Alien Resurrection review

[johnnycage10]

I'm always surprised at the critics to this great film who claim that it's as bad as the theatrical version of Alien 3 or worse than Alien. Truth is that AR is one of the best films ever made, second only to the nearly perfect Aliens and much better than the decent Alien. It's just too bad that the mass audiences did not agree, letting this $70 million gem make $140 million worldwide, and thus securing that the AR genre would not continue.

First, for the positives. That starts with Jeanet's direction, which is artistically and visually beautiful. Then there's the writer, in Joss Whedon (back when he used to be good and before he sold out to maximize his profits). That's proved in the fact that no one could've ever predicted how the aliens initially broke out of their containment. Add to that surprises aplenty (underwater scene was gorgeous) such as Winona Ryder's initial "death", the emotion when Riply finds her previous seven "sisters", the pirates' refusal to leave people behind, the infected miner getting his revenge against the evil doctor, the overall dialogue, and this is one of best-written films anywhere.

Add to that the acting, which is excellent on Sigourney Weaver's part, and pretty good on the part of everyone else, with special mention to Ron Pearlman and Michael Wincott's unfortunately-limited presence. And last, the special effects, which are awesome. Granted the CGI doesn't look as good in some places, but truth is that one could not tell this story by using people in suits (such as the ultra-cool scene where the alien jumps out of the water and latches on to the ladder above).

But there is one negative, and that's the Newborn. Not that I disliked this monster. In fact, it was impressive indeed, and its death scene was another shocking scene to watch open-mouthed. But the Newborn was unnecessary. We still had plenty of story that could've revolved around the facehuggers, xenomorphs and the Queen, that could've been developed without bringing a new monster into the genre. Personally, I would've had the Queen have a child-like attachment to Ripley, and have the Queen do what the Newborn did, and Newborn's death be the Queen's death, which would've made this movie perfect.

Overall, it's such a shame that this film wasn't accepted by the masses, and it's also a shame that Winona Ryder made a stupid decision by shoplifting a few years later. I heard rumors that her off-screen behavior is partly what convinced Fox to do the horrible AvP and not do a fifth Alien movie with her character as the lead. Instead, we got Paul Anderson's garbage. What a waste.

[Quorthon]

I'm afrrrrrrrrrrraid I'm one of the masses that views this as the weakest film in the Alien series (AvP notwitstanding--it's simultaneously the worst of two franchises). I thought the dialog was unrealistic and weak. Ron Perlman's worst.

The effects are, of course, quite good. And the aliens look pretty cool. I liked seeing Brad Dourif in the film--man I love that guy. (He's Chucky from the Child's Play series for those who didn't know.)

Sigourney Weaver's acting is highly suspect and debatable. I guess her acting was alright, but I didn't really like the way her character was written--she was too stale. Ripley was a stong, bitchy (in a good way) female lead character--and that was her charm ("Get away from her you bitch!"), with her personality vaporized, the character loses a lot of strength.

Rumors I heard (via ign.com) involved Ridley Scott and James Cameron mulling over doing an Alien 5, but then Wes Anderson jerked off onto a film strip and AvP was born, pretty much murdering any chances of a quality Alien 5 film.

But, Cameron has been noted as saying that the only time you should do a sequel is when the [previous] film has been largely forgotten. Unfortunately, these days, Hollywood would much rather shit out another remake than a quality sequel.

Shame.

[johnnycage10]

Have to disagree with you there, Q, and here's why. Granted that Aliens is a slightly better film, as no action film will ever beat it (though I could've done without the incredibly 1-dimentional character that Paul Reiser was forced to play, considering how charming an actor he was), but AR is a very close second.

For starters, AR is a very sad film, even sadder than Alien 3. Except for a few moments of comic relief, made by Ron Perlman (loved when he grabs the guard's gun, tells him to not touch him, then gives it back), Dan Hedaya and Michael Wincott (code EATME, indeed), the story is very sombre. Between the horror of those human cargo members who were made to be strapped down while the alien egg opened in front of them, the one cargo member who was so close to being frozen before the doctor interrupted his cold naptime and prompted his chestburster to come out, and of course the Newborn's death, this is one tragic character story after another.

