Kepling said:

I remember back in the 90's as a teenager loving the 1st two Alien movies but hating the 3rd. I haven't taken the time to watch the SE of Alien 3 yet but I have heard that the SE fixes almost every problem that movie had. The main point here is that no matter how bad the original cut of Alien 3 was, you can still get both versions, it was never "lost."

If you ever get the chance, watch the SE cut of Alien3. It's a much better film because of it. It goes from being a bland, awkwardly paced and unscary monster movie to a surreal, arty science-fiction take on death and religion and the monster is wisely relegated to a MacGuffin. The film finally finds a distinct voice rather than feeling like a retread of the past films.

It's not perfect. Nothing on God's Earth could improve the line "To them, we're just...CRUD", and it would have been great for them to improve the compositing on some of the more iffy SFX. But it's really amazing how much editing can make or break a film.