When I first watched Aliens 3 (sometime around release) I was very disappointed after the pure awesomeness that was Aliens.
However I watched it the other night and found it to be very enjoyable.In fact I couldn't see why I had hated it so much.

Last night I watched The Day The Earth Stood Still (the re-make) after having watched it on release.At the time I thought it was complete crap.
That still stands today.
The 'UAV scene' made me want to throw things at my TV,and that child, I really wanted to beat to death.

Best thing about my copy of The Day is that it came with the original movie on dvd too. I wish I'd rented before buying, that movie is a disappointment. Agreed on the brat.
I liked Alien 3 once I got over that it wasn't going to turn into what I wanted. I liked the monastery/prison idea. I still think it's BS to kill off Hicks and Newt like that, just not good treatment for the characters after Aliens.

Did you watch the theatrical or extended version for your recent viewing? In my opinion, the extended cut is vastly superior and there are some major changes made.

I think audiences in 1992 were disappointed with Alien 3 because virtually everyone was expecting another "Aliens" and not a return to the spirit of Alien where you have just a single xenomorph hunting everyone.

I wasn't sure to be honest but after making a few checks on-line it appears it was the theatrical version.
I will now make it my mission to get hold of the extended version

I enjoyed the extended version of Aliens more than the theatrical cut too.

But then, you can never have too much of Aliens.

Alien3 was well done, and did ratchet up the suspense well...but the problem for me with it, especially the first viewing, was that it was SO dire...

-first they kill off two of the three good guys without a fight before the intro credits finish, and not a "stand up fight" either

-then we have a distraught Ripley who's on the verge of suicide as it is, and who then seemingly doesn't care for her own life...so why should the audience?

-we are surrounded by horrible inmates for whom a visit with the alien is maybe a good thing for everyone involved

-we effectively have no one to root for in surviving the visit from ceiling-dog-ET

-Ripley commits suicide at the end...leaving me to wonder why the chestburster took so long to gestate when it normally pops out within hours

-one lone criminal survives...oh great, just what I always wanted!

All that said, upon newer viewings with the directors cut and the backstory of how the movie came about, I appreciated it more. But the simple fact is, I don't have any empathy for criminals to survive the encounter, after they try to gangrape Ripley...and so in that respect, the movie fails to draw me fully into the perspective of the need for survival.

This same problem afflicts half the victims of Predator2, and pretty much all the victims of Predators.

By contrast, the crew of Alien were just normal people who really could make good from having extra life, same with Aliens, and even the members of AVP and AVP-Requiem...well ok, some of the teens might be too dim to amount to much, but they still didn't deserve to be eaten alive! Now...the total idiot maroon who decided to exit the Striker's 60mph steel box with guns...and instead walk through a creepy hospital filled with nasties...he deserved to be chest-burst!

And then prometheus...well, none of them is truly evil except perhaps the albino-dino and the gay robot who spikes your drink...but damn some of them were just SO STUPID that I was glad they weren't going to have children and pass on teh stupids!

Charles Dance who played the doctor is really the only memorable character for me from Alien 3. To further expand on what Rick said, it was just difficult to care what happened to the people in Alien 3. The characters just werent nearly as interesting as the characters on Alien and Aliens.

An entire reel was cut out of the theatrical version of Aliens and you can tell from the quality of the footage that it was cut out purely for time purposes and not because of narrative or pacing issues.

Which is of course what happens when you start building sets and then have to scramble to write a script to fit those sets and your release date. Even ST: The Motion Picture suffered for it, but it had the luxury of characters that were already defined from the series other than Decker and Ilia.

I understand why Fincher wanted Newt and Hicks gone. He wanted Ripley to despair, and he also wanted the audience to lose their comfort they had at the end of Aliens from the get-go. I disagree with HOW he did it, but again I figure that had to do with the time constraints in getting a script finished. Having the 2 in the film and die during it instead of "offscreen" would've been more emotionally powerful than "died in the crash" and "died of a malfunction in the tube", but they went differently.

They DID do that with the doctor's character. You get to know him and relate to him and then he's suddenly ripped away.


The Jedi Master

I loved 2001: A Space Odyssey the first time I saw it.

And the second.

And the third.

And the...

And the...

And when I watch it tonight on Blu-Ray in 1080P, for the first time, I am of the opnion I will still love it.