Alien Resurrection (1997)

Save your money for something good and enjoyable

i must have seen a different film!!

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

After the terrible 'Alien 3' and this being the 4th installment in a franchise, I wasn't very keen on watching this, but when I saw it was directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet, I was very interested. This didn't seem like the fourth film. It felt fresh and new thanks to Jeunet's unique vision. We saw a very different side to the alien creatures, held captive for study and experimental purpose. I thoroughly enjoyed the experienced cast, and once all hell broke loose, it was exciting fast-paced non-stop action. The film's final moments does get a bit weird, but in general this was a very enjoyable entry to the franchise.

One of the longest running modern day horror franchises, "Alien" is a fascinating beast in the world of entertainment and media. With its humble origins as a quiet, slow-burn sci-fi thriller, the series evolved through sequels and spin-offs into something else entirely. Whether it be through James Cameron's exquisite action-extravaganza "Aliens", or the Paul W.S. Anderson schlock-tastic crossover "AVP: Alien VS Predator", or even series co-creator Ridley Scott's own pseudo- philosophical quasi-prequel "Prometheus"... "Alien" has changed and evolved quite a bit over the past forty years.But one release in particular has attracted an almost unanimous scorn and unending ridicule from all over the fanbase. A film that's so reviled, it's almost become a prerequisite that you're just expected to hate it. That being 1997's "Alien: Resurrection"- a strange little footnote in the series that tries its hardest but never quite comes together into much of anything. An attempt to turn the series around after the mixed reception garnered by "Alien 3", this fourth film aims for the stars, but stumbles and falls flat on its face. Although, if I am to be completely honest... I actually don't mind it too much. It's silly, but quite amusing and thrilling, with stylish visual direction and plenty of laughs and thrills to go around. Yes, "Resurrection" might be a mindless and trite exercise in style over substance... but it's also bold and extraordinarily entertaining. It's a ton of fun, even if it is objectively a "bad movie."Two-hundred years after the events of the previous film, scientists working for the military successfully clone Ellen Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) and the queen embryo she had been impregnated with, intent on allowing the alien life-form to reproduce so that they might study its race. This "new" Ripley has retained some faint memories of her former life thanks to genetic memory, but as a result of the cloning process, has also taken on some characteristics of the dreaded "xenomorph" species. When the offspring of the alien queen manage to escape, however, Ripley is forced to team up with a group of mercenary space-pirates (including Ron Perlman, Winona Ryder) in order to escape. Along the way, she will uncover startling and deadly revelations about the project that brought her back to life, and come face to face with a devilish new threat...Directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet from a script by the world-renowned geek-god Joss Whedon, "Resurrection" does so much right that it's frankly a shame it's so routinely dismissed without much thought. It's essentially an incredibly slick and exceedingly well-made crappy B-movie. The plot is ridiculous. The characters silly and archetypal. And it's filled to burst with nonstop gore and effects. But it's made with a massive budget, an A-list cast and comes from a wildly talented director with a clear vision. Even on a pure aesthetic level, it's one of the most striking films of the franchise, with Jeunet's wonderful eye for flow and composition delivering many incredible set-pieces and designs that'll stick with you. It's just a gorgeous film all around.The cast is an absolute blast, with Weaver once again knocking it out of the park. Especially as this "new" Ripley also goes through some fascinating changes that both allow Weaver to stretch her acting chops... and have some fun chewing the scenery from time to time. Perlman and Ryder are good fun as members of a space-pirate team, with Perlman in particular being a good fit for the franchise. He's a criminally underrated performer and it's a joy seeing him on- screen. We also get small but fun turns from the likes of Brad Dourif, Dan Hedaya and Michael Wincott, and all serve the film quite well. The effects and action are top-notch for the time, with many sequences still holding up quite well to this day. An underwater chase-scene and a trippy climactic battle against a potential new threat in particular being eye-popping and absolutely jaw-dropping. And the wonderful cinematography and almost amniotic musical score add much to every single scene.But yeah... despite that praise, the film does have a lot of problems. Like I said above- it's basically a big-budget B-movie filled with the tropes and archetypes you'd expect, and it doesn't fit in with the rest of the series quite well. Unless you're willing to forgive a lot and go with the flow, you're not gonna have a good time with "Resurrection." There has been a lot of talk of how Whedon disowned the film and felt his script wasn't translated properly to screen, and I could definitely see shades of that. For all the amazing things he does, Jeunet seems less interested with story and more interested in increasingly psychotic visuals. And if you're looking for anything more than surface-level entertainment, you'll be sadly let-down.But me? I take movies for what they are and what they aspire to be. It's clear everyone involved on-screen is having a lot of fun. It's clear that Jeunet is trying to build a wild thrill-ride of a monster-movie. And it's clear that this is a film more concerned with crazed displays of gore and effects than a cohesive story. And you know what? I had a lot of fun with it. It's technically a "bad" movie, but to me... it's a FUN bad movie. And I'm giving it slightly above average 6 out of 10. Give it another shot with an open mind. It just might surprise you how enjoyable "Alien: Resurrection" really is.

When people think of the worst movie in the Alien saga, automatically what comes to mind is "Alien: Resurrection." While it is true that it is among the lesser Alien movies (Resurrection, Alien 3, Alien vs. Predator 1&2), it is honestly kind of a dumb masterpiece. What that means is while this movie may be really weird and off the rails and bloated at times, it has a certain charm and awesomeness to it that Alien 3 doesn't have. While I actually don't hate Alien 3, it is easily the worst of the main 6 Alien movies (Alien, Aliens, Alien 3, Alien: Resurrection, Prometheus, and Alien: Covenant). And I feel fine saying that, even though many people might disagree with me. Even though Ripley is pretty bad in Resurrection, Winona Ryder makes everything better (I have a fairly big crush on Winona Ryder). So, haters, back off. Alien: Resurrection is a movie worth your time.

I really admit that if it wasn't for the Nostalgia Critic's funny review of this movie I would have probably liked this more. Then again, I noticed a lot of the problems while I was watching the movie. It looks like this is the last in the Alien series chronological wise. The new movies are better, but of course not as good as the oldest ones. I actually really did like the special effects in this movie. It's weird because it actually starts with this really stupid CGI shot of a fly, but it gets much better. There are so many things that don't make sense.In the scene where the guy with the Xenomorph was attacking the villain, I had no clue what was going on. Was the alien mind controlling him? Well, it does lead to a pretty cool scene. The first half hour of this movie is pretty boring too. Around the third part, it does get its best parts because the action is nice. The problem is, this film doesn't bring anything new to the Alien mythology. I guess there is this new alien creature that appears at the end, but even that was poorly designed. Sigourney Weaver is still nice and yes, she actually literally made that backwards basketball shot in the film. **