THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS OF THE DISCUSSED FILM. READERS DISCRETION IS ADVISED.
When I look back at Alien 3, I always thought of it as a solid conclusion. But with enough money made at the box office, it was good enough of an excuse to get more of it.
PLOT
Alien: Resurrection takes place in 2381, 200 years after Ellen Ripley sacrificed herself in order to prevent Weyland-Yutani from weaponizing xenomorphs. However, the effects of her actions were not permanent due to being cloned by scientists of USM Auriga. With samples of her DNA, as well as the spawned alien queen she killed being retrieved, both of theirs were combined by the scientists to raise their own embryo while also keeping the spare Ripley clone, credited as Ripley 8 due to the tattoo on her arm, for further studies. Due to the fusion with both samples, she has the strength & reflexes of the aliens, as well as acidic blood and a psychic link between the aliens. One day, a group of mercenaries from the Betty board Auriga to supply humans in stasis as new hosts for the studied aliens. The group includes: Pilots Sabra Hillard & Frank Elgyn, second in command Gary Christie, paraplegic mechanic Don Vriess, Ron Johner and the newest member Annalee Call. When they encounter Ripley 8, Call recognizes her and suspects her to have an embryo but the xenomorphs are already born into maturity. As this happens, the said aliens break out of confinement and begin their trail of carnage by killing the likes of Elgyn & Auriga's General Perez (Dan Hedaya) while also abducting Doctor Jonathan Gediman, the scientist that's been studying them. With the mayhem ensuing, the Betty crew regroups with Ripley 8, a surviving soldier named Vincent DiStephano, surviving host named Larry Purvis (Leland Orser) and fellow scientist Dr. Mason Wren (JE Freeman). The latter explains Auriga's emergency default is to return to Earth. Not wanting the aliens to attack their planet, Ripley 8 leads the others to the Betty, in order to use the ship to destroy the other. On the way though, she finds the lab containing grotesque results of the previously seven failed attempts of cloning the original Ripley. Disgusted of it all, she incinerates the whole lab. Continuing the journey, they swim through a flooded kitchen where the xenomorphs and successfully kill Hillard & Christie. Wren tries to betray them to better his chances to survive by shooting Call and leaving the others for dead. That doesn't work at all when Call reveals herself to be a rogue android, an ‘Auton’. When interfacing with Auriga's systems, she sets it on a collision course towards Earth intending to kill all the aliens in the crash. As they continue making their way towards the Betty, Ripley 8 gets taken by one of the aliens. The rest of the survivors reach the other ship, only to fid Wren already there. When he gets into an exchange with Purvis, his chest burster emerges and kills them both, causing the others to kill the juvenile. Ripley 8 would be taken to the queen's nest and find Gediman cocooned. She witnesses the queen, now having an uterus due to genetic contamination, give birth to a hybrid mixed with human traits. Identifying Ripley as its mother, it kills the queen and Gediman in irate. Ripley does manage to escape and reunite with the others by reaching the Betty, but the hybrid follows her and is able to trap Call and kill DiStephano. Ripley 8 is able to save Call by melting a hole in the window with her acidic blood and pushing the hybrid into it. This causes it to violently die due to the decompression blowing it through the hole and out into space. Ripley 8 & Call are able to successfully break through Earth's atmosphere with Vriess & Johner while the Auriga collides onto the planet, causing an explosion that kills the remaining aliens onboard. The film ends with Ripley 8 remaining unsure what to do next as she enters the planet for the first time.
