Anyway, as the title indicates, the dead Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) has been brought back to life in order to restore the otherwise extinct alien species she carries inside her. After the creature has been surgically removed, Ripley refuses to die. She seems to have been changed, as well, now being some sort of cross between alien and human.
Of course, as always happens when humans try to exploit the aliens for their own mercenary purposes, the aliens run amok with an orgy of killing and screaming and biting and stop with the kicking already. In essence, Alien Resurrection has an identical plot with The Lost World, though Alien seems to respect humanity a bit more than Spielberg's shameless opus.
The bulk of the film concerns Ripley escaping the spaceship Auriga along with the standard ragtag bunch of misfits, smugglers who were betrayed by the military after running a shameful errand for them. The cast includes Jeunet/Caro veterans Ron Perlman and Dominique Pinon, both of whom make a vivid impression in this film as well, thanks to their unlovely but characterful faces. Opposite them is Winona Ryder who provides a good foil to Ripley and the rest of the cast by being small, delicate, beautiful, and very able to kick butt (Oh, I'm a bad alien, I am).
Unfortunately, despite such a strong cast (which also includes the vivid Brad Dourif and Dan Hedaya), very little of interest happens in the first forty minutes or so. Man discovers the alien, tries to harness it for his own purposes, things go haywire. This is all just the SOP from the earlier films. Not until a trademark Jeunet shot, the camera rolling along the ground, following a grenade into an open hatch, does it come to life. The sensibility of the director is then fully awakened, and we are treated to some exciting and novel sequences, including a thrilling underwater chase with a twist ending. The underwater scene, incidentally, must be considered the high point of the movie, maintaining a level of excitement on par with the first two films.
The film has a weirdly sensual quality, surely brought in by Jeunet, a connoisseur of the weird. The oddest and most perverse of these scenes is Ripley being fondled by the alien queen, which subsequently gives birth to the so-called "newborn." While the newborn has been derided by some critics, most notably by Harry Knowles, my reaction to it is one of being unsettled. This strange new creature is both repellent and oddly appealing, and at the same time, it is just as deadly as its fully alien cousins. This is a more complex creature, not one to inspire immediate feelings of fear within the audience, but more a sense of wonder and disgust.
While the studio, director, and screenwriter (Joss Whedon) do deserve some recognition for attempting to lend the sequel with artistic importance rather than making it a piece of pure hackwork, ultimately, it seems there is little left to tell about the Alien saga. The first film was the ultimate claustrophobic horror flick, the second one was the quintessential futuristic shoot-em-up. The last two are attempts to stake out new territory, but the old bottles simply cannot hold this new wine.
As far as "Part 4" sequels go, this one certainly beats out this year's Batman and Robin, and does deserve an E for effort, as well as for one or two terrific sequences. On the other hand, it is too derivative of its forbears, the climax disappoints, and it is far from being the best work of just about everyone involved. Perhaps I also missed another character from City of Lost Children, Daniel Emilfork, who would have made a splendid evil scientist in this movie.
The title for this year's best science fiction film directed by a Frenchman in association with a visionary comic book artist must go to The Fifth Element rather than Alien Resurrection.
Two-and-a-half stars
Copyright 1998 by Dale G. Abersold
