Alien Resurrection (1997) - Review
- Sam Bateson
- Apr 28, 2021
- 6 min read
Updated: Jan 20, 2023
Director: Jean-Pierre Jeunet | Written by Joss Whedon | 108m
200 years after her last adventure, Ripley is cloned by military scientists, who extract an alien queen from her chest and exploit the fact that both Ripley and the alien are genetic hybrids. Meanwhile, Ripley teams up with a group of smugglers, including an advanced female android, to combat the rampaging aliens in a lab ship that's hurtling toward earth.
Urgh. Where do I even begin?
Look, readers, I won't lie to you. I debated even including this movie as a canonical instalment, so removed from the reality of the franchise as it is. But, buy any box set, and it will invariably include Alien Resurrection. In simple terms, save yourself the bother and royally skip this one. I remember a friend of mine telling me that he accidentally let his Alien Quadrilogy box set get melted near a radiator; we both decided it was no great loss that the only film that remained unplayable was this one.
Interestingly, this is the first Alien film I ever saw; way back when the Prometheus trailers were doing the rounds, I tried to find copies of the original series so that I could catch up on the franchise before I went to see the prequel(?), and for some reason I decided to start with Resurrection. Strange, but at least things only got better...
Directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet, and written by Joss Whedon (that's right, way before Josstice League, good old Whedon was out ruining other franchises...), Resurrection picks up 200 years after Alien 3; Ripley has been cloned by some scientists (whose exact allegiance is explained in excruciating yet entirely forgettable detail, including a reference to Weyland Yutani being bought out by Walmart. More on this so called "satire" later). They want the Alien queen that was growing inside Ripley in Alien 3 (because apparently implanted embryos are genetic in the distant future). Once the Queen is extracted, she begins producing eggs, but only for as long as the plot needs her to; eventually she develops a womb capable of birthing only one creature. Why she was capable of both is never explained... A gung-ho group of pirates soon appear with hostages that they sell to the scientists who then use the hostages as incubators for Alien embryos. I'd tell you the pirates' names but they're so immaterial and dreary that I can't remember any of them and I'm too uninterested to look them up. In one of the more unique sequences in the film, the Xenomorphs that hatch from the hostages realise they can escape confinement by sacrificing their kin in order to melt their way out of their cages and the usual Alien antics ensue. At this point, you'd expect the military outfit running the operation to step in and deal some sweet Marines style alien-massacring? Nope. They all evacuate. They literally abandon ship, making their presence as useless as the film they're in, really.
For the remainder of the film, our cloned Ripley (who possesses traces of Xeno-DNA) teams up with the pirates to escape and destroy the ship before it reaches Earth. One of the pirates is Call, an Auton played by a young Winona Ryder, whose sole role is to moan, complain and generally act like a child who's just been told "no, you cannot just walk off the film. Yes, I know it's a heaping pile of shit, but we've signed the contract now!", cue endless grumpy faces and whiny noises. Somehow, a homoerotic romance springs up between Call and Ripley (did I mention this film was directed by a French guy? Because this film is French. Very, very French) that adds nothing but discomfort to an already uncomfortable ride.
In terms of the story, there's nothing new here. The vast majority of the characters exist merely to be killed in brutal ways. Dan Hedaya's [insert forgettable character here] military leader guy is killed by being bitten in the head and then pulling pieces of his own brain out - a metaphor for what the viewer will probably be doing at that point - in the most stupid, embarrassing and downright intelligence-slapping scenes yet committed to film.
Look, Jean-Pierre Jeunet makes no secret of the fact that this movie was supposed to be darkly-humorous. I get the trying of different genres. But here, it's so unimaginative, so removed from the established universe that you wonder if the filmmakers just made this to save the Zucker Brothers the bother of making an Alien parody. The movie does toy with some interesting ideas, though they're never allowed to flourish; Ripley is tormented by being part alien, but the connection is never explored enough to make the development worthwhile; there's a great sequence involving Ripley discovering all of her previous failed clones, which is brilliantly acted, directed and written, featuring some great effects, and which really shows off Jeunet's panache for the macabre. Again, this seems like something the movie could really explore but never does.
