Aliens might be the objectively better movie. It knew exactly what it wanted to be- a dramatic and thrilling but ultimately straightforward and crowdpleasing action flick- and was given the freedom achieve it without much issue. But for my money, Alien 3 is the more interesting movie, and my preferred one out of the two. It’s a return to the roots of the first- one alien instead of many, a dark and oppressive atmosphere, quiet moments with the characters. There’s some fantastic and iconic shots here. The alien inches away from Ripley’s face as Weaver recoils in fear, Paul Mcgann’s face cast in darkness and grime and his blue eyes illuminated in divine light as he searches for his mythical dragon. I honestly can’t think of any from Aliens that stick with me the same way.
And the characters in Aliens are archetypes. Fun archetypes acted to excellence, but still archetypes. Dillion alone is a deeper character than the lot of them, and Dutton is captivating in the role. The man could’ve honestly carried this film alone as the character, but Weaver is on point as ever, at this point a tired woman who’s lost everything and for whom death is a release, maybe even if she wasn’t carrying the Queen. Charles Dance holds the first half of the film in the palm of his hand, and honestly it disposing of him so early, while indeed a shock, was not worth the trade off when the character could’ve done a lot more for the story.
And oh, Hendrickson. The nuances he gives each Bishop is just perfect. In Allen’s, we’re not supposed to trust Bishop at first because he’s a synthetic like Ash. He’s robotic, serene, professional, too good to be true. But then the subversion is he really is just that, he’s genuine and just a nice guy who, by not shying away from his roboticism and trying to act ‘human’ like Ash or even Burke (all smiles and no soul), actually feels more real and human.
And then Bishop II is all soothing charm, trying to sell Ripley on him caring about her, and he is charismatic but there’s something off. He’s a friendly face, like he said, but it’s the eyes that give him away, that you can look at and see him trying so hard to get Ripley to buy him as a Human Being Who Cares, her Bishop but Human, and therefore better, therefore more trustworthy. It doesn’t make a difference whether this Bishop really is the original human or is another model. It’s not what he’s physically made of but what he’s morally and spiritually made of that makes him hollow, and it’s that makes his snapping at Ripley of “I’m not a droid!” so good. Because either way it’s a petty, entitled outburst of trying to make Ripley obey him and failing when an android just being himself and genuinely wanting to help her earned her trust. If he is a droid, it’s the desperate cry of trying to prove he’s not when a droid was one of the kindest characters in the franchise. And if he’s not, it’s a disbelieving, furious outburst that Ripley would trust in a droid but not the real thing, failing to see that in the end Bishop I was more of a person than he could hope to be.
And that’s just one actor! One actor with two characters and two performances, and it makes me think more than all of Aliens did. There’s flaws. Again, I think killing Clemens so early was a mistake, the attempted rape scene doesn’t feel particularly needed, and you can feel the constraints of the executives and the struggles of the creatives. But that almost makes it more interesting. If I had seen Aliens sooner, or first, or had the same emotional attachment it, maybe I’d be infuriated about Hicks and Newt. Maybe the action flavor would be my definitive Alien interpretation. But for me, this and the original Alien are what this franchise should be.
Review by JCVIP 4BlockedParent2022-08-28T07:39:19Z
Aliens might be the objectively better movie. It knew exactly what it wanted to be- a dramatic and thrilling but ultimately straightforward and crowdpleasing action flick- and was given the freedom achieve it without much issue. But for my money, Alien 3 is the more interesting movie, and my preferred one out of the two. It’s a return to the roots of the first- one alien instead of many, a dark and oppressive atmosphere, quiet moments with the characters. There’s some fantastic and iconic shots here. The alien inches away from Ripley’s face as Weaver recoils in fear, Paul Mcgann’s face cast in darkness and grime and his blue eyes illuminated in divine light as he searches for his mythical dragon. I honestly can’t think of any from Aliens that stick with me the same way.
And the characters in Aliens are archetypes. Fun archetypes acted to excellence, but still archetypes. Dillion alone is a deeper character than the lot of them, and Dutton is captivating in the role. The man could’ve honestly carried this film alone as the character, but Weaver is on point as ever, at this point a tired woman who’s lost everything and for whom death is a release, maybe even if she wasn’t carrying the Queen. Charles Dance holds the first half of the film in the palm of his hand, and honestly it disposing of him so early, while indeed a shock, was not worth the trade off when the character could’ve done a lot more for the story.
And oh, Hendrickson. The nuances he gives each Bishop is just perfect. In Allen’s, we’re not supposed to trust Bishop at first because he’s a synthetic like Ash. He’s robotic, serene, professional, too good to be true. But then the subversion is he really is just that, he’s genuine and just a nice guy who, by not shying away from his roboticism and trying to act ‘human’ like Ash or even Burke (all smiles and no soul), actually feels more real and human.
And then Bishop II is all soothing charm, trying to sell Ripley on him caring about her, and he is charismatic but there’s something off. He’s a friendly face, like he said, but it’s the eyes that give him away, that you can look at and see him trying so hard to get Ripley to buy him as a Human Being Who Cares, her Bishop but Human, and therefore better, therefore more trustworthy. It doesn’t make a difference whether this Bishop really is the original human or is another model. It’s not what he’s physically made of but what he’s morally and spiritually made of that makes him hollow, and it’s that makes his snapping at Ripley of “I’m not a droid!” so good. Because either way it’s a petty, entitled outburst of trying to make Ripley obey him and failing when an android just being himself and genuinely wanting to help her earned her trust. If he is a droid, it’s the desperate cry of trying to prove he’s not when a droid was one of the kindest characters in the franchise. And if he’s not, it’s a disbelieving, furious outburst that Ripley would trust in a droid but not the real thing, failing to see that in the end Bishop I was more of a person than he could hope to be.
And that’s just one actor! One actor with two characters and two performances, and it makes me think more than all of Aliens did. There’s flaws. Again, I think killing Clemens so early was a mistake, the attempted rape scene doesn’t feel particularly needed, and you can feel the constraints of the executives and the struggles of the creatives. But that almost makes it more interesting. If I had seen Aliens sooner, or first, or had the same emotional attachment it, maybe I’d be infuriated about Hicks and Newt. Maybe the action flavor would be my definitive Alien interpretation. But for me, this and the original Alien are what this franchise should be.