‘Alien 3’ (1992): The Least Fun Sequel Ever

Directed by: David Fincher || Produced by: Gordon Carroll, David Giler, Walter Hill

Written by: David Giler, Walter Hill, Larry Ferguson || Starring: Sigourney Weaver, Charles S. Dutton, Charles Dance, Danny Webb, Ralph Brown, Brian Glover, Paul McGann

Music by: Elliot Goldenthal || Cinematography by: Alex Thomson || Editing by: Terry Rawlings || Country: United States || Language: English

Running Time: 114-144 minutes

Not many people, including yours truly, knew what to make of David Fincher’s directorial debut with the second Alien (1979) sequel in 1992. Most people, again including myself, didn’t understand it and then largely rejected it, in retaliation for the film’s stark rejection of the accomplishments, character developments, and themes made famous by Cameron’s 1986 film. Alien 3 was a movie that took everybody by surprise, because we all had decided that we wanted another film like Aliens (1986) since that movie was so damned fun. However, years worth of endless script rewrites, director changes, and a long, painstaking trip through a veritable development hell that, among other things, left then first-time director Fincher so scarred from the agonizing production process he quit filmmaking for a time and has since disowned the film — all that ensured that the next sequel in the franchise would be quite unlike anything anybody had seen before.

In many ways, it’s a miracle that any new Alien film emerged from the studio clusterfuck at all. As it turned out, the massive missed potential and slap in the face that was the unceremonious off-screen killing of Michael Biehn’s Dwayne Hicks and Carrie Henn’s Newt in the opening scenes was the least of our worries. The production history of the third Alien movie is the stuff of legend, one of the worst examples of filmmaking collaboration and teamwork (or lack thereof) in Hollywood history. It is now accepted that Fincher, while still learning the ropes of major studio filmmaking in his transition from shooting music videos, deserves a pass on Alien 3’s poor performance in light of Fox studio executives’ abhorrent interference in the film’s creative process and disrespectful lack of trust in their director.

Charles S. Dutton (center) leads the devoutly religious criminal group on Fiorina ‘Fury’ 161.

In 2003, a major act of contrition came about in the form of a new version of the second Alien sequel, known as the “Assembly Cut.” Although Fincher refused to be involved in or to have anything to do with the project, the Assembly Cut largely restored most of Fincher’s original creative decisions on the film and added roughly 30 minutes of critical footage. The end product was a film that is far more watchable and coherent than the 1992 theatrical release, with various minor characters no longer disappearing with no explanation and a narrative progression that actually made sense. This is what most fans consider the “definitive” version of Alien 3, and in many ways, restores much needed credibility to the Alien saga’s final chapter.

Fincher imprinted his signature on the Alien franchise by making Alien 3 a hopelessly bleak psychological drama. The movie is by far the darkest of the series, both in terms of mood and actual lighting. The film features Sigourney Weaver’s overarching series protagonist, Ellen Ripley, in her darkest moments and at her most hopeless. The ending, while in some ways a bittersweet relief and poignant wrap-up of the franchises’ overarching narrative, is ultimately tragic and incredibly sad. All contrasts with Cameron’s space marine-epic aside, Fincher’s dark conclusion to the series is haunting.

Similar to Predator 2 (1990), where Alien 3 stumbles is in its supporting cast. The role players here can’t compare to the powerhouse lineup from Cameron’s film. Not only are most of the prisoner characters on Fury 161 identical in personality, with everybody being weird, crude, and not relatable in any way, but everybody looks the same too, and you can’t tell one grimy, baldheaded guy from the next. Charles Dance’s Clemens is an obvious deviation from this trend of uninteresting characters, and Dance plays him quite well, making him one of the few new faces in Alien 3 that the audience can connect with. Unfortunately, his character is killed off before he make any lasting impact in the story. The lone interesting supporting character whose connection with the audience yields some sort of payoff is Charles S. Dutton as Dillon. Unlike the rest of the prisoners, Dillon’s character is explored in detail and his relationship with Ripley goes somewhere by the end.

From a more general standpoint though, the film is quite accomplished. The Assembly Cut is well paced though now longwinded at 144 minutes (the shorter, narratively shakier theatrical cut is better paced), while the atmospheric lighting, camerawork, and set-design are terrific despite the general drab, monotonous palette. The dank, dirty prison setting feels alive, and Fincher’s eye for cinematic detail transforms the otherwise ugly environments into an eerily captivating backdrop for the bleak narrative. Perhaps the most surprising strength is the musical component of the film; Alien 3’s score, composed by Elliot Goldenthal, is a haunting ensemble of vocal, orchestral, brass, and percussion soundscapes that perfectly capture the mood and dark themes of the story, cementing Alien 3’s soundtrack as the best in the series.

As far as creative additions to the alien mythology go, however, Alien 3 doesn’t do much. The main contribution to the mythos is the idea that the Xenomorph partially adapts the genetic makeup of its host, in that depending on the species of its host, the fully metamorphosed adult will look and move slightly different. The host for the alien monster in Fincher’s film is not a human this time, but rather an animal— a dog in the theatrical release, and an ox in the Assembly Cut. As a consequence of its gestation in these organisms, the Xenomorph antagonist in Alien 3 is quadrupedal, lacks dorsal spines, and “gallops” rather than runs as a bipedal humanoid. This choice to make the Xeno’s movements and overall frame more “animalistic” is a nice change-up from the older antagonists, but the overall quality of the alien FX are far, far below the standards set by Alien and Aliens.

Easily the most recognizable shot in the film: The titular alien examines a terrified Ripley.

In the end, though, Alien 3 is in many ways misunderstood, and it deserves credit for ending the series in such sophisticated, ballsy fashion (we’ll get to Alien Resurrection [1997] next time). The third act of the Alien franchise makes mistakes for which it should be held accountable, but dismissing Michael Biehn’s and Carrie Henn’s fan-favorite characters is not one of them. I may still to this day disagree with the creative decision to dial back the series’ focus on just Ellen Ripley, but I cannot in good conscious mark the film down for not being “Aliens 2.”

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SUMMARY & RECOMMENDATION: Alien 3 rides high on yet another powerhouse performance by Sigourney Weaver as Ellen Ripley, while technically the film is more than capable, displaying an excellent setting and mise-en-scène for the film’s thriller genre. Everything from the atmosphere to the set-design to the film’s score in particular are well done.

— However… most of the supporting cast is bland, and are a far cry from the memorable team in Cameron’s film. Charles Dance is shamelessly wasted as Clemens, and the special FX are disappointing.

—> RECOMMENDED, Assembly and Theatrical Cuts included; though the former is more cohesive than the latter, it’s still flawed, perhaps too long, and retains the shortcomings inherent to major Hollywood studio meddling.

? We’re all gonna die. The only question is when. This is as good a place as any to take our first steps to heaven.