Movie of the week#102: ALIEN-VS.-PREDATOR-MARATHON, part 3

Allright, so we finally made it. It's the third and final part of the big ALIEN-VS.-PREDATOR-MARATHON. In the last issue I reviewed the second AVP-Movie, "Predators" and the almost-prequel of the Alien Saga called "Prometheus" from last year. Now, the movies in this issue may have been released before the movies in the last 2 issues, BUT they all take place in the future. Sorry, but I have to spoil a little, because all 4 movies are tied together. Long story short, here they come.

7. Alien(1979)
It's the 2122. The carrier spaceship "Nostromo" is on its way back to earth. The whole crew is in the so called "hypersleep", because it takes about ten months to come back home. Suddenly it gets a signal from the planet LV-426. MU/TH/UR, the board computer, changes the course and wakes the crew. They think the signal might be a cry for help. So it is clear that they have to land on the planet and search for survivors of whatever. The crewmembers Kane(John Hurt),
Dallas(Tom Skerrit) and Lambert(Veronica Cartwright)find a wrecked spaceship and a dead passagier. But what more important is: Also they find a huge amount of alien eggs. Kane(John Hurt) isn't very happy, when a so-called "facehugger" jumps out of one egg and literally hugs his face. There are some quarantine rules which Officer Ellen Ripley(Sigourney Weaver) would like to keep following. She doesn't want Kane back on the ship, because he might be infected(he has big crab-like thing on his face, duh). But Ash(Ian Holme) does not follow her orders and opens the door for the three crewmembers.

And from that point a whole lot of crazy shit happens. The facehugger can't be thorn apart of Kane's face. His blood is pure acid, so when you try to cut it open it will not go well. Soon, the facehuggers falls of, and everything seems to be okay. Until a creature bursts out of Kane's chest and escapes into the dark halls of the spaceship. The Crew decides to kill the creature but it ain't easy. It flays itself and grows bigger every hour. And of course: Its will to survive is very big, so therefore it kills the crew members one by one. Only Ellen Ripley and the cat Jonesy manage to survive in a rescue capsule.

Honestly, I don't think that "Alien" is a very great movie because the character of Ripley developed more in "Aliens". Same for the xenomorph creatures. That's how both became more sympathetic(Yes, I'm talking 'bout the Aliens, too). But, it is awesome. Very awesome. It gave me the chills. I liked the way the alien was portraited. The effects aren't CGI or such, but that's the way how they work, otherwise it won't be a good movie. And of course, it's the first science-fiction movie ever, where a woman is "in charge" and has a leading role and simply kicks butts.

I give it 9 from 10 deposit bottles
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8. Aliens(1986)
The second part starts just where the first part ends. Well, almost.

After 57(!) years in hypersleep Ripley(and Jonesy) finally are found by a rescue team. After consulting her, the officials of Weyland-Yutani Corp(the company which owned the Nostromo Spaceship) simply do not believe her. Who the fuck would actually believe that an alien lifeform killed all your crewmembers and you had to destroy everything to get out alive? No one.

And, yeah: Someone mentions that on the planet where the alien eggs were found is now a terraformic(earth-shaping) colony.

After that, Weyland-Yutani Official Carter Burke(Paul Reiser) and Colonial Marines Lieutenant Gorman(William Hope) visit Ripley and tell her that the signal to the colony is los.

"So, uhm, would you like to uhm you know to come with us and some marines as a consultant?"
"Aw, hell naw!"

Well, the dialogue could be like that, but it wasn't. Anyway, Ripley decides to travel to the planet with a bunch of kinda typical action-movie type marines(and the Android Bishop - played by Lance Henriksen). But only, if they really kill aliens and not try to capture them for studies. Because, Weyland-Yutani is such an evil, greedy corporation who does not care about human lifes. So that's why the ship had to land on that planet in the first movie. Because the officials wanted to study aliens, because of biological weapon reasons. Such assholes.

