this will be short and sweet.....
this movie is great. looks great. sounds great. the best of all the alien soundtracks.... not to diss ridley but finchers movie looks better color wise, compositionally and it wreaks of creativity. sorry disney fans, it is dark and bleak. get over it. maybe you think an encounter with this beast would be a walk in the park..... (nyuk nyuk nyuk)
i have heard that there is actually about three hours of film on this movie. i am hoping for a directors cut soon....
now that fincher has been recognized as a monsterous director some of the sellout critics are giving this movie a better review. not that that matters though, critics don't know art from you know what. xen says 4 thumbs up...lets have the full uncut directors cut now please!

Alien I love but I can't stand it on repeated viewings because you know who's gonna bite it and when even the exact timing it'll help. Aliens is probably my favorite film of all time, at least one of them anyway. Alien: Resurrection...meh, it isn't horrible but it's certainly not a great watch either. So we come to Alien 3: an unfinished script, a hectic shoot, some cool visual and conceptual ideas but still is missing that thing that made the first 2 awesome.

The film begins with the mother of all plot problems: there's an egg aboard the Sulaco. How could that have happened? She got out of the ship, chased Ripley, tried to get at Newt than battled Ripley in the power loader only to be jettisoned into space. How the hell did she lay an egg? And not only that, how did she lay a queen embryo laying egg when all the other eggs were standard warrior ones? And why does the facehugger do it twice? May seem like nitpicking but if you're gonna make a franchise follow the rules set by the predecessers.

However, it does have some keen visual ideas. For one, the set design is very nice having a stylized run down feel, almost like ugliness filmed in a striking way. The "alien vision" is probably the neatest camera trick since Hitchcock's famous zoom even though the alien vision is pretty simple by design but boy it looks neat. And the idea that the embryos take on the physical attributes of its host is a nice touch without every single host just gestating a default warrior type, or Xenomorph.

So finally we come to the story and I am going to spoil the opening. During hypersleep, a facehugger tries to get at Newt only she's behind glass so the facehugger damages itself and eats through the flooring since the "acid for blood" idea has been established. The smoke from the acid burning causes the fire alarm to go off jettisoning the surviving crew from Aliens. They crash land on a planet called Fiorina 161, a mining colony filled with prisoners. Ripley discovers that the others died and her presence in a strictly male dominated facility is quite frowned upon.

Adding salt to the wound is that the facehugger not only implanted a queen embryo in her but also an embryo inside a dog(ox in the Special Edition) so it's a more faster, agile and downright meaner creature. And there's no weapons in the facility at all. So if Ripley got a queen embryo, why didn't the dog get one too? Add to that my comment about "impregnating" someone twice.

It's not really a horrible film by any means although the plot holes are large enough for a freight train but it's got some pluses that warrants a viewing, even if it's only a couple times a year, if that.

I think Alien 3 is actually a really good movie. Don't get me wrong Alien is still my favourite because it is so original. Aliens was ok but a bit cheesy in places. The problem is I don't think America were ready for this movie when it was released. While we in England looked upon it as easily on par with the second in the franchise. Yet it has taken time for people to adjust to it and the Director's Cut (while not officially David Fincher's director's cut as he wanted nothing to do with the movie), has improved the movie greatly.

True, it is a very downbeat movie however it is a very powerful redepmtion story so that turns over a leaf in my book!! People are saying it had a rubbish storyline and are slagging off David Fincher, but it is not his fault. The script was written on set as they did not have a script to work with when the movie started. So I actually praise David Fincher for coming in to a movie and giving it hope. David actually saved this movie from being a major flop, true it could have been better but there were numerous diagreements between the Fox Executives and the members of the crew, so it was going to be a tough one anyway.

I think this movie is creative, the sets are amazing, the acting is the best its ever been. People say that the CGI Alien doesn't do the movie justice. That is actually a bold judgement to make when the Alien is not CGI - it is in fact composited with a controlled puppet. The only CGI shot is when it blows up at the end - but yes I agree that shot could have been better. Then again it was the first CGI shot ever made for any movie so give them some credit.

I think this movie deserves a lot better apppraisal than what some reviewers have been giving here. It may have some flaws but it is definately better than Alien Resurrection (by a long shot actually lol). I just hope Ridley Scott returns for Aliens 5 and we go back to the Alien planet which is what Renny Harlin was going to do with Alien 3 originally - it's about time somebody did it!!

Overall 8/10

The longer 145 minute version of Alien 3 totally changed my opinion about it not being very good. The characters are more developed, the story has more suspense and action, and Ripleys death at the end is more meaningful. This time when she jumps, it means something. Golic's character is explained more, and given a major role in the plot that makes the movie as suspenseful and as entertaining as the first. I highly encourage all of you to buy the Alien 3 Quadrilogy DVD, and watch this assembly cut, because it will change your opinion about the movie, as it has changed mine.