Alien Resurrection Review
by "Nathaniel R. Atcheson" (nate AT pyramid DOT net)December 30th, 1997
Alien Resurrection (1997)
Director: Jean-Pierre Jeunet
Cast: Sigourney Weaver, Winona Ryder, Ron Perlman, Dominique Pinon, Michael Wincott, Dan Hedaya, J.E. Freeman, Brad Dourif, Raymond Cruz, Kim Flowers, Gary Dourdan, Leland Orser
Rated R: Strong graphic violence, language
by Nathaniel R. Atcheson ([email protected])
This is rumor control, here are the facts: Alien Resurrection is the crowning achievement of the Alien saga.
I am, of course, a fan of this series. And those of you not familiar with my writing might think that I'm just one of those guys who loves every film like this. I don't. None of them are this good. I have been an Alien fan since I could think, and Alien Resurrection is everything I could have hoped for, wished for, and wanted in a sequel to my favorite films of all time. I'm biased, yes, but think of that for a moment--with films of such high stature to which this film had to measure up, my expectations were higher than any expectations than I've ever had of anything, ever. Alien Resurrection met them.
Sigourney Weaver returns, but this time she's not exactly the same person: 200 years have passed since the events of Alien 3 took place. Using a blood sample found on Fiorina 161 (the location of the third film), rogue military scientists clone Lt. Ellen Ripley. Because she was infected with the queen alien in the third film, her blood is now part Alien--and so is she. The Ripley specimen they grow is in the same state as she was just before she died--hosting the queen Alien embryo. The scientists remove the creature and sew Ripley up.
A group of space smugglers then show up with highly-secretive cargo, for which the scientists pay a lot of money. The band is an interesting group of characters (uniformly well-acted by the cast). My favorites were the hot-head Johner (Ron Perlman in a strong performance), the paraplegic technician Vreiss (Dominique Pinon, who is regrettably underused), and the hard-edged killer of the group, Christie (Gary Dourdan, in what will hopefully lead to more performances). I found these characters every bit as interesting and fleshed-out as the characters from the previous films. They're real characters that we care about--well-written and human. The two main doctors are great, as well, with a searing, evil performance from J.E. Freeman as Dr. Wren, and a wacky bang-up job done by Brad Dourif as Dr. Gediman.
Their cargo is a group of cryotubes containing living people, ripe for Alien breeding--the scientists, of course, want to make more. And, naturally, things don't go as planned--the Aliens escape.
No, this is not a remake of the first two films. I've heard that already. It is not. That is why it is so very good. Writer Joss Wheldon knew what he was doing--he took elements from the first films and modified them, toyed with them, and made them new. Director Jean-Pierre Jeunet and cinematographer Darius Khondji then turned these elements into a package so intense, so visceral, so emotionally and physically draining, that I was and still am beside myself with joy for their success. It does require more suspension of disbelief than the other films, but the more I think about it, the more it makes sense (really).
Jeunet's direction is splendid, and completely appropriate to take the series in a new direction. Much like his work on his previous (brilliant) films Delicatessen and The City of Lost Children, he uses a lot of close-ups of faces making strange, almost comical, expressions. Much of the film is humorous in that subtle, French way. There is a great deal of intricate camerawork that goes into each scene, bringing the film to life in a unique way that was not done by either James Cameron or Ridley Scott (though it was touched upon by David Fincher). Jeunet's intense, very European attack on the film makes it almost look like a high-budget art-house film (an oxymoron?). What works with this is Khondji's cinematography, who did similar miracles in Fincher's Seven. This is a dark film, with breathtaking set pieces and locations, but it's not dreary and depressing like it could have easily been: the film has a kind of luminous quality, an obvious lively significance that keeps it from being "just another sequel."
As a thriller/action piece, the film is more than adequate. The film does not base its suspense on scenes in which characters walk quietly down hallways, looking around, hoping not to run into an Alien, but having that happen anyway. Pierre and Wheldon both knew that this approach has truly been done to death. No, now we have precarious and intense underwater sequences (truly one of the most well-made and suspenseful moments I've ever witnessed on the screen). We have completely original moments of Alien self-sacrifice for the good of the species. The Aliens are more intelligent than they have been in the past. The film does not, by any means, bank on our fear of what the creature looks like--we know what it looks like. It's no secret. They don't just jump out of nowhere for cheap thrills. They're active and intelligent, and that is more frightening than what they look like. The Aliens have as much screen time as the humans in this film, and that is the way it should be. The film goes beyond all three of its predecessors in examining the Aliens as a hostile species.
What I was really afraid of is that the film wouldn't delve into the human aspect of the series, namely Ripley. I had nothing to fear. This film is about Ripley, and even though the movie-making surrounding the themes is close to perfect, the themes themselves resonate and truly have a more potent meaning than anything depicted or explained in the other films of the series. It has taken the series to a new, almost unfathomable level--Ripley is now what she hates more than anything. Even more ironic is her attitude towards the creatures, as if the death and destruction around her is funny. Weaver is at her all-time best in this film, a pillar of strength despite all that she has gone through. In the climactic scenes, a new type of Alien is born, and this is shocking on both a visual and mental level. The images of this film have stuck in my mind, and the meaning they carry is just as strong. The connection between Ripley and the Alien is so fully explored and probed that it satisfies everything I've ever wanted to know about the species and Ripley herself.
So what is this "meaning" to which I keep referring? I'm sure you're dying to know. Is it that overdone statement, "Cloning is bad!"? Somewhat. There is certainly a great deal of negative energy guided towards the scientific aspects of the film. But this film really has the most significance in its own context: it has expanded beyond the limits by which the series was originally bound. Certainly there is a very definitive statement that can be pasted onto what we're doing in present-day scientific research (though I won't elaborate in the interest of surprise). One extremely powerful scene in the film has Ripley meeting one of her defective siblings--when you see that moment, you'll understand what is behind this movie.
If you want to see Alien Resurrection, and you plan on reading the reviews, I suggest you be certain that they're fans of the series writing them. I don't mean this to sound elitist, but in a way it is: this morning I read Roger Ebert's review of the film, and only one thing was clear from it--he had no interest in seeing it in the first place. It is not fair to rate or review a film from this standpoint. I detested every word of Ebert's review--not because he didn't like the film, but because of his lack of explanation, and the obvious fact that he really didn't think about the film at all as he watched it. There is so much here as far as human themes go, and the fact that he denounced the film because it was "just an Alien sequel" is upsetting. The most irritating statement he makes is a comparison between this and The Lost World. He said, "that film opened five months ago. Are you still thinking about it?" and his implication is obviously that no one will think about Alien Resurrection past the film's end. To him, this is artless, mindless, money-making slop. I'm just sorry that he missed the point so entirely that he couldn't even gather enjoyment from the sheer skill with which it was made.
In any event, Alien Resurrection has a lot of action, and a lot of humor, and a lot of very strange material that was, until now, alien to the Alien series. The link between Ripley and the Aliens is truly profound, and ultimately very moving. This film will not disappoint if one just thinks about what it is saying for a moment--there is something here so much deeper than the thrilling gore and action on the outside (which, incidentally, is strikingly entertaining). I waited in anticipation for Alien Resurrection for one and a half years, and I love every bit of it, not just because of what I described, but because of what it is on a more obvious level: a perfect sequel to the greatest saga of all time.
>From 0-10: 10
Grade: A+
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