10 Movie Sequels With The Most Shocking Drops In Quality
6. Alien 3
To be fair to Alien 3, it had the unenviable task of trying to match up to two legendary movies in Alien and Aliens. Beautifully blending atmospheric horror with a smidge of science fiction, Alien is a faultless picture. Similarly, Aliens takes that horror and sci-fi and drops in a dollop of action, resulting in a sequel that could well be even better than its predecessor.
Throwing further issues Alien 3's way, of course, was the threequel's infamous problematic production, with the film essentially spending six years in development, seeing various writers and directors come and go, having its story vastly changed at several points, and director David Fincher eventually forced to start shooting without even having a finished script in place.
Given the troubles of its production, it's no real surprise that Alien 3 was a major downgrade on both Alien and Aliens. While more recent years have seen the Assembly Cut of Alien 3 released - adding an extra 30-odd minutes and making the film a lot more palatable and coherent - the theatrical release was universally panned when Alien 3 made its way to cinemas in 1992. Not to mention, fans were immediately pissed off with the movie after it killed Aliens survivors Newt and Hicks off-screen in its opening act.