of the early to mid 1990's style of music videos. Perhaps not coincidentally since David Fincher was a music video director. Below examples of some music videos of the times
Alien 3 is grunge. And Grunge was the thing at the time. It's a full on grunge "music" with even similar palette to Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit" video. Ripley also sported the iconic bald Sinead O'Connor look.
So where are the faults I see with the movie? I see it's flaws mostly in two areas. One is in the alien mythology - there's no consistency to what has been established in prior films - in the theatrical cut, one facehugger lays two embryos, the alien that bursts out from the chest is not in larva form, the alien does not have any MO, it kills everything instead of gathering hosts for the incoming queen, therefore torpedoing its own species etc. The other area is the typical Hollywood coincidentalism - it just so happens that the EEV falls in such way that it's Ripley that's the only survivor, and while some others are horrifically smashed she doesn't even have a fracture. And it just happens that in the vast universe the EEV is luckily ejected near a colonized planet and if that's not enough, it falls right at the colony's doorsteps out of the entire planet. And I do agree that after the first two, the third doesn't seem to match that white knuckle intensity of its predecessors, but I don't necessary find it to be a flaw. Alien 3 chose to be more laid back, more nihilistic, more depressing. Linger on sadness, loss and character moments
Some people also say it's a retread of the first film, which I strongly disagree with. The idea of one alien and no weapons around is just about the only substantial thing that Alien and Alien 3 have in common, and in grand scheme of things, it's a very surface similarity. Aside from the fact that there's one alien, Alien 3 is completely different on every level. The cinematography is different, it abandons the expressionist backlit style of the first one (the second continued the original style too taking it a bit further), the story structure is completely different - again, while in both Alien and Aliens we only know as much as the characters, in Alien 3 we are always ahead of them, for example, we see the alien being born, we know it's there, we know what happened on Sulaco, we know before anyone else that the alien starts its killings, etc etc. Also, in the first two movies, nothing happens for over an hour into the film - both movies are almost one very long buildup into a single, multilayered climax. Alien 3 has the more conventional pacing - it starts with a bang and goes from action to no action, action to no action. More on that HERE
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ALIENS
Let's go back to late 1990's, to the moment in which me and my school friend decided to watch the movies that preceded Alien 3 after watching that movie again for the first time in years. We had to wait for the right time so that his parents weren't home, and the impatient me decided to rent Aliens myself after a few days, so I did. You may probably think that the movie completely blew me away, but sorry to surprise you, but at the time didn't. My first experiences with Aliens prove that HOW you watch a movie makes all the difference in how you're enjoying it. Movies should be watched as intended, on a big screen, uninterrupted, with clear and loud sound. Instead, I watched it right after school, with my head still full from the entire day in it, with sun glaring on the screen, and with loud midday sounds of the city: cars honking, people washing cars outside, kids playing. And my friends were already waiting outside for me to hang out with them. So not much of an immersive experience to say the least. Because of that, I just thought "ok, next". I liked it, but it was pretty much just another movie. And it didn't help that I was never into military and stuff. For a moment I was shocked to see that it was a James Cameron movie, until I remembered reading in a magazine a few years back that he directed it. Also, it wasn't until the credits started to roll when I realized which movie was next and what comes next. I was so bummed! When my friends asked me how was the movie I told them that I feel down because of it, but not because what was in it but what I realized will happen to the characters.
I've seen the movie one more time soon after on TV with additional scenes, so the Special Edition. I loved the Sentry Guin sequence. Absolutely loved it. Then I dropped interest in the mythology after the 1997 abomination came out.
While I experienced a little renewed interest briefly around 2002 (more on it when I'll be discussing the original movie), I did not have a desire to revisit the sequels due to what I've been spoonfed online. I've read online (I believe it might have been the now defunct imdb board) from the original movie's purists about how Aliens is a sacrilege to the first movie. Since I barely remembered the movie, I figured "Gee, I better not ruin my enjoyment of the original and just stick with the first movie". That the way it was up until years later (when I was about to buy the DVD set) I saw a photo of H.R. Giger working on the alien head, and it had the exact same design as the Warriors in Aliens. I was shocked and felt like an idiot for believing these purists when I saw the clear bias. It was such a shock for me, I started reading up on everything on the Alien movies possible and on the designs of the alien in each movie, and realized those guys were wrong or lying in every possible field. Their interpretations of the movie and the creature contradicted with what the director and the writers said. Not only the creators behind the original didn't hate Aliens, they actually thought it's the only good sequel. And on and on and on. Since then, I have a very low tolerance for misinformed know-it-alls, and I research before blindly believing in someone's statement.
So anyway, with a fresh perspective, I rewatched Aliens and really liked it. But what wowed me was its visual style. Granted, it carries over the original style, but turns it up to the point of bringing itself close to the style of the 1973's The Exorcist
I'm talking about the beautiful hazy, backlit expressionist lighting. That style has always been my favorite. The play with the shadows. One of my all time favorite movie shots are from The Exorcist, and Aliens is in that same style. So those visuals absolutely floored me.
The aliens are presented in the movie only as either silhouettes, shadows or in split second shots (See the examples above right and below). It was designed that way from the story's inception. Even the script calls them shadows, silhouettes and phantoms.
I also remember literally saying out loud "wow" when the camera first revealed the Queen and panned up. Not only the visual design with the backlight is beautiful, but also how real she seems and how well framed and constructed this shot is, again, not to mention the stylistic look. So the imagery I was always blown away by, and still think it's one of the most stunning looking films ever, and this shot is one of the best ones.
Around this time I also got into my beloved Dark Horse Aliens comic series and I just couldn't put them down. I must have read hours with no rest. I've read all three Aliens Dark Horse Omnibuses I had. Nowadays I own all the Dark Horse Aliens ever released in Marvel's massive Omnibus Collections. And my favorite comic book image was a cover to Aliens: Book Two Issue 2 by Den Beauvais. It captured the quintessential visual style of Aliens.
I also really love the Alien Warrior design.
By the time I rewatched Aliens years later with my wife, I forgot how incredibly intense and muscle tensing it is, especially after a really long break in viewing. And that’s when I really and finally got into it. I was also surprised my wife loved it as much as she did, since she naturally hates action movies. Then again, I don't think of Aliens as your average action movie. This movie has a buildup for almost half of the movie, like the original. It's got a look and mood of a horror movie. It's visually stylish. She said the characters were very distinct and the movie was like experiencing an emergency landing. After finally seeing it the right way, on a large screen with a great sound and focused, it was like what Roger Ebert described - it was so intense my gut was hurting and I was literally exhausted after it was finished. The experience of watching Aliens was indeed like an emergency landing!
The tension in that film is built to unbearable level, and then when you think it's dialed to the 10, the intensity and tension gauges still go up.
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