Rating: 
Summary: Special Edition provides vindication...
Review: Apparently like so many others, I was somewhat disappointed with the theatrical release of Alien3. But this Special Edition, which provides us with the much needed footage that was forcibly cut from the film, is both enlightening and entertaining. Alien3 differs from its classic predecessors because it does not focus on the monster, but instead concentrates on the human journey. Like the prior two films, with the restored footage it is indeed a visual feast. I don't want to spoil the details for you, and prior reviewers here have already done an excellent job, so I'll just conclude by saying that Director Fincher has been vindicated with the release of this Special Edition. Alien3 is one of those rare films that actually becomes more appreciated as time marches on. Go ahead, and give this film a second chance by viewing this Special Edition - it's well worth your time and effort.
Rating:
Summary: A wooden planet? Com'on...
Review: A previous reviewer gave a brief description of the original Vincent Ward script for Alien 3. In it he mentions that Ward had Ripley crash landing on a wooden planet inhabited by monks who rejected technology and therefore they had no capability to fight the alien. The reviewer says that this script would have been "amazing". Yeah, amazingly stupid. A wooden planet??? This idea not only sounds stupid but it physically impossible. As anybody that knows anything about celestial bodies is that there's only two types of planetoids. Rock-based or Gas-based. Even a water or ice-covered planet has a rock mantle. If Alien 3 would have been made with this script, it would have been the laughing stock of an otherwise great franchise up to this point. But as Alien 3 turns out with Fincher's eventual direction, it not all that bad of a film. Yeah, the theatrical cut was a bit disjointed with loose ends and missing parts, but this is something that the new working print has supposedly fixed to some degree. While still not a perfect film, anything is better than this original wooden planet idea.
Rating: 
Summary: The Rodney Dangerfield of the film series
Review: Rodney Dangerfield has company. Alien 3 doesn't get any respect from most film critics or fans of the series. Is this tarnished reputation earned? Not exactly. The original project was botched from the moment Fox committed to a premiere date without a director, final script or solid concept. After director Vincent Ward (who came up with story elements that were used in the final version, hence his story credit), Renny Harlin and other directors passed, David Fincher stepped into the director's shoes. The story focuses on a prison planet where a few inmates left after most of the operation has been closed down. Ripley crash lands on the planet after a malfunction and is saved by the doctor for the prisoners. There are problems. The prison is made up of all men. Ripley provides temptation from the very moment she arrives. Of course, she had an uninvited passenger on the trip. A face hugger infects one of the animals on the planet. Ripley finds herself in a similar situation as before fighting for her life but this time those around her are almost as dangerous and homocidal as the Alien creature hunting them. FIncher hadn't directed a feature film before only commericals but had a solid grounding in film and optical effects (he got his start at ILM). When he came on board, the script hadn't been finished but he was forced to move forward with production due to an impending release date. Despite all this, he stylistically pleasing variation on Scott's original theme. Killing two charactes from the second film didn't win Fincher or the film any fans. Finally, during post-production the film was edited without Fincher's input at all. There are a number of marvelous performances in Alien 3. Charles Dance as the doctor lights up the screen and Charles Dutton captures your attention with his riveting portrayal as the religious leader of these converted murderers. There are also a number of great British character actors in the mix as well. The set pieces of the film work better than the film as a whole. The funeral sequence with its multiple exposures is a moving testament to the power of the film. It's brilliantly staged and shot. The Extended version here is superior to the final cut of the film. There's bits and pieces that fill in some of the enormous story gaps left by the botched theatrical cut of the film. The effects are occasionally subpar but the few scenes where they don't work can be overlooked. The atmosphere of the film is what sells it. Like Scott's original and Cameron's sequel, Alien 3 operates on its own terms. Fincher's well known for directing atmospheric and riveting thrillers and Alien 3, despite its imperfections, has much of the power of Fincher's other films (Seven, The Game). The extended workprint version reassembled here beats the theatrical version despite the unfinished quality of the film. Alien 3 still isn't a perfect film and, given the quality of the final script by Giler, Hill and Larry Ferguson, I don't know if it could ever have been a pefect film. It's got merit though and deserves a second look from fans. The extras are the same as what was on the Alien Quadrilogy boxed set from last year. Fincher chose not to participate in the making recutting of Alien 3 and, given his experience, who could blame him? As a result, there's no director's commentary from him. Key cast and crew members do give an interesting run down on the difficulties of completing the film. The documentary included on the making of the film was butchered prior to Fox releasing the film. 30 minutes of footage featuring very critical comments from Fincher made on the set and with cast and crew comments were cut. As they say, success has many fathers failure has none. Clearly Fox was hoping to soften the criticism of the studio in botching this release when it came out in theaters. It's a pity as it does provide more perspective. Picture quality for both versions is very good although the extended workprint has somewhat dicey sound quality for the sequences that were cut/not included on the original release. That's because the dialogue was never looped after production and some of it (particularly during a key scene involving Charles Dance)is almost inaudible. Although Alien 3 isn't the classic of its two predecessors, it has many brilliant sequences and performances that make it well worth viewing. Give it a second chance if you didn't like it the first time.
