Alien: Resurrection (1997)

 

Genre: Sci-Fi/Horror

Time: 1h 49mins

Director: Jean-Pierre Jeunet

Quick Summary: Two centuries after her death, a powerful human/alien hybrid clone of Ellen Ripley aids a crew of space pirates in stopping the aliens from reaching Earth.

Okay, this is definitely a step up. 

In the beginning, the movie feels more like a sci-fi film. The set designs are cool and interesting, and I personally enjoyed them a lot. However, there were many bizarre close-up shots that I found more humorous than serious.

In this version of the movie, Ripley's character is depicted differently, but I find it appealing. She is more thrilling, confident and daring. It's quite refreshing to see her changed, especially given that she is not the same Ripley as before. In this movie, she is virtually unstoppable and relentless, with a touch of wildness. Winona Rider's performance was also enjoyable, even though it may not be her best work. She managed to bring a nice balance of innocence to her character, making it pretty entertaining.

Although the underwater scene was interesting, it lasted too long and was unrealistic because I really doubt anyone can hold their breath that long. The plot is absurd, the characters are one-dimensional, and the film is filled with excessive gore and special effects. But I actually had a lot of fun watching this. In the third act of the film, there is an intense scene where one character performs a daring stunt to kill one of the chasing aliens. This is followed by what can only be described as the funniest spider killing in the history of cinema.

I believe this has some potential to be better, but the script lacks excitement and is filled with overused dialogue. Though, I don't mind this. It has a good amount of action scenes, and because of how poor the script is, I found myself laughing at it a bit. 

I found the appearance of the new Alien in this movie to be absolutely horrifying, which is a good thing because it was meant to be. However, there were times when it grossed me out. Despite this, I found the design to be really interesting as it incorporated more human characteristics. The behaviour of the Alien was also slightly different, almost like that of a puppy. This worked really well with the ending, as I actually felt a little sorry for it. I liked the nice touch of Ripley's motherly instincts to bring more emotion to the scene. The ending grossed me out a little bit though.

This isn't awful, it is watchable and honestly kind of fun. It definitely gets lost throughout the film with tone and direction, but I enjoyed a lot of the action as well as the new Ripley. 

6/10

"Johner: Hey, Ripley. I heard you, like, ran into these things before?

Ripley: That's right.

Johner: Wow, man. So, like, what did you do?

Ripley: I died."

"No human being is that humane."