Post by drystyx on Nov 4, 2021 2:07:44 GMT
I'm not out on a limb when I say the first two Alien movies were top of the line compared to the next two. The third was a failure in every conceivable way, because not only was the premise one of failure, but it failed to even convey its own failure.
#3 tried in vain to be a "no respecter of persons" play, but it wound up looking "written", with contrived fates for all involved. In order to be "no respecter of persons" you can't "respect persons".
That's where #4 got it right. Instead of being contrived, it let the cards fall where they fall. The survivors at the end are the very ones that are usually the first killed off in the "movies for geeks", making this one of the most "iconoclastic" movies ever made.
But they don't survive by any contrived means. Two have super human abilities perfectly explained. Survivor attributes of cowardice, selfishness, and lack of risk taking plays a role for another survivor. After all, "coward" is almost always another word for "survivor" in conflict.
In "no respecter of persons", we get mostly unsavory characters we can't possibly like. Here, we have a case where the male characters are mostly vicious creeps, and the female characters are genuinely likeable. In fact, our usual heroine, Ripley, is the least likeable of the females. And the females are super gorgeous eye candy. Winona Ryder is smoking hot.
I'm not sure why some people hate it. Some hate it because the men are creeps and the women are more mature. I suspect most of the "haters" actually take exception to the iconoclasm of the movie.
"No respecter of persons" is just one way to achieve a totally iconoclastic theme. If you don't like something iconoclastic, you won't like this movie, but it succeeds exactly what it intended to do. It was a total success where #3 was a total failure. There's just no doubt this was a huge step up from #3.
On a late edit, one more thing I forgot to notice in the first viewing, is something that my generation would be aware of; when Ripley finds she was the 8th experiment, and the first seven went awry, that was a revelation to the old comic TV series '8TH MAN", in which the same thing happened, only in not so explicit detail. Here, we get a grimy look at the first seven experiments in what might be a inhumane act. That doesn't mean "8TH MAN" was inhumane for sure, but it could have been.
ALIEN RESURRECTION 7/10
#3 tried in vain to be a "no respecter of persons" play, but it wound up looking "written", with contrived fates for all involved. In order to be "no respecter of persons" you can't "respect persons".
That's where #4 got it right. Instead of being contrived, it let the cards fall where they fall. The survivors at the end are the very ones that are usually the first killed off in the "movies for geeks", making this one of the most "iconoclastic" movies ever made.
But they don't survive by any contrived means. Two have super human abilities perfectly explained. Survivor attributes of cowardice, selfishness, and lack of risk taking plays a role for another survivor. After all, "coward" is almost always another word for "survivor" in conflict.
In "no respecter of persons", we get mostly unsavory characters we can't possibly like. Here, we have a case where the male characters are mostly vicious creeps, and the female characters are genuinely likeable. In fact, our usual heroine, Ripley, is the least likeable of the females. And the females are super gorgeous eye candy. Winona Ryder is smoking hot.
I'm not sure why some people hate it. Some hate it because the men are creeps and the women are more mature. I suspect most of the "haters" actually take exception to the iconoclasm of the movie.
"No respecter of persons" is just one way to achieve a totally iconoclastic theme. If you don't like something iconoclastic, you won't like this movie, but it succeeds exactly what it intended to do. It was a total success where #3 was a total failure. There's just no doubt this was a huge step up from #3.
On a late edit, one more thing I forgot to notice in the first viewing, is something that my generation would be aware of; when Ripley finds she was the 8th experiment, and the first seven went awry, that was a revelation to the old comic TV series '8TH MAN", in which the same thing happened, only in not so explicit detail. Here, we get a grimy look at the first seven experiments in what might be a inhumane act. That doesn't mean "8TH MAN" was inhumane for sure, but it could have been.
ALIEN RESURRECTION 7/10
