To me, the best in the franchise is the first Alien, but Alien 3 will always be my favorite because it manages to have so much interesting social commentary. It also has a satisfying presence of the Alien, whereas the first is limited due to time and the second is so much talk. The actual presence of the Aliens, despite so many, is so lacking that I cannot enjoy the film as much as I did once upon a time ago.

Reading through this, it's nice to know that there is an audience out there willing to acknowledge that Fincher at least did not do a bad job. I loved the work he did with it, and as I said, is my favorite of the three even if it isn't the best.

The major problem with all of the scripts, however, is NONE of them felt like a proper follow-up to Aliens. Each director wanted to do something different, but they wanted to go TOO different with the plan.

To me, the best in the franchise is the first Alien, but Alien 3 will always be my favorite because it manages to have so much interesting social commentary. It also has a satisfying presence of the Alien, whereas the first is limited due to time and the second is so much talk. The actual presence of the Aliens, despite so many, is so lacking that I cannot enjoy the film as much as I did once upon a time ago.

Reading through this, it's nice to know that there is an audience out there willing to acknowledge that Fincher at least did not do a bad job. I loved the work he did with it, and as I said, is my favorite of the three even if it isn't the best.

The major problem with all of the scripts, however, is NONE of them felt like a proper follow-up to Aliens. Each director wanted to do something different, but they wanted to go TOO different with the plan.

What the franchise needs is to be wrenched away from Fox, divorced from the comic books, and given new life from people who know what they're doing…like Scott and Cameron. Alien was a work of art, Aliens was a ton of fun…the “Director's Cut” of Alien 3 kinda had its charms when I saw it after all these years but still doesn't belong. The rest is pure utter crap with absolutely no redeeming qualities.

Heck, the Colonial Marine Corps has so much potential, and they've not done a damn thing with it!

Great article, Dave.

First-time reader of your site. Great article, and I much agree with you that this is one of the juiciest, behind-the-scenes episodes in high-budget studio sci-fi filmmaking of the last 20 years.

As a kid, waiting with baited breath for A3, I remember reading Richardson's Premiere magazine article like 10 times before it came out.

Alien3 has many underappreciated qualities/moments that deserve credit: Eliot Goldenthal's incredible score (one of his first); the overall look of the production; the sweet opening sequence; the brutal autopsy scene; and, of course, some special credit as the first Alien flic where Ripley gets a sex life.

Speaking of sex…

You didn't touch on the rumored Weaver/Fincher connection. Didn't they (allegedly) hook-up?