THOUGHTS
When the money's good, there's no reason to stop. 20th Century (Fox) Studios couldn't help it when it came to Alien as they decided to make an unnecessary entry, that surprisingly got its traits that make it entertaining. Director Jean-Pierre Jeunet is able to make the setting still grounded in its own right and raise the stakes much more than intended, which gives the right amount of suspense. As expected, the production deisgn of both Auriga and Betty is well done to show enough space for the horror that are the xenomoprhs to do their magic. They do look great practically as does the queen, my favorite scene being the underwater chase, but it was a whole other ballgame when showing off the hybrid at the end. If you somehow weren't scared of the aliens before, this one does the job because all the human traits it had felt so wrong, which was the point. Thankfully, not even that had a chance to have a reign of terror on Earth. What made me get through this entry and respect what was being done was its odd yet intriguing way to say we should embrace what makes us different from others in order to have an advantage. This is the case with the slew of characters we got to see this time around. Sigourney Weaver brings a whole other set of energy because this is not the same Ripley we connected with from the previous entries. As Ripley 8, she is one who quickly accepts who she is because she knows she can't undo it. With her abilities, she uses it to quite an advantage. And with the colorful faces, she would've not gone too far. Winona Ryder was arguably at her most experimental here because Call is the polar opposite to the protagonist. She is so naive to the point where she was ashamed of who she was and didn't appreciate her abilities until danger called upon it. Ironically, it was meeting Ripley 8 that paved the way to have newfound confidence she'd never thought she'd have. Going into the rest of the crew, Michael WIncott & Kim Flowers made their own dynamic as Elgyn & Hillard because while the former was too arrogant to care about trafficking people, the latter had her own compassion when not wanting to kill Purvis nor leave him behind, which you can say they were an opposites attract relationship. Gary Dourdan was pretty cool as Dourdan because he felt pretty grounded in wanting to lead the others to survival and was willing to accept death when his fatal injuries were gonna hold everyone else back. Dominique Phorn made Vriess memorable for the right reason because although he couldn't walk, he still the fighting heart to survive which he proved not only with his finger on the trigger, but using his mechanic brain to pilot the Betty. Ron Perlman was a standout as well because despite being the more aggressive one, even he still got the focus to fight his way out of the hell hole he flew into. DiStephano may not be with the crew, Raymond Cruz makes him likable because he is able to accept there are better odds surviving with others than alone. As he embraced that by staying with the Betty crew rather than follow the greedy Wren, you can bet he died with honor. Now we may easily identify Wren as the greedy kind of villain, Brad Dourif made it count more as Gediman because he got over-passionate with the research to the point where he gets eccentric with something that should've been left alone. Since he didn't feel fazed when being cocooned, it's a relief he got put out of misery because his mind was gonna get too hard to crack by then. While I've said my piece on what makes the film work overall, there are still a handful of things where I understand the hatred people have towards it. For starters, if the scientists were able to get DNA from the deceased queen, why would they need to mess with Ripley's? Just because she was pregnant with the queen does not mean it'd be resourceful since she was bound to die once impregnated. And I'm even surprised Johner was able to contraband his gun disguised as a to go cup. The guards should've taken it off of the metal detected. Then I feel confused with how they didn't detect Christie's guns he stashed. If they weren't made of metal, which I doubt, he could've mentioned it. And why are there 10 basketballs in the gym area when there is only one hoop? That's weirder than the fact Ripley 8 was allowed to be out by the time Elgyn's crew showed up. Also if Call knows about Ripley, how did she not know about the clone being separated from the alien queen? If she was on cryo and wasn't up to date, that should be said too. Almost feels dumber than choosing to talk to her when there was clear roof above her, which made her bound to be caught by Wren. Moving on, the xenomorphs should've been confined in an area that was acid proof so Gediman shouldn't be surprised when they're able to break out by the second act. There's even dumb dialogue like Christie asking Vriess if he's ready to get wet going through the kitchen when they just swam through another area. Then you top yourself with Ripley 8 claiming she's been told before presumed dead before. I don't care if that is an inside joke for the audience or her being sarcastic, it doesn't add up. And how the hell is there a spider in the ship? That shouldn't be possible because it's not any alien can make one of those, nor does the Auriga seem to have been on Earth in a long time prior to the start of the movie. And where are the other aliens after abducting Ripley 8? Wren said there were 12 and Johner got to kill two, so they shouldn't be staying in one place if they were willing to find the humans more than once. Other than that, I respect what this one was going for. To wrap up, Alien: Resurrection is another moderate entry in the franchise for changing the scenery in order to bring its own level of suspense. If you're still a fan of this franchise after getting through the third one, good luck with this.
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