YMMV / Alien³

• Alternative Character Interpretation:
  • Was Ripley sacrificing herself to destroy the Alien and prevent the Company from having it or just because she genuinely wanted to die? Or perhaps both?
  • Did Dillon stay with in the lead mold with the Alien because he needed to keep it at bay, or because he was afraid of having to keep his promise to Ripley and kill her to prevent the new Alien Queen from being born? Dillon, used to be a murderer of women, but since becoming a religious man he obviously took a vow to become a better person and never turn to such evil again. Plus at this point in the film Dillon has lost all but one of his friends, and has come to see Ripley as a second, so is his sacrifice selfless or selfish, or a mix of both? As he wanted to die a good man and not be forced to kill again.
  • How much of the plan to recover the xenomorph was the company's, or just Bishop II. Carefully note his use of words: "You must let me have it." Not Weyland-Yutani. Himself. Was he working with the company, or just using the company for his own interests?
• Angst Aversion: It's telling that people arguably remember this movie most for killing off Hicks and Newt immediately, and that's enough to put many off watching it. It doesn't help that the movie only gets more depressing from there.
• Ass Pull: The alien egg making its way onto the Sulaco, causing Ripley’s infection, is never fully explained. The most common theory is that the Queen secretly stowed away an egg during the final fight in the previous movie. However, it’s not clear exactly how she had the time to do this. Even the movie’s writers openly admit that they don’t know, either.
• Awesome Music: Elliot Goldenthall's dark, gothic score sets the mood of the film very well, and even offers some touching moments, such as "Lento", and the heartbreaking "Adagio". It’s even more impressive when you consider the fact he had little time to compose it with the Troubled Production.
• Better on DVD: The Assembly Cut runs an hour longer and has far more substance.
• Contested Sequel: While well-known for being disliked as a disappointing follow-up, the movie (especially the Assembly Cut version) does have a growing number of fans, who appreciate it for its return to suspenseful sci-fi horror a la the first movie and/or its bleaker mood.
• Critical Backlash: A common reaction to the film after all the criticism of it, especially after Assemble Cut was released. To say nothing of how weird over the years became the backlash about killing off Hicks and Newt - which upon release was cited by just about everyone as the worst thing ever done in the whole film.
• Ending Fatigue:
  • The confrontation with the xenomorph is not the finale of the movie. While the Assembly Cut at least has a reason for it and adds few bits and pieces that make it work, the theatrical cut simply drags out for an extra 10 minutes, with the whole sequence involving Bishop II feeling tacked in.
  • In addition, the climax seriously suffers from being set in a bunch of identical-looking hallways, making it impossible to tell where anyone is in relation to each other, and therefore have any investment in where they're trying to lure the alien. This goes on for fifteen minutes.
• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • Dillon and Clemens, even amongst people who don't like the film. Their actors capture the dignity of two past criminals who both committed horrible crimes they have sincere remorse for (it was Accidental Murder in Clemens' case), and are trying their damnedest to atone for them. Dillon especially, who gives a Rousing Speech to the other inmates so Weyland-Yutani doesn't get a hold of the Xenomorph, and he even directly pulls a Heroic Sacrifice in the end so Ripley can destroy it with molten lead.
  • The quadrupedal, coppery-red Alien design in this film, dubbed "The Runner," and to an extent the revelation that a gestating Alien takes some information from its host to influence its mature form. The Runner in particular has gone on to be a staple of the franchise (mostly in assorted games), and the possibilities of Aliens hatched from bizarre alien animals has led to some rather creative Alien hybrids.
• Fan Nickname: Alien³ tends to be jokingly referred to as Alien Cubed among the fandom due to the inexplicable superscript use of the number 3 in the movie's title.
• Fan-Preferred Cut Content: William Gibson's original draft was widely seen as superior to the final film. In 2019, it was adapted into a comic book by Dark Horse Comics.
• Fanon Discontinuity: Many fans were outraged over this film absolutely demolishing the previous installment's happy ending, and thus consider the story to end with Aliens.
• Germans Love David Hasselhoff: In America and most of Europe, this film is widely considered to be an inferior sequel to Aliens. However, in some European countries it's actually considered the best film of the franchise.
• Harsher in Hindsight: One of the most hated moments was the opening killing off Hicks and Newt, with James Cameron being among the detractors. A little hypocritical after Terminator: Dark Fate opens with John Connor getting killed as a kid by a T-800, especially after it got out that John's death was Cameron's idea.
