Such a waste...

Rating: 7/10 (14 December 2019)

First, let me say I gave Alien 3 a 7/10 rating because in my opinion, it isn't a bad film, but it obviously pales in comparison to the two masterpieces that came before. The reasons for this drop in quality have been well documented, so I won't go into too much detail: in short, the responsability lies on a chaotic pre-production process under the supervision of producers/writers David Giler and Walter Hill, and the invasiveness of the studio during the shooting and editing of this movie. Director David Fincher and the cast aren't to be blamed, they did what they could to salvage a poor script, but their efforts were doomed from the start.
Rewatching James Cameron's Aliens yesterday, I realized how well he had laid the basis for a third instalment. All the writers had to do was to let the story flow naturally from what he had set up.
Remember Bishop's fascination for the facehuggers and his strange behaviour when studying them? Sure, he ended up as a good guy, but still, something seemed terribly off with him in a few scenes, especially the one where he's dissecting one of the creatures and a marine asks him "Do you need anything else?" There's an uncomfortably long pause there and he just answers "No" in a very cold way.
Also, why did it take him so long to come to Ripley and Newt's rescue when they were about to get killed by the alien queen in the crumbling power plant? Could it be that he was actually trying to recover some alien samples in the meantime, as instructed by Burke?
Besides, the USS Sulaco didn't suffer any major damage so it should have made it back to earth without any trouble. I understand that given the technical means at the time, it would have been extremely difficult to deliver a credible full out humans vs aliens war on the planet, so why not use the huge space station seen at the beginning of Aliens as the main stage for Alien 3, where our heroes (Ripley, Newt, Hicks and Bishop) would have been quarantined.
The plot could have revolved around their desperate efforts to prevent the xenomorphs from reaching the surface of the planet, and perhaps failing to do so, with Bishop showing his true colors at some point.
I'm no writer (obviously!) but this seems to me as a much more logical continuation to the second film, and one the audience would probably have been satisfied with.
Instead, the producers went for this unimaginative "conclusion" to Ripley's journey, which led to almost insurmountable storytelling issues when they decided to bring her back in a fourth movie.
As explained above, I still stand by my rating despite all this, but man... what an incredible waste.