Rating: 
Summary: What could have been...
Review: Fox completely botched the entire Alien series with this piece of garbage. They basically stole Vincent Ward's ideas and butchered his script and made one hell of a mundane sci/fi film. The original Alien 3 story by Ward was that Ripley crashes on an artificial planet made out of wood. This wooden planet was home to exiled monks who rejected technology and instead of the monks we get predictable violent prisoners. The monks were all sexually attracted to Ripley but the Abbot of the monks wanted Ripley killed for he believed she brought the devil and that technology is what brought it to them, which they of course oppose. There would have been a scene where this Alien is chasing monks through a wheatfield and it adapts to its environment, becoming a chameleon and it would have looked like wheatstraw. Mindblowing, inventive ideas. The original idea for Alien 3 is AMAZING and I think this film should still be made. It was said that they couldn't make the wooden planet because it would defy the laws of physics even for hollywood. Also a hallucination scene of the alien gave it a "human element"...like Riley trying to save Newt in Aliens wasn't a human element? Fox just wanted to cash in quick and the fans got screwed over from what could have possibly been one of the most incredible science fiction films ever. Fincher actually saved 3 from being even worse than what it was. He had no control over this and he wasn't even working with a finished script throughout the film, entirely not his fault.
Rating:
Summary: Let Me Fill In The Infamous Plot Hole!
Review: The Face Hugger at the beggining in the EEV is a super-face hugger(shown from a distance in the extended Alien 3 version by a prisoner holding it up). It is much larger and has webbing in between its leg tentacles. The egg this face hugger came from was either carried by the queen and or laid by her at the end of Aliens. She doesn't need her egg sack to lay eggs, its just for extra protection for the eggs as they drop out. She could have even carried the egg containing the super-hugger on her back tentacle spikes, and left it on the drop ship(It never shows her from the back in Aliens until after she drops from hiding). Anyways, even though it is not fully explained in the movie, the script states that this super-hugger has the ability to lay a queen embryo in a host AND a warrior protector alien to defend her as she grows to her full size to lay eggs. So this super-hugger is unique and can produce 2 aliens instead of just the one. I know there are a lot of holes in this plot to cover, but this seems to be the most talked about one. Also, it takes days longer for the alien to pop out of Ripley because Alien Queens take much longer to grow before having all components to function on there own, without the warmth of a host. Hope this helps you understand the beggining. Not the best movie either, but light years ahead of Alien Ressurection.
Rating:
Summary: fills in all the gaps despite the jaggedness of the peices
Review: the special edition alien3 makes so much more sense than the theatrical version. having reinstated 30 minutes of footage- the character development end of this version is much more fleshed out and coherent. inexplicable scenes and dialogue now make sense and enhance the plot line of the original release. the beginning of the theatrical release does'nt "start" untill 15-20 minutes into the special edition, showing us what happened to each deceased character in greater detail than the "computer screen" image typing "cpl. duane hicks...deceased" to sum up where newt and hicks are. this scene also makes the prisinors salvage of the EEV more plausable and introduces the planet "fury 161" much more accurately than the two quick scenes in the theatrical release.
however, some of my favorite scenes were re-cut with different dialogue and or different settings which give more perspective but detract from the momentum of some scenes ("dillon's" 'last stand' speech for one) and make some transitions seem clunky. other scenes have been completely removed to allow for the special edition's sub plot lines to adhere (instead of a dog being the host in this version we have an ox birth the alien..(and the dog was a more convincing "burst out" scene in my opinion...) which in turn deletes the scene between the "diced" prisoner and his dog "spike" alltogether..."who would do such a thing to a dog?") all in all- i enjoyed this version more than the theatrical one (i acually learned more of the characters names and backstory's and cared when they died) but it would be nice to have a "hybrid" version of the two (kudos to the above reviewer) in which we could have the best (scenes) of both worlds. the special edition manages to fill in all the gaps- despite the jaggedness of the peices.
