Not for everyone, but dont be too harsh on it.

Rating: 10/10 (26 August 2003)

For starters: SPoilers found below!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Now that that is all out of the way: Alien 3 was not a big hit, and I admit, the killing of Hicks and Newt straight out almost killed it for me the first time I saw it, but by the end i was so pumped at seeing more Alien that i didnt care.
They were very good characters that deserved MUCH more than this, but let's face it. Aliens came out in '87. Alien3 didnt come out until '92. Newt was in second grade, and Carrie Henn was about 10 or 11 when the movie was made. That would have made her about 14 or 15 when Alien3 was made. Explain that diescepancy without doing another "57 years in hypersleep"....
They could pull some tricks with Michael Biehn, but I imagine he was off doing other things. So 2 of 4 remaining lead actors are unavailable. Do you replace them? NO. I would have been outraged had they just replaced Henn and Biehn.
So what else could they do? They wanted Ripley. So they had to kill off the other two. I wanted another Alien, so I accepted the sacrifice.
I read something somwhere that said that since the characters were almost all criminals, we felt nothing for them. Okay, so they were criminals, and dressed the part. However, with the exception of descriptions of their crimes, and the attempted rape of Ripley, we see very little to suggest that these people ever did anything wrong. Hell, i always had a hard time buying that Pete Postalwaithe's character was there for any crime. He seemed to likeable.
On to the performances.
Charles Dance was great. For the first part of the movie, until he gets killed, he stole the show. I was almost offended to find out he was Sardo Nussebaum and that happy-face-contact guy from the LAst Action Hero. Those roles were beneath him. He was convincing and damn likeable as Clemmens.
Charles S Dutton. Okay, if I want to gush about him, I'll go over to his profile and comment there. This man is just great. When he and Ripley are convining the convicts to fight, wow. That is the most rousing speach i have ever heard.
Ripley is great as always. Sigourney Weaver managed to portray her as the exact same woman in 3 movies. Ripley is easily one of the greatest cinematic characters ever. period. Hard to imagine that she was set up to be the "most likely to die" character in Alien. Yep, Ridley Scott wanted the audience to think she would die. Not bad, huh?
I'll end with Morse, because otherwise, i would go after the whole cast, and space does not permit. The whole movie is bvasically split into 3 parts: Ripley and Clemmens Ripley and Dillon Ripley and Morse
Each act has it's own person paired up with Ripley (Arguably, there is a 4th one in there with Aaron, but he is an idiot), and each part manages to feel natural with that person as her partner. More props for miss Weaver.
Morse is great, because you get to see him grow from lazy rebel to active, getting-shot-for-the-cause semi-hero. He was SUCH an ass, it is hard to not like him. Plus, my sister thinks he's cute. As she puts it, "not cute-cute, but monkey-cute". Not since Bluto Blutarsky has there been such a loveable foul-mouth.

In the end, if you love the end of Aliens to the point where you cant bear to see the characters gone, leave the series as Alien and Aliens. If you are willing to accept their loss for the greater story, then enjoy.