Both Ridley Scott's Alien (1979) and James Cameron's Aliens (1986) are fantastic films despite being vastly different from one another. Alien is predominantly a horror, whilst Aliens is much more of a straight-up action film. David Fincher's Alien 3 (1992) attempts to be both of these things at once and fails on both accounts. The feeling of paranoia and claustrophobia that Scott implemented so well into Alien are lost, while the action scenes in the film are the worst possible thing action scenes can be; they're boring. The film lacks any real identity. To be fair, it looks like an Alien film. It feels like an Alien film. But unlike the first two in the franchise it doesn't have its own identity, and this is a real problem for the film. Many of these problems can be put down to the studio interference that plagued the film's production, but for this review I will be discussing the film on its face value.
It isn't all bad though. Sigourney Weaver is still great playing Ellen Ripley (who at this point is as synonymous with the franchise as the titular alien), and both Charles S. Dutton and Charles Dance put in good performances as Dillon and Clemens respectively. However, the rest of the characters are very forgettable, even if they are well performed. The biggest crime in this regard is the absolute waste of Pete Postlethwaite, who has all but ten lies in the film. Its genuinely a travesty. Despite the problems with the majority of the characters in the film the film is directed well (unsurprisingly as Fincher is a fantastic Director) and the set design is brilliant. It does give the feeling of an alien film whilst also remaining clearly a David Fincher film. But the strongest part of the film is easily the practical effects. Just like its predecessors, the practical alien effects are unbelievable in how believable they are, if that makes any sense. The xenomorph is one of the best designed aliens in film history and whenever it is on screen in its practical from is when the film is at its strongest. And yet the alien the alien is also the biggest problem with the film.
For a start the alien is not on screen nearly enough. The ante that was upped in Aliens is dropped almost entirely back to just one Alien. At this point in a series like this you have to understand that people are not going to be surprised by the alien any more. The idea of keeping it in the shadows so as to keep the suspense doesn't work when there have been two films beforehand and everyone watching the film knows what the alien looks like. However, the fact the alien is not on screen to much is understandable when the CGI comes in. If the practical effects are truly spectacular, then the CGI on this thing is dreadful. Seriously dreadful. It is astonishing that this was released only one year before Jurassic Park (1993), a film whose CGI still holds up today, and yet the CGI in this film is atrocious. I can't even begin to do it justice you have to go and just see it for yourself, it’s quite incredible.
David Fincher is a brilliant director and so it is hard to see how this film went so wrong. I have already mentioned the studio interference and that no doubt had a huge effect on the film. But, like I said earlier in the review, you have to take the film at face value and what the film offers at face value is below par. Not terrible but poor. It is not helped of course by the fact that it is preceded by two films which are seen by most people as classics in the sci-fi genre and both their respective directors working at the top of their game. Alien 3 unfortunately sees Fincher working at his worst but take head in the knowledge that since this film Fincher has gone on to become as big a name in Hollywood as both Ridley Scott and James Cameron. He has become so praised in film circles that it comes as a huge surprise that he directed this in the first place. So, I cannot recommend this film. Despite it not being a terribly made film in pretty much all respects except the CGI, there is just very little substance and it is just a film that is kind of there. Existing just to exist. The series should have stopped after Aliens as this film adds very little to two classic films that came before it.