Rating:
Summary: Assembly Cut vs Original Theatrical Version
Review: The new "Assembly Cut" shows hints of what could've been before FOX ultimately took the film away from David Fincher and butchered it. I personally would've preferred a hybrid of the two versions, without a CGI alien, which just isn't scary. With the inclusion of the Rottweiler host subplot, which had much more of an emotional impact than that of the infected Oxen. An actual shot of the dead Newt in the EEV (shown only in the theatrical version), and the birth of the Queen at the end (again shown only in the theatrical version). Though the opening sequences on the beaches of the prison planet are astounding. There is also much more (needed) character development here as well throughout the body of the film and a major new subplot regarding the actual capture of the ALIEN. I admit that the original intended ending had a better optical effect. Everything is shown to scale and you actually see Ripley's body entering the molten lead and burning up. The revamped version, done at the last hour for the original theatrical version was more emotionally disturbing as Ripley grabs the Queen and embraces it, but was a bad optical effect because they did it rather quickly only a few weeks before the film was released. For this reason it was also terribly out of scale when it was redone. The film, nonetheless, as stated in Amazon's review above is still a flawed masterpiece. The extras are an obvious compromise to what the producer of this DVD wanted to show the fans. FOX executives cut over 30 minutes out of the interviews because it showed them in a very poor light and aimed responsibility of the film's failure when it was released theatrically toward them. It also detailed their mistreatment of Fincher, by all who witnessed it. The extras promise an in depth look into what went wrong, but then there are many fade outs (no doubt what was cut out). This is sad. No doubt a perfect example of the all-powerful Hollywood Machine that is FOX, and the probable reason Fincher declined to participate in this release.
Rating:
Summary: it's a very special film...but disappointing
Review: ok...when I was young after watching Aliens, I really can't wait for Alien 3. I always dreamt what it would be like. After I watched the movie, honestly it was a little disappointed. First, the other 3 survivors are gone, I really hope Newt came back on the 3rd movie. Anyway, it is ok. The overall story in Alien 3 is still good actually, just people like to compared to the previous two. I agree that the first two are better, cause they keep audience watching what's going on. In Alien 3, it doesn't keep me doing that. But it some points, this movie did very good that the other 3 Alien movie did not have. Such as it's dark, no weapon idea. In the story, it states a point of trust and believe. It's a very good idea in the film. Whether Ripley should trust Bishop, the trust between Doctor and Ripley. This is somehow a religious movie. I hate the most is the alien computer animation in some part, although it is a movie 11 years ago, but it is so fake in some parts. Why don't they just use the real one?
Rating:
Summary: No, not Ripley......MUST HAVE BEEN A DREAM....
Review: Remember in ALIENS ,how Ripley kept waking up in a cold sweat feeling her chest and slowly relizeing that it was all a nightmare, well this movie must have been that very nightmare she had. She dies and everyone she ever cared for is killed by the Alien. This movie must have been a nightmare, and that the real ending for this story was and will always be James Cameron's ALIENS. Yes, that sounds and feels a lot better.
Rating: 
Summary: A VERY STYLISH SEQUEL, BUT INFERIOR TO THE ORIGINAL MOVIES.
Review: 2 and a half stars for "Alien 3". David Fincher was the chosen one to direct the third installment of the "Alien" series, and even though Fincher proved to be a great director with the movies "Seven" and "Fight Club", he wasn't ready in 1992 to take care of a well respected franchise like this one. The highlight in "Alien 3" is without a doubt the cinematography: the dark photography, the sets, the atmosphere and the special effects are very, very good. But the weak spot in this film is the story: characters well known and beloved by the fans of "Alien" 1 & 2 are eliminated on this movie without the slightest contemplation, giving the impression that the first two movies were a useless effort, because in 10 minutes, these vital characters are ruled out of the franchise. Besides, the scenes are not interesting, the pace of the movie is uneven, and this time there are not characters that the audiences can care about. Without a doubt "Alien 3" is a good stylish exercise, but because is part of a legendary sci-fi franchise, the results should have been better to compete with the high level of "Alien" and "Aliens".
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