John Fredrick Parker
Donor
With PoDs after the 1986 release of Aliens, how can Alien 3 be a good movie and make a worthy trilogy? Where could the franchise (plausibly) go from there, and turn out better than OTL?
AHC: Save Alien 3 (and the franchise)
- Thread starter John Fredrick Parker
- Start date
All you need is for someone to pitch a goddamn good idea. Unfortunately, no one really did. Well, Renny Harlin's idea wasn't bad but I don't really trust Renny Harlin to make particularly intelligent films.
Let me just point out though that it's not really mandatory for Alien to be a trilogy. I mean, it was standalone to begin with and Aliens was just kind of a bonus. And the only reason they made it a trilogy is because Hollywood is allergic to duologies or something.
(So says drunk Cole.)
Let me just point out though that it's not really mandatory for Alien to be a trilogy. I mean, it was standalone to begin with and Aliens was just kind of a bonus. And the only reason they made it a trilogy is because Hollywood is allergic to duologies or something.
(So says drunk Cole.)
Don't destroy the entire point of Aliens in the first 5 minutes, don't insult the viewer with an ass pull egg out of nowhere (though Aliens did do this with the Queen at the end).
Other than that, there's a basic formula the 2 good Alien films followed, either of these options could make a good film, though it would be hard to top the existing with either, Aliens in particular with the second option:
1) Make an Alien movie, this involves lots of tension, an unprepared crew and a few Aliens at most, gradually picking off the crew. Critically important is keeping what made Alien so good, that the monster is hiding in many many frames, and yet the viewer cannot find it during his/her first viewing.
2) Make an Aliens movie, this involves a lot of explosions and action, with some good bug slaughtering fun. There's still tension and horror aspects, but it's really focused around the heroes trying to beat the Aliens.
Oh god I just died a little inside.
Other than that, there's a basic formula the 2 good Alien films followed, either of these options could make a good film, though it would be hard to top the existing with either, Aliens in particular with the second option:
1) Make an Alien movie, this involves lots of tension, an unprepared crew and a few Aliens at most, gradually picking off the crew. Critically important is keeping what made Alien so good, that the monster is hiding in many many frames, and yet the viewer cannot find it during his/her first viewing.
2) Make an Aliens movie, this involves a lot of explosions and action, with some good bug slaughtering fun. There's still tension and horror aspects, but it's really focused around the heroes trying to beat the Aliens.
Oh god I just died a little inside.
John Fredrick Parker
Donor
Yeah, that's a huge one; at the very least, Newt has to live (and that includes Ripley with the others), though having Bishop "die" with the rest makes little sense. (I suppose if the filmmakers had a hard-on for killing survivors at the start of the film, they could do Hicks, seeing as he did have substantial acid injuries, but anyone else this early is going to make the movie worse.)
And I would add "raising the stakes" to a good idea they should have tried -- maybe something that delivers on what they ended up hinting at with the teasers...
Wasn't Bishop pierced by queen's tail in Aliens and then chopped in half?
Do a story similar to Dark Horse Comic Alien Earth War, with the Aliens coming to earth and develop the characters of Newt and Hick.
The premise of Alien 3 was great, but the execution sucked in a way that requires astronomical units of measurements to quantify.
Have 'em crash land on the planet, but all three survive from the second movie. None of this dead on arrival nonsense. Then have the situation spin out of control as the alien takes over the colony, but avoid the crap like that dude who gets killed in the middle of the cafeteria when the alien comes down from the ceiling.
Have 'em crash land on the planet, but all three survive from the second movie. None of this dead on arrival nonsense. Then have the situation spin out of control as the alien takes over the colony, but avoid the crap like that dude who gets killed in the middle of the cafeteria when the alien comes down from the ceiling.
Also avoid murdering the only character you've developed as soon as he's actually done some developing. I mean, he dies quite literally straight after developing.
John Fredrick Parker
Donor
Doesn't having the whole thing take place on a prison planet kind of lower the stakes from the previous movies, though?
Maybe if Weyland Corporation itself had more presence (beyond one mustache-twirler in a suit, AIR) so the biggest felt threat wasn't just a question of killing the monsters but thwarting a evil company that was clearly an existential threat to Earth and the human race -- or in other words, fighting an army of soldiers and robots on top of xenomorphs. How does that sound?
Don't kill off Newt, Hicks and Bishop. Have the Alien be a Queen. Since it's supposed to be a prison planet, actually make it a prison planet. There should be guards with actual weapons, and I'm sure prisoners in the future have their own make-shift ones just like prisoners today do.