Alien³ vs. The Iron Giant
Alien³
I've always liked Alien³ - is that already an unpopular movie opinion? I still liked it after rewatching it this time around. No Newt, no Hicks, just a bit of Bishop works for me. Ripley still rules, in particular bald and pissed. Sad to see Charles Dance's Clemens killed off half way through - kind of liked his stiff upper lip character ("That's a bit uncharitable"). I guess Ripley's guys are a bit like the Bond girls...
I don't exactly know how much Fincher still is in the movie, yet I can see his visuals are there. The grainy brown look manages to create some atmosphere.
Its major flaw are the other minor characters, the religious (huh?) prisoners + staff. They are anonymous alien fodder, completely interchangable running around dark corridors. Is it just me or have others problems knowing who in the finale is still alive or has just been killed? The last couple of minutes work fine for me though.
It suffers from being compared to its brilliant predecessors. Honestly, if this would have been Alien², it would fare better. Could it possibly beat Aliens and its hundreds of monsters with a single one after we had that already in the first one?
The Iron Giant
Vin Diesel in his best role ever! I had not seen The Iron Giant before and was looking forward checking it out since I am huge fan of Bird's The Incredibles. The space robot truly seems to be come from a kid's daydream.
It reminded of one of my few memories from kindergarten. It was probably in my first week there. The kindergarten teachers read a story to us, something about a mouse living in an apple. Afterwards they wanted us to draw the mouse and its apple. I thought that was pretty boring and drew a robot (I am not sure where my fascination with robots came from at the time, my suspicion is that it was the cartoon Danger Mouse, which had a giant robot in one story and hey, the main character is a mouse, there's the link!). Anyway, the teachers weren't happy about my little mutiny and told me and my poor Mum I'd be better off sticking to assignments next time. Yep, that is my robot story. No way as huge as Hogarth's though.
Animation auteur Bird has created something beautiful and magic already before working for Pixar. However, his way of depicting his characters is already there. Hogarth's Mum could be a sister of Elastigirl. The sculptor from the junkyard is one of the most likeable characters in an animation film and the bad guy is great, too. I laughed so hard when he and Hogarth were watching each other for hours, determined to not look away for a split-second.
I don't want to get into its criticism of idiotic militarism here, but I think it adds to its charm. The story incorporates some cliches, although this doesn't do it any harm.
The Iron Giant has heart, wit and wisdom. Nobody bursts into a song, the score is serious and mostly dark and there isn't one cheap laugh in it. I loved it.
Verdict: The fight odd-shaped monster from outer space vs. huge space robot weapon goes to the one with a heart: The Iron Giant.
While Alien³ had a chance to move on in my hands, I just loved this affectionate animation masterpiece. As a kid it would probably have moved me even more and I am glad you guys finally made me watch this. Thank you!