The should try to keep the franchise alive, and NOT by doing another movie with Ripley, nor another AvP movie, 'cus they suck ass :/ The franchise doesn't really need a reboot either IMO, unless the reboot would consist of forgetting all about A3 and AR, and make like a "new" A3.
Personally, I think having Weaver back as Ripley might be too much trouble. If Weaver is in it and we're not talking about prequels or alternate time lines, it means we'd have to follow Alien Resurrection's continuity. Considering that's not even the real Ripley, and that Weaver is almost 60, and that Resurrection didn't exactly leave me clamoring to see a continuation... I think it'd be neat if someone did a Superman Returns style sequel that pretends Alien 3 and 4 didn't exist, and did a direct continuation of Aliens. Have Ripley, Hicks, Newt, and Bishop on some new adventure directly after Aliens. New actors, new cast. Bishop was messed up so badly, they could bring back Lance Henrikson either in heavy makeup or as a voiceover. I've always thought Summer Glau and Nina Meyers from 24 both look kind of like Weaver. Maybe the story can be a tonal mixture of Alien and Aliens, where maybe the Company goes onto full-on Lex Luthor evil mode and persecutes Ripley and Hicks for blowing up such a valuable colony of aliens. Maybe the Company decides to proceed with their plans anyway (whatever those plans were) and proceeds anyway with their incomplete research about the alien. Maybe the Company wanted to study aliens to combat some other, even-worse alien threat. I dunno. I'm just making crap up about a potential plot for another Alien movie. It took me 10 seconds to type that, and I didn't really put serious thought into it. My point is that I think it can be done only if it is done reasonably well, because there isn't a sacred rule saying there absolutely shouldn't be another Alien movie. Should it be done? I dunno. Much like Indy and Terminator, I was pretty satisfied with the original material and felt that it didn't need a sequel decades after the last installment. All I can say for certain is that I really loved Alien and Aliens. I didn't outright hate Alien 3 or Alien Resurrection, but I don't want any future movies to feel an obligation to follow the last 2 films' continuity. Alien and Aliens, in my opinion, were a very well-constructed series, and I felt rather cheated that we never saw a direct continuation of Ripley's story with the Company and all the cool characters introduced in the first 2 movies.
I think the best idea I've heard of for a fifth movie, is based on Ripley 8 (or whatever number she was) trying to find a cure, to her xenomorph DNA beginning to express itself more. I'd love to see a return to a thinking alien, like the one in the first movie. There were times you got the feeling that that thing was playing with them. As opposed to the ones from Aliens who only concept of strategy was "We'll just charge at the machine guns untill they run out of ammo, hyuck hyuck." Whatever they do, they need to bring back Perlman as Jonner. I loved that glorious bastard.
And again, I say that the "new" Ripley was an improvement. Firstly, you said nobody liked it. Then you say plenty of people liked it, but not the majority of people who saw the movie. And then you say not enough people saw the movie, which proves it wasn't any good. Interestingly, the tomatometer has Alien 3 at 34% and Alien Resurrection at 54%. A person's decision to see a sequel is inherently linked to their opinion of the preceeding movie. Hence Alien 3 did better than Alien Resurrection, despite the former not being up to scratch. (Being plagued with production problems, studio interference and not having a finished script til halfway through production, there's no way it could be. Having said that, I think Alien 3 is one of the most underrated movies around. The film conveys a very intense atmosphere of abandonment and futility... probably because that's exactly what the cast, crew and director were all feeling at the time.) And I think if you checked Ms Weaver's resume (not to mention her bank balance), you'd probably figure out she's not desperate. Ron Perlman is doing quite nicely after two Hellboy movies, with a 3rd no doubt in the pipeline. Brad Dourif is currently making a movie called Zombietown, which sounds so appallingly awesome it makes any criticism of the man's career so far null and void.
I rather liked the new Ripley's attitude but while at times it seemed like a half way sensible continuation of her character it seemed like at other times they where playing it as a joke, making her an invincible super woman who wasn't afraid of the Aliens in the least.
I propose another Alien vs Predator film.....in the vein of the absolutely awesome FPS game of the same vintage. A squad of colonial marines, a lone predator and a base or two just crawling with Hollywoods scariest creation until the 'trilogy plague'. A simple objective for both of them, honour and the mission. And instead of it being all touch feely like in AvP or just okay until 'that scene' in AvP:R, the relationship between the Predator and the Marine could be one of genuine respect for a fellow warrior. Hell, for shits and giggles, make the Marine a woman like Vasquez.
Man, I really like Alien 3...I liked them all up until that damn Queen Alien gave birth like a human. Up until that point I liked all the movies. 4 had the worst last 15 mins in SFI FI history..IMO.
I liked the general concept of Alien 3, but it seemed to small for my tastes. After coming off Aliens it's seemed less interesting. Now if the prison had been full of inmates instead of just a hand full it could have worked for me. I rather liked one of the original ideas they had for 3, which was a Space Station Shopping Mall. OT. Not sure what I'd like to see for 5. The A vs. P movies have been a bit of a let down for both franchises, yet I stil think there is potential for a great movie in there. As movie monsters go I don't think either of them are strong enough to stand on their own any more. Maybe if they stepped back and took a much broader look at this galaxy and had lots more than just two species to play with? Make it a story of humans trying to survive in a galaxy filled with 100's of crazy violent creatures/civilizations. More akin to say Star Wars, but in the alien vein. Could even have some new super -Not Alien-Alien Empire that Humans and Predators team up to war against and use Aliens as mindless wepeons. As just a monster movie, Alien just doesn't work any more. The fanchise needs to get bigger, or reinevent it's self. Some new Alien race to come in contact with. Even so, as a Sci Fi fan I'm pretty much guarenteed to see what ever they make. I just wish I could enjoy it as much as I did Alien, Aliens, Terminator, or T2 (as I put all these monster films together). Even though they are all good movies when you think about it.... there are really only about 200 sci fi films worth seeing, and you have to scrape the bottom of the barrel to get just that much. Maybe it would be better to take the same approach/formula as in Jaws. Start off Monster Movie, and half way through turn it into an adventure film. It worked for "The Host" no reason it couldn't work for Alien. I ask myself what reason do we have for 5? ... and why is it that 3, 4 + the A vs. P movies didn't do so well? One could blame it on the scripts/stories... but does it go deeper? Like because the ideas were forced and didn't come about from the need to continue with something to say? I found A vs. P-R to be a fun little movie, but it has no reason to exist. It added nothing, and so is disposable. At this point ground is just being retread... we have Alien.... we know Alien.... we've seen the Monster, took it on... and survived. What's next? Anything? What do we want to get out of seeing more? Well at first it was more action... that's why so many people loved Aliens. 3 and 4 didn't do so well because they didn't find what we wanted instictually to see. On what ever level, we all wanted to see a cross over with Aliens and Predators... and we got that, but it didn't live up to our imaginations. I think this was because of scale... Aliens up the anty with reguards to action, and the A vs. P movies didn't hit the mile stone... nor did Alien 3 or 4. So is it action that people want? I don't know, not necessarily. New ideas, that's one thing I know people want... to not go over what they already have experenced. It's got to be fresh and build on what's come before. ramble ramble ramble
