Alien Resurrection Review
by Matt Petras (Bootsector AT hotmail DOT com)December 23rd, 1997
Alien: Resurrection
©1997 Matt Petras
Official Site:
http://www.alien-resurrection.com
Length: 108 min (1:48 hours)
Rating: ** out of ****
Ellen Ripley died 200 years ago trying to wipe out a violent species, she succeeded. Until now. Brought back to life by methods of cloning. Brought back to life with the Queen still inside her. The queen alien is removed from Ripley and raised for breeding. 'Special' cargo is required for this breeding and science that is going on with the queen and her young. But as luck would have it the aliens are a bit on the smart side and they escape, and here begins the fun... Well you should now have an idea as to what this movie is about, nothing spectacularly original on its own. But with enough originality to be a good idea. The beginning of the movie is great, really well thought out and really interesting. Then instead of continuing along this line the movie degenerates into the predictable. Its pretty well executed with some original scenes that provide some interest. The plot itself needed a bit of work in my opinion, some things seem to be taken for granted and somethings seem to happen for no real reason whatsoever. I wont give examples for that might spoil the movie for some people, but some of the scenes could be removed and the plot furthered by other means. All in all the plot is fairly sound and doesn’t leave you wondering why things happen, but then again the plot isn’t very demanding so at least this job was accomplished with some proficiency. The plot in this movie is by no means perfect though, but its a good start for a movie.
The characters, being such an integral component of the plot have to be proper. This is usually a given and it in most cases just ignored. But in the case of Alien: Resurrection I am brining it up, because a few of the odd scenes that I found in the movie were caused by a particular character, Call. I don’t know what bothers me about the character, but something does. I think that the character should have been looked into with a bit more effort, maybe giving the audience something more to grasp a hold of so to say. The character didn’t seem to fit too well, I am not too sure that Ms. Ryder was perfect for the role either. But thinking about it I am not too sure I could think of any actress that would have been able to do as good a job. So I will have to concede that she was cast well for the part, even thought the part is a bit on the odd side. The actual acting in this movie was fairly convincing, especially Sigourney Weaver. She plays her part with an interesting passion and wit, very good performance from her. The rest of the cast performed well, and convincingly in some cases much better than an action picture could have hoped for. Although in the end the two things that I will most remember about the acting and characters from this movie is the character of Call, simply because something about the character bothers me and Ripley's new found wit.
Having some thought about this movies there is something that bothers me about it, I have tried putting my finger on it but with no avail. The character of Call is one thing but that is not the only thing that bothers me. Something seemed to be missing when I was finished watching it, I don’t get that sort of feeling from most movies. I got the distinct impression that it was rushed and that the director was a bit too liberal with his cut. I don’t know if I would recommend this movie to everyone, the special effects of this movie were spectacular in some scenes and very appropriate but nothing so revelation that everyone had to see it. SO if you are a fan of science fiction flicks or horror flicks you should like this movie. Now those of you who are not die hard fans of either genre, here's the question you should ask yourself: Do you really want to see a decent action flick that is a bit out of this world? if yes then you should like the movie. Just don’t come crying to me if you didn’t like it. Its nothing grand, its an action picture you wont get any grand revelations about life from it. You should enjoy the ride. And If I ever figure out what is bothering me about the movie I'll add a little PS at the end. Other than bin a bit rushed with some oddities its an OK flick. You might want to be able to stomach some gore though. This movie isn’t for all audiences, you should know if this movie is for you or not, please use your discretion folks, its at most a decent action/sci-fi/horror flick.
December 17, 1997
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