Aliens 3 special edition review

Much of the violence and lethal danger is threatened against a small child. Indistinct glimpses of pin-up pictures in a locker room. Some mildly suggestive banter between co-ed Marines. Parents need to know that the relentless, ravenous clawed monsters in Aliens , the sequel to Alien , are likely to give small kids and others nightmares.

It's even more violent than the original. Besides the rerun of the grisly moment when embryonic aliens burst out of people in reality and in dream scenes , we also see quick cuts of victims seared with acid, getting set on fire, and blowing themselves up with a grenade. There's also a plethora of swearing and lots of adoring fondling of guns and high-powered weapons.

Add your rating See all 22 parent reviews. Add your rating See all kid reviews. When communications with the new colony are lost, a slimy Company executive Paul Reiser convinces her to go back to the planet where the massive battle took place. Ripley sets out with a heavily armed squad of interplanetary Marines, all itching for action.

At first, the colony seems deserted, except for a cowering girl named Newt Carrie Henn. But a little more searching -- and nightfall -- brings out the aliens; hundreds of jaw-snapping, fanged, acid-bleeding horrors, unafraid of guns, who cut through the panicked Marines.

It's Ripley who has to take charge of the mission and uncover yet more Company treachery if any of them are going to get away alive. This sequel to Alien is bigger, faster, and way more amped-up than the moody, gothic-style interplanetary chills of the original.

If it errs, it does so when director James Cameron insists on squeezing every last cliffhanger out of a nightmare scenario about being stranded in a remote place with a bunch of vicious, clawed creatures out to get you. Cameron conjures up a strong Vietnam metaphor or U.

And Aliens is more than a little hard to take seriously when Ripley, forsaking even body armor, slaps together a gun-flamethrower combo and charges alone into the alien nest.

The director really seems to go over the line with the manipulation, putting the screaming little orphan girl in hideous peril every time the opportunity arises, and conniving to make sure that opportunity always does. Commentators love to point out, though, that both Ripley and the queen alien are essentially driven by mothering instincts -- Ripley to find a replacement for the child she lost while is suspended animation -- and they serve as mirror images of each other.

Families can talk about the military metaphor in Aliens ; it's said James Cameron had Vietnam on his mind when he depicted a group of gung-ho Marines charging into tunnels only to get shredded to pieces by hordes of an enemy that keeps on coming.

What could the characters have done differently? What do you think of the showdown between the bereaved mother Ripley and the monstrous mother alien queen? Common Sense Media's unbiased ratings are created by expert reviewers and aren't influenced by the product's creators or by any of our funders, affiliates, or partners.

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Movie review by Charles Cassady Jr. Popular with kids Parents recommend. Alien sequel is bigger, faster, scarier. R minutes. What ends up on the screen is usually quite different. Hence the origins of this book are noted right on the cover. Second, Ripley does not feature in this story. For those readers who would buy this book to see Ripley kick ass, you are going to be disappointed as she is excluded from the action in a hospital bed.

The same with Newt. She gets a little more screen time, but is shuttled out of the action. Third, this is a story that focuses on Hicks and Bishop along with some other important characters that populate the different space stations. While this may be a different direction than you were looking for, it means peril remains high as the two characters you do not think could die are taken out of the picture.

Everyone else is alien bait. Anything could happen. This sets the stage for an action packed thriller of people fighting an increasingly surprising alien lifeform that just will not stop. There are a few loose ends that do not get addressed and some issues that will have you saying, "Wait a minute," but they don't matter.

We are not reading this book to encounter a great piece of literature. We want to discover something new and frightening and this book pays off in spades. I found exactly what I was looking for and knocked the pages off in a single day.

After all, this was supposed to be a movie so I treated it as such. All that was missing was the popcorn. This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. An adaptation of William Gibson's first draft for Alien 3. Hicks, Newt and Bishop and Ripley all are alive and mostly well here and for a lot of fans that is the main attraction: to dwell in a story universe where characters they love aren't just killed offscreen between sequels.

