These Movie Openings SUCK!

5. Alien 3

So let's begin things with a slap right to the bloody face, because let's talk turkey, this is exactly what Aliens 3 was to franchise fans.

At the end of Aliens, we left things on a fist-pumping note, with Ripley, Newt, and Hicks managing to evade the big dark death machine that is the Xenomorph race and are shown resting in cryosleep as they venture onwards back home. This is an earned ending, and the audience too is left needing a nap from the exhausting trials our heroes were put through, however that deep sleep became a nightmare in the opening moments for Alien 3 because Hicks and Newt? Well, they ain't waking up pal.

Killed off-screen and in their sleep, Alien 3 cast away these central characters like garbage only to end up circling the bin itself with its shoddy production, weak narrative, and altogether ropey action sequences. It was like an emotional body blow right out of the gate, but not one that brought about a deeper emotional tone to the film, and in effect, the film winded itself and then staggered about for the next two hours looking for help.

This is an example of the extreme production troubles the movie went through manifesting on the big screen, where the reaper's scythe was used in an effort to cut the fat but ended up cutting the legs off the entire project. Killing characters in such an offhand manner was never going to work well and it's genuinely shocking to note that David Fincher even thought to go down such a ham-fisted route.