Stars: Charles S. Dutton, Charles Dance, Sigourney Weaver, Brian Glover, Lance Henriksen, Paul McGann, Brian Glover, Lance Henriksen

Director: David Fincher

Summary: Ripley finds herself the sole survivor of another alien attack. This time she finds herself on Fiorina 161, a penal colony... It is not long before Ripley realises that her doomed escape pod was contaminated with the alien. Now she is imprisoned on a planet where weapons are unavailable...

David Fincher's feature debut, ALIEN 3, picks up almost directly after the events in ALIENS, finding Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) frozen in suspended animation as her ship crashes on Fiorina 161, a prison planet. When awakened by the prison's staff, she discovers that she is the sole survivor of her crew. Trapped on a barren planet with convicts and no weapons of any kind, Ripley soon realizes that an alien was also on the ship and has survived. As the savage creature begins to massacre inmates, Ripley bands together with the remaining prisoners and attempts to destroy it by wits alone.
Filmed at a time when big guns and high technology dominated the screen, ALIEN 3 deserves commendation for its unique premise--battling a vicious alien creature with no weapons and almost no resources whatsoever. This scenario makes for an unusual and intriguing science fiction thriller that is also notable for Fincher's bleak industrial visuals; the film was nominated for an Oscar for Best Visual Effects.

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Reviewed by: philreyn
Posted on October 27, 2005 1:31 PM

As a stand alone film I may have said this film was just about OK, but as a follow up to Aliens I was very dissapointed. To set a standard as high as Aliens, and then to produce this suggests that the only interest was commercial gain. I can only think that Sigourney Weaver agreed to do this because she was allowed to produce. The director David Fincher had only previously made music videos. It was filmed in Britain, with a low key cast, small budget, and it shows. I believe Alien Resurrection was made as an apology for this.

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Directed by stylemaster David Fincher, who went on to greater things with Sevenand Fight Club, Alien 3was the least successful of the Alienseries at the box-office. Ripley, the only survivor of her past mission, awakens on a prison planet in the far corners of the solar system. As she tries to recover, she realises that not only has an alien got loose on the planet, the alien has implanted one of its own within her. As she battles the prison authorities (and is aided by the prisoners) in trying to kill the alien, she must also cope with a distinctly shortened life span that awaits her. But the striking imagery makes for muddled action and the script confuses it further. The ending looks startling but it takes a long time--and a not particularly satisfying journey--to get there. --Marshall Fine, Amazon.com

On the DVD: The clarity of the digital picture throws light into some of Fincher's darker recesses, but is unkind to the primitive computer animation (the CGI alien is never convincing). Compared to the AlienDVD there are few extras, although a "making of" featurette that covers all three movies is included.

Aspect Ratio:	2.35 Wide Screen, 16:9 Wide Screen
Main Language:	English
Region:	Region 2
Special Features:	Interactive Menus, Scene Access, Original Theatrical Trailer, Making Of Featurette
Subtitles:	Czech, Danish, Finnish, Hebrew, Hungarian, Icelandic, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Swedish
Year:	1992
Release Date:	May 15, 2000
Runtime:	110 minutes
Certification:
Catalogue Number:	05593 D V D
Keywords:	Alien, General, Wide, Screen, Fiction, Science, Horror, Sci, Fi
Genre:	Science Fiction