Alien: Resurrection Movie Review

Alien: Resurrection (1997)

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Written by: Dan O'Bannon  and Ronald Shusett (based on characters created by), Joss Whedon (written by)
Directed by: Jean-Pierre Jeunet
Starring: Sigourney Weaver, Winona Ryder, Dominique Pinon, Ron Perlman, Michael Wincott, Dan Hedaya, Brad Dourif, Raymond Cruz, Leland Orser
Rated: R
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Plot
Two centuries after her death, a powerful human/alien hybrid clone of Ellen Ripley aids a crew of space pirates in stopping the aliens from reaching Earth.

Verdict
It's a solid action movie, but it lacks the world building of other movies in the franchise. This is the same dance we've seen before as scientists bring back aliens only to realize they underestimated them the moment before they escape. The aliens wreak havoc. Ripley isn't really Ripley which is a fun departure, but the ending is too much. Part of this franchise is that aliens are scary because we don't see much of them. The design of the 'new' alien just isn't very good which doesn't help. It exists as a contrivance. A better ending would have helped this. It's an attempt at depth that falls flat.
It depends.

Review
The Alien franchise is such a great idea because of the simplicity. A monster only wants to kill and reproduce, and it has such a great design from the xenomorph to the face huggers.

The reason these movies keep happening, in this world, is that wealthy corporations want the alien for biomedical research. Greed will always trump the good sense of eliminating the alien threat completely. I'm not surprised that some c-suite executive thinks, this time it will be different. That or they just don't care who they put in danger.

This relies on Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) yet again. While she's the star of the franchise, this movie feels like it's stretching to keep her. I like that this isn't really Ripley, but a clone. Scientists cloned her to extract the alien inside of her from the third movie and start a tale of death and destruction all over again. It gives the actor freedom to be a much more menacing character. That had to be fun for Weaver, playing more of a villain.

Sigourney Weaver plays Ripley

If creating an alien wasn't bad enough, this science vessel is also paying mercenaries to kidnap people so they can experiment on them. One of the mercenaries challenges Ripley, and that gives us a chance to see that she's more than human. One of the mercenaries, Call (Winona Ryder), recognizes Ripley's name, but that's a plot contrivance. She could be any number of Ripleys in the two-hundred years since Ripley died. Call plans to kill Ripley, though I'm not sure it would do any good. That and Call is too late as the alien has already been harvested and duplicated. That leads to a fight between the mercenaries and military on the ship.

The aliens escape, because of course they do. The scientists created multiple aliens, and the creatures realize their blood is acidic and killing one of their own will grant them escape. This movie is more action with less world building. It's gets a little too cute at times, with a guy using his chest burster as a weapon. Then there's a ricochet bullet technique used twice. I would have granted the movie using it once or at least changing it up a bit.

Winona Ryder, Raymond Cruz, Kim Flowers, Ron Perlman, Gary Dourdan, Sigourney Weaver, Leland Orser play Call, Distephano, Hillard, Johner, Christie, Ripley, Purvis

Where this really stumbles is the new alien hybrid. I like a Ripley that has somehow been augmented, the alien changes are interesting but not welcome. The alien queen doesn't lay eggs, instead birthing an alien hybrid whole. All that does is make for an easy defeat. The movie wants it to be emotional between Ripley and the alien, positioning her as the mother. It's another plot contrivance masquerading as depth. A better ending would have helped this. It's just not very engaging.

I like this slightly better than Alien 3. While that built an interesting world, it failed to develop a credible action movie with the conclusion becoming muddled. This movie achieves the action, but there isn't much depth. Still, this ending is worse than 3. The alien hybrid ruins the creature's mystique. It exists to force an emotional moment for Ripley that never develops. That and the creature looks comical. It doesn't have the menacing edge of the original xenomorph The movie would have done better to make it look more normal or just abandon the alien hybrid idea. It's just not a good design, and that's where the credibility of the movie wanes.