{"id":78022,"date":"2025-04-14T06:00:31","date_gmt":"2025-04-13T20:30:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.fernbyfilms.com\/?p=78022"},"modified":"2025-03-27T23:46:49","modified_gmt":"2025-03-27T13:16:49","slug":"movie-review-alien-resurrection","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fernbyfilms.com\/2025\/04\/14\/movie-review-alien-resurrection\/","title":{"rendered":"Movie Review – Alien Resurrection"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Principal Cast : <\/strong>Sigourney Weaver, Winona Ryder, Dominique Pinon, Ron Perlman, Gary Dourdan, Michael Wincott, Kim Flowers, Dan Hedaya, JE Freeman, Brad Dourif, Raymond Cruz, Leland Orser, Carolyn Campbell, David St James, Marlene Bush.
\nSynopsis:<\/strong> 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.<\/h5>\n

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The fourth entry in the Alien<\/em> franchise saw 20th Century Fox take a gamble on cult-favourite French director Jean-Pierre Jeunet (Delicatessen<\/em>, The City of Lost Children<\/em>, and later Am\u00e9lie<\/em>) to helm this moist, garbled, often horrifying yet equally horrible instalment in the iconic sci-fi horror series. While the film struggles to resurrect the deceased Ellen Ripley in a way that makes narrative sense\u2014her demise at the end of David Fincher\u2019s Alien 3<\/em><\/a> is a major hurdle, even by the flexible logic of franchise filmmaking\u2014Jeunet\u2019s distinctively French aesthetic is at least visually intriguing. Unfortunately, the film is hamstrung by some seriously clunky visual effects (though a few are surprisingly effective) and a screenplay weighed down by wooden dialogue, dreadful characterisation, and a risible, paint-by-numbers plot.<\/p>\n

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Set 200 years after the events of Alien 3<\/em>, scientists aboard the USM Auriga<\/em> successfully clone Ellen Ripley (Sigourney Weaver), though she now carries alien DNA within her genetic makeup. This results in enhanced strength, heightened reflexes, and a mysterious connection to the Xenomorphs. The scientists\u2019 goal is to breed and study the creatures, but when a crew of space mercenaries\u2014led by the tough and cynical Elgyn (Michael Wincott)\u2014delivers human cargo for experimentation, all hell breaks loose. The aliens escape, slaughtering the crew and turning the ship into a floating nightmare. Among the mercenaries is the enigmatic Call (Winona Ryder), who harbours a secret agenda linked to Ripley\u2019s past. As the body count rises, Ripley and the survivors must fight to escape before the ship reaches Earth, culminating in a nightmarish confrontation with a grotesque alien-human hybrid, the Newborn.<\/p>\n

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On paper, Alien Resurrection<\/em> had all the right ingredients. Sigourney Weaver\u2019s return\u2014this time playing a more feral, cloned version of Ripley\u2014brought star power and continuity, with the actress herself reportedly having significant input on her character\u2019s development alongside credited screenwriter Joss Whedon. Jeunet, known for his surreal, visually arresting films, promised an inventive take on the Alien<\/em> mythos. The supporting cast boasted then-hot Winona Ryder, the towering Ron Perlman, and the always-duplicitous Brad Dourif, among others. With Alien 3<\/em> having been both a critical and commercial failure, fans were eager for 20th Century Fox to shake up the franchise and return it to its former glory.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, all these elements collide in a sweaty, liquid-heavy mess of weirdly lit shadows, dingy sets, and the franchise\u2019s trademark industrialised aesthetic. Some of the performances are astoundingly bad, the dialogue frequently laughable, and the tone wildly inconsistent.<\/p>\n

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Sigourney Weaver remains the franchise\u2019s strongest asset, and her portrayal of Clone Ripley is one of the few elements that genuinely works. This \u201calternative Ripley\u201d carries the film through to its bizarre, mind-breaking climax, where she faces off against the hideous alien-human hybrid, a creature that looks like a skinned foetus crossed with a Xenomorph. It\u2019s a horrifying design, but like much of the film, its impact is dulled by poor narrative execution. The rest of the cast is saddled with some of Whedon\u2019s worst screenwriting, though they do their best to deliver the kind of sci-fi nonsense Alien<\/em> fans have come to expect. Whedon\u2019s attempt to return to the \u201cband of misfits\u201d dynamic\u2014best executed in James Cameron\u2019s Aliens<\/em><\/a>\u2014falls flat due to his penchant for jokey, quip-laden dialogue. Ron Perlman gets the lion\u2019s share of one-liners, delivering them with the driest of dry wit, while Brad Dourif plays a creepy scientist whose almost religious fascination with the Xenomorphs makes him the most intriguing supporting character.<\/p>\n

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Other ensemble members, like Michael Wincott, Dan Hedaya, and Gary Dourdan, bring requisite gravitas but little else. Leland Orser essentially reprises his Se7en<\/em> character, existing in a perpetual state of panic and shock. The most egregiously miscast actor, however, is French cinema stalwart Dominique Pinon, a longtime Jeunet collaborator who, prior to this film, reportedly couldn\u2019t speak English. Forced to learn his lines phonetically, Pinon delivers them with an awkwardness that borders on parody. In a film full of questionable creative decisions, his casting might be the most baffling. It’s certainly the film’s weakest point of contention.<\/p>\n

