How Alien 3 Doomed Resurrection To Fail

How Alien 3 Doomed Resurrection To Fail

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Alien: Resurrection may have been one of the worst-received Alien movies, but its brutally grim predecessor Alien 3 set the sequel up for failure.

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How Alien 3 Doomed Resurrection To Fail

While Alien: Resurrection disappointed a lot of Alien franchise fans, the sequel was doomed from the jump thanks to Alien 3. 1997’s Alien: Resurrection is often viewed as a failure by fans of the Alien series, and the Jean-Pierre Jeunet-directed effort is certainly not as well-liked as Alien or Aliens. However, while the fourth franchise installment had many faults of its own, Alien: Resurrection’s failure was at least partially caused by Alien 3 being an impossible act to follow.

Director Ridley Scott’s original Alien was also a hard act to follow, although for very different reasons. The original 1979 movie was a harsh, relentless, and claustrophobic slice of sci-fi horror that lived up to its “haunted house in space” pitch. Unable to outdo the scariness and intense atmosphere of Alien, director James Cameron went another route with his 1986 sequel Aliens. Aliens lightened the mood and upped the action, giving its cast of hardened space marines a batter chance against the titular foes thanks to their heavy artillery. However, despite this addition of action and camaraderie, Aliens still had its fair share of scares.

However, Alien 3 leaned too hard into the original Alien’s horror tone, resulting in the bleakest movie of the franchise by far. Alien 3’s slasher elements ruined the sequel, depriving it of any likable leads other than Ripley, upping the death count until almost no one made it out alive, and generally sapping any hope from the Alien series. From the moment Newt and Hicks were killed offscreen in Alien 3’s grim opening scene, many fans were already annoyed by the third Alien movie, but it was the sequel’s bleak finale that left the franchise with nowhere to go. As a result, Alien: Resurrection never really had a chance at redemption no matter what route the sequel took since Alien 3’s coda was both impossible to undo and impossible to follow.

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Alien 3 Killed Off Ripley For Good

How Alien 3 Doomed Resurrection To Fail

The brutal finale of Alien 3 saw Ripley swan dive into a vat of molten lava, a fate that was pretty much impossible for the series to retcon. Reportedly, director Neill Blomkamp’s canceled Alien 5 would have done just that, outright ignoring Ripley’s death and changing the series canon as a result. However, Alien: Resurrection’s creators evidently did not feel creatively free enough to follow this path. This resulted in the filmmakers taking a middle ground option that satisfied neither fans who wanted the death retconned and Ripley back, nor viewers who wanted Ripley’s sacrifice to stay canon and a new heroine to take her place.

Rather than simply write Alien 3’s ending out of existence, Alien: Resurrection attempted to stay true to the ending by introducing a heroine who was Ripley’s clone. This meant that viewers were already wary of and less invested in the character since Ripley’s clone obviously was not the same character they had grown to love throughout Alien and Aliens. However, the Ripley clone was also not a new, original protagonist who viewers could become invested in, and instead was inevitably compared to her earlier franchise iteration. The problem was, in almost every department, Ripley 2.0 couldn’t measure up to her predecessor.

Ripley’s Clone Wasn’t A Compelling Heroine

How Alien 3 Doomed Resurrection To Fail

Slam dunking skills aside, Ripley’s clone was way too overpowered to be a compelling heroine. She was all but undefeatable and the fact that she was part Xenomorph never felt like it made her a threat. The implication was obviously that Ripley might become villainous thanks to her Xenomorph side, but it was a red herring that most fans of the Alien franchise swiftly saw through. Viewers could be comfortably certain that Sigourney Weaver’s iconic sci-fi heroine would never turn out to be the villain of an Alien movie, even if she was technically only a clone of the original Ripley. As a result, her character existed mainly as a misdirect and an excuse to bring back the bankable star—neither of which made for a compelling lead.

Alien: Resurrection Tried To Outdo Alien 3

How Alien 3 Doomed Resurrection To Fail

The rogue band of marauders who make up Alien: Resurrection’s antiheroes are clearly intended to be the sequel’s equivalent of Aliens’ rag-tag bunch of spaces marines. In Cameron’s sequel, the characters are largely likable and their deaths are moving as a result, much like seeing the unfortunate working- class stiffs of Alien fall prey to the Xenomorph is tragic because of how underprepared the crew is. In Alien 3, the Xenomorph’s massive body count is less affecting since most of the characters killed off are irredeemable monsters viewers have no reason to invest in. Unfortunately, in an attempt to match or even outdo the edginess of its predecessor, Alien: Resurrection made its antiheroes tough and unlikable—much like Alien: Resurrection’s scientist villains. This left viewers with no one to root for but Winona Ryder’s heroine, who was not equipped with enough screen time or character development to give fans a compelling reason to invest in her fate.

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Alien: Resurrection Didn’t Help Its Case

While Alien 3 can be blamed for the sequel’s unlikeable characters and lack of a compelling heroine due to the original Ripley’s death, one of Alien: Resurrection’s biggest issues is not a problem that can be attributed to Fincher’s film. The laughable design of the Alien Newborn is entirely on Alien: Resurrection and has to shoulder some blame for the movie’s failure with fans and critics. Before Alien: Resurrection’s release, the Newborn was touted as a screen villain who would rival the Alien Queen and the original Xenomorph in terms of terrifying memorability. Instead, what audiences got was a slimy goblin that resembled an oversized walnut, and the embarrassing design of the monster was the one major Alien: Resurrection failure that can’t be traced back to Alien 3.

The impact of the Newborn’s design on the failure of Alien: Resurrection is hard to estimate since the monster only appears near the sequel’s close. However, it was highly advertised and its failure was profound enough for the Alien franchise to avoid introducing new monsters until Alien Vs Predator: Requiem’s equally-disliked Predalien. Thus, it is fair to say that this element of Alien: Resurrection’s failure is down to the sequel’s weak design choices, even if Alien 3 still set the Alien sequel up for failure.

Link Source : https://screenrant.com/alien-3-set-up-resurrection-ripley-failure-explained/

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