With a debut film as terrible as this, it's astounding that Fincher's career didn't get flushed down the toilet

Rating: 4/10 (25 March 2011)

Alien, along with it's sequel Aliens, set the bar for horror/suspense movies pretty damn high back when they got released. They were regarded as classics on the date they got released, and both of them are still regarded as such today. Alien relied more on atmosphere while Aliens was more rich on action. But overall, Both of them masterfully captured the look, touch and suspense of a real alien film, the kind of ingredients that Alien 3 was thoroughly lacking. Even Alien: Resurrection was better, as it did offer fast-paced action, but of course lacked the originality of the two first. The third installment didn't have a single redeeming value, except for the visual experience and one or two tense scenes. The prison world was so creative and well made, I couldn't help but wonder how good this movie could have been if Ridley Scott or James Cameron had returned to direct it.
At least it's a relief when you think of all the wonders Fincher have given us after Alien 3. But how he could screw the project up that much, remains a mystery to this day. The film had stupid characters, bad film editing, cringe-worthy script and lame action sequences. I can't recall the last time I saw a film where the characters literally made me facepalm. Sure, people died in horrible ways, which in itself was a minor success. But I didn't care about any of them. Most of them were just in the background most of the time and had a few lines at the most. Also, the relationship between Ridley and the guy at the start were so painfully bad, probably the worst thing about the movie. So, why not kill off all the survivors the avid fans would love to see in this film while you're at it? In short, this movie got turned into a crapfest.
The third installment is, without a doubt, a failure. But still, the big bad alien that kills people in horrible ways is always a pleasure watching, and then there's the beautiful prison setting. Yep, that's basically the only two reasons to see this movie if you ask me.
Moose finds this film worthy of a 6.