I'll give them their dues, the cast do their best with the material they're given. Once again, Sigourney Weaver shines as Ripley. She's joined by Winona Ryder, Ron Perlman, Dominique Pinon, Gary Dourdon, Michael Wincott and Kim Flowers as the pirate crew of the Betty. Also joining the cast are Dan Hedaya, J.E. Freeman and Brad Dourif as the crew of the USM Auriga, the base of operations for the evil yet entirely generic scientific goings-on of whoever the evil overlords are in this movie. Unfortunately, the film lacks the narrative depth to do simple housekeeping things like explain what their motives are or why we should like any of these assholes (and they are assholes), making their inevitable deaths hollow. By the end, when there are some survivors, you're praying for another couple of scenes so there's opportunity for the rest of them to be killed. Why, out of all the characters needlessly killed off in this series, did any of these bastards survive? Oh, and that's before we get to the Newborn.
Remember the Queen Xenomorph with the womb? Well she inexplicably produces an alien-human hybrid, with a skeletal face, breasts and, in some shots, a penis. An actual penis (they shot the movie with it having male and female genitals, but edited them out after they worried it was "too French". That's right, that's the only part of this pile of shite they got cold feet about). As with everything else in this film, the Newborn is a somewhat interesting, if poorly thought out, idea that ends up so immaterial to the movie that it's killed off almost as quickly as it's introduced.
Therein lies the biggest issue with Resurrection. It exaggerates all of the wrong things; "Hey, people liked the action of Aliens! Let's make this movie all action!", without considering that Aliens had a human heart in amongst the machismo. "Wow, they made the Xenomorphs so slimy in the other films, let's drown our creatures in the stuff!", such that you feel dirty watching. "Phallic symbols? Let's hire a French guy!", it's just too ridiculous, silly and child-like. One half of me commends the film for trying new things, but then the sane half of me prevails and thinks back to the very first Alien film; taught, sleek, serious and horrifying. Then I think of this film; loaded, bloated, goofy. A shadow of its former glory.
Look, Jean-Pierre is a brilliant, capable director. He brought us such classics as Amelie, a genuinely heartfelt, quirky and funny movie about a woman in love. It's delightfully absurd, and it works. Delicatessen is another of his great works, showcasing his love of horror, the grotesque and the macabre. Alien Resurrection is a combination of the two; a zany, grotesque movie with a stupid clone/android I-don't-even-want-to-call-it-a-"love" story. Oh, with Aliens running around. Resurrection is, if nothing else, a great example of how to run a franchise into the ground. Kudos to the film for at least trying something new, but the existence of this film is something of a miracle; quite how it was written, cast, shot, edited, approved and released without anyone stepping in and saying "Is this really the best we can do?" is beyond me.
All in all, Alien Ressurection is a mixed bag of ideas that whilst on their own appear great, interesting and dare I say it engaging, combined they make for one of the worst films in a once-great franchise. To put it one way, Alien is a great meal, with ingredients that compliment each other and just tastes really good. Alien Resurrection is Cheerios soaked in ketchup; a bold choice, but one that just leaves a bad taste in your mouth. Not only that, but [spoiler] Ripley only died in Alien 3 so that Sigourney Weaver didn't have to do another Alien movie, and the ending is typically called the worst moment in the series. So Alien 3 is made worse by it's sequel that just says 'yeah, the ending of the last movie doesn't matter'. Seriously, and I mean this with the utmost seriousness, fuck you, Alien Resurrection.
Sam's Score: 4
Alien Resurrection is (unfortunately) available on home media and most video streaming services. But don't bother with it.
All images © 20th Century Studios
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