First if all, theatrical version=poopoo. Special Edition=On par. The special edition/assembly cut (whatever people like to call it) does a much better job at depicting the lives of the prisoners before Ripley arrived and turned everything to shizzle. For instance, the scene where the two prisoners are towing the dead ox, they're bantering and breaking balls, unaware of the horrors about to befall them; the scene with Tywin walking in solitude on the beach before he finds the EEV, him clearly being one who has lost his place in society and, despite being quite capable and intelligent, relegates himself to tending to lowlifes, which in turn mirrors the quasi-religious life that all the lost souls on the prison planet have adapted to bring meaning to their own painful existence, which also mirrors how Ripley has lost everything to the Alien, and struggles to find meaning in this prison shït-hole, what with Newt, Hicks and Bishop gone; the montage where Ripley and the prisoners band together to trap the Alien and, once again, the prisoners are bantering and unionizing to banish evil (all that scene was missing was Eye Of The Tiger). It's all quite beautiful (much like the cinematography, which is some of the best I've ever seen).
And that BS in the theatrical where the Alien pops out of her chest while she's falling? I've seen less laughable death scenes on Mystery Science Theater 3000. It's much more dignified for her to just fall into the lead, on her own terms. Although, that effect looks like shît. In both versions. But that's nitpicking!
It might sound like I'm being sarcastic, but I'm not. The only thing wrong with alien 3 is that it's called "alien 3". If it had been an original movie, instead of a sequel to two very different movies, it would have done much better. When they sell the movie as "Sigourney Weaver as Ripley lands on prison planet with Xenomorph on board", people have certain expectations. Whereas if the the tagline was "Mysterious woman lands on prison planet with mysterious alien on board (totally not a Xenomorph, btw) and has to adapt to the hostile inhabitants, whilst also warning them of the danger they're in", it would be very compelling. It's a good movie with polarized characters that band together to fight a common enemy. I love it.
Special effects suck, though. Looks like something out of a 90's videogame cutscene. Nitpicking!
IMDb Boards RIP 2017
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