Today’s quick review: Alien: Resurrection. Two hundred years after her last encounter with the Xenomorph, Ellen Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) wakes up on a military space station, cloned as part of an attempt to revive and control the Xenomorph species. When the cloned Xenomorphs break containment, Ripley must join forces with a mercenary crew to escape the station and blow it up before the emergency autopilot can take the new alien hive back to Earth.
Alien: Resurrection is a sci-fi action horror movie and the fourth film in the Alien series. Alien: Resurrection pits a revived Ellen Ripley and an eclectic crew of mercenaries against a space station full of Xenomorphs. The movie takes the classic setup for the series in a new direction, with a more extreme story, bizarre humor, and a dose of body horror. But nearly all of its gambles backfire, making it a flawed watch and disappointing sequel.
Alien: Resurrection sacrifices much of the weight of the previous films in exchange for cheaper thrills. The direction is more active and less artful. The characters are exaggerated and often comical, in contrast to the grounded characters found earlier in the series. Ripley barely resembles her past self, now a clone with superhuman powers, splotchy memories, and an unhinged personality. There is very little for fans of the series to latch onto.
Even the film’s wins feel out of place for the franchise. Winona Ryder and Ron Perlman head a cast of colorful mercenaries that might feel at home in another series. The special effects are creative, truly disturbing, and used to give the film its horror tinge, but they are a departure from the subtler horror found earlier in the series. The plot works well enough for an action flick, but it lacks the weight or grit of previous Alien films.
Alien: Resurrection is a sequel that takes a few major risks and comes up short. Taken in isolation, it’s an uneven sci-fi flick whose forced premise, odd characters, misplaced humor, and gruesome special effects make it hard to like. Fans of the risky, the offbeat, and the schlocky may find something to like, but most viewers will find that Alien: Resurrection has neither the strengths of its predecessors nor the quality to stand on its own.
For a sci-fi sequel that takes similar risks, try Predator or The Predator. For a sci-fi movie with some of the same tonal issues, try Battlefield Earth. For a better use of Ron Perlman in a similar role, try Blade II.
6.2 out of 10 on IMDB. I give it a 5.5 for drastic shifts from its predecessors, a weak story, and a misjudged tone.