Alien Resurrection - 1997

I didn't plan it out that I would review Jean Pierre Jeunet films back to back. I've acually had Resurrection for a while and I finally got around to it when my friend was visiting, because, duh, it's Alien and we are dudes.

My ex-wife owned the Alien Quadrilogy boxset. I remember that thing when it was new. It was like $100, a big ol' fat DVD boxset with all four Alien films, you bought it for the first two and got the second two as a bonus was how most people thought of it. Now me, I never thought Alien 3 was not that bad. People act like Alien 3 is the bad movie. Hey guys, did you confuse Alien 3 with Resurrection? Cause this is way, way fucking worse.

So immediately I can see Jeunet's mark on this film. It's filmed in a whimsical, farcical, comedic style throughout. I began to think about this film from a different angle as I watched it, the angle one could only have if they had just watched City of Lost Children. This has the same weirdness, the same wacky small details. The plot of course is action/adventure/sci fi, but overall this is a movie about characters. Sadly, it is not about the characters we knew from the previous movies, and the new ones this introduces are mere stand-ins who are also undeveloped, but hey, that's the brakes huh?

Ripley is cloned in the beginning of the film and comes out acting a bit off. She is partially a hybrid with the xenomorphs, although if you think that's a cool angle we will see explored, you're dead wrong. Instead we get vague hints at her power and we see her being able to smell if someone is infected with the facehugger egg. She is also somewhat better skilled with fighting and other stuff and she is now largely more sexual, although that's not really explored either. Instead we spend a shitload of time on Ron Perlman, Dominique Pinon, Gary Dourdan, and Winona Ryder as these ragtag group of somewhat misfits/somewhat space marines who are going to go up against the aliens. There is a queen somewhere that Brad Dourif is using her to hatch xenomorphs for unknown reasons, and of course they escape and the chaos begins.

I just don't even know dude. The movie is not scary, and is largely not even supposed to be. The characters are over the top and badly written, hammed up in the acting department, and thin stereotypes to begin with. The action is brief and telegraphed, filled with nonsense unbelievable moments and cliché heroics that you'll hate. The ending pulls out of nowhere a weird alien human hybrid who sees Ripley as it's mother and definitely wants to fuck her, and when that thing comes a calling to be the villain, that fight also doesn't deliver. In short, nothing actually DOES deliver, so at least that is not a surprise.

This is also a case wherein I think we can account a lot of the blame to the director. They wanted someone with a dark unique vision, and I could see why after watching The City of Lost Children, you would think that is Jeunet. I wish they had gotten a prime Alex Proyas instead. This movie was downright terrible, and I don't think I'll ever rewatch it.