A great chamber piece ending to a terrific series, and possibly the most underrated sequel of all time.

Rating: 8/10 (12 December 2010)

Alright, Alien 3 is neither as exciting or frightening (albeit commercial) as its predecessors and neither is it resistant to the flaws brought upon it by its studio tampering, but whilst Alien and ALiens essentially just revamped the slasher and action genres, Alien 3 still offers an intriguingly original and unpredictable sci-fi story that belongs to a world of its own. At heart, this franchise is neither about Ripley or the monster but about our fears of a corporate dominated future, and Fincher knew that to follow up the adrenalin rush of Aliens with more action and guns would simply be both repetitive and pointless, instead raising the stakes through smart ideas and human dramas. The angle of the story here then is that if a corporation can own everything from industry, military, penal system and in this case, even religion, then mankind's last hope lies in that of its outsiders ('the lifers who found god at the ass end of space') of whom led by a feminine presence, become the saviours of our world. The film could perhaps be seen as being about a battle of our inner selves fighting against the privatisation of the entirety of outer space (reflected through Fury 161's losing battle with the 'outside elements') Having a more vulnerable Ripley leading these 'lifers' into martyrdom then, is perhaps the greatest feminist statement in cinema history, the sound design blends with score to a stunning level of experimentation and Fincher's gloomy atmospherics (nice heat lighting) are just as cinematic the 50th time around as they are the first. I simply cannot believe that nobody on this message board has ever stood up in defence of this film whilst the unnecessary cartoon cheese fest that was Alien Resurrection (of which ranks alongside Terminator 3 or The Phantom Menace for most shocking destroyer of a great franchise ever) gets more applause than this. Upon further viewings the Theatrical Cut isn't even as flawed as people think it is; the alien is a perfect organism (prioritising the existence of its specie over a singular self), so it would make sense for the queen to have left eggs behind on the Sulaco shortly before facing its own death, and the close up shot of Golic's struggle from the stretcher as the alien approaches him, implies that he DOES die there in the infirmary and his body is suggested to be seen being pulled into the vent. Furthermore, who's to say this film didn't have good characters? Morse, Dillon, Clements, Andrews, Golic, Aaron were all great! Just because a bleakness in tone and story isn't commercially accepted, doesn't mean that it can be defined as a flaw. The last great finger to the corporate led franchising of films and a near masterpiece of atmospherics in my view!