Alien and Aliens get all the praise in a lasting franchise and Alien 3 is often ignored, but I have always thought it deserves more attention than what people give it.
Was it a huge mistake to kill off Hicks, Newt and Bishop? I think so, as they were great characters that should have continued in the franchise, but that aside Alien 3 is masterfully directed by David Fincher who showed signs of his greatness to come in later movie projects. Indeed I think Alien, Aliens and Alien 3 represent three incredible directors, being Ridley Scott, James Cameron and David Fincher.
The studio interference and their lack of confidence in their new director is well documented, which is a pity because Fincher has since regretted the project completely and I think he should be proud of it. Alien 3 is a return to the thriller that Ridley Scott's Alien first introduced us to. There is only a single alien this time, like in Scott's, hiding in the darkness and striking with lethal force when least expected. Both Alien and Alien 3 stand as effective horror thrillers, while Aliens really is more of an action movie.
With the release of the "Director's Cut" ten years after Alien 3 was originally released gave us more insight into what David Fincher was planning, however Fincher was not involved in assembling this cut so calling it a true director's cut is presumptuous by the studio. It does provide more footage however that serves to build even more tension.
Having seen the original theatrical release in the cinema in 1992, I was keen to see the Director's Cut and thoroughly enjoyed it, short of a couple of small changes. I have always thought the dog was a better host than the cow. Ripley comments that this alien moves differently to what she has seen before, an obvious reference to an animal hosting it rather than a human, and given to how we see this alien chasing people down corridors I think a dog represents this better than a slow moving cow. Also one of the inmates is looking for his dog, Spike, later in the movie and this had no explanation in the Director's Cut when a cow was used. Why was he looking for his dog which we had never seen in that version?
The other change I didn't like was removing the spectacle of the chest burster in Ripley's final scene. We spend half the movie with the knowledge of the Alien Queen so we deserve to see it in the end, if even just for a matter of seconds.
So with that in mind, the Alien 3: Avid Edition is a simple edit re-incorporating Spike the dog and the Alien Queen chest burster in the extended Director's Cut. Some editing was also done in the scenes uncovering the crashed escape pod, using footage from both the Theatrical and Director's cuts. The rest of the movie really is very good in my opinion.
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