Unsettling, atmospheric character study.

Rating: Null/10 (2 June 1999)

Ellen Ripley awakens from hypersleep to find herself crash-landed on a prison planet, her human companions killed. Her non-human companions, on the other hand...
ALIEN 3 marks David Fincher's feature debut, and he has created a film that is very dark, atmospheric, and more unsettling than actively frightening.
Sigourney Weaver plays Ripley a third time, and gives a note-perfect performance. Charles S. Dutton plays a prisoner who becomes Ripley's ally, and is also dead-on every step of the way.
ALIEN 3 shows the progression of Ripley as a character. In the first film, we see Ripley as the ship's warrant officer. It is her job to enforce company policy, as illustrated in the airlock scene ("Yes, I read you, the answer is negative...") In ALIEN 3, we see Ripley confronted by Aaron, a "company man", and her own violent reaction to the same mindset she espoused in the original.
Despite the criticisms of ALIEN 3, it is more of a groundbreaking film than either of the previous films. ALIENS in particular not only borrowed heavily from Heinlein's "Starship Troopers" but also was grounded firmly in the Rambo aesthetic of the 1980's.
ALIEN 3, on the other hand, is in direct contrast to the popular science fiction of its time. ALIEN 3 depicts an all-too-believable universe, where there is no Force, and no Prime Directive. The innocent suffer, strength and courage sometimes fail, and no one gets out alive. ALIEN 3 tells you to put away your Starfleet uniform and your lightsaber, and to grow the hell up.