Beggars Can't Be Choosers

Rating: 7/10 (25 January 2009)

Alien 3 gets put down a lot of the fans of the Alien series. I think this is mainly due to the depressing opening and sad ending. I myself love Alien 3 for that reason.
To simply put: beggars can't be choosers. Whenever I watch a movie, I watch it with an open mind as to what the atmosphere will resemble and how the movie will play out. I don't go in expecting a movie to be one particular way, which may be why I like so many movies.
Alien 3 takes place after Aliens left off. The surviving members of the squad in the previous film (while asleep) crash into a distant planet. No one survives except for Riply. The planet turns out to be one big prison for serial murderers and rapist, which may be another reason why the film is so reviled. You can count the number of likable characters on one hand.
Sigourny Weaver (who helped quite a bit in the production of the film) plays Riply better than any other film in the entire series. She is developed as a strong character surrounded by men who would like to do nothing but rape and kill her... that is until she earns their respect.
Of course, an Alien was what caused the ships crash landing. Therefore, an Alien is loose on the prison planet. The Alien in Alien 3 looks absolutely terrible. While some of it is done with excellent puppet work, there are multiple shots of the Alien done with some poorly done CGI. This not only took me out of the movie; It was downright distracting. It was obvious they were aware of this behind the scenes, as the movie is filled with more alien POV shots than you can shake a stick at. The action scenes themselves aren't that spectacular either, although there are still quite a few suspenseful scenes.
The movie also relies heavily on the gross-out factor. This is a good thing and a bad thing. I know that the movie wouldn't be as enjoyable if it had less gore than what it had, but just the fact that it needed it wasn't a good thing either.
To simply put: I can understand the hatred that revolves around this movie, but it's still not the worst in the series. The movie is also very good as a stand alone movie. Great performances all around.
The movie falls flat when it comes to being uplifting and creating likable characters, but it still gets a recommendation.