Torn from its director like a chest burster in a bad mood...

Rating: 7/10 (27 June 2004)

'Alien³' had so much potential, yet so much to live up to. The first film in the series helped define a whole new way to give a mass audience science fiction on a grand scale, while the second film managed to provide even more thrills and spills than a sequel had ever done. How on earth was a third movie, all those years later, supposed to live upto its predeccessors?
It appears this movie was cursed from day one. The script was written, rewritten and rewritten time and time again, and the director, who has since gone on to prove his incredible talent with the likes of 'Fight Club' and 'Se7en', was effectively fired from the project and not allowed the reshoots he needed from a studio that attempted to control his every shot.
What was originally released in 1992 was a confused mess. It showed obvious potential, but lacked any sense of direction and purpose. Sub plots started and were abandoned, and entire scenes appeared disjointed.
As it stands, the theatrical version is by far not the worst film I've ever seen, and I enjoyed it from time to time, but on a scale of 1 to 10, I'd have given it no more than a 5 - a sort of mindless popcorn fodder to pass two hours every few years.
The new 'special edition', released in the 'Alien Quadrilogy' boxed set, and now on dvd, restores a great number of scenes, finishes off some of the abandoned effects shots, and fleshes out a previously hollow film. The movie now has purpose - its religious and moral message a lot more understandable, characters make more sense, and while nothing can be done to improve on the lack of any real action, part of the need for that is simply because the previous film in the series was an all out frag-fest.
A lot of people are put off by the film because its dialogue-heavy, there's no guns or big weapons to splatter aliens with... indeed there's only one alien as opposed to a planet of them... and most of the cast are British. The trick is that if you're going to compare it to any of the series, compare it to 'Alien', while 'Alien Ressurection' is the real sequel to 'Aliens'. Don't go into it expecting another action fest, and approach it with an open mind(preferably a British one - I guess we 'get it' easier), and there is much to enjoy. The cast are all excellent - some of England's finest actors are on show here, and Sigourney Weaver is excellent as ever. Her final scene, notably different in this version of the film [though arguably this is the one change that isn't needed!], is surprisingly poignant, and the film still manages to pack a fair punch for a [then] 13 year old saga.
Do yourself a favour - get hold of a copy of the special edition, and look at it with an open mind - you just may find yourself loving this one.