The Alien franchise has no shortage of talent at the helm in its history. With Ridley Scott directing the first installment and James Cameron creating an all-time great sequel, the franchise's lineage is nothing to sneeze at. When a young David Fincher stepped up as the director of Alien 3, it would seem on paper now that this would have been an indication of another great film. Constant rewrites and no consistent vision between writers, directors, and producers would make it just another forgotten sequel. But with even David Fincher disowning the film amid the production disaster that surrounded it, thirty years later, Alien 3 being considered a flop is only cemented.
As many fans of the Alien franchise knows, this film was such a disaster that even when creating the Alienquadrilogy box-set, Fincher wanted nothing to do with it. Not only did it change writers and directors multiple times, but there were reports from said writers, actors, directors, and even producers of the studio having massive control issues over the creative of the film and wanting to push it out as fast as possible. As a final product, this film isn't really the vision anyone had in mind. Instead, it's a mish-mash of everyone's vision which the creators attempted to make as cohesive as possible, leading to an okay film at best.
This in itself seems like it would have been impossible, with Fox ordering a year's worth of re-shoots after seeing the original rough-cut of the film. But shockingly, it doesn't come off as a complete trash heap of an Alien movie. Most likely, this is because Fincher himself is very controlling over his films in the creative process, even with Alien 3 being his first feature film after a career filled with music videos. Perhaps what the studio wanted was a young director who would have been easier to control. Many studios do this with major franchises, so the clash of creative control doesn't happen that was seen in the production of Alien 3. But even though David Fincher was a young director, he was the same perfectionist Fincher fans know and love today.
Despite its troubled production and lackluster reception, the film has created a cult following among fans of the Alien franchise. For the most part, it's for good reason. It was never really considered a terrible movie, it has just been met with mild reviews and disappointment. Considering the creative problems it had, mild reactions may have been the best-case scenario. But considering the masterworks that Ridley Scott and James Cameron had created, Alien 3 had tough expectations to live up to. There isn't really any David Fincher film that doesn't have something to really gawk at, as he is easily one of the most talented and perfectionistic filmmakers working today. His iteration in the famous franchise has some of the best visuals in any Alien movie. But the strength and weakness of Alien 3 are what make or break many other films: the ambition of the filmmakers and the desire for a quick paycheck from the studio.
Although Alien 3 shares the same skeleton as the original film — a group of people trying to survive a single Xenomorph while in an isolated and trapped space — this film looks and feels completely different from the others. But its attempt to do something new and separate itself is where it begins to hurt itself, especially since the studio gave barely any time for development. Most of it comes off as weak and undeveloped in execution. For instance, the film completely wipes its hands of Cameron's Aliens ending by needlessly killing Corporal Hicks and Newt in a gruesome and careless fashion. Michael Biehn himself has stated how disappointing it was seeing his character killed off in that way, let alone not be asked to return at all. It just comes off as too obvious that nobody really knew what to do with those characters.
Just comparing the differences between the theatrical cut and the "Assembly Cut" (rather than a director's cut at the request of Fincher himself) there are scenes that are completely different in every way. One of the bigger differences is the first sight of the facehugger and Xenomorph. In the theatrical release, the face-hugger attaches to an inmate's dog after it snoops around the wreckage of EEV carrying Ripley, Hicks, and Newt. The assembly only shows the face-hugger at a far distance, next to an ox that serves as the host for the Xenomorph rather than a dog. It's the first really noticeable difference between visions from Fincher and Fox. Although it doesn't seem too controversial on the surface, it really shows the surface level of detachment that everyone had creating the film.
But luckily, the experience for Fincher wasn't in vain. Although it was his first experience with major studios, Fincher would give it a second shot with his hit Seven and the rest is history. Although the writers made some interesting decisions, to say the least, and Fox simply wanted to capitalize on the name, it honestly could have been much worse. Alien 3 may not have been the best film in the franchise, but it still deserves a watch.