Alien 3 (1992)

Genre

Action | Horror | Sci-Fi

Director

David Fincher

Country

USA

Cast

Sigourney Weaver, Charles S. Dutton, Charles Dance, Brian Glover, Ralph Brown, Paul McGann, Danny Webb, Lance Henriksen, Tom Woodruff, Pete Postlethwaite, Holt McCallany, Peter Guinness, Danielle Edmond

Storyline

After escaping from the alien moon, Ellen Ripley's (Sigourney Weaver) ship crash-lands on a maximum security prison. Only when a series of deadly events occur, she realizes that she brought along an unwelcome visitor.

Opinion

I love David Fincher. This is not the first time I say it, and it's not the last time either. However, I can't say his directorial debut was a bright one because "Alien 3" is a very disappointing sequel.

The first problem with this film is that it should have never happened. "Aliens" ended quite happily and should have stayed that way. Period. However, if they really wanted to make another film, they should have put more effort into it. Instead, the filmmakers delivered a flawed, stupid, and illogical story that completely ruins the ending of its predecessor. I mean, Ripley crashing on a planet of rapist? Who the hell have that dumb idea?

But the story, as lame as it is, isn't even the worst part of the film. The worst of all the things is that the filmmakers decided to kill off all the characters which survived from the alien moon, making Ripley the only survivor - I guess we are supposed the empathize with her - and replaced them with unsympathetic, undeveloped characters less interesting than snail racing. You don't find snail racing exciting, right?

Anyway, the final result is a film that it's basically a copy and paste of its predecessors, only worse, whose alien won't scare even a child, especially after having seen Ripley fighting the Mother in the previous entry. Also, it feels like Fincher tried to replicate Scott's claustrophobic atmospheres and his film's themes, without any luck though.

Now one would think the film makes up with wonderful visuals, but it didn't happen. The CGI alien wasn't bad for the time, but has aged terribly, and I liked it better in the other entries. As for the action, it is dull, unexciting and flat as a board.

There is a tiny positive note though. Although she is way less believable - and the dreadful script is to blame -, Sigourney Weaver still manages to do a decent job as she tries to carry the film by herself. But she is not supergirl and she can't save the film. And the fact that she is lacking the support she had in the first two films surely doesn't help.