Review of Alien Resurrection (1997) by Omar F — 05 Jun 2012

Before going into the film I thought the combination of Jeunet and Whedon was strange, but they actually work together pretty well. Compared to Alien 3, this one doesn't feel as dull and stinted. We have Ridley in a state that we are not completely sure of.

There's still an alien left inside of her that keeps her alive and it seems to make her react to things differently. We are in a world that we're not quite sure of either. Set 200 years in the future, Ripley has been cloned by a company who wants the alien inside of her.

That's how things open. The surgical team pulls out the alien and they question whether or not to keep Ridley alive. When they see her heal up perfectly and her heart still beating strongly they can't say no.

From now on, Ridley goes through training to become a normal person again. The only difference is this time she can't know about the aliens. We are told when she was alive last time she exterminated the species.

That's why they needed her so badly. You know the drill, there are aliens on board now and they will find a way to escape and destroy everybody. But these people are a little more messed up than the ones who wanted the aliens for bio-weapons.

This group wants the aliens for their healing powers and they think they can find a way to control them. In this belief they put eggs in sleeping pods with people so the facehuggers will come out and create more aliens.

These people are messed up. A ship docks onto this one carrying the aliens and it carries a commercial crew who act more like pirates. What I liked about this script is that it felt like a sci-fi pirate movie whereas Aliens felt like a sci-fi war movie with the marines.

We even get the amazing underwater scene. Well there's one member of the pirate ship that happens to know more than the others. This is call. She offers death to Ripley so that she doesn't have to deal with the pain, but that's okay.

Ripley isn't really the same Ripley from before. The alien alters her personality. She's rougher and more intense. The action of the film is basically the same, but the shots are more fluid and interesting thanks to Jeunet.

The true interest in the story lies within Ripley and Call. It turns out the reason she chose this crew is because she wanted on the ship with Ripley. She knew about the clones and the aliens because she's an android.

She had to go to save the humans. The conflict within herself for not actually being human isn't anything new, but it wasn't done terribly. The chapel scene with Ripley and Call is done very well.

And I loved the scene where Ripley goes down with the queen and sees it give birth. The Newborn might not have had the best design, but it fit the purpose well. I really liked its dying scene. You almost feel bad for him by the way he reaches out for what he thinks is his mom (Ridley).

For an unnecessary sequel, Alien: Resurrection is pretty dang entertaining.