That main atractor is essentially fan bait and it was also my biggest fear: a lot of fanbases seem to want to exist in a world where their heroes never did anything wrong and nothing bad ever happens.

The previous adaptations of Gibson's scripts have all suffered from that problem and even Michael Biehn couldn't save the audible adaptation of the 2nd draft from only being.. It's a pleasure, then to say that Cadigan's novelisation takes all my fears and shoves them out of the airlock. Corporal Hicks goes from being a likable, professional man-on-a-mission from James Cameron's Aliens and becomes a PTSD suffering, paranoid man with a lot of anger management issues.

He sees memories of LV and his crew of friends and colleagues at every turn and he can't turn them off. A lot of reviewers have commented that the references to the previous film border on obsession and that is clearly the point.

For Hicks, all that trauma is recent and there is no escaping it. Hicks is a compelling, deeply cynical presence throughout and Cadigan expands on his drama with material that is original and darker than what Gibson presented in his drafts and certainly darker than anything Cameron had presented in the previous film. A specific scene is a standout: Hicks is forced to mercy kill an infected family with their 3 children, one of which a toddler.

It's not overwritten for melodrama: Hicks does his duty, leaves and promptly and swiftly has to fight to keep his sanity from breaking. This is a story with actual stakes and pain and deeply flawed characters. Definitely not fanfic, then. In hindsight: Hicks feels like the protagonist of a John Carpenter film here - deeply angry, rough, working class, no nonsense, tired to the point of not caring if he's seen as deeply unlikable or even casually cruel.

But he still fights for what's right. A lot of the better, more memorable horror scenes in this are invented by Cadigan herself, and material that is presented flatly in the script comes alive in unexpected chaotic ways. I've seen complaints about the humourous tone of the writing but it feels mostly in line with Cameron's film which had a ton more humor than the original. That Cadigan herself handled the novelisation of Battle Angel Alita another Cameron production is a sign that she "gets" that Cameron-esque scifi tone.

However, there are a few clunkers here and there that had me eye rolling. The actual Alien 3 film is a story about Ellen Ripley coming face to face with the inevitability of her death and still having the courage to do her duty and wipe an incredible threat from the galaxy. She succeeds. It's actually a really moving film. Gibson and Cadigan's Alien 3 is a story about Hicks facing violent trauma again and realizing that under the thumb of military-industrial-capitalism the idea of justice is a fiction: there is no way to "get back" at those responsible in any decisive way.

You can't destroy the "company" in the same way you can't easily destroy capitalism. Paraphrasing this book: Capitalism is a fiend with a million heads, and a million heads at the end of those heads. And there is no end to its horror.

That's pretty cyberpunk. That rings true, even while i hope that it's wrong. This is also a solid story in its way. Aug 20, Terence Eden rated it really liked it. The tangled history of this project is something of a lesson is development hell. This is one of many, many screenplays of Alien3 which were never produced. It's hard to know whether it would have made a better film than the weird prison-planet version which eventually made it to screen.

This completely jettisons Ripley - she was to appear in its sequel - and gives us a much larger cast to get eviscerated. There are some not-overly compelling sub-plots about how evil the Weyland-Yutani Corporat The tangled history of this project is something of a lesson is development hell. There are some not-overly compelling sub-plots about how evil the Weyland-Yutani Corporation are, and how brave socialist outcasts are fighting for a better universe - but it's mostly an exercise in splatter gore.

Much like a Doctor Who episode, there's lots of running through corridors. And, around every corner waits yet another facehugger ready to pounce. It fulfils all of the tropes you expect - things dripping down walls, grim terrors creeping up on our fearless heroes, and shady corporate types. There were a few too many callbacks to the previous movie - which I found a little repetitive. Almost like the book wanted to convince the reader that it was a legitimate part of the franchise.

