"You're all going to die."

Rating: Null/10 (4 August 2004)

Ah yes, the notorious ALIEN 3. It pains me that even after so many years people are still complaining about this movie. Now, I can understand fans being a bit disappointed back in 1992. I mean hell, James Cameron's ALIENS was an utter triumph. It basically broke the curse dooming sequels into being nothing more than inferior insults.
Nevertheless, it is wholly unfair to judge ALIEN 3 against its successful predecessor. So many viewers walked away saying "No guns? Blah! You can't have an ALIEN film without guns." Now please, that is just ridiculous. Cameron's sequel introduced guns into the equation. The original (and widely popular) ALIEN was a science fiction fright flick with no guns.
The problem that Cameron created with making a great sequel is that now how is another film going to top it? Perhaps it can be done, just look at the challenges Cameron himself faced when he first announced he wanted to make a sequel to ALIEN. Everyone told him 'no' and that it would end his career. Hmm.
Nonetheless, Cameron made it remarkably difficult for a new film and director to step up to the plate. On top of that, the studio (FOX) made the equation damn-near impossible. There were literally hundreds of scripts and treatments for a third ALIEN film. Ideas and plots eventually snow-balled into a conglomerate mess as production started. There were even teaser trailers released indicating the aliens reaching earth (an early version of the script) which ultimately contradicts the film that was made.
Enter a talented young man named David Fincher, perhaps best known for his background in music videos. Fincher takes the job as his feature film debut, most likely with high hopes. Production starts as no "official" script is completed and later filming begins even as new rewrites are being added. Fincher eventually abandons the film (before completion) citing studio interference and officially disowns it. What's left of the disaster is edited together (complete with even more reshooting) and released to an already skeptical fanbase.
I only learned of the production debacle years later and began to understand why Fincher would ignore the film completely. It must be a bizarre fluke that the film turned out as well as it did. I can only assume the film's integrity stems from Fincher's involvement. ALIEN 3 made me take notice of this director's name and sure enough he soon did receive the success he deserved with his next film SEVEN (1995).
Now, with all of this in mind one might dismiss ALIEN 3 as utter sh**. I disagree. I saw the film opening weekend in the summer of 1992 and loved it. And it still today is my favorite entry in the series.
ALIEN 3 departs from the previous two films by creating a dark, violent, philosophical drama of mythological proportions. This film introduces a new aesthetic, beautiful in all its stygian richness. Gone are the grim air ducts and technological trappings of the first two films. Instead, Ripley awakens in an inescapable hell deep in the nothingness of space - a labyrinth world of golden light, thick escaping steam, and lost souls. She's crash landed (with the xenomorph onboard) into an abandoned prison planet inhabited by an all-male population of murderers and rapists.
The plot is incredibly rich with drama in that Ripley finds herself with no hope. She is inescapably attached to this alien and it will forever destroy her life. And it is here, in this purgatory of sorts, where she finds the courage to finish it once and for all. Of course, Elliot Goldenthal's magnificent score helps as does Fincher's visual metaphors (most notably the funeral scene) and overall style. The film results in a provocative tale of faith and human emotion set against the absolution of death. A theme that, I feel, far outweighs the significance of any other ALIEN film.