While Alien 3 is a step down from the previous movies, I can not bring myself to hate it. There is too much good about it. First of all, I like the mode of almost total despair. It saturated everything in the movie. I think that was a bold step after its rambunctious predecessor. The visual style is terrific; cinematic but not over-done. I think Resurrection was over-directed, but the visual composition in Alien 3 is dead on for the material. Fincher would go on to fulfill the promise he showed in Alien 3. I loved the film's score. I think Elliot Goldenthal's score is every bit as good as Jerry Goldsmith's and James Horner's classic scores for the previous movies. It's a shame the Alien 3 script could not match the quality of the score.
That brings us to the Alien 3's weakness, the script. It has some serious problems. Considering that they were literally making it up as they went along, as in they were rewriting it during filming, it could have been worse. For those who don't know, the filmed screenplay was a toned down version of Vincent Ward's far out original script, and by toned down I mean more 'down to Earth', not less bloody.
Here is an article about it,- bizarre! The producers improvised from characters and sets built for Ward's ideas, and I think this accounts for the movie's lack of ambition. It's a shame, but, to be honest, Ward's ideas were pretty nuts and perhaps not as fitting to the series' tone as what ended up being filmed.
Anyway, for the mess that the screenplay is, it does have some good moments. I liked the opening credit sequence and Newt's funeral sequence. I also liked when Andrews got wasted.
By the way, Vincent Ward's screenplay can be read
here. For those who don't know, cyber-punk meastro William Gibson was also commissioned to do a script for Alien 3, his idea were pretty far-out too, but in an entirely different direction than Ward's. Their treatments are almost opposites. Gibson's is not bad though, it can be read
here.