Alien: Resurrection (1997, R)

*Disclaimer: Two points to disclaim here. First is the whole Joss Whedon of it all – while none of the allegations against him so far get into the type of sexual harassment/assault alleged against creeps like, say, Harvey Weinstein or Bryan Singer, the allegations at the very least paint a picture of a toxic guy who’s created incredibly-hostile environments on assorted sets of his, especially for women. Second, the film is yet another to feature an able-bodied actor (in this case, Dominique Pinon) playing a character with a disability.*

 

I don’t know what happened; I could’ve sworn I’d posted all my reviews for the main four Alien movies, but somehow, this one got lost in the couch cushions.  Here it is, better late than never.

In an incredibly backwards way, this was actually the first Alien film I ever saw, back when I was first working my way through Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s filmography.  At the time, I could confidently state that it was the worst of his movies, and after seeing the other three in the tetralogy, I felt pretty solidly that it was the worst Alien movie, too (granted, I’m not overly fond of Alien³, either, but I think this one is worse.)  Shame, because there are a lot of good people involved/elements that ought to work in its favor, but for me, it just doesn’t (spoilers.)

200 years after the events of Alien³, Ripley lives again!  Sort of.  She’s part Ripley clone, part human/alien hybrid, brought to life by military scientists who – what else? – think they can use the aliens to their advantage.  New!Ripley was in fact made as an incubator, and the fact that she survives extracting the alien and has super-strength/other alien-borrowed powers is just a bonus for them.  A rough-around-the-edges spaceship crew doing jobs for hire happens to be on the military space base right around the time the newly-matured aliens bust out and start laying waste to everything in their paths.  Cue the blood bath as the crew and New!Ripley try to make it off the base alive.

Like I said, good pedigree here.  In addition to Jeunet’s direction, we have a script by Joss Whedon and a cast that, besides the obvious Sigourney Weaver goodness, includes Little Women/Girl, Interrupted-era Winona Ryder, Brad Dourif, Dan Hedaya, Ron Perlman, Gary Dourdan, and good ol’ Jeunt mainstay Dominique Pinon (in the only performance I’ve seen him give in English.)  Bonus – we also get Raymond Cruz, a.k.a. Tuco from the first two seasons of Breaking Bad.  All the actors are fine, and the aliens are their alien selves, but it never quite comes together.

In my view, there are two issues at work here.  First, Jeunet and Whedon are two creators with very singular visions, and I feel like the direction and the screenplay may be at odds.  What we have is a film that looks like (a very dark) Jeunet (think Delicatessen without the whimsy,) sounds like Whedon (the crew of the Betty are like a proto-Serenity crew,) but doesn’t really feel like either.  For what it’s worth, I know that Whedon is deeply dissatisfied with the film, claiming in essence that Jeunet didn’t significantly change the script but that he directed it “all wrong”  (I also know Jeunet spoke very little English at the time and made the whole movie through interpreters, which may have been a factor.)  It seems to me like we had two very decisive cooks doing entirely their own thing in a kitchen they were meant to be sharing.

The other big issue, unfortunately, involves the central premise:  I hate the notion of the reconstituted Ripley/alien hybrid.  In keeping with the theme of test-driving Firefly ideas, she’s a lot like River.  New!Ripley is super smart, super strong, emotionally-distant and off-putting, and “jut knows things” she shouldn’t.  Not that any of those things are inherently wrong or that “emotionally-damaged science experiment with superhuman abilities” isn’t a character type that can work (I think it works beautifully with River, but that’s in part because we get 14 episodes and a movie in which to understand her and what she’s been through,) but it doesn’t work for Ripley.  To me, Ripley is a fantastic hero because of how human she is.  In Alien, she’s not some superwoman; she’s just a talented astronaut desperately trying to keep herself and the rest of the crew alive.  In Aliens, she’s shell-shocked and disoriented, and she tries to keep the soldiers from getting themselves killed with an “are you kidding me – this again?” air.  In Alien³, she’s broken but still dragging herself across the finish line on bloody knuckles, just ready to end it.  In Alien: Resurrection?  She’s not a person anymore.  She’s an idea, a concept, a kick-ass action shot with none of the truth that fueled her awesomeness in the earlier films.  And I can’t get behind that.

Warnings

Extreme alien violence/gore, language, and drinking.