ALIEN QUADRILOGY - ALIEN 3 (Disc 5 & 6)

3. ALIEN 3: Giving a second chance to Ripley's last stand

Eleven years after ALIEN 3 erupted on the screen David Fincher's bleak, nihilistic farewell for Ellen Ripley, last survivor of the Nostromo, is getting a shot at redemption. The ALIEN QUADRILOGY contains two cuts of Fincher's film: the original, 114-minute theatrical cut of the film and a 144-minute special edition cut created for the QUAD by DVD producer Charles de Lauzirika. 30 minutes of never-before-seen footage has been reinserted into Fincher's film and the result provides a smoother, clearer storytelling experience, although not necessarily one that is particularly more frightening.

The biggest complaint I could muster for ALIEN 3 OK, beside the fact that Hicks, Newt and Bishop shouldn't be dead and there's no way in hell an Alien egg should have been on the Sulaco aside from that, the biggest issue I had with the third film is that apart from Ripley and four of the new characters (Clemens, Andrews, Dillon and Aaron [aka "85"]), all of the remaining prisoners on Fury 161 are interchangeable. Gone is the feel that there's been any attempt at characterization for the supporting roles; where's this film's Lambert or Kane, or Frost, Dietrich or Vasquez? Again, the main issue lies with the fault in the construction of the picture, and the woefully inadequate script that Fincher has to work with. That he managed to turn out a half-decent film at all is testament to the man's creativity and ability as a filmmaker to overcome a nearly insurmountable obstacle. Thankfully the special edition of ALIEN 3 goes a long way toward fixing the film's major flaw, that being the fleshing out of the prisoner society on Fury 161 and turning the remaining prisoners from nameless bald men running in the dark into characters with identity.

Here in the special edition we get an idea of how foreboding a world Fury 161 is. We see Clemens (Charles Dance's doctor character) walking during a brief respite in the planet's harsh weather, and he sights the washed up unconscious form of Ripley on the shore. Rushing her inside, Clemens sends the other prisoners to retrieve the EEV, giving us another look at the primitive resources these men have for their survival.

When Ripley comes to and begins her interaction with the prisoners, we're treated to scenes actually showing the prisoners praying, interacting and discussing. When the Alien is finally revealed to be among them, again we see new scenes showing them coming up with a plan. In fact, a whole subplot involving the capture and eventual release of the Alien was excised from the final cut, and which adds more dimension to the character of Golic and weight to the apocalyptic religious bent some of these men have. This sub-plot adds a considerable amount of tension that was absent from the theatrical cut, and one is left to wonder just what the hell the studio and The Powers That Be were thinking when Fincher was assembling his cut of the film. Finally, the closing scene showing Ripley and her final decision is played out with less gore and a little more in the way of sacrifice and is probably the better of the two.

If you don't know a thing about the tortured climb toward production that ALIEN 3 went through, the second disc will provide you with all the education you need to know or rather, as much as Fox allowed. Of all the ALIEN films on the QUADRILOGY, ALIEN 3's supplemental featurettes and material is also the only disc where Lauzirika removed his name from the credits and used a pseudonym instead. There has been unconfirmed reports printed elsewhere on other DVD sites that the ALIEN 3 featurettes were heavily edited by Fox before being manufactured, and that a good portion of material showing Fincher's frustration coming to a head with the studio was removed from the disc. The most absent item is the lack of any sort of commentary, be it video or audio, from Fincher himself on the disc; instead we've got a commentary by the director of photography, the film's editor and the special effects supervisors/producer and just one actor (Paul McGann). Perhaps that's all the answer we'll ever get.

A fascinating featurette is devoted to examining Vincent Ward's idea for his ALIEN 3 that involved an artificial, wooden planet that was home to interstellar monks and the artwork accompanying this concept. Surprisingly, little is said about the earlier ALIEN 3 drafts before Fincher got involved, although director Renny Harlin is interviewed and explains his year-long fling with being ALIEN 3's director. What would have been cool to see here would have been the ALIEN 3 screenplays written by Eric Red (a space station goes H.R. Giger in that story's climax) or William Gibson's (Ripley is injured, Newt is sent away back to Earth and Hicks and Bishop are left to fight the Aliens with a new batch of soldiers) as a "could have been" examination of the filmmaking process.

The involvement of Giger again is the subject of another featurette, including rejected designs the Swiss surrealist made that are even more disturbing than what he was thinking back when the original ALIEN was produced. In the production portion of the disc considerable time is spent showing the construction of the film's elaborate and wonderful sets and the creature design. What may be astonishing to some viewers is the creatures that weren't used in the film but that were made, such as the Queen Facehugger or the oxen that the Alien was originally intended to erupt forth from. Nutty, huh?

As was the case with the earlier QUAD discs, there is still a wealth of bonus material here even if one gets the feeling that there are gaps present in the evidence. The most noticeable absence is a sense of the participants being more critical of the production process of ALIEN 3; the most telling statements perhaps comes from Michael Biehn during his explaination as to how he was asked to give his likeness to the film, and his demands made. Of course Biehn was no longer involved in the franchise so what he has to say may be more direct, and less guarded, than those who remain involved with the future of the ALIEN films. In the end the viewer will have to read between the lines when watching the featurettes if they seek an answer as to what befell ALIEN 3 and why it was not as well-received as the first two films in the franchise. The explanation, if one can be found, ultimately lies with what your eyes discover.