Get outta here, ya little squirts!

It provided gainful employeement to Michael Biehn.

Why didn't he ever take off the way Bill Paxton did? Was it being in The Abyss back to back with Navy Seals?

Biehn threw a huge shit fit when he found out his character was being killed off in Alien 3 (he was originally signed to be in the film) and sued Fox to be paid his full salary if they wanted to use his name/image in the film. Fox paid him and his relationship with Hollywood soured enough that it took him awhile to get back to steady movies, but even then he never went back to the same level.

The original script for Alien 3 actually had Ridley being the one "killed" off and Biehn the main character. It seemed like a pretty lame The Thing knockoff aboard a space station but could it have been any worse than the actual Alien 3?

You can also spot a lot of the stuff they reused for Alien Resurrection.

and was there anyone who WASN'T pissed off when the opening scene in Alien 3 just told you HICKS AND NEWT DEAD SORRY.

Ridley apparently doesn't consider Alien 3 to be 'canon', so you can put that dreadful movie (and Alien Resurrection) out of mind. They survived the end of Aliens and got to live out the rest of their days afterward.

Alien 3 is, in my opinion, an amazingly solid film considering the disastrous production that spawned it. (though the "director's cut" version is vastly superior to the theatrical...yes, I know Fincher had nothing to do with it, but it''s the closest reconstruction to how he wanted the film) Personally, I think it doesn't get enough credit for how good it is, but whatever. Killing off Newt and Hicks was pretty stupid, though.
I liked Alien Resurrection, it was entertaining, but I would personally rank it way below Alien 3 if we're going to trash either film.

Alien 3 is an awesome movie in and of itself. Its greatest sin is that it takes a huge shit on Aliens by killing off Newt. It's like having Private Ryan die at the start of a sequel. What the fuck was the point?