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Adam Duncan reviews

Alien³

Distributed by

20th Century Fox

Cert:
Cat.no: 05593DVD
Running time: 110 minutes
Year: 1992
Pressing: 2000
Region(s): 2, PAL
Chapters: 29 plus extras
Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1
Languages: English
Subtitles: English for the hearing impaired, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Finnish, Portuguese, Hebrew, Polsih, Czech, Hungarian and Icelandic.
Widescreen: 2.35:1
16:9-Enhanced: Yes
Macrovision: Yes
Disc Format: DVD 9
Price: £19.99
Extras: Original Theatrical Trailer, Making of Alien³

Director:

David Fincher

Producers:

Gordon Carroll, David Giler and Walter Hill

Screenplay:

David Giler, Walter Hill and Larry Ferguson

Music:

Elliot Goldenthal

Cast:

Ripley: Sigourney Weaver
Clemens: Charles Dance
Dillion: Charles Dutton
Golic: Paul McGann
Andrews: Brian Glover
Aaron: Ralph Brown
Morse: Daniel Webb
Bishop II: Lance Henriksen

Alien³ was not very well received by critics and fans when released in 1992. It was not exactly a big sucess at the box office although it did gross back its budget, albeit only just.

Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) is the only survivor when her ship crash lands on Fiorina 161, a bleak wasteland inhabited by former inmates of the planet's maximum security prison. Ripley fears that an alien was aboard her craft and it turns it that this is true as the alien starts killing ex-cons.

Without weapons or any kind of modern technology, Ripley and the remaining men must find a way to destroy the alien. But Ripley also discovers that not only does she have to kill the alien but herself as well.

Alien³ was very different to the two films that were before it due to the problems in writing the script and also because a lot of material was deleted from the film. This does not mean that this is a terrible film. It's just that it could have been better.

The film does suffer from the lack of action from Aliens and the suspense from Alien but puts forward its own ideas. This was David Fincher's first film and he does his job fairly well. The film has a very dark and gothic look to it and David presents it excellently.

One problem with the visual elements of the film is the alien effects. When done by traditonal methods, the creature looks good. But as soon as CGI takes over, it looks very false and badly inserted into the film.

The cast are not as strong as in the first two films. Sigourney Weaver is the expection particulary towards the end as she realises her fate. Of the rest of the cast, Charles Dance and Charles Dutton are the only other good performances. The rest of the cast don't make much of an impression.

The film is presented in its original 2.35:1 ratio and looks very good. There is some sparkle evident but there is little grain and digital artifacting.

The sound is Dolby Digital 5.1 and is reasonable for this film. It is not as good as the audio on Aliens though but then this film is not a gung-ho action epic like Cameron's effort.

Extras:

Chapters/Trailer: There are 29 chapters for this film which is excellent. A trailer is included.

Languages and Subtitles: There is only one language on the disc and that is English. There are subtitles in English, Norwegian, Danish, Finnish, Portuguese, Hebrew, Polish, Czech, Hungarian and Icelandic.

Making Of Alien³: This is a 22 minute documentary on the film which also focuses on the first two as well. This is actually very enjoyable and features interviews with not only the cast and crew of Alien³ but also of the first two films such as director Ridley Scott, Tom Skerrit and Veronica Cartwright from Alien and Bill Paxton, Michael Biehn and producer Gale Ann Hurd from Aliens. We also see an excellent look at the alien effects along with some brief footage of H.R Giger at work from the first film followed by an interview by the man himself. Well worth a look.

Menu: The menu for this film is very strange as it appears to be moving tentatcles! This must be one of the most weirdest DVD menus to date.

This film is far from being a sci-fi classic but it is not one to be ignored either. It is worth repeat viewing and is an enjoyable film. The disc is fine but it is nowhere near as good as the discs for Alien and Aliens.

It's not really worth £20 either so it's perhaps best to get this as part of the Alien Legacy box set or buy it from an online site where prices are cheaper than the high street.

FILM CONTENT PICTURE QUALITY SOUND QUALITY EXTRAS
OVERALL

Review copyright © Adam Duncan, 2001.

E-mail Adam Duncan

The following is a list of all the Alien films reviewed online to date :

2005	DVDfever Dom: Alien Vs Predator Special Edition (DVD)
2001	Adam Duncan: Alien (DVD)
2001	Adam Duncan: Aliens: Special Edition (DVD)
2001	Adam Duncan: Alien 3 (DVD)
1996	DVDfever Dom: Alien (PAL Laserdisc)
1996	DVDfever Dom: Aliens: Special Edition (PAL Laserdisc)
1996	DVDfever Dom: Alien 3 (PAL Laserdisc)

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