the one chink in David Fincher's armor... he's pretty flat at directing actors. I think he reshoots a scene so many times for the perfect image and motion that it sometimes deadens the film, kind of sucks the life right out of it. For example... "Panic Room" has no life in it. But a movie like "Slumdog Millionaire" by the emotional Boyle has arguably has too much life in it (but I really do like it).

But I love looking at Fincher films! He would be a great production designer/cinematographer if you were putting together an all-star team.

I'm a huge fan of "Fight Club", where there is a lot of life to it!

ALIEN 3... not so much. And I was excited before I saw it in '92. I felt that Fincher was very close to Ridley Scott in term of coming from a short form highly visual medium. (Scott from commercials, Fincher from music videos... like Vogue and Express yourself and Oh Father or Janie's Got a Gun.

I'm a huge ALIEN nutbar though. I can draw that thing with my eyes closed. I'm the biggest Alien fan on this board! Guaranteed. Since 1979.

unique said:

alien 3 is a great movie. it's fucking david fincher, one of the greatest directors of the current age

the main problem with the alien series is not the directors, but that each movie is so different to each other as they have completely different directors, and each director was relatively new to directing features

you have ridley scott who did the first one, it was his second feature film that he directed. you may remember he did the famous hovis adverts not long before alien. his brother director top gun and a bunch of other OTT action movies that deserve you leaving your brain at the door before watching

alien was chopping to fucking peices. the original cut was about 3 hours long. there's shitloads of outtakes circulating. if you peice back the movie to the workprint, you find that it has more in common with tarskovskiy's solaris (fuck that clooney soderburgh shit). there is no dialogue for the first quarter hour or so, just like michael winners original version of the mechanic, and you have no idea that ridley is the featured character. like solaris or 2001 there are loads of long slow shots with dialogue or score that just set the slow pace of being in space. the slow pacing and editing makes the eventual discovery of an alien more of a surprise, and makes ridley a less suspecting hero. by the time the studio cut the fucking living shit out the movie it was an entirely different beast. as you know after seeing the many different cuts of blade runner and the dumbed down voiceovers that harrison ford purposely voiced idiotically in the hope they wouldn't be used, you can see how different a true directors vision can be fucked up by studios

aliens was given to another new director who had just made a movie about a fucking robot that came back in space and blew lots of shit up. so in aliens they blew lots of shit up. and then blew some more shit up. and then some more. and then you think the movie is about to end and the studios release a "directors cut" and blow some more shit up. and then some more. in 3D. not really. not in 3D at least. at least not yet. but it will come. just you fucking mark my words

so the aliens guy then made more movies about fucking robots that came back from the future to blow shit up. and then blow more shit up. so they got a guy who hadn't even directed one feature yet. but he made some music videos for madonna, george michael and the bird from americal idol, so surely he can make a movie with aliens and blow some shit up? except in this movie there was no shit getting blown up. they gave him a fucking amazing cast of almost all brit luvvy actors. people that could read lines and act, and who hadn't been in any movies where shit gets blown up. and in alien3 they made a movie with a real script and story and dialogue and proper acting, instead of lots of shit getting blown up. and the morons who liked shit getting blown up in aliens but through alien was boring as shit through that alien3 was boring as shit cuz no shit got blown up

so what did they do next? they got the french guy who made a critically acclaimed luvvy movie and then made another movie with the guy from hellboy and sons of anarchy, but before he did that popular shit, and they gave him a shitload of money to make a movie that brought a dead character back to life by a sort of psuedo science that's basically complete and utter bollocks. and of course as he had never made a movie like that before, and the studio were standing over him and didn't let him make the alien movie ANYTHING whatsoever like the films he made before and after, the films that people really like, alien4 turned into be a baguette de merd. which is french for bag of shite. and then the fucking frog took all the fucking money he made from aliens and made some critically acclaimed movies that millions of people went and saw and said the director was fucking amazing. even though they didn't like the movies cuz they were all in fucking french and they had no idea wtf people were saying in them, cuz the types of morons who saw alien4 can't read, so couldn't follow the fucking subtitles on amelia. if they wanted to read a fucking movie they would have bought a comic book

so if the studios hadn't fucked up the alien franchise enough, what do they do? they get the moron who made a fucking movie based on a video game to make a movie based on a videogame. one that takes not one, but two franchises and smashes them together to one unholy motherfucker of a fucking mess. if the alien franchise wasn't fucked already, it was more than fucked by the time they took a movie with an ex wrestler turned govner of minnesota, land of the fucking sexdwarf, and the the robot dude from the movie directed by the dude who did aliens, and made it a fucking PG cut. then made a sequel that was even more shitier, just to show they could make a shittier movie than the first, as a warning not to see in in case they made another fucking sequel that was even worse

so then 30 years later, the hovis director dude throught he could make a few quid by doing another sequel, and then changed his mind and made another movie instead. probably in 3D. guaranteed there will be a directors cut. cuz he likes that shit

so if you don't like alien3 you will prolly love lots of other shit movies and hate good ones with proper acting. go see fast five, you will love that shit

