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Alien³ (1992)
Such a waste...
First, let me say I gave Alien 3 a 7/10 rating because in my opinion, it isn't a bad film, but it obviously pales in comparison to the two masterpieces that came before. The reasons for this drop in quality have been well documented, so I won't go into too much detail: in short, the responsability lies on a chaotic pre-production process under the supervision of producers/writers David Giler and Walter Hill, and the invasiveness of the studio during the shooting and editing of this movie. Director David Fincher and the cast aren't to be blamed, they did what they could to salvage a poor script, but their efforts were doomed from the start.
Rewatching James Cameron's Aliens yesterday, I realized how well he had laid the basis for a third instalment. All the writers had to do was to let the story flow naturally from what he had set up.
Remember Bishop's fascination for the facehuggers and his strange behaviour when studying them? Sure, he ended up as a good guy, but still, something seemed terribly off with him in a few scenes, especially the one where he's dissecting one of the creatures and a marine asks him "Do you need anything else?" There's an uncomfortably long pause there and he just answers "No" in a very cold way.
Also, why did it take him so long to come to Ripley and Newt's rescue when they were about to get killed by the alien queen in the crumbling power plant? Could it be that he was actually trying to recover some alien samples in the meantime, as instructed by Burke?
Besides, the USS Sulaco didn't suffer any major damage so it should have made it back to earth without any trouble. I understand that given the technical means at the time, it would have been extremely difficult to deliver a credible full out humans vs aliens war on the planet, so why not use the huge space station seen at the beginning of Aliens as the main stage for Alien 3, where our heroes (Ripley, Newt, Hicks and Bishop) would have been quarantined.
The plot could have revolved around their desperate efforts to prevent the xenomorphs from reaching the surface of the planet, and perhaps failing to do so, with Bishop showing his true colors at some point.
I'm no writer (obviously!) but this seems to me as a much more logical continuation to the second film, and one the audience would probably have been satisfied with.
Instead, the producers went for this unimaginative "conclusion" to Ripley's journey, which led to almost insurmountable storytelling issues when they decided to bring her back in a fourth movie.
As explained above, I still stand by my rating despite all this, but man... what an incredible waste.
Life (2017)
Flawed, but a treat for horror fans
I read many of the comments on this film and have to agree with some of the criticism: its structure is basic and its characters are pretty shallow, there's even one of them I still don't know what he's doing aboard the ISS after several viewings.
That said, it didn't bother me as much as other viewers because as a horror fan, I tend to leave some of those defects aside, and Life is nothing more than big budget horror movie in a sci-fi setting.
And as in many horror movies, most notably slashers, the characters do dumb things and their situation keeps getting worse and worse.
It's part of the game, it lets us imagine how better we would have dealt with this situation and makes us want to shout at the screen: "no, don't go there you idiot", "there's something behind you!", etc. just like kids watching a clown show.
Now what I really like about this movie is that it states its rules in a rather subtle way towards the beginning: the creature doesn't kill blindly, it always does it for the same reason, which only becomes clear at the very end.
But when it wants to kill, it is relentless and doesn't show any mercy.
The deaths in this movie are brutal and often memorable, you really get to feel how scary dealing with such a clever monster could be, which alone makes the movie worth a watch in my opinion.
On top of that, it's beautifully shot and has top notch effects, especially those related to the absence of gravity, which are also very well used throughout the film. Finally, the "monster" doesn't pale in comparison to its otherworldly predecessors, it's main feature being its intelligence as I said (it's a lot smarter than a xenomorph for example) and we get to see a bit of its lifecycle.
And of course, there's the surprise ending that has been much discussed, for which I add a point to my rating.
Addams Family Values (1993)
Great performances make it worth the watch
I just watched the two Addams Family films back to back out of curiosity, since they both have decent ratings (I've never been into the TV series so I'm only catching up now).
I was pleasantly surprised by both, in part because they're really well shot and edited, but most of all, thanks to the cast: Angelica Huston, Raul Julia, Christopher Lloyd and young Christina Ricci are all acting with very communicative delight, and they're a treat to watch.
This applies to both films, but in the second one, Joan Cusack really is the one who steals the show as a crazy black widow! I don't want to spoil anything, so let me just say her character goes through different phases throughout the movie, and it just gets better and better.
Without her performance, I'd have rated this second film a bit lower, but I'll give it a 7/10 (more like 6.5, because the script is a bit... meh).
Great acting can make a huge difference, and both Addams Family are shining examples of that.