What justifies a retcon as to whether or not if a general audience and a fanbase has a negative reaction towards a particular concept or story, or sometimes even characters. However this doesn't stop to movies but also comic books but.. more and more I am feeling that the retcon tool is being abused. While I don't have anything negative to say about the upcoming Alien V movie, I can say that I do not like the decision to ignore Alien 3 and Resurrection. Now.. Resurrection I can do without but Alien 3 is a diamond in the rough. I say this because I have seen the Assembly Cut and it's a much better film than the theatrical, and then there is the workprint which I hear is even better. Sadly, it seemed as if this unrecognized diamond is being kicked to the curb..
I say that the retcon tool is being abused quite a lot, and not just in movies but also in comic books and video games. In the case of comic books, I bring up One More Day which was the retconning of Spider-Man and Mary Jane Watson's marriage. The reasoning behind that was because the writers felt as if Peter Parker was no longer relatable because he was married and it made him old.
We have content creators for our generation who grew up with the stuff we did, and who also for all intents and purposes probably didn't like some of the things which we were presented with. Maybe these content creators were disgruntled with certain storylines, characters... whatever. Sometimes their motivations are selfish, sometimes they feel like they're trying to bring a franchise to it's former glory.
Now in the case of the Alien franchise.. We've had a partial retcon in the Aliens: Colonial Marines game, where Hicks was miraculously resurrected from the dead and didn't even so much as bother to explain how he was still alive. Of course the DLC content tried to explain that but it did so in a hammish manner. In other words, it was done for fan service. Now I grew up with Alien 3, and when I saw the movie.. I didn't see anything wrong with it until somethings which were pointed out such as the egg appearing on the Sulaco and the EEV.
But after having seen the Assembly Cut of the movie.. I find it hard to have a good reason to retcon this movie. I felt that Ripley's sacrifice against an all consuming enemy was a good swan song for the character, and quite a heroic way to go out. Perhaps people didn't like the depressing ending of the Alien saga, perhaps they simply didn't like how Hicks and Newt were killed off.. But seeing both versions of the film, I find no reason why it should be retconned. Ignored? Possibly, but retconned?
If it is retconned... will Alien 3 and Resurrection merely be addressed as a nightmare? If you ask me, that is a major cop out and I feel like it would be take away from the franchise just to please fans of the second film.
This looks like it maybe the PREDATORS of the Alien franchise.