Review of Alien Resurrection (1997) by Johnmilas — 29 Jan 2012

As a young fan of the Alien film series, the worst news for me in 1997 came when I watched a VHS rental of Alien Resurrection and hated it. Now, looking back I don't hate it as much, in fact I don't think I actually hate it anymore, but it's just not a good entry in the greatest monster movie series to haunt the silver screen.

Alien redefined monster movies permanently, Aliens gave us the greatest female action icon ever, and Alien 3 just pissed everyone off. So, to overcompensate, Brandywine decided to make Alien Resurrection as much like Alien and Aliens as possible, and.

..hired Jean Pierre Jeunet. I'm not saying he's a bad filmmaker, because they would be incredibly false. I'm just saying that he as director and Joss Whedon as writer may have not been the best direction to take things.

Whedon is alright as a storyteller, but choosing him as the writer is obviously an overcompensation for the heavy-handed and often depressing perception that Alien 3 as garnered. So, what does this mean? It means that instead of getting a monster movie that was more intelligent and engaging than the run of the mill (the first three movies in the series), we get something more like.

..Predator 2 in space. If means that instead of actually being a good movie, Alien Resurrection just ends up being dumb fun. And I stress DUMB over FUN in most instances.