The inevitable countdown to destruction loses some of its tension when you can see exactly how many pages there are left. But it is good horror fun. Gore and slime aplenty and some nice little sci-fi touches. It's also interesting for fans of the franchise to see which bits of it seemed to make it into Alien Resurrection. And a special shout out to the typesetting! It has some gorgeous eBook fonts - it makes such a difference having the interface text being presented as text rather than an image.

It's no Typeset In The Future - but it is a welcome surprise. Thanks to NetGalley for the review copy. The book is released later this year and is available to pre-order now. Aug 25, KC rated it it was ok Shelves: set-in-space , sci-fi , netgalley , let-downs , meh , adult , horror , androids-robots.

I love love love Alien. So when I saw that this book existed- the novel version of the original Alien 3 that was never produced- I was beyond excited. I didn't dislike Alien 3 but I always felt that it was a missed opportunity and never really saw the point of having Newt, Bishop, and Hicks survive all of Aliens just to die before discovery in Alien 3. I went into this hoping that it would addre I love love love Alien.

I went into this hoping that it would address and fix some of the things that I disliked in the movie but it didn't. I wanted to love this book so badly and I ended up struggling to get through it. I am fully aware that for me this is a personal preference. It is very well written and I can see how the storyline would be very compelling for many readers, it just isn't what I enjoy in sci-fi. I was disappointed at the lack of Ripley, she was barely in this at all same with Newt , personally, I think Ripley is, in a large way what makes an Alien story an Alien story and so her not being a focus in this disappointed me but I do understand the choice to sideline her for a bit.

Out of the pre-existing characters the focus is primarily on Bishop and Hicks both of whom I do enjoy as characters and whilst their story-arcs are fairly interesting I just connect or feel as invested as I should have been. Also, the introduction of a LOT of new characters was pretty distracting. In the first chapters especially there were just too many new perspectives thrown in too fast and I struggled to keep up with the switching between them and it was hard to care about all of them as there were just too many all at once.

Overall I can see the appeal of this novel but it just wasn't for me. Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an Arc of this in exchange for an honest review.

Aug 30, Alan rated it liked it Shelves: releases. The long-lost unproduced screenplay of Alien3 by William Gibson. The possible "greatness that could have been" instead of the good, but not great, movie sequel we got. This sounded like it would be a slam-dunk, homerun of a novel. I so wanted to love it. But, alas, it also ended up being good, but not great. I'm not sure if the original screenplay was a fully fleshed out one and the translation to novel form by another This review is for an ARC copy received from the publisher through NetGalley.

I'm not sure if the original screenplay was a fully fleshed out one and the translation to novel form by another author 30 years on was the issue, or if the source material wasn't fully realized and too many gaps had to be filled in, or if the problems lay somewhere in between.

I also found, especially in the early going of the story, the cadence of the narrative was just off. Until the more climactic parts toward the end of the story I had a hard time establishing a smooth reading rhythm. I'm not sure if that's due to Gibson's original writing or Cadigan's adaptation. Rather than looking at it as the sequel we almost got, if instead the novel is treated as more of an Alien "alternate universe" or fan fiction, it can be enjoyed a bit more.

There were some original, different, and at times totally cray-cray ideas, and arguably more action than even Aliens. It's not a bad book by any means, and diehard Aliens or Sci-Fi action fans may have an easier time sitting back and just enjoying those aspects of the novel.

As for the plot: four years after the events in Aliens the Colonial Marines vessel Sulaco, carrying the survivors of LV in hypersleep, is intercepted and docks with Anchorpoint, a moon-sized space station and military installation. Hicks was one of my favourite characters in Aliens, so I was happy to have him alive and in full commando mode.

The opening summary of the events on LV was priceless, a bit of levity before the horror. I rather wish that there had been a foreword or afterword about the turbulent history of the screenplay.

