Which one was worse?? Alien 3 or Alien Resurrection

[Alex]

Now I hear everytime people seem to hate on Alien Resurrection but I thought it was pretty good, granted it wasn't as good as Alien or Aliens but it was ok, I find Alien 3 to be shit however and people seem to say its alright.

Alien 3 to me had little character building or anything it was just Ripley and some Inmates of a prison planet and an Alien that came from a cow/dog (depending on which version your watching) even the inmates that had some character development were generally unlikeable, the Warden came across as a douche, Dillon while trying to be a preacher comes across as a guy who couldn't care less. The only person I liked was Clemens (played by Charles Dance) and he died pretty quickly, the rest of the film is essentially the Alien killing people, them trying to capture it, (they do but it gets out again) Ripley finding she's a host for a Alien Queen, the company coming to collect it, pretty much all the inmates dying, the Alien being destroyed and Ripley killing herself to stop the company getting the Alien Queen. pretty bland I thought



Alien Ressurection had a better plot. It's set on a reasearch ship with a cloned Ripley and the Alien Queen inside her. A mercenary ship brings humans so the scientist can use them for the Aliens. The ship malfunctions and is going to Earth, the crew of the mercenary ship have to team up with the survivors of the reasearch ship and the cloned Ripley to stop the ship from going to Earth and causing havoc. The characters inn this were more fleshed out (Ron Perlman was a douche, Winona Ryder was a shy person, Michael Wincott was just great and you kinda wondered which characters were gonna survive) It also threw in some good swerves, like Winona Ryder being a android, the Alien baby rejecting the Queen for Ripley etc.

I just found Alien Resurrection to be more enjoyable, what about you.

 

[INDYjon22]

I would say that Alien 3 was the worse of the two, but neither film was all that good. You pretty much hit the nail on the head though. There was very little character development in Alien 3 and even when there was they managed to kill that person of shortly after. I don't think the producers really knew what to do in Alien 3, but they did know they wanted to make money.

I really liked the setting in Alien 3 but it was not enough to overcome all the other problems with it. Ripley was just dry and did not live up to the character she had become through the first two films. The inmates all ran together and none of them really stood out besides the black guy. Like I said, it just wasn't a very well constructed film, not that Alien: Resurrection was that much better but overall it was.

 

[Y 2 Jake]

Considering Alien 3 isn't bad, I'd say Resurrection. I don't know why Alien 3 is so unpopular, probably because of the downbeat ending, Americans hate that shit. They'd much prefer Ripley to have an abortion and survive.

My main and pretty much only criticism of Alien 3 is how they killed off Hicks & Newt and moved on straight away. Kill them both off, but have Hicks say a few words before an alien inevitably bursts out of his chest. That's closure for you. Oh, and don't have Ripley fuck somebody.

Resurrection is shit, it takes a good female hero and changes her to something totally different from the previous three films and that final alien thing is fucking abysmal.

 

[X]

Alien Resurrection was by far the worse film of the two. I've always enjoyed it though because it's just such a weird little cheesy Sci-Fi thriller that it's hard not to have a good time watching it, even if you know the movie itself is shit. Really shit. It had Brad Dourif though, so there's a bonus for the film.

Alien 3, and I'm talking about Fincher's director's cut here and not the terrible studio version, is a pretty damn good entry into the franchise. It brings the franchise back to the dark roots of the original film that James Cameron threw aside for action and blood in the sequel. I've always thought the film was quite good honestly, not as good as the first two films, but good enough. Definitely better than Resurrection.

 

[Phoenix]

Given that Alien3 had a lot of trouble during it's production, from script changes to studio interference and so on, it actually comes out ok while Alien Resurrection was purely just a studio milking project.

I agree with Jake how the virtual almost dropping of the Aliens characters was a real shame because the film could have been something more. However as X rightly said, it returns to the original fear and thriller concept, but also adding further depth that this is a society of criminals and no weapons are available to use to kill the creature, much like the first and Independance Day, it sets up a real badass situation of the Alien kicking ass and ways of defeating it being impossible.

Think the other factor is how Ripley's masculinity was further evolved to the point of shaving her head, she went from a standard science officer to a soldier to a badass in the space of three films, don't see that happen to main characters often.

In comparison, Alien Resurrection just seems to be there for purpose sake because where Alien3 actually started from a situation (a face hugger on board, killing Newt and others as well as impregrenanting Ripley), Resurrection just starts from Ripley being dead as well as the Alien and finishes virtually at the same point except that the ship reaches Earth and Ripley stays alive. The whole situation seems pointless where the other film was crucial because it gave us the thought that Ripley could actually die and she did while we're just getting someone who is meant to be Ripley but yet isn't. You can't sympathise with the characters because half of them are rogue trading pirates, the other are scientists who are evil and finally you have a clone of a character who we care about that is dead.

Alien Resurrection was worse because they made it when they didn't have to, Alien3 did decent given the troubles it had but also gave a decent conclusion to the story arc and returned to the original thriller concept, Resurrection just didn't serve any true purpose to the series except to bring back Ripley when it's not Ripley we're seeing