Review of Alien Resurrection (1997) by Rob W — 09 Nov 2011

You can't keep a good franchise down, even when you kill the main character off. Alien Resurrection loses the character drama, but keeps the sci-fi excitement.

RIPLEY'S BACK!..... sort of. 200 years after the events of Alien 3, Rilpey's been cloned to bring back the horror that she died to kill off for good. But they're back too on the ship called "FATHER". While a mercenary crew comes aboard FATHER with not to nice of a purpose, they encounter the aliens, and Ripley who has a secret trick or too caused by the cloning. Certainly an interesting story in the Ripley chronicles, but not the best of the series. Alien Resurrection plays more of an average action movie. Not anywhere near as good as Aliens. But then again, there is a pretty freaky twist here and there in the movie that makes for a pretty cool ride. Though not the brilliant psychological drama the other movies made the series to be, Alien Resurrection does, however, include cool twists, cool actors, and some cool action sequences that makes Alien Resurrection a good sci-fi movie and a good enough closing chapter in the story of Ellen Ripley.

Somehow the Alien movies always seem to pull out an up and coming director and boost their careers like no tomorrow. First Ridley Scott, then James Cameron, then David Fincher, and now, the colourful and wonderful director of Amalie and A Very Long Engagement, Jean-Pierre Jeunet. Of course his brilliant style doesn't seem all that apparent in the confounded space of a spaceship. But Jeuner makes due and does have a variety of well placed shots and cool cinematography that makes Alien Resurrection stylish in a way. Though most of the time it plays like an average action movie, it does however have a good pace to it. The set design, though great, still doesn't compare to the creativity of the original movie. One good thing though is that, though this movie sometimes uses CGI, it looks a hell of a lot better than when it was used in Alien 3.

Although the scripts was written by the fanboy beloved Joss Whedon, the story doesn't compare the the previous 3. Even when overlooking the plotholes, Alien Resurrection tries too hard to be different and give something new to the series, and in the process looses what made the franchise so cool. It is the weaker of the 4 movies, but Alien Resurrection has enough creativity and creepy coolness to still be entertaining to faithful fans of the series.