Alien 3 may be the worst movie I have ever seen

SPOILERS below

I don't watch a lot of bad movies. Either well received movies, movies in franchises I like or movies that sound like something I'd like

I watched alien and aliens. Dug both but loved aliens more. I skipped 3 and resurrection because they had bad reviews. I tried Prometheus and covenant and enjoyed them, they aren't alien or aliens but solid enough.

Romelus watched in theatres and loved it. Second favorite after Aliens.

I figured since I dug every movie, why not try 3.

Big mistake. Took me a while to get through this slog. How this movie looks worse in every way than Aliens is astounding, they must have been embarrassed to release it. Every character is ass including Ripley and space Tywin Lannister. The survivors were killed offscreen from Aliens? Who greenlit such a plot?

I don't think this movie does one thing well. I feel bad for people who eagerly awaited this release back in the day.

Maybe I'll change my mind someday but for now Ressurection is off the list

1/10

I don't think it's a bad movie, per se, but I will never forgive it for ruining the ending to Aliens.

Characters are ass? Its a prison.

Its fine but most hate it for what it did to 2 characters at the start. Theres a few plot holes too. Where did it come from excatly? How did it get inside the ship to do you know what. I know why Ripley survived. The issue is timeline.

Blue_Popo posted...

I watched alien and aliens. Dug both but loved aliens more.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/d/d519aefb.png

But yeah, Aliens 3 is just a slap in the face.

I think its a really interesting film, mostly because of when it was released. It makes use of a combination of practical effects and CGI, but its practical effects from when the industry was really good at them stacked up against really early CGI, and the difference is astounding.

Resurrection is fucking cool and has one of the most disturbing scenes in cinematic history.

The prison one was pretty meh though. Felt like it was more social commentary than horror and everything was too convenient for the plot.

Alien 3 is like 3 different stories cobbled together. It's a miracle Fincher was able to finish the movie with how the studio meddling with him.

Still think the Xenomorph and Ripey face to face is the best shot in the series.

Alien 3 is my worst rated Alien movie. Don't like the setting, most of the plot, as well as how it ruined Aliens ending without even the decency to give Newt/Hicks on screen deaths. And yes, I know the awful video game has Hicks live.

Also, not sure if this is controversial, but I didn't think the Assembly Cut makes Alien 3 any better. For everything it improved it did something worse. Plus. I actually preferred Ripley's somewhat drawn out death vs her falling like a rock despite the fire animation being weird.

If there is any silver lining, considering how horrible the production of the movie was, I guess we should be glad we got a movie at all.

Also, just to mainly stir some interest in this topic, I recently rewatched all of the Alien movies back to back and came up with a "ranking" per say of the movies (below this paragraph). I decided to include Alien Isolation as well despite being a video game and not a movie just due to being my personal favorite horror game.

Amazing
1. Alien Isolation (10/10) - Yes, this is a video game. It is as good as the best of the movies, so I'm putting it here anyway. :)
2. Aliens (10/10) - The part where the soldiers investigate the aftermath of the attack in the beginning before the aliens are ever seen is a standout in a perfect movie. Despite knowing the aliens won't show up yet, it still gives me a sense of dread. I like the Director's cut slightly more, but both versions are stellar.
3. Alien (9.5/10) - Great movie. Just not sure if I consider Eggmorphing a good idea or not in the Director's Cut.
4. Alien Romulus (9/10) - Amazing return to form. Has lots of great original ideas mixed with plenty of homages to earlier movies. Also, the Offspring is just pure nightmare fuel.

Good
5. Prometheus (8/10) - I didn't like it upon my first viewing, but came to like it a lot more on a second viewing. Crew is much less suicidal than in the sequel.
6. Alien vs Predator (7.5/10) - Fun action/horror flick.

Meh
7. Alien Covenant (6/10) - Some good parts held down by a cast of characters too stupid to live. At least the Prometheus cast wore safety suits...
8. Alien vs Predator: Requiem (5/10) - Way too much focus on the human subplots that don't really contribute anything hurts it a lot.

