The worst of ALL Alien movies

Rating: 5/10 (1 May 2011)

As soon as a movie releases a sequel then their makers are catering to fans of the previous film. Nothing wrong with that. Look at what Jim Cameron did in ALIENS, who many swear is the best part of the series (I slightly prefer the brooding original).
ALIEN 3 picks up right after ALIENS ends; remember that Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) survives the brutal attack of not only one Alien monster, but many of them, including their Alien Queen. Ripley goes through hell trying to save Newt, a ten year old girl who is the only survivor of a human colony on the alien planet and one that reminds her of her daughter. So ALIENS ends with Ripley saving the newt, Corporal Hicks and Bishop, an android. They enter into hyper sleep hoping some company ship will pick them up. When ALIEN 3 begins we see shuttle carrying Ripley and the rest of the survivors crashing down into a planet that serves as a prison for the worst scum earth has to offer. Dead are Hicks, Newt and Bishop, which is a bummer because it rendered all the agony, pain and hell Ripley went through to save Newt and the crew in ALIENS pointless. So much for nothing! It's nice when a movie dares to be bleak and uncommercial, but like I said at the beginning of this review: if you're making a sequel you are catering to fans of the previous film.
While nicely made, ALIEN 3 is a throwback to ALIEN (the first movie) in the sense that director David Fincher tries to make a very claustrophobic atmosphere within the prison. As is to be expected, Ripley, who survives the crash, befriends the prison doctor but is not willing to tell him what terror her ship might have brought to the prison colony. As with the first movie, this time we only have one Alien creature. The last 30 minutes of the movie are a cross between the original Alien and Friday The 13th. To this day, I don't have the slightest idea why the Alien creature kills. It doesn't eat its prey (although one scene apparently wants to address this particular point), and none of the prisoners is taken to be cocooned. The FX of the Alien moving and running through the prison hallways have dated massively. It's obviously a CGI creature and a regular effect during the close ups.
David Fincher did a good job considering what he had in his hands. ALIEN 3 went through development hell, hiring many writers and it shows. Despite Fincher's abilities, ALIEN 3 is neither the roller-coaster ride of Jim Cameron's ALIENS nor the brooding and immensely frightening Ridley Scott original. To make things worse, there is an alternate ending, although I much prefer the original theatrical release.