You have not watched Aliens? ????? ???????????? You need to watch Aliens right NOW, whether or not Prometheus is coming out. Now, I say, NOW!
Errr... is it really necessary to advise watching Alien3? I would almost think it would be better to just watch Alien and Aliens and then pretend none of the others ever happened. Personally, I have very effectively purged Alien3 from my memory banks, and never saw any of those others anyway.
To the original question: It's been made crystal clear that a) this is not going to be a direct tie in prequel to Alien. Ridley was originally going that route, but Lindelof convinced him to unhitch the wagon (partially). As in, the ending of this movie does not set the stage for the opening of Alien. b) this is directly tied to the beginning of Alien and takes place in the same universe. -->the Aliens (Xenomorphs) are NOT going to be running around in Prometheus. You should watch Alien before this. Aliens wouldn't be necessary, but the two movies tell one story, so watch it anyway and live a happier life. Alien 3 isn't bad, but it falls down a flight of stairs compared to the first two. It has its moments, but ultimately brought nothing to the table. Alien Resurrection killed the franchise. AVP 1&2 are fine if you liked Freddy vs Jason. The Dark Horse Comics are far more worthwhile.
Sorry bro, Alien 3 is non-cannon for me. Alien, Aliens and Predator. All other movies from these franchises are terrible except maybe Predators.
I actually don't have much of a problem with the movie in and of itself. I just think it should have been made as a stand-alone sci-fi horror movie outside the Aliens universe, it would have been better that way. There was nothing about that movie which particularly required it to be set there, and with very few changes it could have stood on its own and instead of being generally reviled, it would probably be well liked. But it so totally shat upon the movie before it that it is an unforgivable affront to the greatness that was Aliens. And as such, I shun it, disown it, and will probably never watch it again.
Killing off Hicks and Newt just undercut pretty much all of Aliens emotional connection, hard to recover from that right from the start.
Alien3 isn't awful, but it suffered greatly from studio meddling, WB-style. Numerous story ideas and directors brought to the table and scrapped. Killing off Hicks and Newt (and essentially Bishop) in a hasty write out manner was cheap and narrow minded (and pissed off James Cameron to high heaven). At one point, they were going to do a two-part sequel with Hicks leading in Alien 3 with Ripley returning as a co-lead in 4. A later treatment had the prison doubling for Nazi-style Alien experiments (revisited in 4 with the clone lab). Either direction would have been bigger and cooler than the very limited plot they went with. The final script and director (brought off the street) were absolutely rushed and so was the filming. Yes and no, mainly no (involvement). And that's what's going to raise this film up a notch in the universe. It is bucking what had become a predictable, sad formula in the franchise. It's touching on their origins (but is not their origin story). They aren't going to bust loose and chase around the crew.
Even David Fincher disavowed Alien 3, and he directed it. IMDB:[rquoter]First-time director David Fincher disowned the film, citing constant studio interference and actually walked out of production before editing began. [/rquoter] Alien 3 is serviceable, but it's not the masterpiece that Alien is, and it's not the greatest action movie ever made (Aliens), either.
Just imagine if George Lucas or Steven Spielberg directed an alien film. I'm thinking the result would not be good. Think Han Solo having sex with a female Wookie while being raped by a velociraptor. Disgusting. :grin:
I'm re-watching all three Alien flicks as we speak. I watched Aliens last night( gave me nightmares, my wife woke me up last night saying that I was screaming "help". LOL true story. I'm watching Alien as I'm typing this. And I'll probably watch 3 tomorrow. I'ts been a long time since I've watched any of these. I forgot how great these movies are.
I thought someone would cite this... Alright, all things considered, especially how much it's shat upon, Alien 3 is solid. I'm sick of James Cameron and his dated 3 hour action epics. They're good (dialogue is crap) and fun but that's it. 'Alien' wasn't "fun"... that's not why I liked it, or Alien 3. Newt and Hicks and all that manufactured James Cameron sappy bull**** can kiss my ass. So the "emotional connection" I could not really care less about. Aliens was a different movie made by different people....every single movie in the franchise was, until now (been waiting for something like Prometheus since I was 13) I appreciate the mostly British cast and this guy: "You don't wanna know me lady... I'm a murder and a rapist of women."
