Retro Film Review: Alien: Resurrection (1997)

(SPECIAL NOTE: Capsule version of the review is available here.)

In dog-eat-dog world of Hollywood, where sticking to formula is preferable to taking risks, it takes special kind of courage for big studios executive to greenlight films that would take brave, unusual and unorthodox approach, especially when the subject in question is something very familiar and very popular. That courage is usually found in the most desperate of all situations, when otherwise simple tasks look like insurmountable problems. One of those tasks was fourth instalment of Alien film franchise, which seemed dead and buried following critically acclaimed and commercially disastrous Alien 3. Five years after that disaster, 20th Century Fox hired French director Jean-Pierre Jeunet to make fourth film, named Alien: Resurrection.

The biggest obstacle to fourth film was the fate of the film franchise's heroine Lt. Ellen Ripley (played by Sigourney Weaver), whose spectacular demise in Alien 3 (together with any of the major characters present in first two films) seemed to remove any possibility of a sequel. There were many speculations about ways in which Lt. Ripley or at least character physically resembling Lt. Ripley could be brought back including prequel, plot dealing with Ripley's twin sister or the most likely and the cheesiest of them all - Lt. Ripley waking up and realising that the events of the third film were only a bad dream.

Thankfully, scriptwriter Joss Wheddon (who would later re-write television history with Buffy the Vampire Slayer) took more ingenious approach. The plot of Alien: Resurrection takes place some two hundred years after Lt. Ripley's death. Only microscopic amounts of Lt. Ripley's body tissue remained, but in the meantime biotechnology has advanced enough for the team of scientists led by Doctor Wren (played by J.F. Freeman) to turn those tiny bits of DNA into nearly perfect clone of deceased space pilot. That experiment, conducted on giant military space ship commanded by General Perez (played by Dan Hedaya), had much more sinister motives than simple scientific curiosity - due to Ripley's clone being corrupted by alien DNA, scientists are able to extract queen xenomorph, the magnificent and deadly creature whose murderous children wrecked havoc in late Ripley's life. Queen lays eggs and eggs needs hosts, and Perez finds that thanks to Elgyn (played by Michael Wincott), leader of space pirates who hijacked other space vessels, taken their hibernated crews and sold them to the scientists with no question asked. In order to arouse as little suspicion as possible, Perez allows Elgyn's crew to roam inside his ship and they can't fail to notice Ripley's clone who, despite her human appearance, show some unusual abilities. Elgyn and his people start getting ideas, but they soon become irrelevant when the xenomorphs escape from the lab and start the general mayhem.

The best thing about Alien: Resurrection and the most obvious improvement over Alien 3 is Joss Wheddon's script and the way in which Lt. Ripley is brought back. Cloning not only provides opportunity for Sigourney Weaver to reappear, but her character is significantly different from the one in previous three films. Her Ripley is more cynical, sarcastic and alien DNA within her body not only brings her new abilities but also leaves audience with perpetual questions what her real aims are and on which side her ultimate allegiance lays. Wheddon is less fortunate with other characters - while the band of space pirates is handled very well and represents colourful bunch very much like the Colonial Marines unit from Aliens, characters of scientists and General Perez don't go beyond cartoonish stereotypes. Very diverse and talented cast of character actors struggles with those problems with different results – while Michael Wincott, Dominique Pinon, Ron Perlman (aided by Winona Ryder, genuine Hollywood star with enough confidence to play second fiddle to Weaver) provide convincing pirates, not even the talents of Dan Hedaya and Brad Dourif can't rescue their underwritten characters.

While the script created great opportunities, director Jean-Pierre Jeunet for the most part missed them. Famous for his "art" films like Delicatessen and City of Lost Children, he used talents of cinematographer Darius Khondji to create setting completely different from space ships and colonies used in previous three films – the spaceships in Alien: Resurrection are dark, monochromatic and surreal places, that look like they belong to dark children's fairytales rather than science fiction films. Darkness in this film served good purpose, because Alien: Resurrection contains more graphic violence and gore than previous three films – such naturalistic carnage couldn't have passed Hollywood censorship if presented more clearly. However, Darius Khondji's cinematography also had another nasty side effect - Jeunet accompanied bloodshed with too much of alien slime and the xenomorphs suddenly look too prosaic to be as awesome as they were in previous three films. Xenomorphs looking like caricatures of their former selves, however, can't top their new, mutated specimen which appears at the very end - the most controversial part of Alien: Resurrection. Despite all the special effects, the monster looks so pathetic and the final climax looks so ridiculous that Alien: Resurrection and that particular moment looks like unintentional parody of the whole franchise.

Yet, despite all those flaws, the ending of Alien: Resurrection makes more sense and leaves clearer avenue for new sequel. Fourth film didn't do well on the box-office and most of Alien fans agree that taking Jean-Pierre Jeunet to helm this project was mistake. Yet, the bravery of the studio nevertheless paid off – Alien: Resurrection showed that the franchise can survive disaster of Alien 3. It is this film's greatest achievement and reason why fans of the Alien franchise can have some hope when it comes to future sequels.

RATING: 5/10 (++)

(Note: The text in its original form was posted in Usenet newsgroup rec.arts.film.reviews on January 27th 2004)

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Critic: AA