An Excellent Film

Rating: 9/10 (1 July 2006)

This Review refers to the Assembly Cut of Alien 3 (possible spoilers within)
I recently purchased the Alien Quadriolgy (19.99 at HMV, get it while you can) and watched the Assembly Cut of the film. This was the first of the series I was keen to re-watch. I did like the theatrical cut and thought it had good elements but lacked something that would allow itself to be immersed totally into the previous two films (forget Resurrection and its camp comic-book rubberyness) I also didn't care for many of the characters first time around. However, these elements can be found in the re-cut - as it was meant to be seen. The opener of Ripley being found on the beach and Clemens discovering her body on an alien, grey world where even the beach looked extraterrestrial and unwelcome set the mood perfectly. Characters that previously represented simple fodder for the Alien were fattened out like calves to the slaughter. A notable example of this is Golic (a superb Paul McGann) who as one of the more deranged prisoners, forms strange relationship with the Alien increasing its spookiness ten fold when it gives him a blood stained grin after killing two his comrades, suggesting to me that it might have exerted control over him. Why Fox decided to edit these scenes is beyond me, perhaps a lack of simple intelligence? There are also numerous cuts that lasted only seconds in length, but added welcome tension to certain scenes such as Clemens death.
The foot stamping childishness of 'Aliens' fanboys (suspiciously under the 18 age certificate or R rating recommended) that moan about Hicks and Newt's death (Ripleys surrogate family) is simply tiresome. It was a shock they died indeed, but all the better for it. I want a horrific opener, I want grizzly out comings. The First Alien film was so Freudian in its approach that it was going to be hard to follow-up as a psychological horror flick. Nobody wanted multiple giant phalli, and vaginal like eggs that germinated body raping beasts en-mass in a retro-futuristic landscape. No, that would be excess. Instead we have Aliens en-mass except, you guessed it, with guns. Almost as though Cameron was so scared of the first film he decided to sleep with a revolver under his pillow for evermore, a truly American film. If you're scared of it... shoot it. However, I loved Aliens; it's certainly a film and a world that draws you in. It encapsulates the horror of what the Alien was (despite removing the more pshycho sexual elements to its design) but also imbues with it with a childish sense that all things can be solved with firearms. This not having necessarily the same sense of vulnerability and possible fear of invasion that the first and third represented.
Dillons' character is fleshed out more with added room allowed for his religious ranting and the redemptive piousness of the convicts (Does one of the convicts sacrifice himself out of guilt for his attempted rape of Ripley?) It only serves to underline the analogy of the Alien with Death and Sexuality. Whether this is intended at all or not might be moot. Or it could just be about a monster with a head shaped like a penis and creatures that impregnate people who die when they give birth The re-cut splits the firestorm scene into two parts as in the original they manage to capture the Alien. Indeed, There are some dubious effects shots, but this is forgiven, as they are not often and limited in length. The cinematography is gorgeous, comparable to Derek Vanlint's/Scott's' in Alien. Whilst less of a genre leap than Cameron was willing to attmempt, the pshychological undertones of the first Alien are developed upon here with a religious, sacrificial or Messianic emphasis placed upon certain characters. The score of Alien3 is poignant in all the right places, especially in Ripley's suicide (also better cut here than the theatrical release), though it might be a little harsh to say slightly overblown in its sudden key changes in some sequences.
All in all Alien was only a B-film in the hands of ingenious and highly creative people, but it did present us with a side to our imagination that was pure horror, stuff of nightmares and good literature. This tradition has since sorely been trampled by the 'Alien vs Predator' film and, to some extent, 'Alien Resurrection'. Fincher's effort was a brave attempt/success to regain that sense of horror and fear that the first film captured so beautifully.
It's a shame Fincher has lost his enthusiasm for the film after his battle with Fox
Fincher, be proud!