So much potential...

Rating: Null/10 (23 March 2003)

In light of the first 2 Alien movies (both of which are in IMDB's top 100), Alien 3 is a huge disapointment. The characters seem poorly developed, the action is stale, and in the end, our heroine plunges to her death, presumably killing the chance for any sequels (boy, they should have listened... "Alien: Resurrection" should have never been made). However, David Fincher, a director who's proved his potential with "Seven" and "Fight Club", knew exactly what kind of movie he was trying to make. Executives at Fox cut out nearly an hour of his final movie, so much so that he didn't even want his name attributed to the final project. The film had the potential to be great (check out the list of deleted scenes on the message board sometime) but due to studio interference, came out as less than mediocre. *** SPOILERS *** On the bright side, Sigourney Weaver's at her toughest, dealing with the loss of the girl she thought of as her daughter and the news that she's carrying the next alien queen in her chest (another slightly confusing aspect that the shortened film didn't address). Lawrence Fishborne gives a characteristically strong performance, and the alien looks better in this film than in any other movie of the series (the first 2 films showed very little of the creatures themselves; Resurrection's CGI often looked plain ridiculous). In the end, this is a film directed not by David Fincher, but by Fox. I can't wait to see the director's cut due out in June to see the potential that this film should have lived up to.