An Overstretched, Unnecessary Continuation of the Franchise

Rating: 5/10 (10 June 2012)

A classic case of too many cooks spoiling the stew, Alien³ isn't necessarily a bad movie, nor is it devoid of potential direction. If anything, it tries to do too much: when Ripley crash lands on a sparsely-populated prison planet, she stumbles into no less than a dozen unique plot points and divergent story lines. Paired with the natural hide-and-seek drama surrounding the alien itself, a closer look at one or two of those may have resulted in a textured, interesting picture. Instead, first-time director David Fincher tries to delve into the lot of them, which often shuffles the alien to the backburner and discovers - after the fact - that they each didn't deserve such a microscopic analysis. That leads to a film with neither a distinct personality nor a purpose which is, often, inconceivably dull. By the time it gets around to wrapping things up, in an admittedly sharp, ballsy climax, the moment is already tarnished and wasted. Even the alien effects, which were so convincing and outstanding in the first two pictures, seem like a watered down afterthought in this chapter.