Confusing and muddled

Rating: 5/10 (29 February 2020)

This review contains spoilers.
Alien 3 is a science fiction movie that premiered in 1992. The movie is the follow up to 1986's Aliens. The movie is directed by David Fincher and stars Sigourney Weaver. The story is written by Vincent Ward. The movie takes place sometime after the conclusion of Aliens.
Alien 3 is an incredibly messy movie. The theatrical version has confusing elements inside of the story and it serves to show how the production of the movie has not been spotless. The movie is a callback to the original Alien movie in 1979. The prison that the movie is set in serves to contain that claustrophobic and tight atmosphere that the first movie created. The movie uses the setting well enough but it does not have that magic that the first two movies had. The characters in this movie are not as engaging as the characters in the last two movies.
Alien 3 also does away with the surviving characters of the second movie, Aliens. In the opening moments of this movie, the characters of Hicks, and Newt are removed from the story. The movie's story has no need for these characters much to anybody that watched Aliens' disappointment. The movie could and should have done better to these characters that audiences enjoyed in the second movie. In addition, Bishop from the second movie does not resemble his helpfulness that was present in the second movie. This disappointed me as a viewer as all of the older characters no longer resemble what they were in the second movie.
The movie still has high production values and is well directed. David Fincher does an admirable job. However, the movie could not improve past its writing. The movie felt like it was bouncing around certain ideas and not certain which ones would be able to stick. In some ways, this movie felt tied to the second movie and the third movie wanted to go back to how the first movie utilized its story. In this case, I believe that it would have been more preferable to create another character other than Ripley to be involved with the Xenomorphs. The universe in this film series is large and Ripley surely could not have been the only character to survive encounters with the Xenomorph.
Despite the problems in Alien 3. I would still recommend the movie. The movie is muddled and the alternate cuts of Alien 3 are preferable to the theatrical cut. The movie can infuriate fans of the second Aliens movie.
Grade: C