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Winona Ryder, meanwhile, feels completely miscast as Call. Looking more like a lost teenager than a hardened space mercenary, Ryder struggles with Whedon\u2019s clunky dialogue and Jeunet\u2019s peculiar direction. Her character\u2019s arc is at least well-defined, but obvious plot twists\u2014intended as clever callbacks to earlier Alien<\/em> films\u2014fall flat. Whether Whedon was winking at the audience or just fumbling the execution is unclear, but either way, the jokes don\u2019t land. The one saving grace is the dynamic between Ryder and Weaver, which almost elevates the film above its many missteps. Special mention must also go to Dan Hedaya, whose sweaty, bewildered performance as one of the ship\u2019s commanders is more unintentionally comedic than it has any right to be.<\/p>\n

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The film\u2019s biggest failing is its inability to balance horror with comedy. Every moment of flesh-shredding Xenomorph terror is undercut by a misplaced Whedon sight gag or throwaway one-liner. Like mixing oil and water, the result is a mess. Jeunet\u2019s decision to show the Xenomorphs in full light rather than lurking in the shadows\u2014perhaps a holdover from Fincher\u2019s ill-fitting choices in Alien 3<\/em>\u2014further diminishes their impact. Gone is the creeping dread of Alien<\/em><\/a> or the relentless intensity of Aliens<\/em>; here, the monsters are overexposed, turning them into little more than snarling rubber-suited creatures. Even the climactic confrontation with the Alien-Newborn hybrid lacks the weight of previous franchise finales. Where Ripley\u2019s battle with the Alien Queen in Aliens<\/em> carried maternal overtones and genuine emotional stakes, here we get Clone Ripley sharing a bizarrely sexualised bond with a grotesque, contorted abortion-monster. It\u2019s repulsive, yes, but not in the way the filmmakers likely intended. Little wonder Fede \u00c1lvarez would revisit a similar idea in Alien: Romulus<\/em><\/a> decades later\u2014it’s a great concept, but Alien Resurrection<\/em> botches it entirely.<\/p>\n

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Ultimately, Alien Resurrection<\/em> sticks too closely to the beats of the previous films. The isolated setting, the ticking-clock finale, the ragtag ensemble\u2014they all feel like either a tired homage or a straight-up parody of Alien<\/em>, Aliens<\/em>, and even Alien 3<\/em>. It\u2019s a remix of lesser proportions, bogged down by dire creative choices and Whedon\u2019s misjudged script. That\u2019s not to say Jeunet\u2019s direction is entirely without merit. He maximises his budget to deliver some striking visuals\u2014one early scene featuring a grotesquely malformed Ripley clone is genuinely disturbing\u2014but for every moment of stylistic brilliance, there\u2019s another weighed down by bad acting, bad dialogue, or a bad script. Even the most die-hard Xenomorph fan will find themselves longing for the militarised efficiency of James Cameron\u2019s Aliens<\/em>.<\/p>\n

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Little wonder this entry effectively killed the franchise as a standalone property. The next attempt to keep Alien<\/em> afloat saw the Xenomorphs collide with the Predator<\/em> series, and it would take Ridley Scott\u2019s return with Prometheus<\/em><\/a> to restore any semblance of credibility. As it stands, Alien Resurrection<\/em> is borderline unwatchable. If you must endure it, I recommend alcohol or hallucinogenic drugs. I suspect both were involved in its production.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Principal Cast : Sigourney Weaver, Winona Ryder, Dominique Pinon, Ron Perlman, Gary Dourdan, Michael Wincott,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":48482,"featured_media":78024,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[237,18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-78022","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-aliens","category-movie-review"],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/www.fernbyfilms.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/793228.jpg",1920,1080,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.fernbyfilms.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/793228-500x280.jpg",500,280,true],"medium":["https:\/\/www.fernbyfilms.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/793228-660x365.jpg",660,365,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/www.fernbyfilms.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/793228-768x432.jpg",640,360,true],"large":["https:\/\/www.fernbyfilms.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/793228-840x840.jpg",640,640,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/www.fernbyfilms.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/793228-1536x864.jpg",1536,864,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/www.fernbyfilms.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/793228.jpg",1920,1080,false],"covernews-featured":["https:\/\/www.fernbyfilms.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/793228-1024x576.jpg",1024,576,true],"covernews-medium":["https:\/\/www.fernbyfilms.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/793228-540x340.jpg",540,340,true],"profile_24":["https:\/\/www.fernbyfilms.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/793228-24x24.jpg",24,24,true],"profile_48":["https:\/\/www.fernbyfilms.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/793228-48x48.jpg",48,48,true],"profile_96":["https:\/\/www.fernbyfilms.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/793228-96x96.jpg",96,96,true],"profile_150":["https:\/\/www.fernbyfilms.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/793228-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"profile_300":["https:\/\/www.fernbyfilms.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/793228-300x300.jpg",300,300,true],"sow-carousel-default":["https:\/\/www.fernbyfilms.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/793228-272x182.jpg",272,182,true]},"author_info":{"display_name":"Rodney Twelftree","author_link":"https:\/\/www.fernbyfilms.com\/author\/rodney\/"},"category_info":"Aliens Franchise<\/a> Movie Review<\/a>","tag_info":"Movie Review","comment_count":"0","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fernbyfilms.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78022","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fernbyfilms.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fernbyfilms.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fernbyfilms.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/48482"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fernbyfilms.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=78022"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.fernbyfilms.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78022\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":78039,"href":"https:\/\/www.fernbyfilms.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78022\/revisions\/78039"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fernbyfilms.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/78024"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fernbyfilms.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=78022"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fernbyfilms.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=78022"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fernbyfilms.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=78022"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}