Reviewing the "Assembly Cut" special edition

Rating: 7/10 (16 June 2019)

When I saw it originally it was obviously not as good as the first 2 movies and quite frankly, not that good in general. But I just watched the 30 minute longer Director's Cut (Assembly Cut) and it clearly improves it.
It is still not at the level of Alien and Aliens but it is now a good movie on its own. Also as much as Alien was Ridley Scott's platform to set up the whole space horror genre and establish his style of dark sci-fi, and Aliens was James Cameron's rulebook to big action sci-fi blockbusters, Alien 3 Assembly's Cut is clearly the beginning of David Fincher's career in dark, psychological thrillers.
Unlike most die hard Alien franchise fans, I actually like the fact all 3 movies are very different and were the canvas for each respective Director to hone what would become their trademark directing style.