Long story short, Ripley and the funky bunch of cheesy characters arrive on LV-246. They blast a lot of them in chunks, but get partially killed also. Aaaand they save a little girl, which managed to survive in a colony which was brutally murdered by an alien lifeform which only wants to reproduce and spread all over everywhere. Her name is Newt(Carrie Henn). Ripley, Newt, Bishop and the Marine Corporal Hicks(Michael Biehn) are the only survivors.

This was off the hook!!! It was way more intense then the first part. And although there was a fucklot of shooting and big guns, it wasn't a stupid "killkillkill"-action movie. It had its chills. There are moments which went down the history of sci-fi movies. Great stuff! Probably the best part of the saga.

10/10 deposit bottles
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9. Alien³(1992)
Allright. Again, we start almost right after the end of the last part. After Ripley, Hicks, Bishop and Newt escaped they went to hypersleep. Then a fire broke out and a facehugger facefucked someone. The boardcomputer of the spaceship(called "Sulaco") decided to launch an escape pod with all four passangers.

They land in the waters of Fiorina 161. The inmates of its penal colony get everyone out of the escape pod. Ripley is the only survivor. Oh no, of course not. A second facehugger, which was aboard too escapes and facefucks a rottweiler dog. Therefore an alien starts to develope inside of it. Meanwhile, Ripley is pretty pissed about the fact that Newt and Hicks died. Also she learns the few inmates of the prison and the policy of it. The Guards have no weapons and the penal colony(which used to be a real jail) become a home for mentally disturbed fuckwards with mile long histories of physical and sexual violence. Oh yeah, and they also follow a religion. Some kind of a apocaliptical thing based on christianity...or something.

Don't forget the alien! The xenomorph comes out of the dog and is pretty different then his predecessors. It is four-legged and can run much faster. Of course, he kills one inmate after the other. Ripley, who started a relationship with the prison doctor Clemens, decides to kill the creatur. Bur of course, no one believes her. Also: If you are smart, you could think forward and remember that the facehugger on the Sulaco-Spaceship already facehugged someone. And that someone is: Ripley, of course. She bears an alien-baby in her, and it soon will come out. But this brings a huge advantage. The alien refuses to kill Ripley, because she bears one of its kind - An Alien Queen. So, she hast the best chances to kill it.

Well, of course she does, but apparently she has to die, too. And on this point, i will not tell more about the plot - because I simply don't wanna spoil more.

It was pretty good for a second sequel. The idea of a new, evolved Alien was pretty cool so as the alien's camera perspective. Nice, post-apocalyptic design. Everythings more and more bitter and frustrating. Very cool. But, if you saw the first two movies you know how it goes: Ripley comes, kills aliens, Ripley goes, some shit happens. It's becoming some kind of a routine, I think.

7/10 deposite bottles
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10. Alien: Resurrection(1997)
I just don't get it. First: You are an Officer Pilot on a trade ship. You fight an Alien lifeform. You survive in a cryocapsule. Then, 57 years later you wake up and have to fight even more aliens. Then, you survive, but everyone else around you dies. And then you have to die too, holding an alien-baby in your arms. AND THEN, 200 years later you get cloned out of remains of your tissue samples
which were found at the last battle scene....*gasp*... and the alien lifeform in you gets cloned too. The scientists need 7 attemps, the 8th succeeds. But why are they doing this? Cause scientific "we need to study those creatures, blah blah blah" reasons. For fucks sake, leave that poor woman alone!

This time it's a clone of Ripley who has to fight the xenomorphs in a military-science-research-spaceship which is visited by a group of space pirates who delivers alien eggs and kidnapped humans as hosts.

Okay, it isn't THAT bad. There are some bad punchlines, unfunny sequences and stuff like that. The characters are shot one by one, without developing any actually notable personalities. The clone of Ripley, who now sympathizes with the aliens, is more an asshole-type than a strong-woman-type. The scenes which show the evolution of the aliens(killing another alien to get out the cell, alien queen having an uterus etc. etc.) are damn cool. The effects are nice to look at. And finally Ripley is somehow going too earth. That's pretty neat, but it could be much better.

I give it 5/10 deposite bottles
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Allright, it's the end of the ride! That was it! It's the end of this marathon. Hope you all enjoyed it. Thank you and good night.