Following up two perfect sci-fi movies in “Alien” and its sequel “Aliens” was always going to be a thankless task. And as 1992’s “Alien 3” proved, hitting three home runs in a row was always highly unlikely. Suffering from a messy production cycle, intense studio meddling (so much so that director David Fincher has subsequently disowned the movie), and some hugely unpopular narrative decisions (R.I.P Newt and Hicks), “Alien 3” is a very divisive movie.
Flash forward to the present day, and HBO Max has just become the streaming home of the entire “Alien” saga from the 1979 original to the latest, and excellent, “Alien: Romulus.” This is great news for sci-fi horror fans. However, more significantly, the streaming service also offers “Director’s Cuts” of several movies in the franchise, including “Alien,” “Aliens,” and most importantly, HBO Max offers the fan-favorite “Alien 3: The Assembly Cut.”
Released in 2003 as part of the Alien Quadrilogy DVD box set, “The Assembly Cut” was made without Fincher’s input (he declined to be involved in the project), so while it’s not a true “Director’s Cut,” it adds an extra 30 minutes to the movie. These extra/extended scenes go a long way to restoring Fincher’s original vision and also clean up some narrative and character issues.
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If you’ve only seen the theatrical version of “Alien 3” and, up till this point, have considered it one of the franchise’s weakest entries, I strongly recommend giving “The Assembly Cut” a chance. It might just help you appreciate this flawed, but still worth watching, sci-fi horror.
The Assembly Cut transforms ‘Alien 3’ for the better
Alien 3 (1992) Trailer #1 – YouTube
To set expectations appropriately, I should warn that “Alien 3: The Assembly Cut” is not a total overhaul of the movie. It was released more than a decade after the movie hit cinemas, and doesn’t incorporate new reshoots or core structural changes. Unpopular decisions like the deaths of Newt and Hicks at the start are still present, and Ellen Ripley’s (Sigourney Weaver) final, fiery sacrifice remains intact. It’s ultimately still “Alien 3” at the end of the day.
However, “The Assembly Cut” enriches the movie in several appreciated ways. For starters, it fills in some plot holes present in the original release (for example, Paul McGann’s Golic doesn’t just unceremoniously disappear from the movie in this cut; he’s given a plot-critical role). It’s the supporting cast who benefit most from the additional scenes; the inmates of prison-planet Fiorina “Fury” 161 are further fleshed out, and their final fates are confirmed.
Spoilers for the ending of “Alien 3” follow, but another small but significant change comes during the scene where Ripley throws herself into the furnace to prevent the scheming Weyland-Yutani corporation from getting their hands on the xenomorph queen growing inside of her stomach.
(Image credit: 20th Century Studios / ScreenProd / Photononstop / Alamy)
In the original cut of “Alien 3,” as Ripley is tumbling down into the fires below, the xenomorph explodes from her chest. A narrative decision I’ve always found to be cheap, seemingly born from a desire to shock rather than to serve the movie’s overarching themes. In “The Assembly Cut,” there is no chestburster. Ripley’s sacrifice is presented as a tragic (but fitting) end for a beloved sci-fi heroine. This scene works much better without the xeno.
Over the years since its release, “The Assembly Cut” has been primarily available to watch on physical media (it’s included in the Alien Anthology Blu-ray boxset), and I suspect many modern viewers will have only seen the theatrical cut. For this reason, its arrival on HBO Max is great news for “Alien” fans, and I hope it results in a further reevaluation of “Alien 3.”
For “Alien 3” to reach the high quality standards of its two legendary predecessors, it would take a complete remake (not to mention a time machine), and “The Assembly Cut” can only go so far in polishing a flawed movie. However, it’s unquestionably the best version of the threequel. If you’ve never seen this extended edition, give it a watch now that it’s on HBO Max.
Watch “Alien 3: The Assembly Cut” on HBO Max now
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