The Alien becomes a lapdog

Rating: 4/10 (28 April 2018)

After the unsettling »Alien« (1979) and the bomastic »Aliens« (1986), »Alien 3« (1992) with its grim tone and slow pace initially looked like a huge dissapointment. It was David Fincher's directorial debut. Nowadays he has to be considered one of the masters of contemporary cinema. But this movie certainly didn't make a good first impression. There are some glaring flaws. First of all, it's unbelievably boring. The first half is slow, predictable and lifeless. It isn't even directed all that well. Today, Fincher is the king of suspense. But in »Alien 3« he works with some of the most tedious jumpscares I've ever seen on screen. It's embarrassing, really. No wonder Fincher himself doesn't like this movie.
The alien itself is laughable. The special effects show their age, but not in a good way. »Alien 3« is CGI city. And this CGI makes the alien look like a lapdog, literally. It's just not frightening, and the whole movie feels like inflated trash. In recent years though, people seem to appreciate »Alien 3« more and more. Myself included. Some aspects of the movie work. The brooding atmosphere is well done, even if it makes the movie far less spectacular than its first two installments. The story has some nice themes, even if the overall arc is hamfisted and trivial. Fincher touches some difficult topics: rape, religion and gender. But the execution just isn't there. At the end of the day, »Alien 3« is a strange hybrid, stuck between shlock and arthouse.
Because of that, it's one of a kind. If you want to watch a flawed yet interesting movie, »Alien 3« might be worth your time. But overall I'd say Fincher was right to expel his first feature film.