• Heartwarming Moments: The evolution of Morse's character, and his final moments with Ripley.
  • Emphasized more in the novelization than the movie; despite Bishop's wishes to be deactivated for good due to the damage he suffered in Aliens, Ripley is shown to be determined to find a way to get him repaired, no matter what it takes, claiming that he's too dependable and reliable to be left for scrap. A complete reversal of how she felt about him for most of the previous film.
  • After Clemens reveals My Greatest Failure:
    Clemens: Now, do you still trust me with a needle?
    (Ripley holds out her bare forearm.)
• Hilarious in Hindsight: Clemens, Charles Dance's character, is killed by a Xenomorph commonly known by fans as "The Dragon". Fast forward a few decades, and Dance's most famous modern role would come in Game of Thrones - a show with dragons as a central part of the appeal.
• Improved by the Re-Cut: This film is an interesting case, because the Assembly Cut is technically the original cut, but it wasn't seen by audiences until 2003 when it was released as part of the Alien Quadrilogy box set. Both cuts received mixed reviews, but the Assembly Cut is generally seen as superior thanks to its more focused narrative and increased character development.
• It Was His Sled: Newt, Hicks, and Ripley all die.
• Memetic Mutation:
  • The term "Dey Kild Hix n' Noot!" is used by the film's fans on forums to poke fun at people who simply dismiss the movie due to the deaths of Hicks and Newt.
  • "This is rumor control, here are the facts!"
  • "The Xenomorphs send their regards."^Explanation The Runner alien kills Dr. Clemens, who is played by Charles Dance. Dance would later become famous for his role as Tywin Lannister from Game of Thrones.
  • On YouTube, "Alien 3 Ending Music Makes Everything Emotional"
• Money-Making Shot: The canine Alien menacing Ripley with its mouths. You know the one.◊
• Narm:
  • Ripley's line about the alien being in her life for so long, she can't remember anything else can become this when you realize that if you take away the 57 years she spent in cryosleep between the first two films, her total time dealing with the aliens amounts to a couple weeks at most.
  • While the Attempted Rape of Ripley is a very serious scene, the part where Junior puts on his goggles and does a warriors yell to the sky is guaranteed to bring out many laughs despite the fact the scene and subject matter before being no laughing matter.
• Nausea Fuel: The birth of the canine chestburster is hard to watch. When it emerges, the poor dog's guts spill out all over the floor. The scene is arguably unnecessarily-detailed.
• No Problem with Licensed Games: The arcade light gun shooter Alien 3: The Gun was quite good, especially seeing as how it featured Pulse Rifle lightguns. The SNES and Genesis games are also well-regarded, though the NES game based on the later, not so much.
• Retroactive Recognition: Paul McGann aka The Eighth Doctor as Golic; though, given his shaven head and the blood/scars covering his face, it's more like Retroactive...un-Recognition.
• Sequelitis: Thanks to the Too Bleak, Stopped Caring and having the Tough Act to Follow of the previous two Alien films, Alien 3 is not viewed very fondly. If it weren't the sequel to two of the greatest sci-fi films ever made, both of which absolutely dominate their niches and were the Trope Maker of god knows how many things, it might've been seen as So Okay, It's Average. See Executive Meddling, Troubled Production, and What Could Have Been in Trivia for more details, and how the film could probably have avoided this trope.
• Signature Scene: Three, to be exact. The opening for infamously killing Hicks and Newt, the Money-Making Shot mentioned above, and finally, Ripley's death.
• Special Effects Failure:
  • In several shots, the alien is portrayed by both a rod puppet which was filmed in front of a blue screen and a CGI model that were then photo-chemically superimposed into the live-action footage. While technologically impressive by 1992 standards, the effect is rather unconvincing due to poor composition resulting in the creature having incredibly distinct "outlines", excessive motion blurring within said outlines, and a lack of colour correction causing the alien to appear "greener" than its surrounding environments. For comparison, see this fan's regrading of the puppet so as to better match the colours and lighting of the scenes.
    • There's also the problem of size. The puppet is clearly smaller, much skinnier and much more doglike than Tom Woodruff Jr. in the alien suit. The scene wherein which Clemens is killed is perhaps the most notable example of this, as is when the alien that approaches Ripley before the close-up is nearly half-her size.
  • This is also the reason the effects team went with the puppet and CG models and Woodruff, as attempts to use a dog in a Xenomorph costume turned out to be less than desirable to the team during initial tests.
