Alien: Resurrection
Chad'z rating: ** (out of 4 = fair/below average)
1997, R, 108 minutes [1 hour, 48 minutes]
[science fiction/thriller]
starring: Sigourney Weaver (Ripley), Winona Ryder (Call), Ron Perlman (Johner), Gary Dourdan (Christie); written by Joss Whedon; produced by Bill Badalato, Gordon Carroll, David Giler, Walter Hill; directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet; based on characters created by Dan O'Bannon, Ronald Shusett.
Seen December 1, 1997 at 7:20 p.m. at The Glenwood Movieplex Cinemas (Oneida, NY), theater #2, by myself for free (free pass). [Theater rating: ***: good seats, sound, and picture]
If there's anything I learned about the "Alien" series, it's the fact it epitomizes the term "The more things change, the more they stay the same." Each film has a unique direction to it, yet the stories and individual elements are basically the same. But what's most annoying about "Alien: Resurrection," besides the fact it repeats absolutely everything we've seen before, is it doesn't even try to have any direction or originality.
Describing the plots and the way they are set up in these films is beginning to become an exercise in futility, and I wouldn't doubt the screenwriters feel the same way writing them. Much like the previous sequels, there's a lot of jargon and rhetoric here to explain how Ripley (Weaver) will end up facing the aliens even though everything was fine when we last saw her. This time it's 200 years after the death of her original self, and scientists have created a clone of her (why did they wait so long?). How they did this isn't clearly explained, but we are knocked over the head with the fact she has memories and was slightly crossbred with alien DNA (which explains her super-strength and psychic abilities).
We get more variations on the same plot such as the arrogant scientists and leaders who try to study, breed, and exploit the aliens but something goes wrong and chaos ensues. There's also a militia brat pack, although this time they're pirates instead of miners, marines, or prisoners. Much like Ripley, they're also re-incarnated characters. First there's Johner (Perlman), the wise-cracking tough guy; then Call (Ryder), the smart, rational, strong-willed woman; Christie (Dourdan), the special weapons guy; along with a cripple in a high-tech wheelchair, a frail woman, and the suave leader. Most of these characters will die just as we're beginning to like them, and one of them will turn out to be a robot (deja vu!).
The storytelling here is so choppy we don't really get establishment of plot, but a collection of remotely related scenes, such as the scientist driven mad with curiosity studying the aliens, or the meeting between the pirate leader and the corrupt military leader which somehow explains why the pirates are on board the huge military vessel the film takes place in.
Of course the aliens break free from their cages and run rampant around the ship, killing many of the humans and giving the pirates something to run from and shoot at. And if that wasn't generic enough, I counted at least six times in which the music built up with violins screeching and then an alien popping out the shadows and killing someone. There's also an interesting scene (the only one for that matter) that takes place underwater, but somehow the humans manage to hold their breath for five or ten minutes!
Most of the film recycles and even rips-off elements from the other films that didn't work that well to begin with. We get dizzying action sequences with fire and bullets flying all over the place, corny one-liners, guns jam up at the last second, and people apparently dead come back to life. The faux Gothic atmosphere with lots of shadows, strobe lights, and steam all over the place is also tiring. The aliens themselves are now such cartoony embodiments of evil it's hard not to laugh at them, much less be frightened by them.
The "Alien" films are meant to be intense, sci-fi thrillers and there's no doubt that's what "Alein: Resurrection" is too, and I don't object to that principle. What I do object to is how the film constantly tries harder to be intense, but the more it does so, the sillier it seems.
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(C) 1997 Chad Polenz
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