Movie Notes: Alien Resurrection

May 29th, 2009

Alien Resurrection

= 2 stars

Starring Sigourney Weaver, Winona Ryder, Ron Perlman
Directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet

Synopsis

Two centuries after Ripley’s (Sigourney Weaver) death, she awakes to find herself amid a group of space traveling mercenaries and research scientists, breeding the deadly aliens.

The Good

Starts decently, with a group of misfits recalling aliens which moves to being trapped aboard a space craft as in the original Alien. Another nod to the original is the robot, Call (Winona Ryder).
Jeunet’s direction lightens the mood considerably over the Aliens 3 misfire, finding an amusing middle tone between the cold horror of Alien and epic spectacle of Aliens.

The Bad

Soon deteriorates into stock action ridiculousness. We get Ripley playing basketball, swimming aliens, and an alien / human hybrid that basically took me entirely out of the movie and into doing my taxes. I’d guess there was pressure to provide more spectacular thrills than Aliens – an impossible task. How can you out-action Cameron?
Too many characters in the “mercenary” crew. Could have just had Call and Johner.
No emotional heart (there’s no “Newt”) which means Jeunet – whose movies Amelie and Delicatessen I simply adore – proves a bad fit. Even the most talented director can’t make magic from hash, a lesson that should have been learned from Aliens 3.

Conclusion

The ridiculous premise of bringing Ripley back, I could somewhat swallow, but I soon gave up after Ripley blow-torched her mutant clone. Skip it.

IMDB: Alien Resurrection
Wikipedia: Alien Resurrection
Rotten Tomatoes: Alien Resurrection 53%

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