Hey, look at that, David Fincher’s “Alien 3: The Assembly Cut” just quietly dropped on HBO Max.
The “Assembly Cut” is an extended version of the widely criticized 1992 Alien sequel starring Sigourney Weaver. Running about 2 hours and 25 minutes, it is roughly 31 minutes longer than the original theatrical release.
This “Assembly Cut,” which Fincher chose not to be involved with, addresses several of the film’s well-known plot gaps and clarifies the outcomes of some supporting characters. It also removes the chest-burster that emerges from Ripley during her final sacrifice—an effect that had been added during later reshoots.
While history remembers the third instalment as a studio-interfered disaster that nearly broke David Fincher before his career even began, if you take a look at the “Assembly Cut,” it also isn’t a complete dumpster fire. Yes, it’s dour, uneven, and clearly the product of too many cooks, but the film’s grim fatalism and stripped-down atmosphere is something legacy sequels rarely do these days.
“Alien 3” has its defenders, including none other Christopher Nolan who confessed, only a few years ago, how utterly impressed he was by Fincher’s talents after seeing the film for the first time:
I’ve never dared mention (Alien 3) to him (Fincher). I think he’s very aware of the flaws and he’s very aware of the appalling experience he had making it, and how put-upon he was, and I truly can only imagine. But his talent shines through in that movie. I came out of that film and had a conversation with a guy I was with and I said, ‘I’ve just seen the new Ridley Scott. I know who the new Ridley Scott is, it’s David Fincher,’ and I wasn’t wrong. It’s there in the movie, whether he knows it or not.
So, what say you? Is “Alien 3” an underrated slice of nihilist sci-fi, or still a cinematic misfire that even Fincher disowns? This debate’s been festering for over 30 years. While the “Assembly Cut” is the closest we’ll ever get to Fincher’s intended vision, the true “director’s cut” has never seen the light of day. Fincher himself has admitted being too scarred by the experience to ever want to revisit the film.