There's nothing wrong with the directing of Alien3, the story sucked. It's kinda like the first Hulk movie which sucked big time and the only people who like it are Ang Lee fans

kpowers said:

unique said:

alien 3 is a great movie. it's fucking david fincher, one of the greatest directors of the current age

the main problem with the alien series is not the directors, but that each movie is so different to each other as they have completely different directors, and each director was relatively new to directing features

There's nothing wrong with the directing of Alien3, the story sucked. It's kinda like the first Hulk movie which sucked big time and the only people who like it are Ang Lee fans

that's what i said kenny powers, albeit in four thousand words instead of four

the directors were fine, albeit new to features, it was the studio that shredded their work into dumbed down popcorn fare

the A3 story is fine, it's a good movie too. it's just AR that's the big pile of shit with a daft story. however compared with AVP2 it's a fucking masterpeice. it's hard to believe the guy who did amelia and delicatessen was involved

I can't get past the nonsensical opening credits. If you know you're Alien law, it just makes no sense. Egg on board (How? did the queen carry it on board american footbll style?) face hugger impregnating Ripley AND subsequently a dog/ox, umm no, as established in the first two films they just do their thing once then die. That film is just utter bollocks.

unique said:

kpowers said:

There's nothing wrong with the directing of Alien3, the story sucked. It's kinda like the first Hulk movie which sucked big time and the only people who like it are Ang Lee fans

that's what i said kenny powers, albeit in four thousand words instead of four

the directors were fine, albeit new to features, it was the studio that shredded their work into dumbed down popcorn fare

the A3 story is fine, it's a good movie too. it's just AR that's the big pile of shit with a daft story. however compared with AVP2 it's a fucking masterpeice. it's hard to believe the guy who did amelia and delicatessen was involved

Who is kenny powers??? A3 story was ok at best, not enough interesting characters (except for Clemmons the doctor who is one of the first to die) who cares if killers and rapist gets killed. Yes next to AVP1 and AVP2 it is a masterpeice.

kpowers said:

unique said:

that's what i said kenny powers, albeit in four thousand words instead of four

the directors were fine, albeit new to features, it was the studio that shredded their work into dumbed down popcorn fare

the A3 story is fine, it's a good movie too. it's just AR that's the big pile of shit with a daft story. however compared with AVP2 it's a fucking masterpeice. it's hard to believe the guy who did amelia and delicatessen was involved

Who is kenny powers??? A3 story was ok at best, not enough interesting characters (except for Clemmons the doctor who is one of the first to die) who cares if killers and rapist gets killed. Yes next to AVP1 and AVP2 it is a masterpeice.

[img:$uid]http://www.mediabistro.com/fishbowlla/files/original/kenny%20powers.png[/img:$uid]

unique said:

kpowers said:

Who is kenny powers??? A3 story was ok at best, not enough interesting characters (except for Clemmons the doctor who is one of the first to die) who cares if killers and rapist gets killed. Yes next to AVP1 and AVP2 it is a masterpeice.

[img:$uid]http://www.mediabistro.com/fishbowlla/files/original/kenny%20powers.png[/img:$uid]

Interesting....................

unique said:

alien 3 is a great movie. it's fucking david fincher, one of the greatest directors of the current age

....the original cut was about 3 hours long. there's shitloads of outtakes circulating....

...psuedo science...

so then 30 years later, the hovis director dude throught he could make a few quid by doing another sequel, and then changed his mind and made another movie instead. probably in 3D. guaranteed there will be a directors cut. cuz he likes that shit

so if you don't like alien3 you will prolly love lots of other shit movies and hate good ones with proper acting. go see fast five, you will love that shit

I completely agree with the psuedo science and overall statement of Alien 4. To me, it was by far the worst movie of the franchise, and I couldn't believe it while I was watching it. It's only saved by being a well paced adventure, but it fallows almost the same format of the first two movies---they get chased. The escape, and there's a final showdown with one of them on the escape ship---same thing. After dumbing us down by introducing a clone of Ripley who 'remembers herself' through memories transmitted at a 'molecular level' , a lab room where the 7 failed versions of her are kept, one of them still alive for no reason, too-obvious crowd-pleasing one-liners, I was too numb to really react to the stupid rendering of the hybrid xenomorph at the end. It was ridiculous looking. I predict a future 'reboot' of the franchise will accept the first 2 movies, but pretend like the rest never happened, 4 will be utterly forgotten, but 3 will be a cult favorite.

I think the flaws of alien3 are so many that it would be impossible to make it a good movie. Like Giler said, the problem with the movie was that it just didn't meet it's genre expectations--it wasn't scary.

The additional footage would have served to make the story actually make sense, but could do very little by way of the horror aspects.

