Xtro-3 - O Massacre

A small US military group are sent to a deserted island to dispose any live bombs. When they get there, something not quite right. As they find out that they're expendable objects who would soon encounter one vengeful alien. Through an old hermit on the island they discover that this was a place where they kept an alien species and experimented on them. Not only they have an angry ET to face, but Military intelligence who plan to use them as bait.

While, this is the third of the "Xtro" series, there's no relation between the three films. "Predator" heavily influences this tacky straight-to video Sci-fi fare. One thing definitely is that "Predator" is a definite masterpiece when compared to this cheap, hokey and pitifully vapid effort. Even the actors here, make Schwarzenegger look good! Very embarrassing execution, disastrously inept special effects and daft performances may you think "Oh no. There goes another one of my brain cells" when watching this one-of-a-kind piece of trash. The stuffy film is amateurishly put together with a clichéd narrative that's shamelessly derivative. Reckless characters act tough and spit out macho dribble with attitude. It's pretty mind numbing to listen to, especially when it goes for meaningful conversations. Streaming through is a husky voice-over and a lot white rabbits to hold your attention. Yeah, there's something engaging about those white fluffy rabbits!

Despite finding it quite an irritable and drab viewing, few things hit the mark. There are some quite nasty moments when the rubbery alien decides it's torture time with some blood squirting. The thunderous music score manages a few chilling cues. While the performances are laughably hopeless, but Robert Culp and a slightly amusing Andrew Divoff are the odd exception. While, the make-up effects of the outer space visitor are questionable, it still manages to hold up for its tiny budget.

Director Harry Bromley (who also directed the first two flicks) is really clutching at straws with this flatly handled and too practical project. Imaginative details, gripping suspense and bug-eyed visuals are long gone here. No techniques really stand out in this by the numbers exercise and what he comes up with is mostly ridiculous and ineffective.

Poorly done garbage that turns into a wearisome puddle.

I haven't commented on a film here for three years, but now I've returned to warn you for this piece of crap. It baffles me that people say Godzilla 1998 is the worst film they ever saw. They obviously never saw this one. I can't believe some people actually like this and there is a DVD of this film.

I never expected a good movie, but sometimes cheap cheesy sf-films can be enjoyable. But this flick sucks big time. The general that gives Major Kints (Sal Landi) his orders has his office in a shed. The marines are plain stupid. The alien isn't scary or impressive at all. The explosions aren't even real.

There are many continuity errors. Backpacks and guns appearing and disappearing. An alien with small fragile hands that seems to have medical instruments to dissect his victims. On broad daylight, you can see the alien in a dark background. Kint and Fetterman (Andrew Divoff) fight on a boat and seem to be the only two people on the rather large looking ship. And after 40 years, the alien decides to take off and breaks his ship out of the concrete bunker he was trapped in. Doh.

Here's another example of the bad script: When everybody is walking towards a bunker to hide, private Banta stops for a moment because the batteries of her flashlight are dead. She's left behind by the other soldiers and soon she's stuck in the alien's slime web. Kint wants to look for her but private O'Reilly thinks she's dead because she stopped screaming. This all happens in the dark, and when it's daytime again, the alien comes to dissect Banta. The following night Kint decides to look for Banta after all, and when it's daylight again O' Reilly (with backpack) joins him. They look and look, but can't seem to find her. Luckily the Major climbs in a tree and spots the alien still dissecting Banta. He aims (with a sniperrifle he didn't bring) for the alien but misses and then ends Banta's misery by shooting her. Then they go back to the bunker, however Kint no longer has the rifle and O' Reilly no longer has his backpack. And this is just a small sample of the stupidity of this film.

When the remaining people are building a raft, two of them, O' Reilly and Watkins (Karen Moncrieff) go for a swim. However not in the brook where they are building the raft, but they walk a mile to the beach. I was hoping that the woman would show her breasts but alas, nudity is not an option in this flick.

believe me, this movie stinks. It's crap. It's a waste of celluloid. With worthless movies like this, it's uncanny that people are bashing fun movies like Anaconda or Godzilla 98. Hell, even Deep Star Six is even better than this junk. I'd rather watch the dumb Tammy and the T-rex again than Xtro 3 (at least Tammy had a nice striptease in the end).

Don't buy, rent or watch this one (unless you want to spot all the goofs).

I list this turkey in my bottom five films of all time and I've seen quite a few. But to do B-movies justice, I always look for something redeeming. It doesn't have to be anything big either as long as a film contains some feature of interest. I'll settle for an original plot or a great villain to drive the story forward or a fight scene or dialogue that I can chuckle at, or at least remember. Ex: Men at work, pathetic story but great dialogue and quite a few funny scenes.

Alas, Xtro has no such scene. Only a barage of uninteresting characters, terrible effects, compounded by a score that sent me running for the can. Not only are these characters lacking in realism, personality and well, character. They are about the stupidest bunch of morons I've ever seen. I hoped throughout the whole "film" they would be killed, slowly. Hmmm, but I wonder: what could possibly kill them? Certainly not the alien. That rubber dummy couldn't kill my dead cat. And since this alien is only about 2 feet high, the characters shouldn't be running from it, they should stepping on it.

One more thing: It's ability to become invisible is the biggest blatant ripoff of Predator I've ever seen. Listen...if you want to watch something involving soldiers being stalked by an alien, watch Aliens and Predator, which are among my top five of all time, not this crap.

The XTRO-trilogy (if you can call it that) is an odd phenomenon. The three movies are totally unrelated, except for the fact that they all were directed by Harry Bromley Davenport and they all deal with extra-terrestrial encounters. The first XTRO was a peculiar little sci-fi/horror/drama-gem. A weird mixture of genres, but a good flick nonetheless. XTRO II: The Second Encounter was a shameless ALIEN rip-off, solid in creature-terror, but over-all bad. And XTRO 3: Watch The Skies unfolds more like a 90 minutes episode of THE X-FILES mixed with military stuff and ripped details from PREDATOR. So go figure.

Now, XTRO 3 is slightly better than the second one only because it actually has a bit of a plot. It has also another rather unique aspect: it's a sort of alien-revenge-flick (there aren't many of those, are there?) A group of expendable military misfits are send out to clean up a remote island, for the military has plans to build a base there. Soon they discover that there's actually an all different purpose to their visit as they encounter an alien on that island.

The actors are unknown & mediocre and the characters are all clichés. Except for Andrew"Djinn"Divoff. It's nice to see him again, but his performance is rather unnoticeable, and you get the idea that he's only any good when he can deliver witty one-liners. The camera-work is pretty bad too. The musical score is at times really cheap, but sometimes they surprisingly use the right scary sounds. But it was at those moments that I suspected they used parts from other movie's soundtracks.

As for the alien effects: they're pretty good, especially the moving facial features. There are some decent gore-effects too, but the rest of the special effects look crappy.

At times you will have to fight off boredom while watching this flick, but the occasional voice-over from the main character makes you want to know how it all will end. So, if your looking for an off-beat sci-fi quicky, XTRO 3 might be worth a watch. More demanding sci-fi fans should better ignore it.

Xtro 3 takes place on a deserted island where a group of Marines try to figure out just what happen at their Japanese intern camp. Once they land, they find an alien spacecraft and an ET looking creature living inside it; thereupon, all hell breaks loose. I actually enjoyed this sequel more than Xtro 2. The film has an enjoyable plot and alien effects; nonetheless, it can become too rakish for some people. Look closely for Tom Hanks's brother Jim Hanks, who has a supporting role.