Alien Resurrection

Now we have come to absolute worst in the franchise, “Alien Resurrection,” released in 1997. This film’s combination of abnormal intelligence and boringly expected sequel devices may not have made it a box-office hit. Maitland McDonagh said in her review, “But it should please fans more than Alien3 did, even though it owes more to that gloomy mood-piece than it does to either the first film-a lean, mean monster-movie machine-or the rousingly bloodthirsty Aliens.”

By now, we all know that just because a character is killed doesn’t mean they can’t come back for the sequel, guessing the money excuses the reason. Screenwriter Joss Whedon’s really smart comeback for Ellen Ripley, last seen throwing herself into the lava so that she can be sure of killing the alien inside her, is really a little waste. McDonagh said, “But yes, some 200 years after her suicide, Ripley awakes to find herself cloaked in new flesh: Eager-beaver military scientists have cloned her in order to extract the alien parasite, which they persist in believing they can control and employ to some dastardly end or other.” Obviously, Ripley knows better, but her concise warning, “She’ll breed – you’ll die,” goes unnoticed by the crew of the giant military space ship Auriga.

McDonagh is funny when she said, “Faster than you can say 'hive mentality and corrosive innards,' a new batch of lethal aliens is on the loose, slaughtering military personnel, mad scientists and anyone else who ventures into their slimy path.” Ripley teams up herself with an insanely but highly armed group of space rangers who innocently helped bring the Xenomorph aliens to life, and together they try to avoid the drooling aliens and get off the Auriga. It’s probably no surprise by now that “Alien Resurrection’s” weakest part is its story, which comes down to “a bunch of people get chased around a scary place by a big, bad monster.” McDonagh mentioned, “And for all the cult reputation of director Jean-Pierre Jeunet as a stylist with a powerful vision-with longtime partner Marc Caro, he directed the dark, quirky Delicatessen and The City of Lost Children-you wouldn't want to be called upon to defend the auteur theory with Alien Resurrection: It's an Alien movie, and there's only so much room for innovation.”

What makes this watchable is Sigourney Weaver, who, far from phoning in her fourth performance as Warrant Officer Ellen Ripley, rejoices in this clearly scary new version of the character she’s now been playing for the improved time of two decades. The point to Ripley’s reincarnation, because there’s always a reason when you’re fooling around with things man wasn’t supposed to, is that closeness to alien DNA has somehow joined Ripley to the savage aliens she spend her life killing. “I’m the monster’s mother,” she tells one depressed, soon-to-be former member of the fast-reducing group of survivors, and the evil look in her eye is a dark enjoyment. If the rest of the cast had material anywhere near as worth to work off of, “Alien Resurrection” might be some type of hateful tour de force. Sadly, they don’t and it’s not.

The supporting characters, including Auriga CO General Perez (Dan Hedaya), chief mad scientist Dr. Wren (J.E. Freeman), and the worn out space fighters (Michael Wincott, Ron Perlman, Dominique Pinon, Gary Dourdan and Kim Flowers), are designed in large, cartoonish pats that fight with Weaver’s cleverly scary performance. We also have Brad Dourif in here as one of the scientists involved in cloning Ripley, who also does his demonic Chucky voice. Worse, the orphan-like Winona Ryder looks completely lost in the role of Annalee Call, the newest member of the soldier’s team and the inevitable character who isn’t who she looks like. McDonagh ended her review by saying, “Nothing Call says or does makes any sense at all, even after the clunky explanatory scene that's obviously meant to clear everything up, and Ryder isn't an actress who can put across a poorly conceived or underwritten role by sheer force of personality.”

What happened? Such a great franchise sunk to a downright slapstick comedy joke of a series. What was the purpose of making this into some sort of a silly entry in the series? Just because the last one didn’t satisfy viewers, it would have been best to leave the series off with that one instead of this mess of a sequel. The story has so many holes, the characters are just there for the Xenomorph alien to kill them, the idea of mixing Ripley’s DNA with the Xenomorph alien is interesting but doesn’t add to anything at all, some of the disgusting deaths are creatively over-the-top, but for the most part, it’s just a weak sequel. Especially since, to be fair, a lot of good people working on this, seeing how they ended the now poorly named “Alien Trilogy.” Just avoid this one at all cost, especially if you weren’t satisfied with the last film. Just end off with that one and never see this one at all. You’ll hate every minute of it.

Now that we have “thankfully” gotten that one out of the way, check in on Wednesday where I look at another franchise that is actually really engaging to watch.