Alien 3 (1992) - Newspaper Ad

Oakland Tribune - May 22, 1992
More often than not, if you have a solid story, then you are going to have a solid movie. Both Alien (1979) and Aliens (1986) serve as excellent examples of this truism. Alien 3 does not.

Oh, they had concepts of a story, for certain. But that story was never locked and ironed out. Couple that with David Fincher not having a substantiative amount of support or creative control and, well, it is no wonder the movie, regardless of the cut you watch, plays as a collection of interesting set-pieces stitched together in a manner that kind of resembles a story.
There is a lot of stuff I like in this movie, and I was even a staunch and vocal defender of its infamous autopsy scene for a time, but that does not distract or cover for the obvious and impossible to ignore deficiencies in the unfocused and underdeveloped script that was ultimately cobbled together. So it goes.