Even if they reintroduced the more gory scenes like the autopsy which I'm told were absolutely vulgar, it wouldn't actually make the movie scary to me. THere's no way that the audience can pity double-y chromosome rapists and killers, so when they're offed, nobody cares. Moreover, you're not given any sense that this is a 'team' outside of the very unbelievable leader's ability to keep the 'converts' on the right path. Other than Golic and a few of them, you'd never know they were murderers unless the dialogue explains it.

The dialogue is also just awful in places. In the expanded edition , it certainly helps to move the story along much better than the theatrical release. And it gives you some sense of her options and motivations. But, it's just so poorly written that you never get immersed into this film. You know you're watching a film, whereas in the first two movies you get lost in the films.

And lastly, the story is just not any good. The alien running around picking off people was done twice already. The cramped and claustrophobic corridors were done already. The idea of turning this into a redemption story of sorts isn't convincing, and Ripley's acts of altruism are a bit much to swallow. It was just unforgivable that they killed off Nute and Hicks, and made the second movie almost seem pointless when you view the franchise as a whole.

That being said, I have GOT to track down a fan compilation movie to see how it improves it!

a lot of people think A3 is a great movie, but perhaps it depends on how well you know the british cast. if you are familiar with movies, tv and theatre and know how great those actors are, then you may take the performances more seriously. perhaps as they might not be so well known stateside, and the previous movie was so much more dumbed down, americans didn't like a movie with less action and had no idea of who the cast was or any understanding about how great they were, whilst in the uk the cast would be recognised more

unique said:

a lot of people think A3 is a great movie, but perhaps it depends on how well you know the british cast. if you are familiar with movies, tv and theatre and know how great those actors are, then you may take the performances more seriously. perhaps as they might not be so well known stateside, and the previous movie was so much more dumbed down, americans didn't like a movie with less action and had no idea of who the cast was or any understanding about how great they were, whilst in the uk the cast would be recognised more

Yes, but I didn't know any of the cast members of the previous films either when I first saw the films, aside from two.

The caliber of the actors wasn't the problem for me. The believability of the characters, their dialogue, and the fact the movie just wasn't tense or scary was the issue. The lines I actually cringed at the most were the two Americans.

It just wasn't believable. And impregnating Ripley with an alien that somehow managed to get aboard the Sulaco was just not forgivable. If they creeped aboard the Suloco(sp?), she could have jumped in the molten lead furnace and theres always a chance the Suloco would dock at a marine station and infest it anyways.

There just was too much wrong with the film. The actor's chops weren't among the things wrong.

all the alien movies are quite different. the first was a slow burning sci fi flick (or at least that was the intention before it was edited to MUCH faster pace), the second was an all out action flick. with those type of movies it doesn't matter who is in them. the visuals or action is the important aspect, which is why a more well known cast wasn't choosen for the first flick

the third flick is a much slower movie, and much more dialogue driven, so having a good cast is key. part of the problem with alien 3 is it follows the second movie which is an all out action flick, completely different to the first movie, so going from all out action to a dialogue based movie turns off all the popcorn fans who were turned on by the second flick

as for plot holes, it's science fiction. most shit is just made up and utter bollocks. you can overlook that if a movie is enjoyable, and the movie is enjoyable due to the cast and direction. it's just spoiled by studio control. perhaps some of the plot holes would have been better explained from some of the cut scenes

unique said:

all the alien movies are quite different. the first was a slow burning sci fi flick (or at least that was the intention before it was edited to MUCH faster pace), the second was an all out action flick. with those type of movies it doesn't matter who is in them. the visuals or action is the important aspect, which is why a more well known cast wasn't choosen for the first flick

the third flick is a much slower movie, and much more dialogue driven, so having a good cast is key. part of the problem with alien 3 is it follows the second movie which is an all out action flick, completely different to the first movie, so going from all out action to a dialogue based movie turns off all the popcorn fans who were turned on by the second flick

as for plot holes, it's science fiction. most shit is just made up and utter bollocks. you can overlook that if a movie is enjoyable, and the movie is enjoyable due to the cast and direction. it's just spoiled by studio control. perhaps some of the plot holes would have been better explained from some of the cut scenes

This is so true. There's no conceivable way, given what we know that any space ship of substantial size is going to be able to reach the edge of our own solar system within less than a few hundred years (I'm speaking the true edge--past the ort cloud, not Neptune), let alone skip through planetary systems. However, the level at which A4 takes it is insane.

I do like dialogue driven movies. And I think A3 would have been the most brilliant thing made, if the dialogue had led it's audience to feel tense. Sort of like a Hitchcock type thing, which Lynch is more than capable of doing.

The problem is that the dialogue on serves to insult it's audience, in parts by over-explaning, and in others by just being so poorly written.

Alien3 could have been the perfect one of the series had it fixed a few things--a few things that really didn't require a greater budget. All the problems with the film are with the cheap stuff.