On this recent rewatch I am reminded of SUNSHINE, the movie which is 2/3rds of a great, thoughtful scifi epic with a bolted-on, out-of-nowhere ending.
I was shocked at how much I enjoyed the buildup this time around. Sigourney is always great at carrying the emotional burden of this series, but the two Charles are every bit her equal. It’s a delight to watch them bounce off each other on Fury 161.
And what a setting! The previous two movies created claustrophobic oppressive environments from metal and iconic, lived-in technology. The prison colony of Fury 161 is a shock in some ways, full of vast environments with hardly a screen in sight. Yet it feels just as lived-in as the Nostromo or Hadley’s Hope, and is beautifully shot throughout.
I have to wonder if they already knew this would be a wobblier, more desperate entry in the franchise when they landed on Elliot Goldenthal for the soundtrack. Each time the script can’t deliver the emotional heft it wants, the score swells in with stark choral arrangements to help out. I would hate it in any of the other Alien movies but it’s a treat here.
But if the first third of the movie is a delight, the film falls apart even faster than the fragile harmony of the prison colony. Too many side characters are completely interchangeable and so much of the movie boils down to screaming in dark spaces about closed doors that need to be opened, or open doors that need to be closed. It’s simultaneously too simple and yet so confusing to know where any character is at any given time. It quickly becomes a chore.
