Review: ‘Alien 3’ — A Film of Lost Potential and Endless Frustration
David Fincher’s troubled debut feature contains hints of brilliance, lost amidst a sea of confusion
Alien 3 was doomed long before David Fincher was asked to direct it in the late 1980s or early 1990s. Released 6 years after Aliens, a film that proved that you can take a different approach to the same idea and (with the right director) make not only a great film but a financially successful one, Alien 3 existed in multiple completely different forms before Fincher landed in the director’s chair. Some drafts of the script included Sigourney Weaver’s Ellen Ripley, some wanted to move away from her character as the focal point of the series. Some wanted to put the Xenomorph on Earth, some wanted it to be used as a bioweapon, some wanted to include the evil Weyland-Yutani corporation, some didn’t. A number of versions of this film were written and discarded and re-written and discarded again, a plethora of directors were hired then quit or were fired. It passed through the hands of Renny Harlin, Walter Hill, William Gibson and more before David Fincher was anywhere near it.
However, as Fincher has stated in numerous interviews over the years, ultimately it was he, the director, who was often blamed for the film’s failures and criticised for…
