James Cameron stole this franchise from Ridley Scott; David Fincher is stealing it back

Rating: 6/10 (3 July 2011)

The original film was a well-made, claustrophobic, dark, pessimistic horror film directed by Ridley Scott. It was James Cameron whose 'Aliens' played more like an action film, complete with a happy ending - the nuclear family going on to a bright future at the end. Cameron himself and his fans looked at the opening 10 minutes - killing off the would-be husband and child of Ripley - as a slap in the face. Of course they would - Alien 3 is a claustrophobic, dark, and pessimistic - like a horror film should be. In any case, the franchise never belonged to Cameron.
SPOILER ALERT: I like Fincher's directorial point of view in this film - it is amenable to the genre. The performances first-rate as well. Even the concept of a new alien (i.e., born of a four-legged animal) was interesting. It's too bad Fincher was hampered by the producers to salvage a bad situation (as the third director, with sets built for a subsequently rejected concept, without even a complete script). Certainly, it is far better than the attempt at dark comedy in 'Alien Resurrection.' That said, the film does have some serious flaws. The CGI of the alien is a definite weak point. Then there's at least one problem with the script - particularly, why the queen alien takes so much longer to gestate than the alien that threatened the prisoners. And arguably the biggest flaw is that it really does hit many of the same beats that the first film hit.
Almost two decades later, Fincher proved to be a far more artistic director, with his own distinct voice, going on to make darker thought-provoking films of his own ('Se7en', 'Fight Club', 'The Social Network'), while Cameron went on to make big, bloated popcorn movies, with really strong special effect and really weak scripts ('Titanic', 'Avatar').