I'm convinced there's a good movie lurking somewhere in Alien 3, but it's buried in the shadow of its great predecessors, lethargic direction, and perhaps unwelcome studio intervention. It's hard to say whether the film should have been shorter or longer: shorter, and we wouldn't be so bogged down in character scenes that don't seem to go anywhere; longer, and we might have gotten somewhere with them after all. Character tension was critical to the success of the first two Alien films; without it, both would have been routine monster movies. Alien 3 is pretty much exactly that. What character development works winds up being all for naught, but it's probably a spoiler if I try to explain how.

The film picks up toward the end; it has a pretty good climax, all things considered, combining a clever plan, high action, an unexpected twist, and a couple of keen visuals.