An ugly, depressing mess.

Rating: 1/10 (8 October 1999)

Calling this movie a disappoitnment is an understatement. "Alien 3" would be a bad movie on its own, but following the masterpieces that were "Alien" and "Aliens" makes it even worse.
"Alien 3" is a relentlessly grim movie. For starters, Newt and Hicks are killed off literally at the beginning. The two people who gave Ripley some much-deserved completion and happiness in her life at the end of "Aliens" are instantly killed. It's not a good sign when the audience is depressed before the opening credits are even over. The setting of the movie is really bleak as well. It's set on an abonened prison colony on a hot, lice-infested planer occupied by criminals who have formed some kind of religious cult. Ripley, like all the other occupants of the colony, are trapped on this planet with no way out. And as it turns out, an alien is right down there with them.
The hopelessness of the whole scenario and the fact that there are no likeable characters other than Ripley make this movie a real downer. The whole movie is real ugly to look at and badly lit. The inept direction and editing make the whole movie real confusing. The score is decent, but it hardly matches up to the excellent scores of Jerry Goldsmith and James Horner in the first two films.
Do yourself a favor and skip this movie as well as the next one in the series, "Alien Resurrestion." Watch the first two movies instead.