The theatrical release of Alien³ was a failure on more than one level, from an incomplete script and vanishing characters to a story with plot holes and lastly (and most importantly) a lack of fan approval. In an effort to keep the series alive, Fox had to pick themselves up and dust off to give the series a rebirth, literally. Bringing on Joss Whedon (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Firefly, etc…) to write and Jean-Pierre Jeunet to direct, they hoped to bring audiences back to the wonderful world of xenomorphs with an all-new story and the revival of sci-fi’s heroine, Ellen Ripley (an apology, perhaps?). With a decent cast of characters and great actors to portray them, the world was ready to receive a new “Alien” experience to heal the wounds of the third film. Spoilers abound.
At the end of “Alien³” Ellen Ripley died carrying the embryo of a queen alien, determined to keep Weyland Yutani’s hands away from it and thus saving humanity from a devastating creature. The opening credits of ‘Resurrection’ show us obscured images of alien/human monstrosities that appear to have been failed experiments. They were. The premise for the film is that the blood samples they took from Ripley on Fiorina 161 (the prison planet from the previous film) upon her ship’s crash were recovered and then used by the military to clone a Ripley that had the alien growing inside her. After seven failed attempts Number 8 was grown, a perfect clone of Lieutenant Ripley with the queen intact. ‘Resurrection’ opens with a series of doctors performing surgery on Number 8 to remove the young queen before it bursts out. With successful extraction of the queen, the military could then provide hosts to grow an army and a crew of mercenaries was hired by the military to hijack some cryotubes to provide said-hosts for the series of eggs the queen would lay, which would begin the xenomorph army.
While the film starts off decent enough it becomes more and more ridiculous as we go deeper into it. We learn that due to the cloning process Ripley and the queen that was growing inside her have gained traits of each other, which means Ripley now has super-human strength and –wait for it- acid for blood. That being bad enough, near the end of the film we learn that the queen alien while laying eggs as normal has also gained something from Ripley –the ability to give birth. It is possibly one of the most disturbing creatures in movie history and the scene of it being born is ridiculous, throwing some weird love/hate relationship between it and Ripley that makes audiences want to gag.
The problem with this film is they tried to do too much. There is also little character development which leads to bland characters and while there are some characters we have come to love, (and the actors that portray them, i.e. Sigourney and Ron Pearlman) they do not save the movie. At best ‘Resurrection’ is a sub-par sci-fi action flick that offers very little to the series and is more of a novelty for fans to see more alien mayhem rather than an actual installment. Fans actually pretend this film does not exist, which is statement enough. With a reaction like that it is very obvious that Fox failed in their attempt to bring back the series even though it was put together much better than the whole “Alien³” theatrical release debacle.
In the 2003 release of the Quadrilogy we are treated with two versions of each film, which gave fans another reason to watch this film. Giving the film a second chance by watching the director’s cut, fans were treated to an alternate opening that looks absolutely terrible in terms of CGI, scenes that add virtually nothing to the story at all and are left with a feeling of utter disgust. It is hard to believe that an extended cut could actually be worse than the original version of the film, but ‘Resurrection’ takes the cake in offering –if possible- less substance with more film.
If you are a fan of the ‘Alien’ films, you may want to skip this entry…better yet, watch it so you can understand just how terrible it is for an ‘Alien’ film. While the attempt at bringing the series back was appreciated, it just did not cut it and left fans feeling even more disappointed with where they were taken since 1979’s masterpiece. The only redeeming value of this film is Stan Winston’s animatronics and creature designs, as those never disappoint. So if you want to see a film with a good amount of movie monsters, this is a good one to watch.
Theatrical release: 5/10
Extended Cut: 3/10
