As with Aliens, Alien 3 lacks the claustrophobic intensity of Ridley Scott's vision.

One assumes that Weaver received enough combat pay to compensate for playing the now understandably cynical Ripley in this bleak and pointlessly grueling movie.

It does succeed in rounding the three movies off, not smashingly but interestingly. It drives us into the wall, throws Ripley into a blind alley from which, at last, there is no escape hatch.

Alien 3 immediately and completely squanders everything that made its predecessors great. This bold new vision swaps in a drab setting, unlikable characters, and an uninteresting plot that lacks suspense.