While I have enjoyed the Alien films, I am not particularly familiar with the behind the camera goings-on. Also, full marks to the design team at Titan Books for a striking cover. Nov 16, John Lynch rated it liked it. I'm torn on this book. On the one hand, you have a story that fits well in the cannon, and serves as a nice "what if". On the other hand you have a book that despite the action picking up the pace around the halfway mark, the tone of the authors prose is just so off that its jarring.

I wanted to give this book 4 stars. I really enjoyed the story that it told. I liked the direction it took Hicks. I like that it pivoted Ripley out of the driver's seat. It just seems to me that the wrong author was I'm torn on this book. It just seems to me that the wrong author was tapped to do the novelization on this script.

I guess it's speculation, but I can only assume that it was at least in part due to the author of the script and the author of the book being friends. Something I gathered just from reading the interior of the book.

Taking place directly after Aliens, Stowaway xenomorphs, Bishop being a source of infection, and experiments lead to a xenomorph we haven't seen before. Like I said before, that all was great. The tone, so far off. It felt like a hybrid of a young adult scifi action. Terms like FUBAR used repeatedly over and over in just a few sentences from each other could have used some editing out.

Action scenes were done ok at best, often times it was confusing, and frankly just didn't make much sense as to the way that people behaved in them. That being said, the xenomorphs here are horrific, I just wish the action scenes were written better. I would recommend this one to Alien fans to see what might have been. I think alot of people will still enjoy the story, like I did. This was a 4. That could change slightly left or right.

A lot of Alien fans will be familiar with the troubled production around Alien 3. The film was given the go ahead and announced in cinemas with a release date before there was even a script or a director involved. After that, there were several pitches for scripts. One of which was produced by William Gibson, a prose writer best known for his cyberpunk work. Gibson proposed a script that would follow Hicks and Bishop, removing both Newt and Ripley from events due to the possibility that Sigourne A lot of Alien fans will be familiar with the troubled production around Alien 3.

Gibson proposed a script that would follow Hicks and Bishop, removing both Newt and Ripley from events due to the possibility that Sigourney Weaver would be unable or unwilling to reprise the role. Despite this script never being made into the film it has remained within fan circles for decades, with dedicated Alien fans sharing it around online. Now, however, this script has been lovingly turned into a full novel by author Pat Cadigan, giving fans the best way to experience this strange 'What If?

The book begins four years after the events of the second film, with the Sulaco floating through the vast void of space. The ship, and it's sleeping inhabitants, are heading towards Anchorpoint station when it accidentally drifts into the territory of the U. Upon entering the cryosleep chamber they're shocked to discover the half destroyed Bishop android has a strange egg growing out of him. As the Sulaco continues on its way to Anchorpoint the U. Fearing that their neighbours would try to clone the creatures for use as weapons the U.

When the Sulaco reaches Anchorpoint the personnel are shocked with what they find on board, particularly the strange alien DNA they find inside the discarded legs of Bishop. With Ripley in a coma, Hicks decides that he needs to send Newt back to Earth to be with her family whilst he tries to figure out what his next move is.

Unfortunately for him, the company arrives on the scenes and begins to clone the alien DNA. When Bishop is sent back to Anchorpoint by the U. However, the aliens have evolved in terrifying new ways. One of the biggest surprises I had reading this book was how different the alien creatures were. I knew that the script did some different things, especially by sidelining Ripley, but I wasn't aware of how much the Xenomorphs were altered in this story. Instead of their regular life-cycle, which we still do see, the aliens are able to infect people like a virus.

This is actually kind of similar to the black goo spores that would feature in Alien: Covenant. However, rather than this infection allowing the aliens to laid eggs inside people via airborne means, it does something much, much scarier. The infection converts the hosts into xenomorphs. One moment they're fine, and the next their skin starts to stretch and tear, and the host rips themselves apart as a fully grown alien emerges from within them.

