Xtro 3: Watch the Skies

Lieutenant Marin Kim (Sal Landi) tells his story to a reporter of how he accompanied Captain Fetterman (Andrew Divoff) to an island 200 miles off the coast of the United States allegedly to clear the island of explosive ordinance, but once there with his team they uncover an extraterrestrial secret left forgotten for 50 years that has its sights set on revenge on humans.

While the in name only sequel to Xtro, Xtro II: The Second Encounter was a troubled production, the home video market at the time meant it was successful enough to warrant this third entry which according to director and producer Harry Bromley Davenport was a much more pleasant experience than Xtro II. Xtro 3: Watch the Skies is a superior effort to Xtro II, but not to the point where I'd call it passable or serviceable.

While Xtro II took inspiration from Alien/Aliens with its tight corridors, creature effects, and general character set, Xtro 3 takes inspiration from Predator with a jungle/island setting and an alien antagonist with cloaking abilities and mixes it with aesthetic and thematic similarities to the X-Files. The movie is way better made than Xtro II and also features more engaged characters including one character named Banta who, no joke, has a backstory inspired by Tonya Harding for some reason. The alien in Xtro while a very generic design is at least more dynamic and articulated than the xenomorph like creature from the predecessor. While being better than the bottom of the barrel Xtro II, it doesn't elevate itself to good as it's still padded with thin characters who don't have the chemistry or presence of its inspiration in Predator.

Xtro 3 is what it is, a below average direct-to-video film. It doesn't do anything wrong like its predecessor, but it doesn't do anything to distinguish itself from a crowded field either.

I rented a bunch of sci-fi movies last Saturday and was surprised that two were outstanding afternoon fare. I don't know about the previous parts of Xtro but Part three had it all. Good special effects, a worthy script, fine acting and some interesting direction. I liked everyone, character wise. The plot made sense. Marines are sent to a Pacific island to rid it of WW II mines - but they were really sent to find the sole survivor of an old air force secret and the Marines finds themselves at the mercy of a chameleon-like alien locked up (not for long) in a block of cement. The flash back sequence, the humorous filmreel at the start of the film and the story within a story worked well. I had a good time. Sci-Fi's only...........

Well, given the fact that the first "Xtro" movie wasn't a particular impressive movie, I can't claim to have had much interest in the following movies. I wasn't actually aware that there were additional movies beyond the first, not until I happened to stumble upon "Xtro 3: Watch the Skies" in 2020. And being of the mindset that a movie should be given a fair chance, I sat down and watched it.

Well, at least 1 hour and 5 minutes of it, then I just tossed the towel in the ring and gave up. This movie was boring and uneventful. Nay, it was actually a stupid and pointless movie.

The storyline was stupid and seemed like it had been written by someone in primary school as an English assignment. Then someone had the brilliant idea of translating it into a movie script. Problem is that it just didn't work well.

The effects in the movie were hilariously bad, and seriously outdated even back in 1995. The alien was just such an eyesore that it was dragging down the entire movie. It was so god awful fake to look at, and it couldn't be taken serious in any way.

I had initially expected the movie to be somewhat better, since it had Andrew Divoff on the cast list. But not even he could lift up the train wreck that is "Xtro 3: Watch the Skies". And the movie also had Jim Hanks on the cast list, which I suppose served as somewhat of a lure for the audience as well.

I am sure that there are fans of these movies out there. I just didn't enjoy this third movie in the franchise in any way.

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.

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.