I remember one of the first movies I went with my (at that time) wife, was Alien 3. Well, of course, like the majority of people at that time, I did not like it much (now I give it a pass - barely).

But one of the things that bothered me when I first watched it, was that I was convinced before I went into the cinema, that it was going to take place on Earth. I did not recall where I got that idea from, but since I also was into the Dark Horse Alien and Aliens Vs. Predator comics at the time, I thought I might have picked it up from there. But I never found a reference in the old comics that would make me believe there is where I got the idea from.

I was watching the Alien Quadrology BR extras today, and I finally got the answer of where this idea came through - the original 1990(1?) teaser trailer -



This can give you an idea the amount of studio intervention and script changes this movie went through in a short amount of time. I still have this as one of my least favorites, but still above Alien Resurrection, because I can see it now in the light of how challenging was for the director to get a coherent product out of all the mess he had to go through.

Alien 3 was simply not what most people were expecting when it first came out. People were expecting more of "Aliens".

I saw this in the theater as well on release and there were several things that I just found odd:


1. Hicks and Newt being killed off.

2. Why so many prisoners speaking with English accents?

3. A face hugger impregnating a dog?

With Quadrology they released a new version nicknamed "The New Assembly" since the director reneged on doing any director's cut, and in that cut instead of a dog, the animal that becomes the "hybrid" alien is a bull.

Why not?

I suppose I was one of the odd guys in that I actually liked it - back then, and now. Of course, "Aliens" is everybody's favorite as is mine, but in the light of much of the rest of the franchise It's still decent, and offers the one of other fresh perspective. What I liked about the series up to that point was that every director created a somewhat independent vision, making every film unique rather than a carbon copy of previous films. One could say the same about Resurrection of course, but that one I really didn't like. It was just over the top, too much comic influence.

I was indifferent about it when I first saw it but then I watched the Director's Cut some years later and it was a whole lot better.

I see mention of an 'Assembly Cut',is that another name for the Director's Cut or is this something else?

"Aliens" had such a strong American vibe to it that I was just surprised and a bit confused when I heard so many characters on Alien 3 with English accents. It wasn't a bad thing per se, it was just jarring.

I have the Alien series bluray set so I have seen the "new assembly" version of Alien 3 and I absolutely think it's a much improved version. It's still leagues below Alien and Aliens of course.

As for David Fincher, good for him on refusing to do any director's cut. Fox screwed him big time.

I thought it wasn't bad at the time, but after re-watching Aliens twenty years later, I immediately started screaming about Alien 3 after the credits rolled--for exactly the point Panzer brings up: Hicks and Newt being killed off. As crappy as Avatar is(it is awful), Cameron wrote and directed a brilliant film with Aliens, and the Newt + Ripley angle added a whole new emotional level to the film so many others lack. It was an absurd decision to kill her off. Hicks was killed off due to a dispute that Michael Biehn was having with Hollywood(I think he sued them), which almost blackballed him from the industry, so they had to write him out. I believe the original premise was for both of them to be alive but some executive assholes decided to re-write the whole thing.

I also re-watched Alien Resurrection lately and though I hated it when it was released(due to some glaring plot holes with Sigorney's character retaining memories from her old self?????? What the hell? DNA doesn't carry old memories!), if you can disregard that, the dialogue is actually pretty good because Joss Whedon is awesome. I feel Resurrection could have been even better if the producers didn't override the script Whedon had written and made some big changes to it.

What's funny is that Biehn got paid more for his image being shown in Alien 3 than he was paid for his role in Aliens.

David Fincher was so disappointed and enraged at Fox for the forced changes they made to the vision he wanted to film, that to this day, he even avoids saying the name of the movie and rarely talks about it. He actually wanted Fox to remove his name from the credits.

Basically he said at one time that in order to really do the movie that he wanted in a directors cut, he would have to re-shoot 90% of the film.

So he was never involved with the later cut of the movie.

Certain aspects of "Resurrection" I liked such as Brad Dourif's and Michael Wincott's performance but overall the movie was really forgettable and just "out there". That's what happens when you hire an artsy French guy to direct a big budget Hollywood scifi movie.