It's absolutely bonkers, and it really wouldn't have translated too well on screen, but in a book, where your imagination is doing a lot of the work it becomes some of the grossest, most frightening body horror around. This new form of infection really ramps up the horror too, as you're never sure when a character could change, or who could be infected. With the regular facehuggers it's easy to know when people have been impregnated, but here you're always on your guard, waiting for someone to suddenly start changing.

Cadigan uses this tension well, and it means that from the initial outbreak there's never a moment to really rest and relax. Even when the characters are spending a fleeting moment to rest as they try to make their way across the station to the escape vehicles, there's still a pervading sense of dread. And it really is thanks to Pat Cadigan that the book feels this good.

After reading the book I went and read the recently made graphic novel, which was actually based on the second draft of Gibson's script. Seeing the two different takes side by side, and how drastically different in tone they are really reinforced how it's often down to the person adapting the story that decides how good it ends up. In the graphic novel there was very little tension, the side characters felt flat and without character, and I was honestly bored throughout.

This book, however, was so good in comparison. Cadigan spent the time building even minor characters, she made Anchorpoint feel like a big, lived in station, and she made it feel scary throughout. There are small moments in the book that realistically don't add much to the story, little scenes that show the characters interacting that weren't in the script, and would never had been in a movie, but their inclusion in the book makes it feel bigger.

I liked that we weren't just told some characters had a connection, but got to see it instead, we watched as people forged relationships, as they worried about each other.

A lot of the characters went from bodies tagging along that you were waiting to be killed off to actual people who you were rooting to live, and who made you sad when they never made it. It would be so easy to wave your hand and say that it doesn't matter who adapts a script, that anyone could have taken the source material and made a decent book out of it, but that's just untrue.

Pat Cadigan took a script that was simply okay, and made it into a book that kept me hooked throughout. It might not be the Aliens that your used to, but it something so boldly different that you can't help but enjoy it. Aug 22, Ralph Blackburn rated it really liked it. Alien 3 by Pat Cadigan From unproduced screenplay by William Gibson - This is a novelization of an Alien franchise movie that was never produced. William Gibson wrote the screenplay then went on to continue writing the ground-breaking science fiction he is famous for.

There are a lot of undeveloped screenplays out there, but this one needed to come to light, even in book form if not on the screen. Pat Cadigan, also a cyberpunk legend, turned it into a novel, and here you have it.

It's nothing li Alien 3 by Pat Cadigan From unproduced screenplay by William Gibson - This is a novelization of an Alien franchise movie that was never produced. It's nothing like the Alien 3 you saw at the movies, and for some that might be a good thing.

The story involves the recovery of the lifeboat, with Hicks, Newt, Ripley and the artificial person Bishop well half of him taken to a large space station. Of course, stupid humans ignore all pleas from the survivors and decide to test this alien life form, with terror as and death as a result. Newt is packed on a ship heading out, and Ripley is in a coma, so it's up to Corporal Hicks and Bishop with a new set of legs , to lead a band of survivors across the slowly disintegrating station, once again to a lifeboat.

Aliens pop up everywhere and there is yet another new strain. The book is fast-paced and very tense. References to the second Alien movie "Aliens" are sprinkled throughout the book in the form of reminiscences by Hicks and Bishop. If you like this franchise, you might enjoy this book. Sep 24, Marc rated it liked it. What if Hicks, Newt, Ripley and bishop continued on after the events of Aliens…well, this novelization of a in-produced screenplay by William Gibson answers that….

She seemed to really enjoy talking about these groups more than the actual laying out of the story itself, or the characters and setting.

There was a few times I had to reread a section because it jumped so quickly from one scene to the next. Sep 14, Paul Downey rated it really liked it.

We commit these bodies to the void with a glad heart. For within each seed, there is a promise of a flower, and within each death, no matter how small, there's always a new life. A new beginning. Sign In. Play trailer Action Horror Sci-Fi.

