Alien 3: Director’s Cut
The first major work of the now legendary David Fincher is a relentlessly depressing exercise in a bleak and nilhilistic journey. Many fans (including myself) were pissed at the casual way the awesome characters of Hicks and Newt were killed off here, and Bishop basically reduced to the scrap heap, but it keeps with Fincher’s vision that everyone (including Ripley) is essentially doomed. I also had doubts how the ship’s computers couldn’t alert Ripley and Co to an alien’s presence onboard before she went into hypersleep at the conclusion of the last movie, but I guess that’s just how it is. What we get instead of the memorable casts of the previous films is a group of mostly anonymous prisoners who are all bald and (with the exception of Dutton) British. This definitely takes the viewer out of the film abit, as most of these guys are not well-known names with the exceptions of Dutton, Dance, and Posteltwaite. However, the overriding central theme of the movie, that these double YY chromosome prisoners who have adopted a Christian fundamentalist worldview, are put to their ultimate test of faith in the face of the Armageddon embodied by the alien, is utilized to its maximum potential, none moreso than in Dutton’s performance as the spiritual leader of the group. The religious subtext is very strong here, and effective as these men with no weapons at their disposal are shown to have to be willing to face this darkness to enter the Kingdom Of Heaven that they preach about, and Dutton does a fine job of explaining what’s at stake here. Dance as the doctor also gets to be Ripley’s love interest, and gives a nuanced, grounded performance, while Ralph Brown’s 85 proves to be the most sympathetic of the “company men” in the entire franchise. Obviously there are some serious pacing issues here, but the foreboding sense of doom that hangs over every scene and shot up until the end makes for an unsettling, but not necessarily entertaining experience. This is bleak, downbeat stuff, and a sure warmup for what was to come in Fincher’s career. The gore is quite good though, despite the series penchant for quick edits when the alien’s mouthpiece splatters someone’s head. But this isn’t a roller coaster ride like Cameron’s masterpiece or a suspenseful horror piece like Ridley’s original. This was (at the time) the end of the road for the franchise, and Fincher makes sure to let us know there is nothing pleasant about impending death, even if the rewatch value on this entry is remains quite low. In the end, easily the worst of the franchise, but not necessarily a bad movie either…
7/10