Alien Resurrection Review
by Vincent Archer (archer AT frmug DOT org)November 14th, 1997
Alien: Resurrection (Aliens 4)
Directed by: Jean-Pierre Jeunet
Starring: Sigourney Weaver, Winona Ryder, Dominique Pinon, Ron Perlman
Personal grade: B+
I knew that living in France would turn out useful once in my life. Well, this is the occasion, as we frenchmen are treated with an advance release of the latest release in the Aliens sage.
Jean-Pierre Jeunet (without its usual complice Marc Caro) was selected by the producers on the strength of _The City of the Lost Children_, whose bizarre vision showed that he could create yet another different style for _Aliens_. The fact that he didn't spoke english at all didn't faze them, God be thanked.
For those who didn't follow the press releases, it's been 200 years since Florina. The Company is defunct, but General Perez has acquired the samples that were preleved on Ellen Ripley for diagnosis, and has mounted a covert private operation to extract the Aliens' genetic pattern and resurrect the species. Guess what? Right, they clone Ripley and extract a Queen, whose genetic patterns were mixed with Ripley's.
Enter a band of colorful mercenaries, who hijacked a shuttle full of frozen miners on their way to colonies, and are delivering twelve warm bodies for incubation. Winona Ryder plays the role of a romantic pirate wannabee who used the bed to buy into the team, while long-standing Jeunet complice Dominique Pinon plays the crippled ship mecanic and Ron Perlman who already starred in _The City_ is a though and gruffy mercenary.
No one is surprised when, after a while, the Aliens, instead of being tamed, manage to escape, and all hell breaks loose. Our heroes now have to cross the entire starship to get back to their own, ensure that the ship (who, of course automatically set course to Earth when any emergency arise) is destroyed, while dodging a few aliens on their way.
The personal touch of Jeunet is evident everywhere in the movie. I doubt that anyone would have used bad breath as an authentification method, or have Ripley weep when she kills the last Alien. Each character exsudes a je-ne-sais-quoi suggesting of (moral) decay, and small little details draw smiles at odd moments. Such as the best TV channel ever (a home shopping channel with every kind of gun and knife rotating for display, with full schematics all around), or a real hairy general woken up by the general emergency.
The film also has its own gross moments, which one would expect when you start with bugs who build nests out of hardened saliva, but there are hard moments. I don't know if all of these will survive in the U.S. release. Judicious use of the Alien's double mandibles - preferably with a human head just in the trajectory - is also scattered thru the entire movie. But, if you are going to see an _Alien_ film, this is not something that would deter you so much.
No sequel will probably ever make it to the level of the initial installment of the series, but this one comes close. The expected cop-out of "#3 never happened" doesn't occur, but you can forget all about that bad dream, and enjoy seeing a much toughened Ripley tearing her way - literally - thru the ship and a lot of human drama. When she's asked "Why do you keep on living?", the answer "Because I don't have much choice" somehow seems really adequate.
I don't know what Jeunet will do next, but it sure will be worth waiting for!
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Vincent ARCHER Email: [email protected]
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