Bad
9. Alien Resurrection (3.5/10) - I thought this movie was better than it was thinking about it years ago. I forgot how awful people almost all of the onscreen characters are. Also, the fact Romulus actually did a Human/Alien/+Engineer hybrid right makes Resurrection worse in retrospect.
10. Alien 3 (3/10) - Already explained why I ranked it as low as I did. Again, considering the behind the scenes stuff, I'm amazed we even got a movie.

I like the ranking

Hopefully Alien Earth is towards the top

Blue_Popo posted...

I don't watch a lot of bad movies

Do you want to? I can suggest a few.

andrewl923 posted...

Alien 3 is like 3 different stories cobbled together. It's a miracle Fincher was able to finish the movie with how the studio meddling with him.

Still think the Xenomorph and Ripey face to face is the best shot in the series.

At one point, I believe the story involved monks living on a planet made of wood. That's a very interesting concept for a sci-fi+fantasy story, but doesn't really work for the Alien universe.

I suspect that's why we ended up with bald prisoners, though, because at least superficially, it's easy to change monks into prisoners with shaved heads to avoid lice.

I have a soft spot for even the theater cut. Only thing I dislike about Asembly cut is changing from dog to dead oxen. Ox no biggie b7t dog is poor doggy!

I think this is the biggest drop in quality for a sequel

Is Alien 3 even the worst film in the alien franchise?

yea it's definitely bad

Eh I still would recommend resurrection. It's a fun movie with a lot of bad in it but I have a soft spot for it

But it gave us this gem:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ocU86emy-Bw

mercurydude posted...

At one point, I believe the story involved monks living on a planet made of wood. That's a very interesting concept for a sci-fi+fantasy story, but doesn't really work for the Alien universe.

I was going to say, the reason it felt like several stories cobbled into one is because it likely was. XD

Alien 3 was in development hell and went through several iterations (including the "wooden planet" version, on which colonists led an ascetic life, that you touched on). In fact, one version of Alien 3 is where the concept of Riddick came from, but they ultimately chose not to use Twohy's draft.

Kaldrenthebold posted...

Eh I still would recommend resurrection. It's a fun movie with a lot of bad in it but I have a soft spot for it

The ending is also the most unsettling scene in the entire series.

It's just unrelentingly boring. I've seen both cuts multiple times after being persuaded that no it's actually good but every single time it has been a chore of a film.

Resurrection isn't good but it's a lot more entertaining.

Blue_Popo posted...

I think this is the biggest drop in quality for a sequel

No way. Its a big drop, but theres definitely worse offenders out there.

I enjoy it, and the SNES game of it.

MartavisBryant posted...

But it gave us this gem:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ocU86emy-Bw

Also this

https://youtu.be/Sra_pUUbW1s?si=3QTPD73Rh-7avjyw

Glob posted...

No way. Its a big drop, but theres definitely worse offenders out there.

Yep, like for the Neverending Story... from one of the best fantasy/kid's movies out there to that rubbish.

The ones focusing on David was stupid as fuck

Not even the worst alien movie

Hayame_Zero posted...

The ending is also the most unsettling scene in the entire series.

Same, especially the hybrid dying while pleading for Ripley to save it

I didnt mind it but 3 established the alien movie loop that it never recovered from

Charged151 posted...

8. Alien vs Predator: Requiem (5/10) - Way too much focus on the human subplots that don't really contribute anything hurts it a lot.

Plus the movie was so dark there are times where you literally can't see what's going on.

We still haven't gotten the proper Aliens Vs Predator experience, which would be Aliens/Space Marines/Predators in the future. Setting it on earth in the present day was such a misfire.

Hayame_Zero posted...

The ending is also the most unsettling scene in the entire series.

It sure does. I didn't like the Romulus version of that ending tbqh

Blue_Popo posted...

I don't think this movie does one thing well.

I can think of one thing it did well.

