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7 comments
Rank This Matchup or Comment/Reply Below
on 2/19/2012
I'm going with Se7en. Alien 3 is my least favorite film from Fincher but it's still good, just not as good as his later releases.
on 10/4/2014
I really like Alien³, but it doesn't stand a chance here.
Honestly, Alien 3 gets far too much abuse in my opinion. As much as I love the Alien franchise and can understand why people felt pissed off regarding the decisions that Alien 3 made to alter the course of the overarching plot following the end of Aliens, thereby undoing all the fan fiction and breathlessly gushing comics that had been written by James Cameron's adoring fans in the intervening years, I still respect it a lot for a) sticking to its guns and going in a different direction, even if it was severely butchered by Twentieth Century Fox, those destroyers of intellectual properties, and b) giving us some of the most iconic images, memorable moments and unique visual style of the entire Alien franchise that a lot of people still seem to remember with a degree of fondness, despite their initial hatred of the film. That being said, Se7en is still David Fincher's finest work in my opinion (though I have not seen all of his films); uncompromisingly brutal, unbearably tense, viscerally stylistic and utterly compelling. I have a special place in my heart for both films, but Se7en is the more obvious choice for very obvious reasons.
Fincher's best vs. his worst, although like smatticus, I still haven't seen all films from Fincher. It seems like Alien3 has been considered an "overlooked gem" by more and more people for the last few years, at least the Assembly Cut. Maybe it is a gem compared to the Theatrical Cut, the latter of which I haven't seen and probably never will, but I will be one of the few to say that I think it's the weakest of the original four Alien films. Yes, I much rather watch Alien Resurrection's cartoon slapstick over the boring vaccuum of a movie that is Alien3 any day of the week. All Alien3 consists of is people talking (about nothing), running, talking, running and talking, with pretty horrible effects, boring sets and an even more boring and forgettable set of characters. There's the aspect of faith in the film, sure, but that felt like a half-baked idea that didn't go anywhere. There is no reason Alien3 (The Assembly Cut) needed to be as long as it was. Although I'm not a big fan of Alien, at least that had some effective suspense and amazing set designs, and Aliens has a really great, memorable characters and a phenomenal dynamic in Newt and Ripley (which especially shines in the special edition), even if nowadays its critics misremember it as just a "mindless popcorn action flick". Alien3 has neither the suspense or set design of Alien (all I can think of when I think of Alien3 is emptiness) nor the memorable characters or dynamics from Aliens (the characters in Alien3 are either indistinguisable or unnecessarily cartoony). Se7en is Fincher's best film to date, and it's still very haunting to this day, even if you've seen it more than 10 times (which I probably have).
Agree to disagree on a lot of those points my friend :) Although don't get me wrong, I don't see Aliens as a "mindless action popcorn flick" (the key word there being "mindless"), because it's not mindless. I see it as a solid action popcorn flick with some intelligent ideas of its own, particularly regarding female empowerment and Vietnam War allegories, even if a lot of the subtlety, ambiguity and terror of the original alien creature and its lifecycle is done away with in order make way for a relatively familiar, unspectacular hive/insectoid culture which has since come to define the rest of the series. If you look at some of the ideas behind the original alien that never really surfaced (except in the Director's Cut), they are much more "alien", and much more terrifying. Aliens is a much better than Alien 3, if only because it is a much more complete, cohesive film, but I personally don't believe the gap between them is as big as a lot of people claim. Anyway, I could go on to write a full blown essay about this, something which I'll admit I frequently do anyway on Flickchart comment sections, but that's a conversation for another matchup, and probably some more exclusive forum boards I'll wager.
Se7en for me, I did not like Alien 3 that much...
on 2/23/2016
I didn't like Alien 3, but I didn't hate it. Se7en was 2 hours of pure boringess.
on 7/2/2017
This is an easy one! At this point in my life, these are the only two Fincher films I have seen (although I'm planning on watching The Game, Fight Club, Zodiac and Gone Girl in upcoming weeks!). I don't blame Fincher for Alien 3 like a lot of people. Alien 3 feels like it was made by a studio, there's no vision, no creativity. You look into the production and it was a disaster. The script was unfinished when shooting started and they took ideas from 12-15 turned down scripts. And (surprise, surprise) it all shows! You think Suicide Squad and Spider-Man 3 was interfered with, watch Alien 3! Se7en is a masterpiece on every level! The story is intriguing and the acting is brilliant but it wins this matchup because it FEELS like a directors vision was coming to life! It's tensed, beautifully shot and edited and has a very unique style to it!
on 1/18/2020
Seven. I enjoy Alien 3 for personal reasons.
