Alien: Resurrection Review
We are in week #4 of my Alien review series. Leading up to Alien: Romulus hit theaters, I’ve decided to go back and review all of the Alien movies. We’ve made it to the final film of the Sigourney Weaver era of Alien movies, Alien: Resurrection. Is this an improvement over Alien 3? How does it compare? Let’s get started!
The Good
I thought this movie had a lot of interesting ideas inside of it. When it comes to the plot of it all, it’s a very interesting concept and idea for another Alien movie. Where’s there’s this group of space pirates that are assigned to stop aliens from attacking Earth. They wanted to bring back Sigourney Weaver, so they decided to clone Ripley so she would be in the movie. Even if the idea of this Ripley having part of the Xenomorph inside of her is very interesting. There’s a lot of fun opportunities for the movie to do with that. It’s similar to the ideas with Spider-Man 3 of the Symbiote taking over Peter Parker and this changing Peter Parker. There’s ways you can do something similar to that movie, but do a better version of it and do it in a different context. As this is a sci-movie set in space in the very distant future. As I was watching the film, the ideas of the movie and what it was going for was the aspect that really hooked me and I thought it was interesting to explore.
I think this film does some nice course corrections after Alien 3. If you saw my review of Alien 3, you know that I was fairly negative about the film. I thought the reputation of it not being very good was right, I didn’t think it worked. Part of the problem was it had this sense of cynicism all over it. The story was very dark and bleak mixed with the alien creatures, it wasn’t a pleasant viewing experience. This movie doesn’t have that, it seemed like the studio listened to the fans. They themselves realize how they constructed Alien 3 wasn’t the best idea. So they put more thoughts into making a better movie with a better story. It doesn’t have the cynicism that was in Alien 3, it makes for a more pleasant viewing experience. It’s more entertaining, I would much rather watch this movie then Alien 3.
From there, I think the cast here does a very good job. This movie does have Sigourney Weaver returning and she’s giving a very different type of performance for Ripley. That’s on purpose because Ripley is acting very weird, so we get Sigourney Weaver acting weirder than she normally does. She’s not ast strong and fierce as she was in the previous movie. Since Sigourney Weaver is a great actress, she can play this weirder version of Ripley very well. The space pirates that are along for the journey are also quite fun. Ron Perlman is having a lot of fun in this movie, I like the energy he brings to his movies. He’s certainly one of the stand out characters of this movie. Then having Winona Ryder as another crew member, she’s a solid actress that can bring some nice energy to the film.
Finally, this is one of the funnier Alien movies. If you don’t know, Joss Whedon actually wrote the script for the movie. Despite Joss Whedon not having the best reputation as of late. One of his strengths is writing funny dialogue, that’s very present in The Avengers. He was a young screenwriter at the time and he had his talents of being funny and he brought those to the movie. So there are some solid jokes in here that do put a smile on your face. It can catch you off guard since humor isn’t normally very present in the Alien franchise.
The Bad
This is another movie that had a very interesting production process. It’s not as detailed or interesting as Alien 3. But Joss Whedon was hired to write the script for the movie, Joss Whedon is known for writing funny dialogue and banter for his characters. He does that in this movie very well, I just praised it. BUT, they got a director that doesn’t speak English. It’s a movie with a script from a guy known for writing funny jokes and directed by a French man. Obviously, those two things don’t really go together and you see that on screen. The tone of it feels off, it doesn’t feel like a normal Alien movie. It’s one of those movies where you’re picturing a better version of the film as you’re watching it. For me, I think the basic plot of it is very good. Space pirates trying to stop aliens from attacking Earth, that’s a solid setup. I would get a different screenwriter, let’s go back to the tone of the first two movies. Maybe we don’t have Ripley in the film. You have Winona Ryder as our lead of the film. You do something like that, make the film feel more like an Alien movie then it actually is. While I praised the humor of the movie, I don’t know if making a more comedic Alien movie was the right direction for the franchise. I think there’s a better movie in here, but the film needed some major changes done.
While I appreciate the ideas in this movie, I think some of them are better on paper than in execution. For example, the basic idea of Ripley being a clone thanks to Xenomorph DNA is interesting. In this movie, Ripley is not acting like Ripley. While Sigourney Weaver does a good job in the movie, she doesn’t resemble Ripley at all because it feels so different from who we know Ripley to be in the previous films. As much as I don’t like Alien 3, Ripley still feels like Ripley and that’s not the case here. The movie probably would have been better for me if they took the idea of Ripley bonding with Xenomorph and did a more serious version of it. They didn’t lean so goofy with some of it. You have moments where Ripley does a half court basketball show as she’s walking away. It’s a funny moment, but it doesn’t necessarily fit the Alien franchise. So they design Ripley to be so goofy and the end execution doesn’t work for me. In the final 15 minutes of the movie you have Ripley “making love” with a Xenomorph which is very weird. It’s an image that I don’t want to see happen, once again it doesn’t fit in the Alien franchise at all. This goes back to what I said earlier about the film was close to being a good movie, but made a few too many mistakes that hold it back.
Finally, very clearly the director of this movie isn’t on the same level as the other directors. The first three movies were directed by Ridley Scott, James Cameron, and David Fincher. All of those are world class Hollywood directors, they’ve made several fantastic movies, they’re beloved. The director of this movie, Jean-Pierre Jeunet, isn't on that same level. This was his first and only time directing a big Hollywood movie like this. Maybe he was experienced in that regard. But Alien 3 was David Fincher’s directorial debut. That movie has an infamously bad production history and Fincher’s style is still present in that movie. I think either Ridley Scott needed to come back or get a better quality director.
Final Thoughts: Alien: Resurrection is an improvement over Alien 3, the movie does get more things right. But there’s also a number of problems with the movie, it’s a movie that you’re picturing a better version of this movie. I think the tone of the movie doesn’t fully fit in the Alien franchise. I think the movie needed a different director and screenwriter to make a better movie. It’s not a bad movie, it’s also not good. It’s this interesting film to exist in the Alien franchise, it’s fine.
The Score: 7.7/10 (C+)
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