Echoing the sentiments of many IMDb users, Alien 3 lacks the tension of Alien, the excitement of Aliens and is quite simply unworthy of your time

Rating: 4/10 (30 April 2014)

It's quite clear that Alien 3 was trying to replicate a similar approach to Alien. I believe the intention was to try to create an atmospheric tense experience as we saw in the first film. The problem is that Alien 3 not only failed in this respect, but it also failed in nearly every other area important to good film making. I'll attempt to explain the problems one by one;
Firstly, the very fact that Ripley ends up being held on a prison planet which is filled with murderers and rapists automatically makes it difficult to fully invest in the characters or their causes. The one aspect that made Alien & Aliens work is that you always felt that there was an element of teamwork. Alien with Ripley and the salvage crew and Aliens with Ripley and the marines. The very fact that Ripley works with good people in both films makes it easier to root for her causes and to care about the characters. There were a number of characters in Alien 3 that were vile towards Ripley and towards each other. As a result of this I just found myself becoming more and more detached from the film. Aside from this I found the characters annoying in this film and at times I felt like throwing something at the TV.
The fact that the scriptwriters chose to kill off Charles Dance's character (who was arguably the only character who was fairly likable) seemed strange especially as a bit of effort had been made to establish him as a likable character. Brian Glover who portrayed prison governor Andrews is a good actor (he'll be well known to UK audiences for his portrayal as dim witted prison inmate Heslop in UK sitcom Porridge). To me, his performance in Alien 3 at times felt a bit 'hammy' and over the top. He was good, but I suppose I expected more from a talented actor such as Glover.
One thing I did like was Fincher's direction and this is something that I've appreciated in every film of his that I've seen. The shots where the Alien is chasing the prisoners towards the end were particularly impressive. It's just a shame that the script was somewhat 'patchy'.
Alien 3 was clearly trying to emulate Alien in terms of approach, but it feels very much like a poor man's version. The problem is that it's too similar in approach to the first film - the set up with the Alien picking them off one by one was identical to the first film. The only 'hook' with this film is how they are going to beat the Alien. Alien 3 is generally devoid of tension, boring for the most part with a lot of despicable characters thrown in the mix. The final 15-20 minutes were fairly good, but for me it was too little too late. All in all, an underwhelming experience that I simply cannot recommend.