Film A mediocre standalone film, but a blasphemous sequel.
This film is not the worst film I've ever seen, but it is still appalling and redundant nonetheless.
The first two films were masterpieces. Brother-and-Sister feature-length productions that complement each other. The second not wanting to live in the first's shadow, went even further, mixing action into the horror and suspense story. It ended on a cautiously-happy note. And it worked splendidly.
"Alien Cubed" however, attempts nothing new. It gives you nothing back. It takes and takes, until your mind feels violated, and it begs the question "What the hell did you just make me watch?".
First of all, and this needs to be addressed - I do feel sorry for David Fincher. The guy worked hard to try and make it work, to try and salvage this unfolding disaster. But in hindsight (that's a treacherous thing I know), he should have stayed well away from this giant turkey. It was a mess. Like the old saying: "Too many cooks spoil the broth", there was simply too much executive meddling going on behind the scenes. Too many idiots working on-board that rivaled Little Nemo: Adventures In Slumberland for this to ever work.
I wish I could say that the film can stand as an historical example of how not to create a sequel, of how not to revive a franchise-zombie and how not to try to continue what James Cameron effectively concluded. Unfortunately Alien 3 cannot even have that distinction, it doesn't even get to Rot in Peace, because the movie industry is run by greedy buffoons who have no ideas and yet demand all the money, so they gave us Alien Resurrection and Terminator 3. My God. Those are some real grade-A stinkers.
The only way you could ever get any kind of enjoyment from this film, is if you somehow watched it before the first two, so you're allowed to develop a personal preference or bias towards it. Which is a retarded and senseless notion, I know. That's like, for example, insisting on watching "Back to the Future Part III" in the trilogy first, or "Rocky 5" before the first four. But sadly, that's what's required of you.
Avoid.
Film A Fitting end to a truly Awe-inspiring Science Fiction Series
It's a general rule of thumb that if you have an opinion, people on the internet will rip you a bunch of new holes in your body, so let me just say up front: This is only my opinion. If you hate Alien 3, hey, nothing wrong with that, we're all entitled to enjoy or dislike media for different reasons.
That having been said, in my opinion the Assembly cut of Alien 3 is on par with Aliens at least, and only slightly below the original Alien.
The characters are not given as much depth as, say, Hudson or Hicks, but even when glimpsed briefly they all stick out (Clemens and the Schizophrenic who believes the Xenomorph "Dragon" to be speaking to him) as individuals when I watch the film. The creature itself, while nowhere near as Majestic as the previous film's Hive-Queen or as menacingly Lovecraftian as the first film's drone, certainly serves its purpose well - I imagine a Queen or Warrior would have a harder time evading capture in that Prison Colony, much less successfully hunting down prisoners.
The Verse of the Alien Series reaches its climax here - we saw the everyday folk of this world in Alien, the Military and Upper-Class people in Aliens, and now we see the fringes of the society - the prison. And in line with the rest of the 'Verse, it is dark beyond dark. And it works.
Fincher's direction brings the scummy, hellish end of the Universe to visceral life. A Prisoner gleefully singing "In the Year 2525" falls into a fan, and the screen goes a filmy red. A character, just beginning to become likeable, has his head split open - but it's seen for only a split second before the Alien Parasite continues its hunting. The bodies of Newt and Hicks are cremated, a tragedy just beginning to end - and a new Xenomorph is born, a tragedy just beginning.
Would another one of the many Alien 3 Scripts have turned out better? Nobody knows. Maybe if William Gibson or Eric Red or David Twohy got their versions produced, we'd still be debating its value as violently as so many fans do with this film. Aliens would be, no matter what, a hard act to follow. But after seeing the Assembly cut, I can say I think Alien 3 is a fine ending to one of the greatest film series of our time, and I'm glad to have seen it.
Film This should not have been.
You have heard a more positive reception from the nice fellow below me, now hear me out. I did not care for this movie and honestly believe they should have stopped off at Aliens. Of course this is a contested sequel in and of itself so it helps to hear both the positiving praise and the negative diatribes against it.
Let it stand that I believe David Fincher to be a great filmmaker, but even the greats sometimes have some old shames behind them. The prisoners who make up the bulk of the cast are dull (and in a few cases mind-numbingly annoying) and their "interactions" merely serve as padding before they become xenomorph bait.
The reason that the audience as a whole cared so much for the casts of the previous works was due to the fact that they were a very small and scared group of likable characters, allowing the audience to sympathize with them and find their inevitable brushed with death all the more shocking and terrifying. The characters of this setting are primarily atoned prisoners, yes an atoned group, but criminal misogynists all the same, these individuals find the sudden arrival of Ripley to upset their balance and react with a degree of regressed shock that can only be described as misogyny, making it more difficult to actually care for them and simply see them as victims more befitting a slasher film.
All the same, I did not for this film, and any fans of Fincher's later works (as well as a number of fans of the original 2 films) would likely find this an awkwardly padded mess they would seek to avoid.
All the same keep in mind that mine is a more cynical and caustic mindset. There are individuals who will enjoy this film and I find no problem with that. I simply cannot share in that sympathy.
Film An Interesting Failure
I admit that I have a soft spot for Alien 3. It's the first of the Alien franchise I watched, which ignited a love affair with the rest of the series. That being said, I was never attached to the secondary characters like others were, and so the controversial opening sequence (where the majority of the crew from the previous film are killed off) never phased me.
What does annoy me is the rest of the film.
Make no mistake — 3 has some memorable moments, cinematography and character beats. The notion of Ripley being the Sole Survivor of her group in a planet of strange, hostile criminals could have mined a lot of drama from a better script, but the way it is (regardless of the version), it's a mediocre mess.
I echo David Giler's comments that the film devolves into "bald British men running around dark tunnels." Several characters are either short-shifted or rarely make an impact, while others exist as little more than cannon fodder for the dodgy CGI'd xeno in the third act.
Weaver, Charles Dance and Charles S. Dutton give it their all, but the visuals of the planet are largely let down by a murky plot that copies beats from the original film, a third act that is just as confusing as it is lethargic, and an ending that seems to go for heavy-handed symbolism over making the sacrifice actually meaningful — especially in context of the Expanded Universe and future film installments, which nullified the moment.
There's a lot of "what if's" surrounding David Fincher's vision of the film, or how any of the earlier scripts would have turned out, but I can only recommend watching this if you're going into the series with no baggage from the previous films. Otherwise, there's too much baggage here that will alienate long-time fans.