A Marine captain leads a platoon of grunts to a long-deserted military internment camp on an island in the middle of nowhere. Their mission is to track down and detonate any and all landmines that may have been left behind on the island. When they accidentally set off a mine, it cracks open a large cement slab containing a killer alien who goes around and begins making short work of the soldiers.
Man, if you thought Xtro 2 was bad, wait till you see this one. (Or better yet, don’t.) Not only does it contain some of the worst CGI you’ve ever seen, it features some of the most annoying characters in film history. It’s like as soon as they show up, they’re like, “Hi, we’re the soldiers from Xtro 3, and we’ll be annoying the shit out of you for the next ninety minutes.” Seriously, I was rooting for the little alien pipsqueak to turn all of them into Alien Chow about two minutes into the movie.
The alien is of the generic Close Encounters/Fire in the Sky variety, so it’s apparent that very little thought went into creating the creature. Not only does the movie steal from Close Encounters, the alien can also camouflage itself just like the Predator. (He even rips a guy’s spine out in one scene.) There’s also a scene in which he pukes acid in a guy’s face just like The Fly. He does make spider webs to trap his prey, so I guess that’s novel.
What’s strange is that all three Xtros were made by the same guy, Harry Bromley Davenport. The first film is straight-up classic, which makes the fact that the sequels are so shitty seem inexplicable. It’s like Davenport took everything that made the original memorable and chucked it out the window when it came time to make 2 and 3. (All the Xtros are unrelated, for whatever reason.)
The cast is mostly amateurish, but we do have the great Robert Culp in a few scenes as the Major who sends the troops on their mission. Whatever air of respectability the movie has comes from Culp. There’s also Wishmaster’s Andrew Divoff as the asshole in charge, and Tom Hanks…’s brother, Jim as one of the soldiers.
AKA: Xtro 3: Watch the Skies.
I think you're dead wrong about this one and Xtro 2, I had a blast with them. I didn't think the film stole from Close Encounters at all and I didn't mind the characters.
ReplyDelete