Quote from: Russ on Jan 09, 2015, 02:26:07 PM
"And they all died" is a hand wave. Like I said, if the new Superman movie opened with Clark, Perry and co standing a by a grave that read "RIP Lois Lane" because it served the plot (for say a Wonder Woman romance), that wouldn't be acceptable. In the same way, offing Hicks character was poorly done. Shit, even GI Joe II handled it better than Alien3.
I don't want to get into semantics about what your version of a handwave is or isn't, but "and they all died" for me is on the same level as "it was all a dream". But we've been through that a number of times already.
Sorry to start my posting on a negative note, but in what planet can you compare Superman and Alien tho. That doesn't make any sense, for a number of reasons.
This is more of a narrative driven conclusion based on the nature of the series. In Aliens, the sudden reduction of the on screen cast (killing off most of the marines) was a clear plot decision made on the point of James Cameron to remove the majority cast to put pressure on Ripley in a dangerous situation she has to come up with a solution for, the outcome if she doesn't for the audience means more characters might die, there is unpredictability and hazard if you remove characters you expected to stay. In Cameron's own words, this is Ripley's journey, and the more characters around her the more the focus drifts, or you cannot develop the characters in satisfactory manner parallel with Ripley, which also is counter to the point of Alien, which is remote isolated terror.
The choice to remove Hicks and Newt worked IMO, because of the dynamics just pointed out Cameron wanted. This is only more so with Newt and Hicks. Their deaths have to be sudden and tragic or else the plot has the potential to get corny/muddled quick; the danger to misstep the two characters and make the movie worse than what you think Alien 3 was was possible.
Also in the dark oligarch capitalist industrial culture of the future that is the world of Alien, what makes you think this would be an appropriate setting for a little girl. If they kill the aliens, what exactly does Newt hope to achieve in her life within the probably crushing socio-economic conditions. You also have the problem they've seen to much and if they come out with their stories, Weyland-Yutani would probably drown them in a massive legal battle because of some non-disclosure agreement they signed. But worst of all, if survived, lets say, happy ending, what exactly is the future of Newt going to look like. Education is probably private, her family is dead, she probably has severe ptsd and will develop dissociative traits and live unhappily. Keeping them alive and happy and well ready for the big screen, isn't appropriate tonally to the previous two movies, there is no development to suggest this would happen, and it would be sadistic to demand the characters go through more and more pain with each subsequent film. Alien 3 understands this, pretty well, and the obvious decision was made for the plot and the setting to remove hicks and newt so Ripley can focus her thematic power on getting rid of the Alien once and for all. A lot of the anger at the idea fails to question what would happen if they lived to survive in this world that is clearly not best suited to people with post traumatic stress, in the world of Weyland-Yutani if you cannot sign to provide every bead of sweat you'll make in your future it doesn't seem like the rest of society will miss you much, poverty associated with lack of mental health care seem likely. Worse, if we look at the world of Alien, Weyland-Yutani will never be accountable for what they did, they pretty much are the Government at that point not too different from the relationship between Britain and the East India Company a few centuries back, even if they were held accountable and got what they deserved the system is set up if that happens more people will suffer because of the infrastructure they provide. This is why anti-trust laws exist, but apparently anti-trust laws are gone in the future, which would make matters worse in the future than it previously did without them.
There is literally, nothing in the Alien series that would be logical and also tonally fit within the narrative and its subtext set up in Alien. All things considered if Newt and Hicks survived they would probably be f**ked.
It's a number of reasons limiting in what can be done for these characters, and tonally it fits to have them killed off and have those questions be asked. It makes it more interesting and dynamic than it would, the vague world building of the William Gibson script.