Alien 4 – Alien BORE more like! (Alien Resurrection (DVD))

Member Name: Flibble

Product:	Alien Resurrection (DVD)
Date:	24/10/01 (281 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Its Alien

Disadvantages: Worst of the series

Now, I’ve watched, enjoyed and wrote on here about the three previous three Alien movies. The first was a classic, the second an enjoyable action-romp and the third was a movie that, whilst being enjoyable and certainly watch able was something of a missed opportunity.

In my opinion; the more Alien movies that were produced the poorer they became – and sadly this is certainly the case with the fourth movie. I know it has come in for a lot of stick from reviewers and critics alike. Fans of the movie felt that it should have ended with Alien 3 – obviously this wasn’t the case however as 1997 once again saw Sigourney Weaver reprise her role as Ellen Ripley. The other Alien films tend to pick up directly from where the previous movie has finished – this one takes a whole new slant however.

It’s over 200 years since Ripley last encountered the Alien. Now obviously Ripley would be in a pretty bad way trying to take on Aliens at nearly 230 years old. Following on from Alien 3, scientists have battled for the past two centuries to create a Ripley Clone from DNA they managed to salvage from the prison colony seen in Alien 3. They don’t want to create Ripley specifically though, Ripley is playing host to an Alien (bummer) that’s just ripe for hatching. The scientists still believe they can control the Alien to make it the ultimate military weapon.

The Ripley we see here is different from Weavers previous interpretations of her – for a start it’s not Ripley, it’s an Alien Hybrid clone, her human DNA has become crossed with Alien DNA to produce a meaner, faster stronger Ripley, one that ‘just has something about her’ that sets her apart from the previous films.

Word has got out about Ripley though, Winnona Ryder is despatched to kill Ripley once and for all, thereby eliminating the scientists chances to create this ultimate killing machine.

Ther
e are also other Alien creatures on the ship used in previous experiments too; these aliens have also evolved over time too. They have become stronger and smarter than ever, as luck would have it (for this movie at least) the aliens escape and begin to hunt down their captors. Ripley must then go up against her own kind to finally (again) destroy the Alien Queen.

To be fair, the movie starts off OK, the plot moves along at a decent enough pace and the sets look impressive. Even the Aliens look good (although Giger had no input into this movie, it’s on record that he detests what they done to his ‘Alien’ so that should give you a pretty good idea about what to expect).

The story flows; the characters, whilst not the best of the other Alien films are OK too and we get the usual screams and terror taking place. This time director Jean-Pierre Jeunet takes the helm. A director who previously worked on ‘City of the lost children’ and the recent release ‘Amelie’ – he does an OK’ job but this film just doesn’t sit right somehow.

Where the film falls flat however is in the final scenes – I won’t spoil it for anyone, but it just appears to be a complete mess – very, very poorly executed and a real letdown.

The problem with the fourth Alien film is that we’ve seen it all before by this stage, the idea of a Alien-hybrid Ripley is a great one, but in execution it just doesn’t come off as well as you would have hoped for – in my opinion the worst of the Alien films.

The DVD release is nothing spectacular either. For such as relatively modern release you would expect the picture to be flawless, and it is – the sound too is everything you would expect. The musical score just isn’t up to the same standard as previous Alien films though – don’t get me wrong, technically the sound transfer is spot on, but on music
al terms it falls just as short as the rest of the film.

The extras could perhaps have elevated this movie, but they are pretty poor too I’m afraid – another ‘behind the scenes’ short feature reveals nothing of real interest and the trailer manages to make the film look better than it actually is.

A poor film to finish of the current crop of DVD releases. If you haven’t seen this movie, then I wouldn’t recommend you bother buying this one, on the other hand if you already own the other three films then you may as well compete the set with this release.

I think that if the movie had been released as a stand-alone film (i.e. a sci-fi film, rather than an ‘Alien’ film) then it may have fared a little better, but the affection and quality of the previous three films just makes this release seem all the more disappointing.

Summary: