Xenomrph posted:

I can't believe this thread passed under my radar.

I'm a big fan of the Alien3 Assembly Cut, and I almost universally prefer it to the theatrical cut. There's a few alternate scenes I prefer in the theatrical cut, most notably at the beginning and end.

Ripley getting ejected from the EEV and having to be rescued on the beach by Clemens always struck me as goofy, and I always felt the characters finding Ripley in the EEV and realizing she was alive was more visually interesting than finding her on the beach. We also don't really get an indication of how she got out of the EEV. Was she ejected? If so, how?
The Assembly Cut version also introduces a bit of a continuity error, because for whatever reason, the EEV is switched in its position - in the theatrical cut, one side is submerged in the water, and in the Assembly Cut it's the other. This is important because of where the characters are located in the EEV - from left to right, it's Bishop, Hicks, Ripley, and then Newt. In the theatrical cut, the right side of the EEV is underwater, so it makes sense when you find out Newt drowned in her cryotube but the other characters didn't. In the Assembly Cut, it's switched so the left side is underwater.

I also much prefer the ending in the theatrical cut showing the Queen Chestburster popping out of Ripley, and a large part of that is the music. Here's the theatrical version of the scene:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eyZ4nwg7GgE

Here's the Assembly Cut:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L3vbfkRB6gQ

The Assembly Cut really truncates the (awesome) soundtrack, and once you know what to listen for in the theatrical cut, it's really jarring in the Assembly Cut (the music edit happens at about the 1:58 mark).