Coventry Review of Xtro 3: Watch the Skies

Xtro 3: Watch the Skies (1995)

Horrors on the Mysterious Island of the White Bunny-Rabbits! ( and the creepy midget alien)

[4/10 · 16 September 2010]

The least you can say about director Harry Bromley Davenport is that he's a devoted and persistent individual. Between 1983 and 1995, for a period of approximately twelve years, the only thing he did was making three "Xtro" flicks. Since I'm really not too sure if anyone was asking for these cheap "Alien" rip offs, at least I sincerely hope that our director himself had some fun with them. Personally I really like the first "Xtro", because it was a very nasty Sci-Fi gem of the 80's, but "The Second Encounter" is a dreadful and pathetic sequel. This third and final entry in Davenport's series isn't exactly a masterpiece, neither, but it nevertheless features some nifty ideas and a handful of memorable sequences. Once again, this film is completely unrelated to the previous two and doesn't feature any recurring characters or themes (well except, of course, alien encounters). Part three naturally attempts to cash in on the contemporary immense success and popularity of "The X-Files". Here we have a tale full of military and governmental conspiracies, secret research facilities on abandoned island and a whole lot of "the- truth-is-out-there" insinuations. By the way, "Xtro III" is one of those pitiable films that attempt to act mysteriously for a long time and refuses to reveal what's going on, even though everybody knows there are aliens lurking. I mean, there's a hideous alien on the cover and it's a sequel two alien movies, for crying out loud, so is it really necessary to wait forty minutes before confirming we are – in fact – dealing with an alien? Anyway. Mariner officer Kirns is charged with a secretive assignment. Along with four of his absolute worst soldiers, he supposedly has to dismantle old explosives on a small island that was used to shelter Japanese Americans during WWII. They don't find many explosives on the island, but there are a lot – literally hundreds and hundreds – of white bunny rabbits as well as some strange phenomena. Apparently an alien spaceship crash-landed on earth in the 1950's and the government decided to isolate the creature, with his ship, on the island for further investigation. The alien wiped out all its human opponents forty years ago, and now the military sends a team of expendables to check if it's still there. "Xtro III: Watch the Skies" honestly isn't that bad. It's just a bit over-ambitious and a tad pretentious. The alien, as displayed on the DVD cover image, is a fairly scary little monster, but was it really necessary to provide him with the same hunting/camouflaging abilities as in "Predator"? The acting performances are weak and there isn't too much gore or even action to enjoy. The archive footage is tense and the alien is pretty cool, but furthermore there isn't really that much to recommend.