ALIEN: RESURRECTION (1997)
Starring: Sigourney Weaver (Lt. Ellen Ripley [Clone]), Winona Ryder (Annalee Call)
Directed by: Jean-Pierre Jeunet, Written by: Joss Whedon
Rated R by the MPAA for blood and violence, strong language, and some minor nudity.
Reviewed by Doug Skiles
My ratings scale needs work.
I gave an A+ to THE LOST WORLD this year and one to FACE/OFF too. Okay, that's nice. Those movie met my expectations. I expected a sequel that was more based on action scenes than the original was with THE LOST WORLD and I expected FACE/OFF to be, well, a John Woo action film.
Now, what do I do when a movie *exceeds* my expectations?
I guess I should consider that I can't give an A+ to every movie that meets my expectations. I mean, if I get crap, and I expected crap, then crap doesn't get an A+. I expected BATMAN & ROBIN to be crap, and I still only gave it a D+, because, well, it *was* crap.
Still, the point is, if I expect good things out a movie, and get them all, I can't immediately slap it with an A+. It should get more like an A. A+'s should be reserved for movies that exceed my expectations. Maybe. Or maybe I'll just be lazy and stick with the old way. Well anyway...
Why am I talking about this? Well, because I'm not sure what grade to give to ALIEN RESURRECTION.
This is a movie that is a sequel to a classic series. The original ALIEN (1979) is a classic. ALIENS (1986), the second film, is a classic as well. In fact, it's probably the greatest and most intense action film ever made. ALIEN 3 (1992) had its problems and didn't quite measure up to the first two films, but it definitely had its positive points as well, not the least of which were great acting, lavishly dismal sets, and good direction from David Fincher (who has since worked on SEVEN [1995] and THE GAME [1997]).
So can a *fourth* film measure up to the tradition? Can it possibly be better than the admittedly somewhat disappointing third installment? After reading the first draft of the script, and seeing just a few short scenes from the film, I was filled with hope. It looked like this movie could blow people away. The legacy could live on.
I tried not to get my hopes up too high, and yet somehow I knew that I would be blown away.
Sure enough, when November 26 came around, I was sure as hell blown away, and even in some ways I didn't expect.
ALIEN RESURRECTION takes place 200 years after ALIEN 3. Ripley has been long dead, but it seems that way back before her demise, during the medical examinations Ripley in ALIEN 3, the medical officer Clemens (or possibly someone else?) took some blood samples from Ripley. Well, that was when Ripley was inpregnated with an alien queen, and, as you may recall learning from ALIEN 3, aliens can take on some physical attributes of their hosts by intertwining with the host's DNA. And the United Systems Military (or a somewhat renegade branch thereof) realizes that, by cloning themselves a new Ripley from these blood samples, they'll be getting a Ripley that has a nice fresh alien queen inside of her, due to the DNA in the blood samples being a mix of Ripley and alien. However, due to the slighty difficulties of the cloning process, Ripley as become somewhat of a hybrid creature - a human with some alien attributes. For some examples: Ripley is now stronger than before, and her blood has acidic properties. By the way, since the aliens have a hive mind and therefore have a collective memory, mixing those alien memory cells with Ripley's own cells has given this new Ripley clone some (rather sketchy) memories of her past.
Now the military scientists of the U.S.S. AURIGA have gotten a hold of their very own alien queen, and they're keeping their new Ripley clone alive as sort of a curiosity to study - their intrigued by her genetic mix and the fact that she ("IT" corrects Dr. Wren) actually has memories.
The crew of THE BETTY pays a visit to the AURIGA to deliver some unorthodox cargo - sleeping people in cryotubes. These smugglers, of which there are six (Elgyn, the cool-headed, smooth-talking leader; Hillard, pilot of THE BETTY and Elgyn's lover; Vriess, a mechanic who is paralyzed from the waist down [and seems to have a thing for the attractive young Call]; Call [played by Winona Ryder], apparently another mechanic, who Elgyn refers to as a "little girl playin' pirates"; Christie, a calm, cool, and collected man of action; and Johner, the group's loose canon, a hard drinker with an attitude problem) will do pretty much anything for money, and they don't know why they're getting these dozing innocents for the ship's science division, but there's good pay in it, so they're up for it. The reason that the scientists want these unsuspecting nappers is that they intend to use their bodies as hosts for a new army of aliens which they then plan to "tame" - an idea that is obviously a bad one.
Director Jean-Pierre Jeunet has infused this film with his own style, as have the previous ALIEN film directors (Ridley Scott on ALIEN, James Cameron on ALIENS, and David Fincher on ALIEN 3), and, as always in this series, the director's unique style is an impressive and highly effective one in its own way.
The acting, another thing with consistent quality in this series, is great. Sigourney Weaver reprises her OSCAR nominated roll (for ALIENS) as Ripley with a whole new angle that is creepily effective and gradually evolves throughout the pictures in a way that works quite well. She is, rightfully, the highlight. Winona Ryder plays the humane and moral Call with all the right touches. Ron Perlman is funny and cool as can be in the role of Johner. I could keep going down the entire list, but suffice to say that all of the players are fantastic.
Sets and gorgeous and eye-popping. Same for the effects, both animatronic and CGI.
The entire movie is excellently written. Dialouge is absolutely wonderfully scripted. The dramatic scenes *do* make you care about the characters and keep you interested, and when the action sequences are going on, you're glued to the screen. Joss Whedon (creator of the "Buffy The Vampire Slayer" TV show as well as a writer for a number of movies including TOY STORY) deserves credit for a great script and great revisions to boot.
Incidentally, if you're wondering, complaints about the last third of the film being poor in comparison to the rest of it are quite unfounded in my opinion; the entire portion of the movie is of just as high quality as the rest of the film.
I could go on and on, but it's best to just say that this is a wonderful film. If you love action, sci-fi, or just the ALIEN series, go see it and enjoy. Even if you disagree that it's good as I say, it's hard to say (with a straight face anyway) that it's not at least enjoyable and entertaining.
To 20th Century Fox, I say, please, make an ALIEN 5! Yes, I'm going to encourage the production of a sequel. There's certainly a lot of possibilites that could be explored with these creatures, and I think that we can at least try to end the series on a number less awkward than "4". Maybe this could become a series like STAR TREK or JAMES BOND - one that could go on for many years, perhaps with a new character taking over in Ripley's stead when Sigourney is ready to retire (preferrably a character that could introduced in an episode before Sigourney steps down). Still, an ALIEN film without Ripley would be difficult to imagine and would take a lot of work, Sigourney and the amount of work and skill she brings to each story is a staple in an important staple in these series... for now, let's just keep her around and give her new, interesting things to do. And make sure not to let the quality on the series slip - don't any entries turn out like rushed crap like BATMAN & ROBIN. Yes, this is a challenge - keeping it fresh, keeping it fun, keeping it high quality, and still keeping it going - but I don't think it's necessarily impossible. If it could be done, it could be a first. If it couldn't be, I still think a fifth and maybe a sixth film at least could provide nice closure on an excellent series, and could be done in new and interesting ways, and also, by being the final installment(s), could stop the story from getting stale in the end by dragging on too long.
Alright, enough with my "final thoughts", time for that difficult-to-decide-on rating.
RATING A+ (with extra credit? I really need to work on my grading scale... ) or ****+ (four [possibly more? five?] stars... and again, I need to work on this blasted scale)
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