Been watching some of the new Alien DVDs, and had a few thoughts.
In no particular order...
- I'm really starting to like Alien Resurection. It's visually excellent,
and I love the whole "clone Ripley" thing (retains the significance of
Ripley's death in Alien3, while creating a pretty compelling new character.)
The one big problem with this film seems to be the otherwise cartoonish
characters.
- I've noticed that over the course of the series, the characters have
become more "scripted."
Alien gave us mostly unexceptional but convincing & sympathetic characters.
Aliens did much the same, but this time the characters have clearly been
developed by the writer, and are just treated with slightly more
"formality." The actors deliver their lines convincingly, but they're
clearly delivering lines.
Alien3 is almost like theatre. The characters are clearly thought out with
each having his own complexities (this seems to be the first movie in the
series in which characters do have individual pasts and seem to exist
outside of the movie, instead of just being thoroughly convincing chainsaw
fodder.) They're also written to fit into the films overall themes. Hmm... I
suppose what I'm saying here is most of the main characters in Alien3 are
compelling and intriguing on a level that, in the previous film, only
applied to Ripley.
Alien Resurection. Basically, this film presents us with a whole lot of
cartoonish heroes. The rat-tag space-pirates and all. They didn't get much
sympathy, and although they are colorful enough to each be distinctive,
they're basically there for Alien-fodder. I suppose it would be possible to
make this work, if the characters were much more amusing. Well, they do have
their occasional witty banter (and Ron Perlman in this movie is really
begining to grow on me,) but they just aren't colorful enough to justify
their lack of realism. Two exceptions, the above mentioned Ripley was both
compelling and funny. Also, in the extended version, I liked the bond that
develops between Ripley and Call (the extended Chapel scene should have been
left in the theatrical cut. Nice visual, too, when Ripley and Call are
walking away, with most of the screen in darkness and just a tiny part of
the set lit.)
Hmm.... I'll write more thoughts later.
Not sure how y'all feel about the cross-posting. I assume there are some
situations were it's considered acceptable, and this is pretty relevant to
both groups
TTFN,
~ Cemetery Mink
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