Ziglet_mir’s review published on Letterboxd:
ASSEMBLY CUT
Why? Why are the innocent punished? Why the sacrifice? Why the pain? There aren't any promises. Nothing certain. Only that some get called, some get saved. She won't ever know the hardship and grief for those of us left behind. We commit these bodies to the void with a glad heart. For within each seed, there is a promise of a flower, and within each death, no matter how small, there's always a new life. A new beginning. Amen.
In the first film, a well-respected crew of explorers are taken off their path due to a signal of another sign of life on an unknown planet. Ridley Scott gives us an original sci-fi thriller that, if anything, shows us themes of growth and adapting to new scenarios. In the second film, a team of badass marines return to the same planet (that now has civilization upon it) to exterminate the same thing that caused the signal in the first place. This action-based sequel harbors themes of wanting and growing a family. Alien 3 finds the creature on a forgotten trash heap of a prison planet that inhabits murderers and rapists, and bravely scraps the warm messaging we received from Aliens to introduce themes of rebirth, regrowth, and sacrifice (a tough pill for all of us to swallow) in a harrowing horror film--returning in ways to what the initial film only scratched the surface. The brooding nihilism and existentialism is questioned by the only glimmer of hope on the planet, which is the faith these convicts have turned to for redemption.
How are we expected to care for these low-life pieces of scum when they aren't as nostalgic as the Nostromo crew or as fun as James Cameron's hyper-macho soldiers? Instead, the filmmaker and writers are asking us to think a little and put some stock into philosophy--should people get second chances? How much redemption is required to attain the ultimate reward? Is destroying one life at your own hands better than thousands of deaths in the future caused by something you could have prevented?
Alien3 has the advantage on the first two because all the background has been provided. In this case, Fincher was able to focus on creating such an incredible atmosphere that the end result is something that dwarfs the previous entries in the series handily (and that includes all the behind-the-scenes shenanigans). On top of that, we know Ripley so well, and at this point--crash landing on another random planet only to find out the Alien is still with her--is exhausting... Ripley is exhausted, and she eventually figures out that the only way to get rid of it is to also get rid of it herself. Ultimately, the perfect and ONLY way for her arc to go. Some additional food for thought, it isn't the extremely hot fire or lead (seen throughout the entire film) that kills off the xenomorph, but instead, water--the ultimate symbol of life. In a religious sense water is also a symbol of life, but can be more specifically attributed to rebirth (baptism, holy communion, etc); a sense of being cleansed spiritually.
Charles Dance, Charles Dutton, and Danny Webb hand in phenomenal performances across the board. Both Charles potentially outdo every other actor in entire series, especially Dance who gives some excellent pathos to the flawed Doctor Clemens. Dutton's character, Dillon, is the perfect vessel for which the themes of faith and religion are provided attempting to counter the bleak nihilism the rest of the film purveys.
I need to give a shoutout to my potential favorite moment in the series when David (played sublimely by Pete Postlethwaite) is trying to find the creature. He gives us one of the best lines in the series and a meta call back to Harry Dean Stanton's character (Brett) in the original. A personal favorite moment of mine because they are possibly my two most favorite actors.
