Alien: Resurrection (1997)
Directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet

Film Review

After the disappointing third instalment in the Alien saga, Alien: Resurrection allows the creepy flesh-shredding bio-mechanoids to make a respectable, if not brilliant, comeback.

Nearly twenty years on from Ridley Scott's legendary ground-breaking first Alien film, things have certainly moved on.  The shock value in that film, and its equally respectable successor Aliens, has all but evaporated and the series has had to find new ways to maintain viewer interest.

Alien III failed mainly because Twentieth Century Fox lacked the courage or imagination to take a gamble with the formula, so what we got with this second sequel was very nearly just a muddled rehash of previous offerings.

Alien: Resurrection is far less a shock horror film and more a traditional action science-fiction movie.  To avoid alienating (no pun intended) fans of the series, the film does revisit ideas explored in the earlier films (and perhaps there is too much of this).  But, to its credit, the film attempts to explore some new ground, and French film director Jean-Pierre Jeunet gives the Alien series a much needed jolt of creativity.

The film succeeds best with the quality of its visual effects, which by and large manage surpass even those of the early Alien films.  Visually, Alien: Resurrection is a stunning film - the claustrophobic sets are every bit as menacing as the familiar multi-fanged monsters, which themselves have undergone an impressive redesign.  Perhaps, disappointingly, the film lacks the distinctive surrealism of Jeunet's previous cult successes, Delicatessen (1991) and La cité des enfants perdus (1995).

The film's visual appeal is great but it does not fully disguise gaping holes in the plot and also some weak acting performances.  Attempt to rationalise the plot and you quickly realise how implausible it all is, and this is something which true science-fiction addicts will probably find irritating.

There is a similar ambivalence over Sigourney Weaver's role in the film.  Whilst her performance is impressive - there is no doubt that she is the star of the film - audience's may have difficulty relating this new Ellen Ripley to her first incarnation.  More could have been made of the fact that she had been infected by the Alien.  You might perhaps have expected her to show less enthusiasm for helping the humans to escape and certainly more remorse when she fights back against the Aliens.

Alien: Resurrection is a curious two-headed beast.  As a sci-fi action film in its own right it would probably have met with widespread praise and have been a huge box office success.  Unfortunately, its place in an on-going saga is a heavy burden, offering little scope for inventiveness and inviting unfair comparisons with what has gone before.

Film Synopsis

It has been 200 years since Ellen Ripley sacrificed herself to destroy the Alien queen that was growing within her.  Scientists on a United Systems Military spaceship have succeeded in creating a clone of Ripley and were then able to allow the Alien in her body to be born.  With the Alien locked in a secure area, they conduct experiments on it, believing that it has great commercial value.  A ship of space mercenaries arrive, providing a cargo of cryogenically frozen humans, to be used as host material for the newly laid Alien eggs.  The Ripley clone, who has survived the Alien birth, discovers she has new powers resulting from her infection.  When the Aliens break free, she helps the remaining humans in a desperate bid to escape from the ship.  But then they discover the ship is heading towards Earth...