It's in no way the best in the series. But it is my favourite.

Rating: 9/10 (7 February 2020)

A Tarkovsky tapestry, tones of Bergman, Fincher's religious epic in all of its flawed Kintsugi glory.
A pristime image, a perfect arc for Ripley, one of Weaver's best performances, Charles Dance, a tender film that breathes (maybe a tad too much) but is a character study and a logical full circle back to the first Alien.
Fincher shoots everything as if Hell itself is looking up to claim them, as it may have done to his career. But it didn't. And in spite of its flaws, Alien3 is a masterfully written and shot and acted and conceived product that against all odds is amazingly cohesive. And better than any threequel I can care to remember. I was privileged to see in the cinema.
Bergman and Tarkovsky just made a ponderous and thoughtful religious epic and they called it Alien3.
The Assembly cut is a mess, it's repetitious and unfinished and slow but it's a true epic. The Alien is almost incidental, instead used, as in any good horror, as a presence and catalyst for the rawness and darkness and redemption of the characters to shine through. It's a great ensemble piece with superb, weighty British theatre and character actors and Ripley gets an arc with closure, I mean she even has a bit of sex!
The last thing Alien needed after Aliens was Ripley, a lone survivor, trawling the galaxy with a two-hit-wonder Space Marine and a kid that couldn't act or barely speak. Cameron brought his sensibility to a succeeding-against-all-odds sequel and when Fincher took the reins he did the only honourable thing. He borrowed a style reminiscent of the original masters of cinema (just look at that first shot of Charles Dance in the robes on the 'beach'.) And he wiped the slate clean.
And yet Newt and Hicks weren't glossed over, they were used to show Ripley's enduring strength, during the harrowing and telling Autopsy scene Ripley is asked whether Newt is her daughter; "No" she replies bluntly and we see how much of a survivor she is. If she thought that Newt was, she wouldn't be able to go on.
Alien 3 is a pure character study, and the film much more than the others shows Sigourney Weaver's talent as a strong, measured, alert, pensive and smart character that says the right things, doesn't have to shout or prove herself and she has a powerful feminine presence without having to draw on any masculine energy. She is relatable and down to earth, charismatic and enigmatic and this story really manages to give her closure.
The Xenomorph, bursting this time from an animal, feeds now and has different hunting mechanics, the effects might have been cutting edge but they were clearly rushed and badly comped but it still makes for some thrilling and still pretty unique action beats in the third act. Most striking in the film though has to be the representation of the Alien as the anti-christ, a pure demonic force, and the sequences of hellfire-like explosions, the gold and amber lighting, the canticle-esque music and the fact that every room echoes acoustically like some kind of church; it creates a visually and thematically memorable piece in the saga.
There are some effective moments of dark humour, Fincher's use of low angles, some sumptuous cutting and a plethora of nice little high concept moments like using Bishop to read the Black Box or the fact that after the cooling water hits the metal pale it foreshadows the Alien popping at the end. Bad films don't do this. Fincher shoudl not have disowned this film, because it's definitely and defiantly his style. He took the mess of production that it was and forged to make his own religious epic from it and he succeeded. He made the best with what he had and it's no surprise that one of the most iconic images of the series, bald Ripley with the Alien head up against hers, he's created an Alien horror in the mould of a world cinema epic.