Alien: Resurrection - 2.5/5 Stars
Starring: Sigourney Weaver, Winona Ryder
Year: 1997
MPAA Classification: Rated R for strong language, violence/gore, and
brief ****ity
REVIEW BY JOHN ULMER
If the third "Alien" film didn't convince you that the series has
passed its expiration date, "Alien: Resurrection" surely will. While I
must admit that this film is not altogether bad, and a big improvement
over the third, it is in no way as good as its original two
predecessors, and it is quite obvious from the establi****ng shots to
the last.
The first two films were excellent, but the third film was one major
flop, due to horrible characters, unintelligably fast camera movement,
and, for me, the idea of all hope in the second film fading. (Ripley
risks her life many times to save Newt in "Aliens," but then in a
quick moment in the third, she (Newt) is dead? That's not right.)
The thing that made the first two films superb was not only the
tension and white-knuckle terror, but the cinematography (which won an
Oscar for the original film), and the creatures, who were never quite
shown to the extent anyone would like, including in the first film.
And then the third film came along and showed the aliens' full bodies,
and due to average CGI, the fear diminished. In this new installment,
aliens hop along, walk upright, leap on people; heck, they even swim.
But the visual effects on the creatures is so poor for a 1997 film
that it makes one want to wipe the film from their memory. It ruins
the original two "Alien" films. The aliens in this film look more like
tiny lizards with heads shaped as melons than anything. "Alien" (1979)
and "Aliens" (1986) showed the aliens from the waist up much of the
time, and the creatures looked like men in alien suits. Which, in this
case--believe it or not, is better. I like the hokey costumes; the
creatures seem more terrifying when they hover above humans and move
like humans. But alas, in "Resurrection" they move about like quick
little...well...typical aliens, and the creatures are no longer
original, but misused.
The plot in "Resurrection"--what little of it there is--opened my eyes
to the meaning of "contrived," "simple" and "stereoytpical." The plot
is so incredibly weak that one cannot take their eyes off the screen.
Here it is in simple terms, cutting out the BS in between: A ****p with
crewmembers lands at a bigger ****p, where they are trans****ting cargo.
Bigger ****p will be referred to as Medical ****p, where they are
conducting evil, B-science-fiction experiments on--whaddaya know--the
old xenamorphs, commonly referred to as "aliens." These aliens trace
back to Ellen Ripley. 200 years ago Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) died
(see "Alien3"), and now they have cloned her to get the alien that was
inside her. For some reason, they still have Clone Ripley on board,
studying her. And surprise, surprise: She is part-alien because when
they cloned her, the alien inside her mixed with her DNA (???).
Somehow, Ripley still retains all her old memories. And when aliens
escape from their containment chambers, Call (horribly mis-casted
Winona Ryder) and the team of trans****ters take it upon themselves to
"get the f---k out of here."
Ripley is no longer an interesting character. In this film, she has
been cloned and is quarter alien and what not. But she acts odd--the
old Ripley is no more. In this film, she refers to the aliens as "her
children" and in a truly disgusting--and confusing--scene, she finds a
bunch of half-human/alien figures and cries. This scene doesn't
compare to the ending, which is even more confusing and disgusting.
The character-driven story is no more. The human quotient is diluted
in an otherwise typical plot. "Alien" went from originality to
predictability. Remember how good the first film was? Remember how
excellent James Cameron's sequel was? Yeah, well, "Alien:
Resurrection" had me wi****ng I could just see those movies again, and
forget about how average this one was.
==========
X-RAMR-ID: 37251
X-Language: en
X-RT-ReviewID: 1157905
X-RT-TitleID: 1079724
X-RT-SourceID: 1382
X-RT-AuthorID: 6769
X-RT-RatingText: 2.5/5
|
