criminally under-rated

Rating: 9/10 (22 January 2004)

By a narrow margin, this is actually my favorite entry in the Alien series. Maybe it's because I recognize all the British actors from "Withnail & I" and "Doctor Who," and I get nostalgic...but I think there's more to it than that.
I prefer the notion of one all-powerful Alien creature to the hordes of mindless drones that appeared in "Aliens." I also quite like the strange cast of characters on display here - the soft-spoken doctor played so well by Charles Dance, the hapless "85," and Charles S. Dutton's bad-a** preacher man. They're so much more distinctive than big bunches of marines, and even the Nostromo crew members in the first "Alien" film. So I care more, here, when people die.
Granted, the special effects are a bit lacking - there's none of the action spectacle of "Aliens" in this film, and the creature itself looks obviously animated in far shots. But the sets are truly stunning, and the level of violence is balanced pretty well - it's more frightening than gross.

The longer special edition, available now on DVD, actually hurts the movie a bit - I prefer the leaner, meaner original. And I don't particularly care that the director has disowned the film in all its versions - since he went on to direct rubbish like "The Game" and the forceful but too-grotesque "Fight Club," I think we can dismiss his opinion and just enjoy "Alien 3" ourselves...