Review of Alien Resurrection (1997) by Joe A — 28 May 2011

An inventive script by Joss Whedon not only brings back a cloned Ripley with alien attributes but, an alien queen, soldiers, sinister scientists and a band of space pirates too. Before you can say Face Hugger, Ripley is leading the remaining humans through a massive military ship with our favorite xenomorphs in hot pursuit.

Along the way there are some really cool set pieces (an underwater sequence for one) to put our colorful characters through and once again the visuals are unique and cool. The only real letdowns are some uneven performances (due to rumored language barrier problems with director Jean-Pierre Jeunet which allegedly led to Weaver taking over working with the actors.

) and a disappoint climax featuring the Newborn, a silly designed Alien/human hybrid. Having read Whedon's original script, I have to say I liked his giant flying alien battling Ripley in a crop harvester on Earth better then the less impactful but, more budget friendly ending we get.

Sub-par ending aside, Alien Resurrected put some of the action and fun back in the series and expaned the mythos a bit (a Ripley that is superhumanly strong and whose blood sizzles just like you know who's).

Too bad they didn't let Whedon have a crack at Alien vs Predator which followed.