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A review by terrypaulpearce
Alien III by William Gibson
3.0
This was a decent sci-fi drama. Atmospheric. But it didn't really offer anything new that we didn't already get in Aliens, except [spoilers] a rehashed cold-war scenario that wasn't stellar, and yet another new development of the xenomorph biology that was a bit similar to what they did with it in Prometheus.
What made both Alien and Aliens amazing was they were each truly creative and gave us something jaw-dropping and new. This just riffs on what we already have. Many criticise Alien 3 and it is the least of the trilogy, but at least it put its own stamp on things by swapping corp people for prisoners, gave Ripley's arc what it deserved, and didn't screw about too much with the perfections that were Giger's designs.
If you're looking for more of the milieu that made Aliens memorable, except not as good, this works. It's entertaining. If you're looking for an improvement on Alien 3 the movie, you won't find it here. In particular, it has nothing that is a patch on Ripley's end in that film, which was the perfect end to her character arc (I just pretend Alien Resurrection doesn't exist, generally).
What made both Alien and Aliens amazing was they were each truly creative and gave us something jaw-dropping and new. This just riffs on what we already have. Many criticise Alien 3 and it is the least of the trilogy, but at least it put its own stamp on things by swapping corp people for prisoners, gave Ripley's arc what it deserved, and didn't screw about too much with the perfections that were Giger's designs.
If you're looking for more of the milieu that made Aliens memorable, except not as good, this works. It's entertaining. If you're looking for an improvement on Alien 3 the movie, you won't find it here. In particular, it has nothing that is a patch on Ripley's end in that film, which was the perfect end to her character arc (I just pretend Alien Resurrection doesn't exist, generally).