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Movie Notes: Alien Resurrection

May 29th, 2009

Alien Resurrection

2 stars = 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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