[Oblivion437]

Burke wasn't just slimy and Machiavellian, he was Paul Reiser, and as anyone who saw the suicide cult episode of Family Guy knows, Paul Reiser is not good.

Joking aside, I felt that Alien 3 was limited by the director's own style, which worked well in other downbeat-edged films like Fight Club.

There were two master shots, the first where Hicks and Newt are dropped into the massive furnace, the second when Ripley sends herself down, and the prison is locked up forever. It seems almost like something was after her, and when she finally dies, it's like a sense of overwhelming closure is just leaping from the film. The combination of the music and low-angled cinematography gave the whole scene a layer of emotion that's hard to understand unless you see.

The ending is what really amplifies the downbeat edge, with no victory and no good guy or happy ending, with the whole film building up. Alien: Resurrection was just a plain failure by comparison. At least Alien 3 succeeded artistically, if not so much in terms of entertainment.

Also, whoever likes bleak and hopeless films, try Alan J. Pakula's The Parallax View, a film with the kind of overwhelming hopelessness absolutely timely in the post-investigation failure of Jim Garrison...

[ 05-31-2004, 09:44 PM: Message edited by: Oblivion437 ]