Alien: Resurrection (1997) 20th Century Fox/Sci-Fi-Horror-Action RT: 116 minutes (Special Edition) Rated R (strong sci-fi violence and gore, some grotesque images, language) Director: Jean-Pierre Jeunet Screenplay: Joss Whedon Music: John Frizzell Cinematography: Darius Khondji Release date: November 26, 1997 (US) Cast: Sigourney Weaver, Winona Ryder, Ron Perlman, Dominique Pinon, Dan Hedaya, J.E. Freeman, Brad Dourif, Raymond Cruz, Kim Flowers, Gary Dourdan, Leland Orser, Michael Wincott. Box Office: $47.8M (US)/$161M (World)
Rating: ***
Believe it or not, Ripley is back in Alien: Resurrection. I know what you’re thinking. She died at the end of Alien 3. How can they possibly bring her back? The answer to that burning question is cloning. A group of military scientists obtained a sample of her DNA and cloned her. Now here’s the rub. The blood sample was taken after she was impregnated. Her DNA is combined with that of the Xenomorph Queen she had inside her making her a human-alien hybrid with enhanced strength, acidic blood and the ability to sniff out other aliens.
One of the things I like best about the Alien movies is the choice of directors. The studio tends to lean towards newbies with more potential than films under their belts. Prior to Alien, Ridley Scott made only one film, The Duellists. James Cameron did two, Piranha II: The Spawning and The Terminator, before Aliens. Alien 3 was David Fincher’s debut. That brings us to Alien: Resurrection. It’s helmed by French filmmaker Jean-Pierre Jeunet (Delicatessen, The City of Lost Children) making his American debut. All of these visionaries went on to successful careers.
Set 200 years after Ripley’s death, Alien: Resurrection takes place on a military vessel where Dr. Gediman (Dourif, The Exorcist III) is conducting experiments involving aliens. He created the Ripley clone (Weaver, Ghostbusters), referred to as Ripley 8, in order to extract the embryo from her womb. The plan is to keep the Queen in confinement and collect her eggs for further study. To do that, he needs human hosts. That’s where the mercenaries come in.
They’re a shabby bunch, these mercs. Led by Elgyn (Wincott, The Crow), they include paraplegic mechanic Vriess (Pinon, Delicatessen), short-tempered Johner (Perlman, Hellboy 1 & 2), second-in-command Christie (Dourdan, CSI), co-pilot/Elgyn’s girlfriend Hillard (Flowers, Another Day in Paradise) and newest member Call (Ryder, Beetlejuice). They arrive on the cargo ship Betty with a special load, hypersleep chambers containing kidnapped humans in stasis, the hosts-to-be. After being paid handsomely by commanding officer Perez (Hedaya, Blood Simple), Elgyn decides they’re going to stick around for a couple of days.
It doesn’t take long for the new Xenomorphs to gestate and grow. Smart little buggers that they are, they use one of their own to escape confinement. Now they’re loose on the ship, running amok and killing. Most of the crew manages to escape. Some, like Ripley and the mercs, do not. They need to make their way to the cargo ship before the aliens get them.
There are a couple of added wrinkles. First, Call has something against Ripley and aliens in general. She’s distrustful of Ripley and wants to kill her. Second, the military ship is headed towards Earth. One of the survivors, Wren (Freeman, Miller’s Crossing), explains that it’s the ship’s default setting in the event of an emergency. That means the aliens could potentially reach our planet. That’s not good.
Alien: Resurrection is my least favorite entry in the quadrilogy, but that doesn’t mean I hate it. It’s actually a pretty good flick. It has its flaws though, the biggest being Winona Ryder. Who’s the genius that came up with this bit of miscasting? She’s not cut out for sci-fi-action. Don’t get me wrong. Winona, the queen of twenty-something angst in the 90s, is a fine actress usually. She’s good in several genres- comedy (Heathers), rom-com (Reality Bites), drama (Little Women), fantasy (Edward Scissorhands) and even horror (Bram Stoker’s Dracula). She is NOT a believable action star. Here, she looks more like a part-time community college student who just quit her job at the Gap to see if she likes working as a mercenary.
The good news is the rest of the cast offsets Winona’s lackluster performance. It has to be one of the best supporting casts of the decade. Look who’s in it- Brad Dourif, Michael Wincott, Ron Perlman, Dan Hedaya and Dominique Pinon. It’s a virtual cattle call of cool character actors! Weaver, in her final appearance as Ripley, does a decent job, but it looks like she’s starting to get tired of it. Still, she’s completely bad ass here.
The mad geniuses who did the special effects for Alien 3, Tom Woodruff Jr. and Alec Gillis (founders of FX company Amalgamated Dynamics Inc.), return for Alien: Resurrection. Their use of models and animatronics is more than welcome in a time when filmmakers were starting to experiment with more cost-effective CGI. They made a few modifications to the aliens this time around (mostly to the heads and tails) and the result is quite astonishing. They’re wonderfully gooey and icky. Sometimes they’re downright frightening like the seven previous attempts to clone Ripley preserved in the ship laboratory. The newborn human/alien hybrid at the end is freaky looking. It also briefly brings out Ripley 8’s maternal instincts.
The screenplay was written by Joss Whedon who would go on to create the cult sci-fi series Firefly. You can see the influences of Alien: Resurrection on the one-season wonder that got the royal shaft from Fox. The production design is phenomenal. It looks and feels like the characters are trapped in a futuristic nightmare set in space.
Other than the look of the film, there’s nothing all that original about Alien: Resurrection. The survival storyline is fairly routine. It’s like The Poseidon Adventure set in space. Jeunet, who has a marvelous way with visuals, even borrows an entire sequence from the 1972 disaster movie classic. I almost expected to see Shelley Winters trying to outswim the aliens alongside the characters.
It would have nice if Alien: Resurrection had done a bit more with the ethical questions surrounding the practice of human cloning. Then again, why spoil the ride with serious stuff? It’s a decent sci-fi flick the way it is, flaws and all.
