Alien³

** ½ out of ****

Following in the footsteps of Ridley Scott's "Alien" and James Cameron's "Aliens," David Fincher's "Alien³" shows promise with one of the most fascinating credit sequences I have ever seen and an astounding vision that belies Fincher's status as a "newbie" director. One particular scene―the cremation/alien birth scene―is beautifully constructed by crosscutting and visually engages the nihilistic tones that underlie the film. However, the film ends up falling apart near its run-of-the-mill conclusion, where the story returns to old formulas from the preceding films and even takes on point-of-view shots from the alien itself. (Huh!? First rule of horror films: The monster is scarier when you cannot see it, not when it is seeing you!) Even worse, the visual effects look so fake that even the effects from "Alien" thirteen years before look more perfect (No wonder this film's sole Oscar nomination for Visual Effects was trumped by "Death Becomes Her"). Unfortunately, I am also less impressed with Sigourney Weaver's performance as Ripley in "Alien³" than in the other films in the quadrilogy (blame it on the screenwriters?), though I am taken aback at how powerful and fascinating the character of Dillon (Charles S. Dutton) and his ethics are. 1992, 114 mins.