Alienation
Alien 3
Starring Sigourney Weaver
Reviewed by Kath Tucker
Take the most incredible scenario the movie makers can conjure up. So you've got the lead character struggling against all odds, on a planet with only 20 people on it. Add the fact that it's a maximum security prison with no way on or off. Then the inhabitants — mass murderers and rapists, all of them. Their saving grace: they've "got" religion; it might delay the inevitable attempted rape scene. Or then again, it might not. The lead character — a lone woman — is injured, sick.
Now add the Alien. It can't get off this planet either. And it eats people — as many as it can get hold of. But that's not all. There's another one. Inside the lead character. Yes, inside.
Now for the final touches. Predictability, gratuitous gore, cliched script and sensory overload double plus good. Not much else to it, really. If you like these components — and obviously the movie makers have decided to create a market for this kind of entertainment — this is the film for you.
Oh, there's the concession to a 1992 audience — add a token slice of feminism, shake and stir. The female lead does it all on her own, she's gutsier than all the men on this planet (after all she's seen the Aliens before), and she knows how to fight.
It cost millions to make, and will probably gross billions for the producers. The marketing will ensure those who regularly don't go to see this genre of cinematic indulgence just might make the trip. It's not worth it. And not a patch on Terminator 2.