I was afraid to watch it again Alien – The Resurrectionn. I saw it for the first time when it was released in 1997 and all I remember is the disappointment. In the years that followed it was constantly at the bottom of every ranking of the extraterrestrial Movies. The prevailing thought, at least in my head, was that it was bad. But I had set myself a goal. I stuck to it. And by the end of the movie, I was all smiles and happy that I had been completely wrong. Well, almost.
A new extraterrestrial Movie, Alien: Romulusis coming to cinemas next week and in advance I decided to watch the original films again. It started with Ridley Scott’s extraterrestrialwhich is obviously a masterpiece, but then I got a little lazy. James Cameron’s Aliens is not only my favorite, it is one of my favorite movies ever, so I had already covered that on this site and thought I could skip it. Then I watched David Fincher’s Aliens 3, which I hadn’t seen in its entirety for some time and which completely disappointed me. In addition, my colleague Cheryl Eddy has already given a fantastic review. One more jump. From there and especially knowing that Romulus takes place between the first two films, was there any reason to watch the film at all? resurrection?Especially with the expectation that it would be bad?
That didn’t happen, but I’m glad I did. Admittedly, the bar at the extraterrestrial Franchise is a little low once you have seen the first two films. Even the biggest fans of the franchise can admit that. But after Aliens 3, that has so much in common with the original, resurrection feels like a huge breath of fresh air. Not everything in it works, and in fact, perhaps most of it doesn’t. But I was constantly surprised and delighted by how it tried to extraterrestrial franchise in new and interesting directions. It was much, much more than the basketball scene that is mocked everywhere.
Set about 200 years after the events of Aliens 3 (where Sigourney Weaver’s Ellen Ripley dies and kills an alien queen), resurrection begins with exactly that: the resurrection of Ellen Ripley. Of course, it’s not Ripley. It’s a clone, and she was cloned because that DNA from 200 years ago contained the DNA of an alien queen, and that’s what the evil scientists actually want.
Right there you have a very cool idea. It’s Weaver as Ripley, but not really, and she’s now the mother of an alien queen… sort of. Not only does the idea let Weaver create a whole new version of her most memorable character, it also opens the door for cross-pollination. Like the fact that this Ripley shares traits with her alien offspring, and we learn at the end of the film that those similarities go the other way too.
Within this framework, we get the usual cast of ragtag characters just waiting to be picked. And thanks to director Jean-Pierre Jeunet, it’s a who’s who of fantastic character actors like Ron Perlman, Dan Hedaya, Brad Dourif, Raymond Cruz, Gary Dourdan, and Michael Wincott. Then there’s the excellent addition of Winona Ryder – who we initially think is just a member of the crew, but who is later revealed to be the android character Bishop/Ash. This reveal doesn’t add much, but it makes it more believable that she knows so much about Ripley, the aliens, their history, etc. Plus, Ryder seems to be having a lot of fun.
Another thing I really liked about resurrection is the first (but hopefully not last) time in the series that we actually see a little bit of what the military/scientists/bad guys plan to do to deal with the aliens when they get their hands on them. We see their cages. We see some experiments. And of course, it all goes wrong. But after three films of Ripley fighting the idea of these creatures falling into the hands of people who want to study them and use them as weapons, it’s refreshing to see this in practice.
Some of the not so good things about Alien – Rebirth However, the ideas are more exciting than the execution. (Notably, the screenplay is credited to Joss Whedon, before he was super famous and long before those abuse allegations.) Once the aliens escape, the film lacks much of the tension and terror of the previous films. Partly that’s because of the dated CGI effects and partly because the film just doesn’t have much time to let characters die. One exception is a hilarious but fantastic sequence where our heroes fight aliens in the water. It’s completely ridiculous, but funny and great.
Then there’s the ending, which takes the biggest swing of the film so far, and whether it fits or not is really up for debate. We learn that the alien queen who gave birth to Ripley shares her human reproductive system, so a human-alien hybrid is born. The hybrid then kills the queen and tries to form a bond with Ripley. Half of this idea works because it’s so gross and inventive; the other half doesn’t because it’s so little explored, with a design that just doesn’t work. It’s the culmination of all the stupid madness. Alien – Rebirth built up, and while it has a rough and dignified ending, it never lands the hard edge it wants to achieve.
And yet, Alien – Rebirth is just so wild, entertaining and ambitious compared to Aliens 3and the subsequent sequels, I have to applaud. I am not sure if it is a good film and certainly it has nothing to do with Romulusbut I’m glad to have personally re-evaluated the film that most people consider to be the worst in the series.
Alien – Rebirthand the rest of the franchise are now streaming on Hulu.
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