Alien 3 (4½ Stars)

This is the third film in the Alien Tetralogy. I've called it "Alien 3" in the title, although the correct name is actually "Alien³", ie Alien cubed. Unfortunately the little 3 is hardly visible even on my average sized computer screen, so I dread to think what it will look like on a 15" laptop monitor. Or even a mobile phone, for the mini-surfers out there.

Once more the story latches on directly to the end of the previous film. At the end of "Aliens" Ellen Ripley went into the cryo-chamber to sleep on her way back to Earth. At the beginning of this film we see her spaceship catch fire, so she is ejected in an escape pod while still asleep. The pod crashes onto a remote planet which serves as a maximum security prison for violent sex offenders, all of them men who have committed murder or rape. There are only 25 men left in the prison, and they have become deeply religious, led by the inmate Dillon.

As soon becomes clear, the fire in the spacecraft had been caused by a stowaway alien that hatched from an egg. The alien now roams the prison killing the prisoners one by one.

The film is slower moving that "Aliens", though featuring more action than the first film. It surprised me to hear that director David Fincher has since disowned the film. Supposedly it was re-edited against his wishes after completion in ways that he disapproved of. Nevertheless, the finished product is enjoyable.