Alien³ (1992)

Directed by David Fincher. Starring Sigourney Weaver, Charles S. Dutton, Charles Dance, Brian Glover, Ralph Brown, Danny Webb, Paul McGann, Holt McAllany, Lance Henriksen, Pete Postlethwaite, Peter Guinness. [R]

Ripley (Weaver) is back, and so is that gooey monstrosity known as the Xenomorph, when a malfunction aboard her vessel causes it to to crash land on a penal colony planet populated solely by men, most of them violent criminals. This egregiously undervalued third chapter in the Alien saga does start out on an infuriating note by killing off all the survivors of Aliens except for Ripley (before the credits even finish rolling), but that kind of cold cruelty is actually the point of this bleak and despairing nihilistic nightmare where every major plot development sinks its hero and the audience further into the abyss (e.g., the gut punch around the halfway mark when the only sufficiently-developed character besides Ripley up to that point is killed off). The final act suffers from a lot of redundant chases through decrepit tunnels—sometime employing alien-POV—and it’s difficult to separate a lot of the minor characters since they all look and speak so similarly, but the performances are good, the prison drama elements and the deeper and darker themes are reasonably engrossing, and the production is bolstered by atmospheric sets and intuitive camerawork. In fact, it’s an Alien movie that’s at its best when the alien is offscreen! (And not just because the special effects used to bring it to life can sometimes be dodgy.) A generous step down from the two masterworks that preceded it, but worth a second look for anyone who dismissed it back in the day. Fincher’s directorial debut; he’s disowned the film because of his tremendous unhappiness in dealing with the studio constantly compromising his vision during the very difficult shoot. Note: consider this to be more of an analysis of the extended “Assembly Cut,” which added roughly a half-hour of material and is superior to the original in almost every way (the illogical change in the species of animal that the facehugger impregnates being the major exception).

82/100