Director David Fincher. Sigourney Weaver Charles S. Dutton Charles Dance. Top credits Director David Fincher. See more at IMDbPro. Trailer Alien 3. Clip A Guide to the Films of David Fincher. Photos Top cast Edit. Sigourney Weaver Ripley as Ripley. Charles S. Dutton Dillon as Dillon.

Charles Dance Clemens as Clemens. Paul McGann Golic as Golic. Brian Glover Andrews as Andrews. Ralph Brown Aaron as Aaron. Danny Webb Morse as Morse. Christopher John Fields Rains as Rains.

Holt McCallany Junior as Junior. Carl Chase Frank as Frank. Leon Herbert Boggs as Boggs. Vincenzo Nicoli Jude as Jude. Pete Postlethwaite David as David. Paul Brennen Troy as Troy. Clive Mantle William as William. Peter Guinness Gregor as Gregor. David Fincher. More like this. Watch options. Storyline Edit. Ellen Ripley Sigourney Weaver is the only survivor when she crash lands on Fiorina , a bleak wasteland inhabited by former inmates of the planet's maximum security prison.

Once again, Ripley must face skepticism and the alien as it hunts down the prisoners and guards. Without weapons or modern technology of any kind, Ripley leads the men into battle against the terrifying creature. In , we discovered in space, no one can hear you scream. In , we will discover, on Earth, everyone can hear you scream. Rated R for monster violence, and for language. Did you know Edit. Trivia At one point, David Fincher was denied permission by the film's producers to shoot a crucial scene in the prison understructure between Ripley and the alien.

Against orders, Fincher grabbed Sigourney Weaver , a camera and shot the scene anyway. This scene appears in the final cut. Goofs There is no logical explanation for how the Alien egg appears on the Sulaco at the beginning of the film.

Although it has been speculated that the Queen Alien laid the egg when she was hiding in the landing gear of the drop ship, the Alien Egg is clearly not inside the landing gear after it has hatched. It appears to be somewhere either inside the drop ship or elsewhere in the Sulaco. Since Queen Alien was never in the interior compartment of the drop ship and certainly never made past the cargo bay of the Sulaco, there is no explanation for how the egg got where it is.

Quotes Dillon : Why? Crazy credits The 20th Century Fox fanfare that plays during the opening studio logo segues ominously into the score of the film. Alternate versions In Dec. It attempts to reconstruct David Fincher's workprint which the studio balked at , but goes one step further and adds color correction, additional special effects and remixed 5.

Several scenes, however, suffer from poor on-set audio quality, mostly due to the use of fog machines and steam which obscures on-set dialog. Due to time and budget constraints, there was no time to re-record the dialogue for these scenes; optional subtitles transcript the dialog. However, this time additional dialogue has been recorded, creating a soundtrack of more consistent quality, and making the addition of the deleted scenes all but seamless.

Here are all of the changes found in the Assembly Cut: The scene of Ripley being rescued at the beginning is completely different. She is seen by Clemens Charles Dance lying washed up on the beach and then taken into the prison, covered in dirt. A group of prisoners heads down to the beach with Oxen to get the EEV out of the water.

In the theatrical print Ripley is discovered still inside her cryogenic unit inside the escape pod. This scene was re-shot to have footage of the dog more on that later , and has no Oxen or scenes mentioned above.

Various shots of people examining the escape pod that were in the theatrical print as stated, they were taken from re-shoots made during post-production , including a shot of a facehugger crawling towards the dog and an elaborate optical shot of the EEV being carried out of the water by a crane in the assembly cut it crashed right next to the shore , are missing from the DVD workprint.

Immediately following the rescue sequence, 85 tells everyone in the mess hall to settle down, and Dillon preaches before Andrews' first "rumor control. Just before the autopsy of Newt, there is a scene with Clemens, Ripley, and Prisoner Kevin walking down the spiral stairs into the morgue where Clemens questions Ripley about her need to certain Newt's death and also asks her if Newt was her daughter.