Alien 3 (1992)

Plot Outline: Having escaped from the colony planet, the space ship containing Ripley, Newt, Hicks and Bishop crash-lands on a tough, all-male prison planet. Only Ripley survives and she must come to terms with her losses. However they weren't the only things to crash. In the wrecked ship there was an alien stowaway. Without weapons or chances of rescue, the prisoners are about to face their worst nightmare.

The Review: This is a very underrated sequel indeed and it is nowhere near as bad as people may make out. This film doesn’t resort to the blinding action like Aliens did and that's probably what turned a lot of people away - sequels are supposed to be bigger and better yet this one goes more low-key and is all the better for it. Instead it goes back to the original’s suspense and horror of people being stalked and killed in close quarters through dark passages. Fincher creates a really moody atmosphere for the prison planet - it's grim, bleak and tough. This is portrayed really well throughout the film and makes a change from the more joyous offerings of the previous two films' settings. The film starts off controversially by killing off all of the characters we liked at the end of Aliens (well personally I hated the girl but in general terms they were the "good guys"). Then it moves along at a brisk enough pace and despite some ropey dialogue and a poor finale, the film still manages to deliver plenty of shocks and spills. There is a lot of gore as the inmates are devoured and slaughtered by the alien including a very gruesome moment when an inmate falls into a huge fan. Weaver is on cruise control as Ripley now and gives out another good performance, especially towards the end when she comes to terms with her new situation - and I'm sure you all know what I'm talking about by now. There is some good support from a solid mainly British cast such as Charles Dance and Brian Glover, and Charles Dutton adds American muscle. The tough, all-male prison colony is more like the back end of Newcastle than anything else, with a motley crew of skinheads with rough English accents dossing around the place. But they're mainly alien fodder, so as long as you can stick the accents, you'll be fine. The alien also looks pretty scary too although the CGI hasn't dated as well as it should have done, especially during the moments where it's running along the corridors. However the moments where the animatronic beastie appears are still as scary as ever, especially with it's now uncanny habit of standing up behind it's victims before finishing them off.

Final Verdict: Alien 3 follows Return of the Jedi syndrome - the film is a hell of a lot better than everything else in it's genre, it just happens to follow two outstanding acts to which it was never going to live up to.

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