Movie Notes: 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%