Scary. Bold. Triumphant.

Rating: 9/10 (11 June 2012)

Alien was fantastic. Aliens was amazing. And for David Fincher's first ever film, he did a rather fantastic job. Alien 3 is still one of the scariest, tense, and satisfying film I've seen in quite some time. For a movie fanatic, Alien 3 is one of those films that sticks with you, whether you liked it or you hated it. I of course gobbled this one right up. The ending particularly was somewhat satisfying and heroic.
As the third installment to the 'Alien Quadrilogy' (or now 'quintology', now that Prometheus has landed) Ripley survives a brutal crash-landing on a foreign planet that is used to keep in some of the most dangerous convicts off of earth. What she's unaware of, is that an alien egg from the previous film has landed in her ship (most likely from the queen) has impregnated another organism on the planet, and has created a very lethal, hungry, and peeved off son of a *beep*.
Sigourney Weaver returns to the role of female protagonist Ellen Ripley, and even has calm affections for the medical doctor, Clemens, played by the wonderful Charles Dance. Ripley strikes me as a god like figure; the entire fact that she descended from the sky, and changed everything about these men, who have seek-ed god in the shaft of their ruin. She tells them to stand and fight back, in the time where a great evil is upon them. At the end, she takes the position of crucified, very much like the human race has pinned her to the cross. So there was a lot of religious references, which made it out to be more of a human apocalyptic movie, rather than a story about motherhood. And of course, the movie is also about the human soul, in terms of Ripley's soul infected by an evil that has grasped her heart.
The dialog was great- I particularly liked listening to Dillon's speech, especially towards the final act. Speaking of which, there was a lot of climax, and the tunnel sequence especially was adrenaline rushing, as well as it being the scariest scene in the film. We see more of the alien, as a kind of scary, jack-o-lantern, spindly lethal creature, that could very easily hibernate in your closet wardrobe. I also loved Sigourney's ability to seem powerful in scene with out the Alien- and even show her vulnerability during Clemens' death scene; which was such an iconic ten seconds, and tense, as you were completely clueless as to what would happen next. Aside from the fact that you couldn't tell one bloody prisoner from the other, I really did enjoy this movie more than I can say. Alien Resurrection did make this movie seem better, in a way. It made Alien 3 more climactic, somehow.
This film really is a worthy master piece, and should be acknowledged in all great movies.