Much better than critics have said

Rating: 8/10 (28 May 2000)

One of the good things about the Alien saga is that every instance in the series has its own vision. The first one was a class 1 gothic horror movie, the second showed us a war in space. The fourth one gave us a satirical comedy with splatter elements. And the third? Well, it is not that easy to categorize as it shows much more of a personal vision than a genre.
Alien 3 seems to me the psychological society play. Fincher is more interested in the drama of the small group of people than in the action sequences. This led some critics to write that the final chase is poorly staged. Seeing it now -- some 8 years after its initial release -- the scene is not bad but was just unusally filmed. What wonder since Fincher is one of the new breed of directors, trying to invent new perspectives. Like the one of the Alien with its distorting big "head eye".
Funny enough, if you watch Aliens and Alien 3 directly after another, the non-professional fighters in the Alien 3 behave more professional than most of the professionally trained Marines in Aliens. Yes, there are some whining scenes but when it comes to fight the inmates in Alien 3 do their duty. which cannot be said of the Marines who take much longer to even try to save their lives. and even than it's just some of them (and there are not many who survive the first Alien attack) who seem to remember what they are there for.
The overall look of Alien 3 is great and shows us how to tend a Future vision without loosing grip on reality.