Alien 3

Alien 3 (1992)

Runtime: 145 minutes (The Assembly Cut; that's what I saw)

Directed by: David Fincher

Starring: Sigourney Weaver, Charles S. Dutton, Charles Dance, Brian Glover, Ralph Brown

From: 20th Century Fox

I hadn't seen this movie in years. I was fine with that. This is not terrible but it's not great either. I give all the sordid details below: 

NOTE: In the past I have seen both versions of the film, albeit both were years ago. I went with the 145 minute Assembly Cut, as everyone says it is better than what 20th Century Fox released theatrically. I imagine David Fincher would also agree, but he's always disowned the movie and this cut had to be put together by the producer using his notes. I am not the biggest Fincher fan (while I haven't seen a lot of his most highly regarded movies, I can say that the one time I saw Fight Club I hated it and this was in 2001 so it wasn't a “in hindsight” sort of thing and Gone Girl is not only thoroughly unpleasant but has like 50 gigantic story-ruining plotholes and yet most people love it to death...?) and even I can say he was done wrong, in between being hired at the last minute, not having a finished script when filming began, and fighting Fox the entire time-and doing this when he was a first time feature film director... “unfair” is me underselling it. My problems with Fincher don't have to do with his directorial skills, in other words.

The first two Alien movies, I have seen plenty of times as they are both really awesome. The rest of the series, less so. Thus, that is why I haven't seen this in over 10 years. Watching it again, the Assembly Cut is better; while some of the added beats aren't always great, overall it is an improvement and at least there aren't characters that vanish out of nowhere never to return. Yet, it's a shame that production was always a nightmare. Fincher was not the original director and this script was definitely not original either.

There were many different versions. The first teaser trailer seemed to suggest a xenomorph would be coming to Earth. That brings up bad memories of the AvP films; the less said about them the better. I wonder what it would have been like if New Zealand director Vincent Ward would have made what he desired, which was a setting of a floating wooden planet that is populated by cloistered monks. I know, pretty weird and you don't want to think about the plot too much or how a floating wooden planet is even a thing but at least its aesthetic probably would have been pretty bitchin'.

Instead, we get Ripley crash landing on a desolate planet which has a foundry facility where the workers (born again as they are) are extremely violent and predatory criminals. They are “double Y”, which the movie doesn't elaborate upon (unfortunately, the movie fails to properly explain a few important details like that. When one of the things is a huge part of the climax... I won't get into it but it is unfortunate) but the movie's Wikipedia article explains as a genetic disorder which makes him predisposed to be a criminal, in essence. In this setting where modern weapons aren't a thing, these characters have to deal with a xenomorph, sometimes seen as an early 90's CGI thing... yikes does it usually look bad 25 years after the fact.

I wish that the director would have been able to make what he wanted to and not be so hamstrung by Fox, among the other problems I listed already. It's not always a sign of doom, but more often than not when you start shooting a movie with an unfinished script, the movie at best will be disappointing. Considering all the drama it's an achievement that this is still watchable and I can rate it as “fine”; it's just that the first two are legendary classics and fair or not, this is a letdown in comparison. Having to deal with a bunch of lowlife criminals seems like no fun but thankfully this does not revel in disgusting behavior so while this is dark, it isn't a miserable experience. Unfortunately, this is no better than just watchable. The plot and geography of the world is lacking and not even strong performances from Sigourney Weaver and Charles S. Dutton and a powerful ending (which is negated by there being Alien: Resurrection; whoops) can make this a classic.