Quote from: FiorinaFury161 on Sep 04, 2016, 02:04:34 AM
Quote from: Perfect-Organism on Sep 04, 2016, 12:43:08 AM
What happened in Alien 3 and then in Res is so unlikely unfortunate that it robs the series of the realism one might expect.
You're just another droid, sent by the f^ckin' company! 
Seriously, the odds of the events in Alien 3 happening were very realistic. Very.
Ok, you're (Perfect-Organism) blaming A3 for robbing the series on realism?? Are you actually saying that with a straight face? If anything A3 BROUGHT BACK THE REALISM. In fact it is just as "realistic" as ALIEN.
The movie that robbed the series on realism _IS_ ALIENS.
Sure, the movie (ALIENS) starts on a realistic note but goes full super hero the second Ripley decides to go look for Newt and just gets sillier and sillier. We have Ripley going all Rambo with duct taped weapons shooting up Aliens to the left and right, staring down a 12 foot alien monster, which she later on fights hand-to-hand inside a forklift robot suit. And to top it all of she defies the laws of physics by climbing up a ladder with the said 12 foot alien monster latched on to her ankle with the added weight of the powerloader, and she does all of this with the vacuum of space sucking and flushing everything out underneath her, including the realism of the series.
A3 on the other hand turned her into a flesh-and-blood human being again with limitations and multi-faceted feelings and traits. It's back to basics, back to reality. The Hollywood romanticism and escape from reality is over and the cold harsh reality of the universe is back in the driver seat, where there are no super heroes and where the only consistent truth is death - you can't escape death, no matter how hard you try, and what matters is what you do with your life before you die no matter if you are an innocent child or animal like Newt and Spike, or a brave and caring person like Ellen Ripley or Hicks or a loathsome murderer, pedophile or/and a rapist women like the convicts on Fury.
((Warning! I'm gonna go semi off-tangent from this point and on, just so you know...)) In the eye-less face of the Universe and the Alien we're all the same and we don't matter, we're nothing, so it's up to us give things a meaning, even if that is believing in (some imaginary) God, because without that there is nothing, and if there is nothing then there is only nihilism and death and there are no rules and no respect for life, and without respect for life we are reduced to beasts capable of anything in order to survive and get ahead in the food-chain. There is life and death and good and bad timing, sometimes the circumstances are beneficial, sometimes they aren't, but there is no such thing as fate, universal justice, fairness or karma, so how do we deal with it? The Alien on the other hand thrives in it as it, in a sense, IS the cold harsh reality of Universe personified, hence Ash's comment "the perfect organism".
Anyways.
Figuratively the prisoners on Fiorina "Fury" 161, in a way, are in the Purgatory (almost literally as the place is a lead works located far, far away from the rest of humanity). In a way they already died, but they haven't passed yet to the other side (Heaven or Hell). They have been stored away for their final battle, their final test, and the test starts with this Christ-like character in disguise (Ripley) descending on their world, in fire and flames, broken and demoralized, full of temptation as she is a woman and many of them are rapists; and as if temptation isn't enough she also brought the Beast with her - the Grim Reaper and the Angel of Death in one. Of course none of them see themselves in this scope in the movie (except for maybe Dillon, who by the way probably is the ONLY true believer in there), to them it's just about primal survival and to Ripley it's about taking responsibility and finish this once and for all, no matter the cost. There is no easy way out even though the realization of her carrying one of them inside of her tempts her to take her own life, just like Mr. Bishop & W-Y tempt her by offering to save her life by surgically removing the creature from her, which pretty much make them the Devil - the temptation to get what you want at the expense of others.
With that said, A3 manages to bring back realism to the series in the most fittingly poetic manner possible. The movie has no bells and whistles, it doesn't try to come up with new sci-fi gimmicks and concepts - it focuses on the story, the meaning, and the meta-narratives, and in that sense I would say that it is as mature as a gory sci-fi monster movie can get. And the ending, it's not an unhappy ending but a bittersweet ending, empowering and full of hope yet dark and heavy.
Oh, and some fun trivia on the name of Fiorina "Fury" 161 and ALIEN 3 - "Fiorina" means blossom, new life, flower, flora, innocence and virginity, whereas a synonym to Fury is
Rage. But a Fury (pl. Furies) is also a Greek mythological creature somewhat similar to an angel - a winged female, sometimes engulfed in flames, sometimes portrayed as a monstrous chimera creature, but always given the attribute of an arbiter and a matriarch just as strong (if not stronger) as opposing patriarchs. The number 3:16:1 (as in ALIEN
3 and Fiorina
161) is a code for the most famous Gospel from the New Testament - the Gospel of John (John 3:16), which goes: "
I have told you these things so you won't fall away" and is a part of the Gospel where Jesus Christ resurrects Lazarus four days after Lazarus's death as well as the foreboding resurrection of Jebus himself. I don't know if that is a play with the character of Ripley and the Alien, or if it in fact is a cryptic summary of the entire movie (A3), making Dillon's character even more of a narrator than he already is contrasting the cold harsh indifference and godless existence of the universe established in ALIEN.
There you got it. That's why I love A3. It might not be as entertaining and exciting as ALIENS but it has tons of substance and qualities that it deserves to be acknowledged for whether you like the movie or not. Heavy poetic down-to-earth realism with perfectly balanced religious symbolism is one of them.
"Pretentious much?
"
I don't care!
