Bad idea

Rating: Null/10 (11 August 2003)

It's fun to compare Ridley Scott, James Cameron and David Fincher, the directors of Alien, Aliens and Alien^3, respectively. You couldn't find three more different directors.
In Alien ^3, Fincher wants you to think he's cool. In Aliens, Cameron wants you to see the movie three times at the theater, tell all your friends how terrific it is, then buy the video the day it comes out. And in Alien, Scott wants you to eat sh*t and die. Cameron and Scott succeed, Fincher fails.
Or maybe: Scott is NYC, Cameron is LA, and Fincher is Seattle.
How about: Scott is a Lamborghini, Cameron is a Lincoln Navigator, and Fincher is a Prius with a Hummer hidden in the garage at home.
Alien^3 just doesn't make it. Its grim penal colony is a boring cliché. The script is lame. Because of it, Sigourney Weaver gives her weakest performance in the Alien series.
Alien^3 tries to be pretentious and fails even at that. Skip over this one and move on to Alien Resurrection, which might not be up to the standards of the first two but still towers above Alien^3.