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Rating: 2.5 out of 5
Sometimes horror movies go way off course with what they are trying to do. Sometimes writers will sit and think of some of the craziest ways to bring back a character to make a story work. Sometimes it works, sometimes it’s meh, and sometimes it will fail miserably. Alien Resurrection is a film that falls in the middle or meh. When you get to the fourth movie of a franchise, that is when the wheels start coming off. Hell, the wheels came off this franchise during the third movie. It is very, very, very rare that the fourth movie of a franchise is any good. If you can name a terrific fourth movie, please let me know.
Here we go with Alien Resurrection. A film that was directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet and written by Joss Whedon. Yup, Joss Whedon, Mr. Avenger himself. Damn, have you come a long way since this film. Okay, so the film is set 200 years since Ellen Ripley (Weaver) threw her ass into the lava to kill the alien queen inside her on that prison planet. In the last 200 years, everything has changed. The company Ripley used to work for, Weyland-Yutani Company, is straight up gone. The United Systems Military has taken control of breeding the deadly alien creatures. Well, this is already looking like a bad sign. The organization had blood samples from Ripley and decided to clone her to extract an alien queen inside of her. This cloned version is known as Number 8. It has the physical and emotional traits of both humanity and the aliens, leaving her wondering who she should roll with. Well, a scientist has been picking on the aliens, and the aliens are like fuck this, we need to escape. What do they do? The aliens kill one of their own and use the acid blood to escape. The escape aliens go on a rampage, killing all. Also on board is a group of mercenaries/smugglers that unknowingly helped deliver hosts to breed the alien species. With shit hitting the fan, Ripley must escape. Along the way, Ripley encounters a shocking revelation that truly sets herself against both humanity and the alien species. A revelation that will shake her to the core.
I don’t mind going 200 years into the future with a science fiction film. Hell, jumping that far might work for you. Also, I don’t mind the cloning idea because if there is space travel, why wouldn’t there be cloning. Also, recreating a mixture of Alien and Human DNA doesn’t even affect me because we humans are a stupid ass species that will try to play God with anything. What I guess I am irritated about is that this series has no identity or feeling to it anymore. It is a blend of action and horror, but the horror is so laughable that it might as well just be an action film. It tries to have an alien do a jump scare, and all you can do is laugh. Some of the scenes are just crazy to look at with the close-ups of people, the yelling, and straight up what the fuck is going on.
The idea of the aliens escaping was good because it showed their intelligence. When that happened, it was just, let’s blow shit up. When the general took the bomb and rolled it into the escape pod, it was laughable and entertaining. The scene where the mercenaries and military had their guns up was intense because you get a GREAT Ron Perlman scene. If you want a film to be better, add Ron Perlman. As the film progresses, the film does have some interesting scenes. I like the chase scene underwater. It looked like a shark hunting a seal, and when the survivors came up and were surrounded by eggs, you got a shiver.
Now, where the film went way off for me was the new creature that was introduced. The “new” alien queen birthed an alien baby that could walk and had one of the smallest noses you had ever seen. It looked like a Michael Jackson nose. The scene is strange because you have a scientist declaring the birth of a new species only for him to get eaten and shocked that the new baby killed the alien queen. Somehow this big ass thing makes it all the way and gets on board a ship. The final fight with Ripley killing the creature was okay. Nothing like the second film.
I want to give the visuals and tone praise in this film. It was dark, gloomy and had a sense of dread around it. It seemed like the ship had no decent lighting and had a crimson-orange filter over the lens. Now that I think about it, the film was far different and didn’t look right. The tone and atmosphere were fine, but the look was just off.
As far as the acting goes, some performances stood out, and some really could be forgotten. Sigourney Weaver as Ellen Ripley was really good and took a new direction in her role. Since she was a clone, Weaver played Ellen as one with a mind of a kid, as she didn’t know many things but developed rapidly. She still had her badass attitude and let people know she was a force to be reckoned with. Let’s be real; that skintight outfit was nice to look at.
Winona Ryder as Annalee Call was a little annoying. This was the era when all of Ryder’s roles portrayed her as a whiney person. In this one, you think she is human and is against Ripley until she was being trifling, and we find out that she is a synthetic. She comes in her own, as being beneficial because she can speak with the computer.
Like I said earlier, Ron Perlman can make any film better. He played Ron Johner, a mercenary and part of Betty’s crew. Johner is the one of the crew that makes awful jokes, has a freakin short temper, and teases his handicapped crewmate. As always, Perlman makes every scene his own and is fun to watch.
Alien Resurrection is another meh film of the series. The story is decent, but it could’ve been better. Weaver is one of the best parts of the whole movie. Without her, this film would fail miserably. It is safe to say that the best thing to do is let this series disappear and revisit it in maybe 100 years.
