Okay, here's where I stand on this - Ridley's ALIEN turned out to be an awesome movie back in '79, and happened to make a big star out of Sigourney Weaver along the way. Deservedly so, as she was great in it. And then Cameron made her an even bigger star with his excellent sequel, which she was even more terrific in. But then it was became inevitable that the studio thought the 'ALIEN' franchise was all about getting Sigourney back onboard, no matter what...rather than just concentrating on coming up with a really good 'alien' storyline first and foremost...and so she ended up with the necessary clout to actually dictate how ALIEN 3's storyline should go, amongst other things.
Unfortunately for most fans of the franchise, the direction that she wanted for herself and the storyline of ALIEN 3 was a big disappointment overall compared to the thrills of the previous 2 movies...especially after what had been hinted at in it's teaser trailer. It turned out to be an unnecessarily downbeat affair throughout...filled with mostly unsympathetic characters and a disappointingly unimpressive alien. And while interesting to see, it's eventual special edition version didn't improve things any, as far as I'm concerned. But if that had been the end of Sigourney's involvement in the franchise, then fair enough...even though it was a miserable, and nihilistic final chapter.
...except we then got an even worse follow-up in the shape of the ridiculous ALIEN RESURRECTION!
While I'd rather that the 4th entry had never been made at all, I would still prefer to see some kind of conclusion to 'Ripley clone 8's story, if there's a possibility that Sigourney is up for it still. One of that movie's many flaws is the fact that that we just end on a kind of open-ended conclusion (in both cuts) to what happens to Sigourney's new character. Not that I particularly cared either way at the time, as I was so annoyed with what had been done to an initially great franchise...UNTIL I happened to come across this brilliantly conceived 'what if' storyline a while back -
It's written by a guy called Gavin Singleton (formerly known as 'Snorkelbottom' on the site I'm linking to), and is well worth a read for anyone that would like to have some kind of conclusion for 'Ripley clone 8' and the rest of the gang once they landed back on Earth. Especially as another movie with Sigourney's character is unlikely to come about at this point, despite her latest comments.
This excellent little short story starts at the top of this page, and the writer then continues it in sections throughout the comments underneath over the next 7 pages (so be sure to click onto them at the bottom and keep reading till the end!) Well worth your time, and I would certainly be open to an ALIEN RESURRECTION follow-up that went along these lines... -
http://www.prometheus2-movie.com/community/forums/topic/13424