Alien Resurrection Update

 Alien Resurrection 1997 updated

• Director: Jean-Pierre Jeunet
• Films seen by this director: Un long Dimanche de fiancailles, Le fabuleux destin d’Amelie Pulian
• Based on Book: no
• Cast: Sigourney Weaver, Winona Ryder, Dominique Pinon, Ron Perlman
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor/actress in:
• Sigourney Weaver – Chappie, Paul, Snow Cake, Be Kind Rewind, Avatar, Holes, Galaxy Quest, Working Girl, Dave, Death and the Maiden, The Ice Storm, A Map of the World, Holes, Gorillas in the Mist, The Year of Living Dangerously, the other Alien films.
• Winona Ryder – Edward Scissorhands, Girl Interrupted, Bram Stoker’s Dracula, Black Swan, The Private Lives of Pippa Lee, A Scanner Darkly, The Darwin Awards, Looking for Richard, Little Women, Reality Bites, Night on Earth, Beetlejuice, Great Balls of Fire
• Dominique Pinon – My Old Lady, Un long dimanche de fiançailles, Le fabuleux destin d’Amelie Pulian
• Ron Perlman – Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, Pacific Rim, Happy, Texas, Romeo Is Bleeding
• Why bought: part of Alien box
• Seen: September 28, 2012 Now 20 February 2021

 

Maybe I was extra Friday evening tired, or four Alien movies in four weeks are too much of a good thing but this one didn’t hold up with the others.  The first half was confusing and it took too long to figure out who all these people were.  The gender jokes were unfunny to the point of being offensive. The womb and baby monster’s eyes were maudlin and silly. Once again breaking a hole in the window of the spaceship then hanging on tight is just plain sloppy film making.

With all that bellyaching out of my system there was a lot I liked about the film too. Sigourney Weaver’s cloned cynicism was just right (too bad she was weepy over the baby monster).  I’ll miss Ripley.

Winona Ryder is always good and she played her robot roll well. The cloning and crossbreeding of monsters and humans was truly creepy. The end, looking out over the ruins of Paris, was an effective way to bring the saga to an end.  The aliens have been destroyed but so has Earth more or less through unknown off-the-screen events.

And it was pretty exciting. So 2 ½ * of 5 anyway.

 

Update 20 February 2021: Well, I was kind to the film last time. I agree with myself to a certain point, but the good aspects didn’t really weigh that heavily. Hal asked if there was a rating lower than 0 to which I said, ‘It isn’t that bad.’ No, but it’s not that good either. So, this time a generous

 

2*