Alien 3 is not as awful as Alien Resurrection or the second AvP movie. But I think you suggested the uphill battle that movie faced, following the scariest and greatest monster movie ever made, and arguably a top 2-3 all time sequel that is an action classic.
Something the early Alien movies faced was studio interference. Cost concerns, studio dictates about how the film should go (at least one of these was a good dictate to overrule how Scott wanted to end the original movie). But in Alien and Aliens, you had directors who had film resumes to back up what they were doing on their respective films. Alien 3 was David Fincher's first movie. He was frequently harassed by the studio and the penny-pincher types, and didn't have the weight behind his name to make the movie he wanted to make. Given the number of impactful, great movies he has made in the years since, I guarantee he would make a far better Alien movie now than in 1992.
What I liked most about the movie was the look of the film and the ballsy decision to kill its main character. Most of the characters were bland - the bald heads did not help with that. 85 was a good character, as was Dillon and the doctor.
What I hated, and I do mean hated, was taking two of the survivors from Aliens, characters that were loved, and they were effing dead before the movie even started. Although the funeral sequence for these characters did come with some strong emotion. But man did I hate that they died off screen.
The other thing I hated was the initial advertising. There was an advance trailer attached to Terminator 2 - almost a year before Alien 3 came out - that strongly suggested a far different movie than we got. An egg floating in orbit of earth, something to that effect. That was the movie I wanted, not a bunch of religious former inmates on a lice-infested planet with a single alien hunting them.
Something the early Alien movies faced was studio interference. Cost concerns, studio dictates about how the film should go (at least one of these was a good dictate to overrule how Scott wanted to end the original movie). But in Alien and Aliens, you had directors who had film resumes to back up what they were doing on their respective films. Alien 3 was David Fincher's first movie. He was frequently harassed by the studio and the penny-pincher types, and didn't have the weight behind his name to make the movie he wanted to make. Given the number of impactful, great movies he has made in the years since, I guarantee he would make a far better Alien movie now than in 1992.
What I liked most about the movie was the look of the film and the ballsy decision to kill its main character. Most of the characters were bland - the bald heads did not help with that. 85 was a good character, as was Dillon and the doctor.
What I hated, and I do mean hated, was taking two of the survivors from Aliens, characters that were loved, and they were effing dead before the movie even started. Although the funeral sequence for these characters did come with some strong emotion. But man did I hate that they died off screen.
The other thing I hated was the initial advertising. There was an advance trailer attached to Terminator 2 - almost a year before Alien 3 came out - that strongly suggested a far different movie than we got. An egg floating in orbit of earth, something to that effect. That was the movie I wanted, not a bunch of religious former inmates on a lice-infested planet with a single alien hunting them.
