So having watched the 3 sequels again...

I agree with you...Aliens has lost it's luster for me: too formulaic, too contrived, too action oriented and "Hollywood"... A.3 has a nice artsy, dark feel to it that feels more like the Original. It's dirty, it's dark, and it's just nasty. But we won't talk abt A.4---ugh.

You know, it's funny, I just watched the Director's Cut last night and I had a thought; what if [i]Alien 3[/i] had been the first sequel instead of [i]Aliens[/i]? I suspect it would have received a much better response...although I don't think it would have entirely escaped from the stigma of 'recycling' certain elements from the first film (which on some levels it did - but only because, I think, the production team wanted to strike a contrast with the action-heavy style of [i]Aliens[/i]).

interesting thought, John...would've liked to have see that response.

The assembly cut of A3 is very good in my opinion. I agree A3 does take it back to the style and color palette of the first film. It is a much dirtier darker film than Aliens. There are some issues with the story that I never quite got over and apparently Fincher hasn't either. That said the film still holds up, especially in light of Alien Resurrection which should be struck from the record. A really horrible film.

agreed, Golic. Even A.4, with ALL it's faults, could've been redeemed if not for the HIDEOUS "Alien child"...that is where it lost ALL credibility for me---one of the stupidest scenes and creations in all of the entire film catalog, not just the Alien franchise. Whoever conceived that part of the story, and allowed that crap to the screen should never work again. Ever. THAT scene ruined the Alien franchise, along with the Video Game AvP crap movies, which were entertaining, but the "Alien" shouldn't have been associated with it......

I actually thought A3 was the worst of the bunch. the use of cgi ruined it for me and we all know the script was more or less cobbled together. I like both Alien and Aliens in equal measure. Alien because it was suspensful and Aliens because it was an action movie. but to each his own

one thing i remember liking about alien3 was that it was the first time we had seen how the xeno takes on different characteristics based on the host. birthing from a dog, it was smaller, more quick and agile, and moved on all fours. and i liked the chestbursting scene, although it was sad when i was a kid to see the dog go through that. but when the alien got up, trembling the way it was, it was very cool. however, now i realize that it was a bad scene, because the alien came out far to developed...nothing like it was at birth in Alien. i do like all of the films (except 4, for all the reasons you guys mentioned), and feel like they could have only gone in the order they did. the first film was all mystery and suspense, no one, not the crew or the audience, knows what its dealing with, and so it was all discovery. aliens had to hit the ground running...to avoid a carbon copy of the first film (which Alien 3 kind of is), they needed to change the antagonists, and the protagonists...ie, bring in stronger heroes, and counter them with many more villians. after that it was safe to pull back and return to the original flavor of the story, with practically barehanded people going up against a barehanded alien, and re-emphasize just how out of our league one of them can be when the playing field is level.

I dunno, I can't get into Alien 3 because of its unrelentingly oppressive tone. It's just a miserable experience watching it, IMO. If I take it apart and examine its pieces it seems like it should add up to a decent movie but, for me, it doesn't.

I know i'm in the minority on this but I kinda liked A4 over A3. Jean-Pierre Jeunet did a good job of adding his signature directing style by infusing a few bits of humor in an otherwise horrific situation. yes, the alien hybrid at the end was pretty bad but we got to see more of the traditional xenomorphs in addition to the queen alien, AND cgi was used sparingly.

I really like the oppressive tone of Alien 3. Its a great movie IMO.

There were some things in "AlienRez" that I really liked. The score by John Frizzel...The Baby Alien in the Directors Cut and that entire intro Rocked...The Betty, The way they drank scotch on the Auriga, we learned that "They Swim" and I still want spring loaded guns up my sleeves after seeing it the first time so long ago. With Alien3 I am a special animal. I did not like the film when I first saw ONLY because I thought what we saw was missing big pieces and was "Off" somehow because of it. I also the timing of the chest burst at the very moment Ripley Dove off, as absolutely impossible to swallow. But when I heard about and acquired the Directors cut I took the time to sit down and give it another fair shake and what I found was astonishing. I fond that the film was far close to being complete in this new version and enhanced in ways I never thought were possible, it quickly became my favorite of the now 3 sequels !!! The camera work in the tunnels, The Xenobioolgy, {New word I stole from Ridley today, in my vocabulary at least}, The Story Line was far more discernible , the Xenomorphs Killinng scenes were Ten times better and in it as well, another first for the franchise...a FULL CLOSE UP of a Xenomorph eating and chewing on a human. The "Death From Above" scene in that film IMO is the best Killing scene in all 4 Franchise movies next to Kane's. The creature at the end of REZ however is thew single worst thing IMO in the entire franchise, aside form the DUBBING in that entire scene which is so far off and wrong it boggles the mind that it got past the editing like it did, I still want an answer from FOX and The Suits about that one!!!

Alien 3 would've been great if it was made off an entirely different screenplay (specifically the William Gibson Screenplay). Great filmmaking, shit story. The entire thing looses credibility from the initial premise of there being more eggs onboard the sulaco. Same with Alien Ressurection- cloning RIpley how obvious can you be that you're milking the franchise, that premise is just stupid and ends up right where it should, with some implausible human alien hybrid that everyone knows is absolute tripe. Alien and Aliens had great storylines that's what seperates them from the latter two.

The dialog in Alien3 was terrible, the story was pretty poor too.