An older perspective plus the special edition make this a great film!

Rating: 10/10 (28 November 2006)

I remember being one of those people who was left feeling utterly disappointed and downright miserable when this movie was first released. However, I'm older than I was back then and now understand the new direction this film had to be taken in. The special edition released is a vast improvement as well and even though David Fincher has pretty much disowned his entire involvement with this film, one can get a clearer picture of what he was trying to achieve had it not been for the powers that be ruining what could have been a great film. The special edition features a more appropriate alien birth in the beginning, several more scenes of character development are included, as well as a more subtle but improved ending. If this is what had been initially released, it would have been an almost perfect sci-fi trilogy. (The dreaded Alien Resurrection doesn't exist to me. I see with that one it was all about the money because there is nothing great about that film at all.) Alien 3 is a very emotional, religious and sacrificial journey. There is a lot of meaning behind it, and I love it now. Funny how your perspective can completely change over the years. I really appreciated the desolate prison planet and the sets that were used were very well done. Fox really messed up with this at first, but part of the wounds have been healed with this new release. This film stands alone at being something completely different but still featuring the same character of Ripley. It is not fair for people to try and compare this to Ridley Scott's Alien or James Cameron's Aliens. It would have been ridiculous and impossible to try and do the same thing over again. People also have to realize that not all stories have happy endings, but they can still be very effective just the same. I would love to see a prequel of some sort to this to learn what the exact origins of the Aliens are, but only if the film was done right. On the downside, I will say there are certain effects that are used throughout the film featuring the Alien that make it look rather cheap. 4 stars!