And I can't find better actors anywhere. As for Weaver, she was better here than in the previous films because this character was more challenging and less realistic than before. She was decent in Aliens and Alien 3, no doubt, though rather wooden in Alien 1, but how do you manage to play a recently revived superheroine? Well, I think she did. The slow, quiet way she interacted with everyone until the xenomorphs' escape was the perfect portrayal of someone who had been traumatized by being reborn. There's a mentally exhausted, but physically strong, look to her during that first 1/3 of the film that most actors just couldn't pull off, and it's exactly how I would imagine someone who suffered a painful death and a traumatic past to feel and act if they were brought back to life, and were given strengths they couldn't initially understand, and had fuzzy memories about their past that they were still coming to grips with. Plus, I really find no faults with the other actors, as I thought they were all good too. There's emotional portrayal through facial expressions here that these actors pulled off without having to recite verbally how they were feeling. Kim Flowers' crying before jumping into the flooded kitchen is one, or the pirates momentarily looking away in shame when Weaver explains to the member of the human cargo that they were the ones who hijacked his ship is another. How many films have that?

Then there's the characters. Here we have individuals who are smart enough to want to stick together when in a monster film (hurray!). I mean, how many braindead monster/slasher films are there where the group of people intentionally splits up?! The requirement to take the person who was infected with a chestburster with them was marvelous, even if they were ready to put guns at him when he prematurely started convulsing later. Perfect mixture of compassion and wariness there.

I do agree with you that I hate remakes, though. In fact, I hate the idea of a King Kong remake, and I'll never see this over-budgeted film as a result. To me, the main point of a movie is to tell a story, even if things like special effects are weak. In that end, AR had a huge story to tell, and it told it very well.
In comparison, we have Peter freaking Jackson who spent over $200 million to tell a story that most people already know! What is the point of that? Most people already know about the characters who go to Skull Island, find dinosaurs, savages and Kong, then drag Kong back while he's got a thing for the blonde woman, and he busts out, wrecks havoc and is killed on top of a skyscraper. So why watch it a second time with money when I can just watch the original? It would've been better if Jackson spent that money doing a sequel to KK, where a new group of explorers go to Skull Island 70 years after the events of the original film. But to do that, he'd have to tell a new story, and I guess people don't want that, which is a shame, because the financial success of his braindead film is going to mean the death of storytelling in movies. Seems that was a thing of the 1980's and 1990's, as all audiences want nowadays is flash, special effects, and remakes of this or that, with mindless nudity added in for all the kids who aren't old enough to rent porn.

So I'll stick with AR and watch it again, to be honest.

[Quorthon]

I think the film industry is soft on the nudity these days, too.

King Kong 2005 is a great film, though not without it's flaws--which I elaborate on in my review (cheap plug). Hell, on the website my wife frequents, there was some dipshit little girl that said it was better than the original. Sure that sounds bad, but what's worse is that little brat thought the "original" King Kong was the 1976 version!!

Part of the problem with Kong is that, despite how well known it is--christ, it's the film that can be praised for allowing Hollywood to survive the depression--the original hasn't been given enough attention in the past few years. It's only now on DVD, and do you ever see it on TV? TCM or AMC? Hell, AMC showed the '76 Kong last night! And believe me, that film's no classic!!

My wife and I were discussing the general state of the film industry earlier today--and the sad truth is, there is no originality and too many remakes and sequels. Why? Well, for one, Hollywood is more and more reliant on "definite sales" and for another reason--it's all been done.

I was considering a thread about this. I think I'll go start it in the Off The Chest forum.

But AR is one of those films that, "to each his own" seems to apply. Everyone has different tastes. Hell, Slayrrr gave House of the Dead a rousingly positive review. And that's not considered one of the worst movies ever made for nothing!!

I gave Crash (2004) a positive review, and the opinions of viewers for that film are all over the place.

It's one of the reasons I stick polls in many of my reviews--because everyone sees these things differently.

[Bartwald]

That's why I use polls so often, too.

And I'm another person who liked Alien Resurrection - it may be my second favourite in the series, just after Alien (though, honestly, I like them all more or less the same). I thought the changes Jeunet brought into the franchise were very refreshing - and johnnycage's right that it's perhaps Sigourney Weaver's best Ripley performance right here.

[johnnycage10]

Exactly my point, Bart. I'm very glad that I'm not alone in appreciating the sharp visuals and writing that was AR.

I think what bothers me most about King Kong making a ton of money at the box office and AR barely making a profit is that the former had no story to tell, as everyone knew what happens, while the latter had such a rich story. All this will do is encourage Hollywood to remake this and remake that, and forget about telling new stories. And as a result, new stories that are great won't get the audience they deserve, since everyone's too busy spending money to see the same story years or decades later.

Not happy about that

[Quorthon]

King Kong has one of Hollywood's best stories ever, in my opinion. It's just that it's been done before.

But don't worry, it's off to a rocky start. They may start rethinking remakes here pretty quickly.

[johnnycage10]

Oh, definitely agree that the story's a classic, and a good one at that. I liked the fact that the storyline called for a long time of having the characters be themselves before they reach Skull Island, so we can have character development before the special effects and action arrive. But my beef with it, as you said, is that it's been done, and it's an old story. I just think the money should be spent to tell one of the good stories that are written but get ignored.

