Alien: Resurrection? Some Things Are Better Left Dead
Reviewed by Vickie, Cinema Geek
Vick's Rating: 
= There's two hours of my life I'll never see again.
Is it too late to ask for my money back?
= They could have done SO much better. Wait for the video.
= Not bad at all. Some solid work.
= Wow! I'm very impressed. I might go see this one again.
= For the love of all that is good and kind in the world,
what an amazing movie!!!
Directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet
Cast (in credits order):
Sigourney Weaver....Ellen Ripley
Winona Ryder..........Annalee Call
Dominique Pinon......Vriess
Ron Perlman............Johner
Gary Dourdan..........Christie
Michael Wincott.......Elgyn
Kim Flowers.............Hilliard
Oh...where to begin?
When trailers for "Alien: Resurrection" hit screens months ago, you could almost taste the anticipation on the part of the collective movie-going population: Sigourney was back kicking slimy alien butt and she was bringing Winona Ryder along for the ride. The effects looked way cool, the action seemed roller-coaster fast and by the time the minute or so was up, everyone's adrenaline was pumping.
Cut to three months later. I'm sitting in my comfy movie theater seat with my contraband snacks, ready to kick off the holiday blockbuster bonanza. I'm trying to block out the negative reviews that have already begun to filter in so that I might watch the movie with an open mind and absorb its full impact.
Open mind or not, "Alien: Resurrection" was a big disappointment and there was no discernable impact to absorb.
In this, the fourth installment in the "Alien" franchise, Ellen Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) has been cloned from traces of blood (containing both human and alien DNA) found at the site of her death some two hundred years earlier. The scientists who bring her back do so to use her body as a host for breeding the spiny, slimy alien species she worked so hard to destroy. They claim their work will help the world of medical research--that the aliens, which will possess traces of human DNA, could be a source for possible vaccines and could be used for all sorts of globally beneficial purposes. Of course, as it goes in films like this one, those same well-meaning-but-altogether-moronic science types are the first to incur the wrath of the none-too-happy aliens once they hatch.
As all hell breaks loose, the mostly disposable, foul-mouthed, rag-tag crew (is there any other kind?) of a rusty transport ship arrives. Among them is Annalee Call (Winona Ryder), who knows about Ripley and her reputation, and forges a pseudomother-daughter bond with the angular alien exterminator.
The remainder of the film follows a simple and boring path. Ooh! Scary aliens! Run! Ooh! Scary aliens! Run! Ooh! Scary aliens underwater! Swim! And so on, and so on, and so on. Add a veritable cornucopia of gruesome ways for people and aliens to meet their demise and you've pretty much got "Alien: Resurrection."
I can't tell you how much I wanted to love this movie. I was ready for a heroine who straps on a ray gun and blows away the bad guys. Save for the trauma I suffered as a result of "Event Horizon," these kinds of space-action-thrillers are right up my alley. But "Alien: Resurrection" just didn't do it for me and I think I've narrowed down the reasons why:
They're not scary. Maybe it's because we've become too sophisticated as an audience and can see the words "special effect" stamped across their skulls, or perhaps it was the element of mystery that made them so terrifying in the past, but at no time did I cower in my seat anticipating their arrival. The aliens in this movie are everywhere and in this case, familiarity bred contempt.
A chick flick mixed with sci-fi! Why not? It could happen, but didn't here. Don't get me wrong, I wasn't expecting Ripley and Call to prance around in sundresses discussing their thoughts on life in outer space. I just hoped that by having two strong female leads, a deeper emotional subtext could be created--something to counteract the testosterone overload usually associated with movies like this one. Alas, it was not here. The producers attempted to create some semblance of that with the maternal role Ripley (kind of) takes, but it was never fully developed and at times was downright gross. There's nothing warm and fuzzy about fondling a giant, spiderlike creature who's dripping with slime, even if it does think you're its mother. Sorry.
The actresses do decent jobs with their limited roles, but I couldn't help but think that the film was beneath both of them. Sigourney Weaver is all angles and bones--very severe, very hard. For me, she's too severe--to the point that she was no longer a sympathetic character. I wasn't sitting in my seat cheering "Go, Ripley!" It was more like, "Omigod, she's scarier than the big aliens!" I'm also not the biggest Winona Ryder fan on the planet. I'm sure she's a very lovely young woman and I have enjoyed some of her work in the past, but here she just seems whiny.
I'm no prude and profanity doesn't offend me, but the use of profanity as a substitute for dialogue does. Again, I realize that this is in essence an action movie and audiences don't pile into the theater to hear Elizabethan prose, but come on. Characters in "Alien: Resurrection" speak in tiny bursts of profane language aimed at, one would assume, spawning a tag line along the lines of "I'll be back" or "Go ahead, make my day." Maybe someone somewhere thought that having characters afflicted with potty mouth would illustrate the desperation and alienation (no pun intended) of the future. For whatever reason, I found it terribly distracting. Having Ripley spit the line "Who do I have to f*** to get off this ship?" did nothing for me or for the majority of the people sitting in the theater with me.
All that said, the film is pretty to look at. It's visually impressive and has a distinct style, courtesy of director Jean-Pierre Jeunet. But even the prettiest packages don't always have nice things inside, and everybody knows that most people want the present, not the fancy-schmancy wrapping paper. It's what's inside that counts and in this case, there was nothing there but a big, slimy lump of coal.
Vick's Video Picks
For a stellar woman-in-space film, try the new-to-video "Contact." Based on the novel by Carl Sagan and starring Jodie Foster, the film takes an intelligent and surprisingly sentimental path to answering the questions: What is really out there and who put it there? Foster is brilliant (Hello? Academy?) as the earnest radio astronomer who begins receiving signals from outer space, and the supporting cast (which includes Matthew McConaughey, Angela Bassett and Tom Skerritt) is just as good. The film is also directed by Oscar-winner Robert Zemeckis...sheesh, what more could you want?
Return to the Vick's Flicks Archive.
Vickie, a self-confessed movie addict, has spent the last few years working at an entertainment magazine in Canada. When she's not toiling away at her computer in the office, she's toiling away at her computer at home-- hacking away at unfinished screenplays and planning her acceptance speech for the Academy Awards.
