What Movie Did You Just Watch

[gunswordfist]

Aliens should have been it for actual sequels. Movies between Alien and Aliens is the only logical solution.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

That was more of a slam at the defenders than him. I've seen the "You just like brainless action movies!" argument used to defend Alien 3 and put down Aliens more than anything else.

Yeah, you just gotta love it when people play the "you're just not smart enough to get it" card.

Of course it wasn't entirely his fault, but he does have some blame to take. In the end, it was his decision to use a script that essentially made Aliens pointless

Actually, no, it's not his decision (at least not entirely). It's the producer/studio's decision. The people paying for the film ultimately say what goes, and when a director is bound by contracts there is little to nothing he can do about that unless maybe he has a more reputable status (and at the time David Fincher wasn't that big a name, among directors). Granted that, I can't say for sure how much any of this disaster was anyone's fault in particular, but I do know that movie making is far more complex than just the film magically being made. Even terrible movies still have a lot of time. Money, resources, and effort going into them. It's just that when things get to corporate, the film suffers ugly consequences for it, no matter how good a director is. Based on what I've read about the film's production, though, I'm more inclined to see it as the fault of the producers.

At any rate, regardless of who's fault it is, the important thing is that we can all agree that the actual movie itself is shit and can be glad that it "technically" no longer exists. David Fincher and FOX have both gone on to make much better films since then (and in the case of FOX, plenty of other fuck-ups as well).

I will go on record in saying, though, that despite its flaws, I still really liked Prometheus, and would gladly accept it as canon to the Alien mythos (which it is). I also look forward to it's supposed sequel, even if nobody else does.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Aliens should have been it for actual sequels. Movies between Alien and Aliens is the only logical solution.

Or video games, seeing as how we're getting Alien: Isolation. I'm not holding my breath for it to be any good, though. I've kept my expectations weary after Gearbox and Sega's Royal fuck-up.

[Spark Of Spirit]

There's always Aliens Infestation. That was fun. Shame everyone seems to have forgotten about it, though.

[gunswordfist]

I have no clue what Infestation is.

What's Isolation going to be about again? I believe I mostly just heard about it's preorder DLC of the original cast.

[Spark Of Spirit]

Infestation was Metroidvania made by WayForward for the DS. It was REALLY good.

[Avaitor]

I hear that similar to David Lynch and Dune, Fincher walks out on interviews if Alien 3 is brought up.

[gunswordfist]

Even the best have that hiccup in their career that they don't want to talk about. Not all of them are as obvious as Piranha 2 though.

[Avaitor]

True. Chaplin didn't even acknowledge The Circus in his autobiography, but that's more because of the film's troublesome production than the quality itself.

[talonmalon333]

Wait, did FOX actually declare Alien 3 non-canon? I mean, it's already non-canon in my mind, but that'd be great if even FOX recognized this fact.

And Alien: Resurrection (by extension), yes.

That said, it's all for naught, since Aliens: Colonial Marines is "officially" considered canon until FOX says otherwise.

According to Wikipedia, Colonial Marines takes place after Alien 3. Is that information just incorrect?

Whatever the case, as far as I'm concerned, Alien 3 is just fanfiction, just like Terminator 3.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I've heard that it makes the last 2 chronological Alien films non-canon, so I'm just sticking with that.

Also if it did take place after the events of Alien 3, that would be a major plot-hole seeing as how Ripley killed off the last remaining Alien (which she was impregnated with).

[talonmalon333]

I've heard that it makes the last 2 chronological Alien films non-canon, so I'm just sticking with that.

Also if it did take place after the events of Alien 3, that would be a major plot-hole seeing as how Ripley killed off the last remaining Alien (which she was impregnated with).

They also killed off the last alien in Aliens, the queen. Seems like that's a problem in every post-Aliens story, all the more reason to ignore them.

[talonmalon333]

Another thing that's worse about Alien 3 is the alien design. I mean, when its a practical effect, it looks great. But when it's CGI and running around on four legs like a dog, it just doesn't look good.

[Spark Of Spirit]

The studio was really hoping for it to be their cash cow. I mean, there was a big media push behind Alien 3 at the time, I remember. Toys, commercials, video games... of course, in the long run it didn't turn out all that well. But you'd think after the space between Alien and Aliens they could have afforded to wait longer for a movie that wasn't destined to be sub-par.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Did they use that much CGI in 3? I know for a fact that at least some form of practical effects were used for it, because I saw the behind-the-scenes documentary on it when they aired in on FX quite a few years ago. Honestly, for all of its problems, the special effects were really the least of them, IMO. I hate it because it's a bad script with poorly written characters that shits all over what made the first 2 films great. That said I do still think that Resurrection is the worst Alien film. That, I know, used a lot more CGI, and the writing and characters were even worse, because at this point they resembled cartoon personalities rather than actual people.