In my review of Alien 3, I wrote that I was curious why the third and fourth chapters in the Alien franchise were not as heralded as the first two. And in watching them, I figured out why. Alien 3 is thoroughly mediocre due to terrible writing, and Alien: Resurrection is... well, it's bad. It's not overwhelmingly terrible, but yeah, Alien: Resurrection could have been a million times better. So let's jump into it and see why that is.
Two hundred years after the death of Ellen Ripley (Sigourney Weaver), scientists aboard the scientific research vessel USM Auriga have succeeded in creating a viable clone of her. The sole purpose for this clone's existence is so that they may harvest the Alien embryo inside her, which they plan to use to create biological weapons. But they opt to keep her alive for further study after she proves herself different from the other previous attempts at cloning Ripley. Instead of being a deformed freak like the others, this clone has enhanced physical abilities (and acidic blood) due to the presence of Alien DNA in her creation, and has retained all of her progenitor's memories.
A ship full of mercenaries arrives shortly thereafter, delivering a cargo of kidnapped humans for the scientists to experiment on. This ends up leading to a big problem, as the Aliens the scientists have bred quickly mature and run loose aboard the ship. And because the Auriga's default emergency command is to return to Earth, the incident could have far more disastrous results. It is up to Ripley and a small group of survivors to eliminate the Alien threat before it can unleash hell upon Earth.
Alien: Resurrection could have been awesome. But it's sadly less than impressive. The problem with it is that it doesn't have the same extraordinary feel of its predecessors. It feels like it was made in order to score a quick buck off the Alien name. That's the really sad part; Alien: Resurrection has a number of good elements, but is ultimately an unremarkable whole.
The movie was directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet, a French filmmaker whose biggest career highlight would probably be the 2001 movie Amélie. His direction here is actually quite striking at times, as he brings a very artistic approach to the movie. This is especially evident in how he uses the fantastic set design and Darius Khondji's absolutely gorgeous cinematography to build a movie that at least looks like it should fit into the franchise. Some of the digital effects occasionally look fake to the point of being distracting, but it's nothing that can't be overlooked in the long run.
While Alien: Resurrection is a movie that could have easily been made by any up-and-coming music video director, and Jeunet's work before or since doesn't seem to make him the right guy for the job, he still gives it a decent go. However, if there's one knock against him, it's that he drops the gritty tone of the previous three movies and makes this one a standard cyberpunk action movie. If he had stuck with what worked in the predecessors, the movie might have been better received. The worst part of it, though, comes in the form of an incredibly goofy chestburster scene. The way it's filmed and performed, it reminded me of the scene from Troma's Class of Nuke 'Em High where a nerdy kid flips out after drinking some toxic water and starts kicking the crap out of people before diving out a window. And when you're getting compared to a Troma movie, you've got some room for improvement.
Greater flaws are to be found, however, in the screenplay written by Joss Whedon. Yes, the same Joss Whedon that created Buffy the Vampire Slayer. And if I may say so, his script for Alien: Resurrection is total crap. The characters are bland and one-dimensional, the plot is nothing we haven't seen before, and the attempts at witty one-liners are embarrassing.
And outside of the whole "Ripley's a clone" deal, there isn't a bit of originality to be found. It's just the same old thing that the first three movies did. That's probably the biggest reason nobody gives a crap about this movie. It's so bad that it turns Alien: Resurrection into one of those sequels you can skip and still feel like you aren't missing anything. And I'm fairly convinced that Whedon needs to stay away from movies. With the exception of the original Toy Story, pretty much every movie he's worked on has either bombed or been terrible. He'd better not screw around with the Avengers movie next year, or else he's gonna have a bunch of angry fanboys kicking down his door.
And as for the acting, it's a mixed bag. The best performance comes from, as you might expect, the one and only Sigourney Weaver. Once again, she's nothing short of awesome. I imagine getting into Ripley's head had to be tough for Weaver this time around, since the whole clone thing pretty much threw all of the characterization from the first three movies right out the window. Weaver plays this new Ripley as cold and emotionless yet still tortured over her "relationship" with the Aliens. She comes across like she actually was built in a laboratory for the role.
Unfortunately, most of the supporting cast is forgettable with a few exceptions. One is Brad Dourif, who appears in a handful of scenes as a scientist seemingly obsessed with the Aliens. He's awesome as always, yet I can't say I've ever been disappointed with his work. I also liked Dan Hedeya and Michael Wincott in their limited roles, and I felt that J.E. Freeman was hammy to the point of chewing the scenery. Ron Perlman puts forth a fun performance as one of the mercenaries, playing the character as cool and composed yet hilariously tactless at the same time. The only actor who comes across as actively bad is Winona Ryder. I generally like Ryder's work, but she feels stiff in the role, like she isn't sure how to approach it. She isn't a bit convincing, which is sad because the character could have been a really cool one had Ryder's acting been better.
Alien: Resurrection could have been awesome. It honestly could have been. But thanks to a crappy script and the good parts of the movie not being used to their full potential, we end up with a movie that's sub-mediocre. The sad part is that it killed the franchise dead. And even if you count the two Alien vs. Predator movies as sequels, they're so bad that you'll wish the franchise was still dead. I personally have no problem pretending that the Alien saga ended in with the second one, but that's just me. Thus, I'm going to give Alien: Resurrection two stars on the typical scale. It makes me wish I had a time machine, so I could go back in time and try to make sure this movie didn't suck.
Final Rating: **
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