In the leadup to Alien: Romulus, I’ve been watching, reading, and playing every piece of Alien content available. Yes, even Alien Resurrection. For the second time in my life, I popped in Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s controversial movie, hoping to discover a misunderstood gem.
Has the film gotten better over the last two and a half decades? Read on to find out.
For those unaware, Alien Resurrection is the fourth film in the Alien franchise, which began with Ridley Scott’s 1979 film. Following the lukewarm reaction to David Fincher’s controversial Alien 3, the franchise appeared dead and buried. Ellen Ripley (Sigourney Weaver), the franchise’s popular heroine, died valiantly, killing the last remnant of the Xenomorph species.
Alas, Hollywood being Hollywood, Ripley was back in action seven years later except, this time, as a clone of her former self, resurrected by military scientists two centuries after the events of Alien 3. Their mission is to acquire the Queen gestating inside her, but Ripley’s survival instincts prevent her clone from moving on. In a desperate bid to reinvigorate the character, she also now possesses Xenomorph traits — acidic blood, super strength, heightened senses, and the ability to feel her alien children.
Eh, sure.
Into the fold drops a ragtag group of mercenaries led by Elgyn (Michael Wincott) and featuring the tough-minded (and obviously robotic) Call (Winona Ryder), the burly Johner (Ron Perlman), the badass Gary Christie (Gary Dourdan), a hot chick in a thong (Kim Flowers), and a dude in a wheelchair (Dominique Pinon). Together, they deliver a group of humans, unaware that the scientists are using them to create Xenomorphs.
Long story short, the aliens escape and kill most of the crew, leaving our survivors (and Ripley) battling for their lives against a hoard of deadly Xenos.
Oh, and Ripley has sex with the Queen, leading to the creation of a human/alien hybrid. Don’t blame me; blame writer Joss Whedon.
Here’s the rub: Resurrection, despite a gluttony of flaws, is actually quite entertaining, so long as you separate it from the Alien universe. As a second-rate monster flick with B-movie production values, it works thanks to some well-executed set pieces, a few nifty ideas, and a cast that appears to be in on the joke.
Sure, it flies off the rails in a bonkers third act, but even then, I couldn’t help but applaud its wild, creative swings. Where else are you going to see a humanoid get sucked into the vacuum of space through a tiny hole in the side of a spacecraft?
In November 1997, I listened to critics and skipped the theatrical experience in favor of Starship Troopers (which does what Alien Resurrection tries to do a lot better). I caught Ripley’s latest adventure when it hit video the following year and, against my better judgment, watched it out of morbid curiosity.
I hated it.
It was too campy for my tastes and felt more like something produced by the Sci-Fi Channel than a continuation of Ridley Scott and James Cameron’s masterpieces. Plus, it was gory as hell.
Jeunet relishes the carnage that Scott and Cameron only hinted at, thus placing Resurrection firmly in grindhouse territory. In an effort to propel Alien 4 above the growing slasher film trend stirred by Wes Craven’s Scream a year earlier, Jeunet effectively turns the terrifying Xenos into atypical movie monsters — a change solidified by the AvP flicks — for better or worse.
Resurrection lacks the artistic sophistication of its predecessors and relies far too much on genre troupes for flavor. As someone who grew up with Alien and Aliens, I was disgusted. Look what they did to my boy:
I returned the VHS to Blockbuster and pretended the franchise concluded after Cameron’s epic.
And look, I won’t label Resurrection as a misunderstood masterpiece. It’s still mostly garbage, but it’s also the type of goofy, harmless nonsense one can enjoy on a Saturday night. The action is solid, the performances are sound, and one or two of Whedon’s ideas stir the brain. A scene in which Ripley stumbles upon a room of Ripley clones carries some emotional weight:
Weaver is clearly having a blast in perhaps her weirdest role outside of that bizarre Snow White horror flick. We see flashes of Ripley’s kind-hearted spirit during interactions with Call and her tough-as-nails grit in various combat situations. No doubt the iconic actress only returned after getting the green light to get kooky as f—:
The aliens look pretty great overall, despite the mediocre CGI. An early breakout sequence is fun and occasionally thrilling:
While the underwater set piece carries plenty of tension and a few bursts of creativity:
I dug the way Perlman’s character bonds with Ripley throughout the picture. At first, wary of this basketball-shooting wacko, he grows to respect and even admire her. Ditto with Ryder’s Call, who enjoys a decent character arc and eventually reveals herself as a sympathetic android.
Jeunet and cinematographer Darius Khondji go for a comic book style, discarding Scott and Cameron’s shadow-drenched corridors for colorful, brightly lit sets that leave nothing to the imagination. The intent was to breathe new life into a stale franchise, usurping tension-building drama for kinetic, music-video-styled action and cartoonish theatrics. To that end, Resurrection packs a visceral punch and supplies a few clever shots that linger in the brain.
As the AvP franchise proved, the Xenomorphs aren’t quite as ferocious when placed in a video game-like setting. The first three Alien pictures designed these gnarly extra-terrestrials as intelligent monsters living in and attacking from the shadows. Resurrection turns them into bulky Velociraptor-like creatures that roar loudly while roaming the brightly lit corridors.
Again, as a silly monster flick, Alien Resurrection does its job. I enjoyed it quite a bit on my recent viewing, free of expectation. I respect that Jeunet tried to propel the franchise in a different direction, setting the stage for an Earth-bound sequel. I would love a follow-up.
Still, the biggest miscue here is bringing Ripley back. Like Terminator, the Alien franchise placed too much emphasis on its star. Ripley remains one of the great action heroes, but she wasn’t necessarily the engine driving the ship. Cameron succinctly wraps up her story in Aliens, forming a satisfying one-two punch with Scott’s picture. Future sequels should have presented new characters or followed Hicks and Bishop, as initially pitched by William Gibson. Then, after a few movies, Ripley could have returned for one last hurrah.
Thankfully, Alien: Romulus appears to be the sequel franchise fans have long desired, bereft of ties to Ripley. Maybe now, the Alien saga can move forward in a bold, new direction and finally correct the mistakes made so long ago.