• Stoic Woobie: Dr. Clemens. He's by far the most reserved member of the mostly Large Ham cast. But, that moment where he explains his past mistakes and almost breaks his facade to Ripley is genuinely moving.
• They Changed It, Now It Sucks!: While the Assembly Cut is generally seen as an improvement over the theatrical version, one contentious alteration is the change of the Dragon's host from Spike, a dog, to Babe, a cow. Spike's relationship with his owner Murphy and suffering while birthing the alien adds a human element to the film, whereas Babe's death doesn't have such an impact, having been killed offscreen and taken to the abattoir to be processed as food when the alien emerges from her carcass.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: Hoo boy. Although abruptly killing off Newt, Hicks, and eventually Bishop is very unpopular to say the least, especially considering how interesting it would potentially be to see Ripley and three of the most morally well-adjusted characters in the franchise survive in a prison alongside some of the franchise's very worst—that part is at least forgivable due to Real Life Writes the Plot. What's not forgivable is killing off Clemens and the Warden, two of its own most potentially interesting characters, before they get much chance at development—in Clemens' case, he just gave a heartfelt account of his Back Story. It would have been far more interesting seeing Andrews keeping the prisoners in line as everything is falling apart than a disposable "85", who is thoroughly dull as a character.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot:
  • Again, how awesome would it be to see Ripley working together with the small Hicks-Bishop-Newt family unit she developed in the previous film inside the hellhole that is Fiorina Prison? Considering that said group of characters is 1) an attractive woman, 2) an injured military authority figure, 3) a damaged android, and 4) a traumatized little girl, watching those four fight for their lives in a prison full of violent rapists and criminals along with the Dragon would arguably be scarier, in some ways, than having Ripley on her own hunted down by the Xenomorph. Not to mention that their presence would make Ripley's eventual Heroic Sacrifice that much more moving, meaningful, and a satisfying conclusion to her story.
  • The fact the Xenomorph came from a non-human host and the intriguing revelation that they take on attributes of their hosts doesn't matter at all to the overall story, and aside from being somewhat skinnier and running on all-fours more often than prior aliens, it's hardly noticeable in a movie so visually dark. This is especially so with the version that has it emerging from an ox, since the alien, rather disappointingly, doesn't look anything like an ox. A lot of supplementary Alien franchise media like comics, novels, and Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem did further expand on this concept, however.^note Though some of those expansions are pure, gimmicky Narm Charm, like Bull, Shark, Bat, and Snake Aliens that just look silly.
• Too Bleak, Stopped Caring:
  • The film's opening 5 minutes kills off Newt and Hicks. What's left of Bishop later asks to be shut off. And Ripley without anyone left in her life has her worst nightmare come true: she's "pregnant" with an alien queen. Her eventual Heroic Sacrifice is a Foregone Conclusion to the audience and even that is rendered meaningless by the sequel. Admittedly however, the fact that Ripley is forced to deal with both an Alien and a bunch of criminals who aren't happy with her presence just makes audiences feel more for her.
  • One of the most common criticisms of the film is that it can be difficult to feel any empathy or sympathy for most of the alien's victims when they are, by their own admission, a bunch of violent murderers and rapists (the fact that they're all bald and sometimes hard to tell apart in the darkened lighting does not help matters). Like a lot of things however, this is somewhat alleviated in the Assembly Cut, which dedicates a fair amount of screen time to exploring the prisoners' religious beliefs and how many of them come to terms with their past sins and imminent demise.
  • Two of the interesting characters (the Warden, and Clemens, a love interest) were killed off, and dull characters like 85 got a huge chunk of screentime.
• Vindicated by History: In recent years, thanks to the restored Assembly Cut on DVD and Blu Ray, the film has garnered a larger following of fans who view it as an underrated film that had a lot of things against it: Executive Meddling, constant cuts that harmed the overall quality of the film, and backlash from many people who were unwilling to give it a chance simply for killing off Hicks and Newt or were looking for more of a thrill ride like the second film. The new recut version of the film is seen as a vast improvement by the majority of fans, who feel that this version stands on its own as a worthy end to Ripley's story. That said, the film's reception is still divisive at best with the film's many issues still constantly brought up.
• What Do You Mean, It's Not Didactic?: Some interpretations of the film claim it's an allegory for the AIDS crisis, with the Xenomorph as the infectious disease in question and Weyland-Yutani as the medical companies profiting off of a "criminalized" minority.
• What Do You Mean, It's Not Symbolic?: Ellen dies in either a Crucified Hero Shot or cradling the newborn queen like a baby, depending on the cut.

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