Review of Alien Resurrection (1997) by Armando P — 18 May 2017

Alien 3 is a mess, but it's nothing compared to the abomination that is Alien: Resurrection. One wouldn't be wrong by saying that there isn't one good thing to say about this film. Sure, everything isn't horrible, but just about 95 percent of it is. Last time I checked, that's not a good percentage.

Resurrection is a shell of the films that made this series great in the first place. To start, the film's tone is all over the place. It feels like the script wants the film to take a lighter direction but the direction does exactly the opposite. You have characters that don't feel like real human beings and always seem to overact to the conflict, why the conflict itself is overtly gory and grotesque, just for the sake of being gory and grotesque. I'm still not sure what audience this film was trying to appeal to. It's neither a scary thriller like the first film nor an exciting action film like Aliens. But that's not for lack of trying.

Who thought it would be a good idea to have Ripley come back as an uncomfortably sexualized version of herself without any explanation as to why she was cloned in the first place? After the semi-heroic act at the end of Alien 3, there's absolutely no need to go back and recycle the same characters. And really, what was the point of bringing back Ripley if she wasn't even going to have the qualities we love about Weaver's portrayal. This does way more to hurt Ripley's legacy than it does to amplify it.

Written by Joss Whedon and directed by the guy who made Amelie makes this film more puzzling than its predecessor. We know there were severe behind the scenes issues with Fincher's Alien 3, but who could have possibly greenlit Resurrection? There's nothing redeemable about this film. And I mean nothing. Great actors and actresses like Ron Perlman and Winona Ryder give less than stellar performances (and that's generous). Even Weaver, who has always been the light of this franchise was just passible as Ripley. Heck, the Xenomorphs themselves were pathetic. The special effects looked off, they were kept up in cages for most of the film, and the hybrid alien at the end? My god it was all-time awful.

-Tone is all over the place.

-Script and direction take the film to separate places.

-Performances.

2.9/10.