Alien Resurrection Review
by E. Benjamin Kelsey (LooseSkrue AT aol DOT com)December 10th, 1997
ALIEN: RESURRECTION
(R)
Directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet
Running Time: 108 minutes
Originally Released: November 26, 1997
Reviewed by E. Benjamin Kelsey
* * ½ (out of four)
I really don't like to see sequels when I haven't seen the predecessors. It's just not right. So although I hadn't seen any of the "Alien" movies at all, thru gentle persuasion I agreed to go to ALIEN: RESURRECTION, and my friends were kind enough to give me a rundown of the first three on the way to the theater. With nothing but my friends' "expertise" to rely on up to this point, I sat down hoping for two hours of fun.
I'm gonna leave it up to you to know where ALIEN 3 left off. I'm not going to write up an essentially "word of mouth" re-cap of three movies I haven't seen. With that in mind, try to remember that my review could greatly be affected by a lack of "Alien" knowledge. This review is going to be from the perspective of someone who doesn't know what's going on. Hopefully it will be of use to someone!
As ALIEN: RESURRECTION begins, we are on a spacecraft where scientists remove an alien baby from Sigourney Weaver's body. Then, from what I could gather, we jump quite a few years into the future. They have cloned Ellen Ripley (Weaver) and her "baby" is now a queen alien kept for scientific research. All within the same scene, they try to teach Ripley's clone what a fork is, which is pretty ironic because about ten seconds after that, she listens to a scientist ramble on in scientific jargon and, what do you know, she understands it all.
Meanwhile a spaceship full of "no-goods" hooks up with the larger spacecraft and in come a fresh group of alien chow. Oops! Did I give away a major surprise? Anyway, the group of terrorists, which includes Winona Ryder as Annalee Call, boards the craft just in time for all hell (including the oh-so- researchable aliens) to break loose.
What happens next is obvious. Everybody, aside from the rebel group and Ripley's clone, is soon killed off. This leaves our main characters scrambling thru an oversized, earth-bound hunk of metal. Will they get out in time? Will Ripley's clone, who is seemingly half-alien, be a friend or foe? Will the audience suck this up?
The acting and dialogue is pretty hokey at times, especially in the beginning. Weaver takes a long time to get even somewhat decent, but she's still the best character. Ryder on the other hand, just doesn't seem right at all. Being a horror film however, this isn't quite as important as the real goal . . . scaring us! Yes, we jump quite a few times, but it's nothing new by any means. If you like blood, this one is gory enough that it will hopefully satisfy you.
The special effects aren't bad, but they're nothing revolutionary. There is a pretty good five minutes of special effects at the end, however. You'll likely watch thru fascinated, yet cringing eyes. But the overall suspense, which is, of course, the most important ingredient, never reaches quite high enough. It's pretty routine, but it's worth a viewing if you can get in cheap enough.
December 9, 1997
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