Though, what do you mean it's off to a rocky start? Because it made £50 million on its opening weekend and that was less than was estimated/hoped for? I doubt that will be a factor. Even with a giant budget of $200+ million and probably half that amount in advertising, this remake is sure to make a profit.

[Quorthon]

The talk about it's rocky start is in the Kong thread, and mentioned in the "Has Hollywood Lost It?" thread. Apparently, it's got a pretty disappointing opening compared to what they [filmmakers] had hoped for.

You know what the supposed plot to Alien 5 was supposed to be? The Aliens end up on earth. All that work done to finally bring them to earth to study them and potentially use them as weapons ends up with the Aliens finally on earth--but in a drastically violent way. Carried straight from the end of AR.

Then, from what I understand, Alien 6 & Predator 3 would actually be AvP--taking place in the future, and not even touched by Paul Anderson. Aliens, Predators, and Marines--duking it out.

And Ridley Scott and James Cameron were even considering it...

Say, do you know the video game series inspired heavily by the Alien series?

[johnnycage10]

Hey, that story for Alien 5 does sound like a great, great plot indeed. What should've been, right?

As far as the video games that were inspired by the Alien universe? Did you mean the AvP games, the Alien Resurrection game or the Alien Trilogy game? Or is there another one I haven't come across?

[Quorthon]

Perhaps you've heard of this little game owned by Nintendo:

Metroid.

Metroid 1 = Alien (female hero versus nasty new alien creature)
Metroid II = Aliens (female hero must battle hordes of aliens, topping off against a queen.)
Super Metroid (Metroid 3) = Alien 3 (One surviving alien has unusual link/relationship with female hero--tragedy strikes in the stories' climaxes)
Metroid Fusion (Metroid 4) = Alien Resurrection (female hero genetically linked with alien she was once foes against, taking place in man-made space environment--space ship/station--overrun with aliens.)

This link could very well be one of the reasons the Metroid series has been so popular a franchise for Nintendo. I know it's my favorite. Did you ever know about the "similarities" these two franchises have? Super Metroid, in my opinion, is still one of the greatest games ever made. Who knew music and atmosphere could be so deeply interwoven into the fabric of the story on a 16-Bit system?

[Heineken Skywalker]

I have the ALIEN QUADRILOGY DVD box set because I enjoy all four movies in the series, but truth be told, I watch the first two, ALIEN & ALIENS more than the other two.
I remember being pretty dissapointed with RESURRECTION when I first saw it in a theater, but I have to admit, it has since grown on me. It's a pretty cool romp, more comic booky than the previous films, ie: more stylized action, colorful bigger than life characters. Good effects, who doesn't dig the swimming aliens or aliens turning on each other to make their escape?
Plus, besides Sigourney Weaver, we get a supporting cast of genre actors like Michael Wincott, Ron Perlman and Brad Dourif.
(Like Q, I too am a Dourif fan, but instead of mentioning his voice work as Chucky I like to mention that he was great as Billy the stutterer in ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST.)
I'm still not crazy about Winona Ryder's character in the movie, but whatcha gonna do?
Over all, I still don't absolutely love it, but I do think it's a pretty worthy entry in the series. Much more than AVP anyway.

[Pulpmariachi]

Rumors I heard (via ign.com) involved Ridley Scott and James Cameron mulling over doing an Alien 5, but then [glow=red,2,300]Wes Anderson [/glow]jerked off onto a film strip and AvP was born, pretty much murdering any chances of a quality Alien 5 film.

Hey, Wes never had any intention of doing an Alien film.

Wrong Anderson man.

[Quorthon]

pulpmariachi said:

Rumors I heard (via ign.com) involved Ridley Scott and James Cameron mulling over doing an Alien 5, but then [glow=red,2,300]Wes Anderson [/glow]jerked off onto a film strip and AvP was born, pretty much murdering any chances of a quality Alien 5 film.

Hey, Wes never had any intention of doing an Alien film.

Wrong Anderson man.

D'oh!! I meant Paul Anderson, dammit!!
Paul cocksuckingassfucking Anderson!!!!

[johnnycage10]

Heya.

Good comparisons you made between Metroid Prime and Alien. To be honest, though, MP was never a favorite FPS of mine. I just never got used to the game engine on the Gamecube, though the graphics are clearly top-notch. And I know this game is a very popular title among many fans, and god bless them, but after renting MP1 for the Gamecube, and being given MP2 for free, I just didn't like it. So other FPS's are my cup of tea instead, including the ultra-cool MK-Doom that was done by a geniuse online