Better than people give it credit for even if it strays a little too much toward the original.

Rating: 6/10 (20 March 2008)

I suppose with the benefit of hindsight, I can see exactly what director David Fincher was trying here. We all know him for his Se7en's, Fight Club's and his Zodiac's but this really does work as an early piece of bleak cinematography and eerie suspense from the man. There is a lot of hate for Alien³, partly because it resembles the first Alien so much and probably partly also because it does not resemble the second Alien film enough. But to dislike it due to its lack of covering new ground is more of a compliment to Alien and its original, brilliant approach than it is a criticism of Alien³ because whilst this isn't better than '1', it is better than '2'.
I did not enjoy Cameron's fast, action packed shoot 'em up attempt at an Alien film the first time I saw it and with subsequent viewings, it slips even further down the ladder of quality. There was just no heart and no attempt at trying to scare us  it was merely a bunch of uninteresting, annoying marines shooting monsters. But Alien³ tones things down; it calms the viewer and allows us dialogue to listen to; situations to arrive and be dealt with whilst allowing certain characters to die either tragically or unexpectedly. In Aliens, there would be a gunfight; a death and some silly one-liners afterwards  this would be repeated for the film's duration. Alien³ does not allow us dumb action rightly so until the film's finale and even then, the action is not dumbed down; it is a sequence where the prisoners must use their logic in trapping the beast so that they may succeed  the idea to ban all guns from the film is a bold and brilliant one and one that is said so early on in the office as a sort of way that allows Fincher to announce his ideas: "this will not be like the previous film: there are no guns on this particular planet."
But then again, Fincher cannot direct action too well anyway. His subsequent films include little to no action but they get across a feeling that you have just seen something rather stunning anyway. The finale in Se7en is not an action set piece but a twist that makes you feel you've just seen something incredible; the twist in Fight Club hits you in a way that again forces you to come to terms with the revelation whilst making you feel you've just seen an amazing action set piece. But Alien³ is a Fincher film that has a few death scenes sprinkled in it throughout without ever feeling like it will suffice as guilty entertainment - Fincher knows suspense and gets the balance right. There are some scenes early on involving a suspicion Ripley (Weaver) has; the subsequent autopsy and nearer the end when nobody knows where the Alien is in the tunnels. To me, these scenes suffice and act as more entertaining and more interesting viewing than out and out gunfire action.
With this in mind, whenever death scenes do occur they do so in a sudden and disorientating manner which is a neat idea for a film to do but when it is handled by someone like Fincher who is more of a suspense director, it can fall flat. Consequently, a scene in which a couple of explosions go off for some reasons and people go flying all over the place, it seems a little heavy handled and sloppy, but it only ever happens once until the finale which like I said is more logic and camera than one-liners and gunfire. Directors such as Spielberg in Jaws, Saving Private Ryan and Munich as well as Scott in the first Alien can get the balance right between suspense and action and here, Fincher gives it a good go.
There is also that reoccurring idea to do with gender and sexuality. Ripley and the last few members of the crew from Aliens have crashed onto a planet inhabited by male prisoners. There is a scene which challenges what these prisoners want, sexually, with how much they want it. The lead warden (rather foolishly?) announces a woman is in the establishment but the woman is Ripley who of course embodies very masculine traits; this is further emphasised when she shaves her head, shedding any femininity that remains  this challenges the male prisoners, some of whom have been established as rapists: do they still want the woman if the woman is not 'like' a woman? These ideas also pay reference to the character of Vasquez in the previous Alien film.
There may be the notion that Alien³ is very much like Alien what with its idea behind there only being one beast to contend with and a crew in an confined space without any weapons. There is also a hard bodied, strongly willed black character who is clearly (in a positive ethnic representation) the only one who wants to fight, echoing the character of Parker in Alien. But the film is not bad; the sets and cinematography are good and whilst the deaths, action and the surprising amount of British prisoners is iffy, Clemens' relationship with Ripley acts as a sweet distraction and the film does its job overall. The only thing that had me truly puzzled was why we saw the world from the Alien's POV in this film  I do not recall that having been done previously and cannot work out the theory (if any) behind this.