50
A muddled effort that offers little more than visual splendor to recommend it.
What are people saying?
What are critics saying?
50
Just at the point when Alien 3 should kick into high terror gear, it becomes clear that this hushed, somber sequel doesn't know how to deliver the goods. Fincher has style to spare -- and the sets, cinematography and special effects are all first rate -- but the nuts and bolts of storytelling elude him. [1 June 1992, p.73]
60
Washington Post by Desson Thomson
Ironically, Alien is not a bad movie. In fact -- here's the rub -- it's too interesting to make an exciting summer flick.
40
The Hollywood Reporter by Duane Byrge
While director David Fincher drills out some perfunctory, generic scares -- not counting Weaver's buzzcut -- Alien 3 is amazingly dull and humdrum. [20 May 1992]
38
ReelViews by James Berardinelli
Alien 3 is, simply put, a mess. The writers have no idea how to tell a coherent, entertaining story. With the exception of a surprise or two, there isn't much worthwhile here.
50
Austin Chronicle by Marc Savlov
Fincher's camerawork gives the movie a jittery feel, and his video-trained eye lends the prison sets the look of a dilapidated cathedral, but again, there's really nothing here that we haven't seen before, and better, at that. Nice title, though.
50
Los Angeles Times by Michael Wilmington
Although Alien 3 is stylish--and ambitious--the movie doesn't have the soul or guts to sustain that ambition. It gets swallowed up in its own technology and genre expectations. And Fincher gets stalled in the drama, trapped in too many scenes of talking heads looming out of the gloom.
91
Entertainment Weekly by Owen Gleiberman
Alien3 is a grimly seductive end-of-the-world thriller, with pop-tragic overtones that build in resonance as the movie goes on.
88
Rolling Stone by Peter Travers
If Ridley Scott's Alien (1979) had more surprises and James Cameron's Aliens (1986) more thrills, David Fincher's austere, low-tech, darkly funny Alien 3 has more sharply observed characters.
80
The New York Times by Vincent Canby
Alien 3 belongs to that branch of fantasy comics, best exemplified by the "Road Warrior" movies, in which the iron and space ages meet for dizzy results.