Alien Resurrection

"What's inside me? What's inside me?!!"

Two hundred years after the events of Alien 3 military scientists create a clone of Ellen Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) complete with alien embryo growing inside her. After separating the two, the Ripley clone is kept alive for further study. One of the side effects of the cloning is that Ripley’s DNA has been crossed with that of her alien baby and she now possesses super human strength and acidic blood as well as a kind of telepathic link with the aliens. Meanwhile a group of mercenaries arrive aboard the ship carrying a cargo of kidnapped humans which the scientists implant with alien embryos. Unsurprisingly these aliens escape and run amok on the ship causing its remaining crew to run for their lives.

I was massively disappointed with Alien 3 (although FilmsRruss tells me that the Director’s Cut is much better than the theatrical version I saw) and Alien Resurrection seemed to be going in the same direction. I found the first half really boring and actually fell asleep after about 40 minutes. After I resumed viewing however, I really enjoyed the second half.

First of all I thought that the design and effects showed a marked improvement from the previous instalment. The CGI aliens were much more realistic and the puppet ones looked great too. The design of the ship also felt much better than in Alien 3 though it still doesn’t beat the Nostromo of Alien. The alien’s seemed slightly more animal like in this film than they had before. I don’t remember them roaring quite so often and they seemed more dinosaur like to me. Perhaps this was as a result of the success of Jurassic Park? I loved the design of the final alien and its final scene was brilliant. Another scene I really liked was the underwater scene although the characters seemed to hold their breath for about four minutes which isn’t very realistic. I also thought that the ‘John Hurt moment’ towards the end was the best since the original ‘John Hurt moment’.

For the first half of the film I kept thinking to myself that Winona Ryder’s acting was terrible but as her arc reached a crucial point I got why it seemed so bad and ended up thinking she was actually quite good. Sigourney Weaver was once again one of the best aspects of the film, playing a slightly different version of Ripley which she did well. It also helped to keep her character fresh. The rest of the cast felt very much in the background and we never really got to know them but Ron Perlman stands out in his archetypal angry guy role. I though that Director Jean-Pierre Jeunet (Delicatessen) did a fairly good job overall with what felt like an unusually messy script from renowned writer/director Joss Whedon (The Cabin in the Woods, The Avengers).

In the end this in no way matches either Alien or Aliens but is a slight improvement on Alien 3. I definitely enjoyed the film more than the third one, especially the battle for escape in the second half. I also liked the change to Sigourney Weaver’s character and the results of her cloning. There are some decent action scenes but no scares and a very dull first half.   

6/10