Review of Alien Resurrection (1997) by Callum R — 04 Dec 2012

Alien4: Quirky, French flair, action-packed, repetitive, comedic, finely acted, enjoyable, good looking, slight B-moviesque, funny feature= Misplaced genre conventions from Jeunet. 6.7/10.

I'm A Stranger Here Myself." Ripleys Last Words. Rated higher than its predecessor by critics but not by the public. Alien Resurrection has a large split in its fan base. What a lot of people who have watched the film have not realised is, that the director is the genius of world cinema hits Amelie and the delicious black comedy, Delicatessen. Jeunet has a knack for quirky humour and off-the-wall characters and that is evident here. I always thought that 'resurrection scripts' were a waste of time, see halloween resurrection and one of the friday the 13th films for more details, but though the plot is somewhat recycled the visuals are gorgeous and its done very well for a third sequel."You're A Thing, A Construct. They Grew You In A Fucking Lab!" Call To Ripley. This time around scientists have cloned Ripley from DNA from 'fury 161' and though this seems a tad predictable Sigourney Weaver injects such a bizzare quality to the new Ellen which makes it more enjoyable after the down-beat of Alien 3. Her acting is cleverly directed and devilishly witty. Most audiences class this as an offensive rip-off B-movie which manages to destroy everything Scott created, but the fact is, Jeunet's french flair and all his usual film elements are just simply placed into a horror adventure film, and some of them do not work for a commercialised film. I can see Jeunets vision clearly but something seems a bit off. Maybe there was some interference to stop it becoming too arty. "Ellen Ripley Died Trying To Wipe This Species Out. For All Intents And Purposes, She Succeeded!" General Perez Is Not Keen For Ripley To Be Taking Up Her Old Hobbies. A big complaint in the film is Winona Ryder's casting. I think that the nod to include an android sequel is repetitive but I like her character. This leads on to another point. The characters in the film are vivid and more memorable than the ones from the first and second sequel, and though not all the acting is perfect, it sufficiently makes up for the dim-wit marines of Aliens. "Father's Dead, Asshole. Intruder On Level One. All Aliens, Please Proceed To Level One." Call. Jeunet has tried to include some iconic elements throughout the picture and is renowned for his weird imagery. He succeeds in drawing out almost as many scenes as Fincher did. Elements such as the bleak cloning room echo '3', and the tension sequences also try to reach Alien standards, but I think the films biggest problem is its attitude. It all seems like no one cares, not the actors themselves, but more or less the characters they are playing. Thats not to say the film is no fun, because it certainly is the most light-hearted and easy watch of the four."She'll Breed. You'll Die. Everyone In The Company Will Die." Ripleys Been There And Done That. Overall Jeunet adds some great french style and a brilliant inquisitive ending to the series. It's the best looking of the four, the most fun, good characters, good musical score, there's Weaver there as always and it certainly beats and bludgers any Alien vs. predator sequel that comes out. Interesting but disappointing when the film seems so restrained from Jeunet.