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Ripley continues to be stalked by a savage alien, after her escape pod crashes on a prison planet.
Oh please David Fincher you didn't direct this did you?
Sigourney Weaver : Ellen Ripley
After the first two incredible Alien movies maybe it could only go downhill. Maybe, part two should have been the finale with the viewers believing they all got good endings. Did anything good come from the third installment? It did help to cover what Ripley discovered in Aliens, that the Company wanted an alien to use as a weapon. I don't know if that was enough of a reason to warrant a third part, and though it lacked much of the intensity of the first two, I did like Alien 3.
If you recall in part two, Ripley and two other surviving crew members all slept in their life pods thinking the danger was over. Alien 3 picks up at this point as we see the survivors were not alone as they thought. Ripley crash lands on prison planet Fiorina 161 and is informed of the two other survivors deaths. Almost immediately prisoners are being killed, an obvious signal to Ripley one of the creatures is on Fiorina. The planet is desolate though and Superintendent Andrews (Brian Glover) has to tell Ripley they have no real weapons there since there is no way for the prisoners to escape.
Ripley: What about me?
Dillon: God will take care of you now, sister.
It has inexplicably become popular recently to call this film 'underrated', but it must be noted that this film is so bad that David Fincher and almost anyone else involved in the project has practically disowned it. Fincher had an agonizing time making this film, as he was brought into the project late into development and had to endure frequent, nearly intolerable creative interference from the studio. There are moments of typical Fincher brilliance in both versions of the film, but both are still without doubt bad films. It is worth noting that the extended special edition of this film is not by any means a director's cut, it is an assembly cut, simply adding in some deleted footage to make the film more complete, and without a doubt they were successful. The extended version of Alien3 doesn't feature the seemingly horrendous editing evident in the original theatrical release, but it is still a film marred by executives not allowing the director to take control of this film. David Fincher hates this movie so much he refused to do a commentary track for the Alien Quadrilogy DVD set. Even James Cameron, notorious for being hard to get to do commentary tracks, did one for Aliens. Alien3 gets started where Aliens left off with Ripley's escape pod crashing on the prison planet Fiorina 161 which is also host to a correctional facility. Newt and Hicks die as a result of the crash but somehow an Alien from the previous film decided to hide on board and somehow escaped detection.
The prison planet does not allow weapons funnily enough, leaving the prisoners and Ripley to fend for themselves.
Yes, the Aliens fan in me doesn't quite like how the entire second film's story is practically erased and its ending ruined in just the first few minutes of this film, but I'm willing to accept this if it was done well. It isn't. Alien3's script is foul, stupid, contrived, and utterly idiotic. Say what you will about Aliens and its script, but there's a difference between not taking yourself too seriously and simply being stupid. Alien was a claustrophobic, fascinating horror/thriller that was built on the 'less is more' ideology, and Aliens was the complete opposite: a pure, uninhibited action ride, brilliantly executed by all means. Alien3 wants to be dark, it wants to be depressing, it wants to have the mood of the first while showing the Aliens as much as Aliens did, and it fails. Alien3 has a weak plot, and it is as contrived as anything can possibly get.
This is a film made by the FOX executives and whomever they sent to ruin any chance David Fincher had to make this film look good. There are a few scenes where Fincher's superb directorial style is allowed to shine through, but most of this film feels forced. It feels like Fincher wasn't allowed creative control of well...a single thing.
Ripley: Do we have the capacity to make fire? Most humans have enjoyed that privilege since the stone age.
Aaron: [looking nervous and uneasy] No need to be sarcastic.
The script went through multiple rewrites and the version that makes it to the screen is a silly, contrived, hideous mess. Some of the dialogue is genuinely horrendous and some scenes are just incredibly bad, such as the attempted rape/assault as Ripley leaves with Bishop's remains after finding them. Some of the acting is so absolutely horrendous that one has to cringe at the sight of it. Ultimately, this feels like a contractual obligation. I'm certain Fincher walked onto the set of this film with true enthusiasm, ready to create a dark, brooding monster of a film. What we get, thanks to FOX executives, is a lame, watered down version which is only dark due to the camera lenses involved.
There are genuine moments of wonder in Alien3. Moments of majestic beauty and gritty horror which fill you with joy and dread simultaneously. In both versions, you can see that if Fincher had been given full creative control that this could have been a truly artful, highly enjoyable film. It could have even surpassed Alien in terms of artistic quality. Alien3 is an ugly disjointed spectacle, it is literally creativity being stamped out, destroyed, and this neuters any effect this film could have had. This is the most forgettable of the series. Note the scene where Ripley is cornered by an Alien, the one most often used in promotional stills, and note the scenes where the Alien is chasing the prisoners and Ripley in the ducts. These are masterful scenes shot by a master director. Unfortunately, a movie is a sum of its parts, then some.
Some people like to pretend that the extended cut of Alien3 fixes all the problems. However, the issue with Alien3 is hardly over 30 minutes of deleted and alternative footage.
In conclusion, this was a well made movie with terrible stylistic decisions that essentially ruined it.
''In an insane world, a sane man must appear insane.''
6/10
