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Few films have had as much troubled production as Alien 3. Considering director David Fincher was brought into the project late into its development, word is there were numerous creative differences in scriptwriting, not to mention all the pressure of living up to the successes of the exceptional Alien films that preceded it. Conflict reportedly led to Fincher disowning the film before the editing stages, which hardly gave fans much hope surrounding this second sequel to begin with.

Indeed, Alien 3's problems spring primarily from poor writing. Immediately shooting itself in the foot by killing off two influential characters within the first scene of the film, we also learn later that there is a complete absence of any weaponry available to any of the characters. This means Alien 3 has to resort to a number of mostly dull, repetitive chase scenes involving the inmates and alien (and yes, we're unfortunately back to one, solitary Xenomorph this time around).

Deep in hyper space, the plot goes that Ripley and the other survivors from the second movie crash land in their escape pod after an onboard fire on the Sulaco spaceship. Suspicions soon arise as to what actually started the fire in the first place, and it is soon discovered that an alien somehow managed to get on board the ship, escape and started to wreck havoc inside the planet's maximum security prison.

The lack of a fully-developed script at the time of going to production obviously hurt Alien 3; and its problems must've spilt over into other areas such as the budget, meaning not a lot of money can't have been left to go into the special effects department. The alien, for example, is often seen as a result of some really horrible computer-generated imagery, which is neither scary or admirable, and often insults H.R. Giger's distinctive, stylistic, innovative creation.

It may be messy and at times incredibly cringeworthy, but this third instalment does have its moments, though. The art direction, in particular, introduces us to a grimy, out-of-touch prison environment entitled "Fury 161" that is made up of religious, all-male inmates, which is a great setting for establishing a dreary, dark and eerily quiet atmosphere, similar to that of the first two films.

Ripley, of course, is a joy to watch as well: Sporting a shaved head, she's as cynical as ever, with a desire to confront her fearless enemy, and rid her life of such a terrifying nightmare. There's a chilling scene where she, quite literally, gets to meet the alien head-on in the colony's infirmary, which eventually leads to the film's only interesting twist to the storyline.

To fully appreciate the potential of Alien 3 I'd definitely recommend watching the Special Edition, which contains thirty minutes extra footage. Not all of it is beneficial to the story, but there are some interesting incidences of character development, such as a rendezvous between Ripley and Clemens (played by Charles Dance), and a number of extended monologues from the character Dillon (Charles Dutton), whose spiritual impact is downplayed considerably in the theatrical version. The introduction to the special edition is also better paced and more visually stimulating.

Still, with two versions of the film, either one is far from perfect. Plot holes still exist: Like how did the alien get on board the ship in the first place? (this is never really explained), and how is it able to lay more than one egg when in the previous two movies the facehugger fell off and died after impregnating the first host? Such plot holes have been part of a long debate between fans for years, and still bother me to this day.

(C) Andy Carrington, 2012.