See the Special Edition - it's great!

Rating: 9/10 (23 September 2010)

Wow - just watched Alien 3 for the first time since I was about 12 years old. Blew me away how much I enjoyed it! After re-watching Fight Club and Se7en recently, I remembered that there was an Alien movie directed by David Fincher and thought holy cow, I gotta re-watch that one. Alien 3 definitely gets way better when you're older. As a kid, I just remember it being dark, gloomy, slow and boring compared to Aliens. It matures with age. I was riveted from beginning to end, and I was surprised how unpredictable and surprising the kills were! Some bits really surprised and shocked me as people were picked off. Ripley looks so hard and cool with the shaved head look too, you don't see female heroes like that anymore, just women like Angelina Jolie in "Salt". It also reminded me of the dark, gritty, gloomy graphic novels I like - it looks like a living breathing graphic novel. I only realised after watching it that I'd seen the Special Edition that restores extra scenes that David Fincher wanted in there - I must recommend the Special Edition, without these scenes ( http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=alien+3+scenes&aq=f ) I can imagine the film would feel shallower and rushed.
**spoiler**
I also liked the idea that the Alien wouldn't touch Ripley because it knew she was breeding the Queen. It is an extremely dark film though especially how we have to sit through an autopsy of Newt within the first 15 minutes! The way the countdown is happening to the arrivial of the Weylon-Utani "rescue team" reminded me of the plot of the recent Sam Rockwell film "Moon".
**end of spoiler**
Wow, all I can say I really enjoyed it a lot, and surprised at the dreadful reviews on IMDb. I think Fincher takes way too much stick for this one. Compared to the Alien movies that followed, this is easily a masterpiece. You're gonna hate me for saying this but I haven't enjoyed Aliens as much when I've seen it recently, I found Alien 3 had more depth to the characters!