Hated it, began to dug it... Now I freakin' love it!

Rating: 9/10 (30 August 2006)

This has, in no doubt, been discussed to death but what the hell, here's my 2 cents. I first saw Alien 3 on a dodgy VHS copy sometime in 1993 and totally hated it. I was an 11 year-old kid who had some vague idea of the cultural relevance of Alien and totally dug the kick ass marines of Aliens but Alien 3 seemed like a waste of time. Then a couple of years later I caught it again on a TV release and began to warm to it slightly. Since then I saw it a few more times and the characters began to make sense but then, and thank you Fox for the genius to release the set, I finally saw that genius Fincher at work properly on the extended version in the quadrillogy set. Awesome! OK, OK, so there are plot holes here and there - did it burst outta a dog or an ox? How come Golic changes accent so abruptly? Was Bishop 2 human or android? And of course where the hell did that egg come from? But IT REALLY DOESN"T MATTER! Now I can appreciate the characterisation, the fear, the weakness of the prisoners, and the vile planet for what it is. And gee's, the alien is the best yet, not to mention the incredible puppetry (I thought for years it was CGI it was so hot). So, OK, I wish the extended edish would have had the queen burst at the end as the theatrical version did, and without the dodgy falling effect, and also Fincher shoulda had the chance to truly make his vision, but if that's all I can pick at it now from going form totally hating it, I've gotta say that's a minor. All I can say is if you haven't seen this in a while go check it out, especially the extended edish - and for the love of God forget Resurrection or AVP. Alien 3 is the best of the lot and that's why it gets 9/10