This is one of the most impressive shots that have ever been filmed:

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/b/b27effa9.jpg

I didn't care for it, and this movie started the hybrid alien thing with the dog-alien. I hated that change

If it makes you feel any better, the one person who hates this movie more than anyone else on the planet is David Fincher, who the studio fucked over so hard while he was directing the movie that he nearly quit the system entirely. Thank fuck someone accidentally sent him the head in the box script for Seven.

I'm finally watching the whole series myself (just finished Prometheus) and yeah, 3 was bad. The whole time I kept asking myself what the point of any of it was. Didn't help that they killed the only semi-interesting character super early on. Just a mess of a movie with a really bad setting and characters.

I liked Resurrection a lot more but even that was pretty bad too. At least the cast was fun.

Also, why is that anytime there is more than just the one alien, the aliens are super weak and can be killed by everything?

Alien > Prometheus > Aliens > Alien Resurrection > Alien 3 (so far)

It's not even the worst movie in the alien franchise! Lol

you should watch resurrection since it's a definitive step up from 4 and while a "bad" movie, at least it wasn't boring like 4.

AsucaHayashi posted...

you should watch resurrection since it's a definitive step up from 4 and while a "bad" movie, at least it wasn't boring like 4.

....resurrection IS 4.

Heineken14 posted...

....resurrection IS 4.

typo

Man I really wanted to like Aliens as much as everyone else on here does, and I still liked it overall, but the Newt character really destroys my enjoyment of that movie. It would be a MUCH better movie if that annoying character didnt exist.

For that alone it goes down my ranking in the series by quite a bit. I watched all the movies in order for the very first time last year so I had no nostalgia bias too.

Romulus > Alien > Covenant > Aliens > Prometheus > 3 > Resurrection

You know I might even switch Aliens and Prometheus in that ranking, those can be interchangeable for me depending on how Im feeling when rewatching them.

AsucaHayashi posted...

typo

No, you can't take it back! Let's all point and laugh at this guy!

But no, you're wrong anyway. 3 is better than 4 and it's astronomically better than the 2 shit turds ridley came out with recently. It's amazing fede was able to claw back the franchise from that fucking mess. At least for now.

I don't like Aliens nearly as much as Alien, but even I think the offscreen death shit at the beginning of Alien 3 is one of the stupidest things ever. Doesn't help that the rest of the movie is super boring either

mobilebloechel posted...

Resurrection catching too many strays in this topic. It's a fun movie and a great cast.

I dont hate it, but its the worst Alien movie. There has to be a worst one when ranking them so it gets the short end of the stick. It is still a fun movie though, I agree.

Alien 3 is the worst Alien movie by far. Way too boring and terrible plot

Eh Covenant and Prometheus are much worse movies than Resurrection.

HighSeraph posted...

Eh Covenant and Prometheus are much worse movies than Resurrection.

Yeah. Resurrection is the worst alien movie if you don't consider imthose 2 to be "alien" movies. Add them to the mix and it leapfrogs both, because they are both so fucking stupid and bad.

They really arent, Covenant and Prometheus are pretty entertaining movies. I had a much better time watching them over 3 and Resurrection.

I feel like this is another case of modern new movies bad old original movies good syndrome

DavidZ2844 posted...

They really arent, Covenant and Prometheus are pretty entertaining movies. I had a much better time watching them over 3 and Resurrection.

I feel like this is another case of modern new movies bad old original movies good syndrome

No, because Romulus is amazing and much better than alien 3, so.... That theory goes way out the window.

It's just covenant and Prometheus, aside from looking incredible, are fucking God awful. Nonsensical story and some of the absolute dumbest characters ever put in screen.

Prometheus is passable but Covenant is one of the worst pieces of shit ever made, the origin of the xenomorphs is lazy af and the characters are some of the dumbest people ever put to film.

Heineken14 posted...

some of the absolute dumbest characters ever put in screen.

lol

rodu_jr posted...

I didn't care for it, and this movie started the hybrid alien thing with the dog-alien. I hated that change

Kenner produced a line of Aliens figures that featured hybrids, like gorilla, bull, and a few others.
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/0/08b24242.jpg
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/f/f3a06bca.jpg
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/7/7e669c8e.jpg