ALIEN: RESURRECTION

** ^{out of} ****

The best is not the last

The title of the latest in the ALIEN franchise hints at a rebirth after David Fincher’s (too unfairly) disparaged version. So is director Jean-Pierre Jeunet the ALIEN messiah? No, and neither is Joss Whedon, the scriptwriter.

Does Jeunet at least make this ALIEN enterprise his own, like Ridley Scott, James Cameron and Fincher before him? The director of DELICATESSEN and THE CITY OF LOST CHILDREN proves ill-suited for action fare, and except for a starkly graceful underwater sequence, RESURRECTION never approaches pulse-pounding. If one were to comb RESURRECTION for traces of Jeunet, it surely lies in the look of the film: impressively organic, but ultimately forgettable. It is surprising that Jeunet's mark here is slight, especially after the tiring excesses of CITY, but his effort would have been for naught nevertheless.

Jeunet’s sheen, no matter how wondrous it could have been, would have done little to the wrong-headed story by Joss Whedon (TOY STORY). Whedon was apparently eager to return the series to its former glory, and his script was deemed by Weaver herself to be "of great elegance and great intelligence" that she agreed to return as Ellen Ripley. Is she correct? Hardly. This latest outing will do little to return the ALIEN series to its earlier glory.

It is now 200 years after Ripley’s self-sacrificing plunge into a fiery vat, and she returns from the dead as Clone 8 (8 = infinite series? Egads!) thanks to those scriptwriter workhorses the ever-dependable mad scientists operating in the ethics-free zone of space conveniently located mere hours from Earth. Mad scientists are never the compassionate type, of course, and Ripley was cloned solely because of the her resident alien's benefits to mankind – the word "vaccines" is mentioned.

The recombinant genetics is highly suspect, to put it mildly. But, apparently, the human gene pool could benefit from alien DNA. The reconstituted Ripley is quick, playing a mean game of basketball, and quick-witted, tossing off one-liners to assuage the audience that their wit sensors are up and running. She somehow remembers her previous life, as if individual experience can be imprinted to genes, but this must be another alien benefit. As well, the new Ripley enjoys a new awareness of the alien community, sensing its desires and actions. Her new trait renders her suspicious since her allegiances are not as sure.

Sure she's suspect, but this new superpower Ripley is now unsympathetic as well, no longer the human staple you urge on and away from the aliens. Who to root for now? With supporting character development by Whedon, can you really care whether or not they become alien fodder? These underdeveloped characters practically telegraph their availability beg to be carted away by their sheer uninterestingness. Take for example one forgettable soldier who manages to survive well into the movie. Will he survive? No way, Jose.

The alien gene pool should best stay away from us humans though. Its own human-alien clone suffers from bipolar mood disorder, too quickly prone to showing its affection by licking mom after turning treacherous. Malevolence with cause, even the hint of conspiracy such as some foreboding entity called simple "The Company," is always more interesting.

The creations by artist H.R. Giger were best left unmodified. RESURRECTION's newborn alien is physiologically inept in design, with pasty white skin, puppy dog eyes recessed too far into its head for effective predation, and nostrils which leave it too susceptible to death by peashooters. In addition to the relentlessness of the chase and our omnipresent fascination with space and the future, the ALIEN series succeeded in instilling the fear that out there exists the perfect human predator/parasite, and Giger's alien design was intrinsic to this success with its metallic gloss and machine efficiency. In contrast, the newborn alien, all incompetency, seems an act of blasphemy against Giger's sacrosanct design.

Unfortunately, this act seems symptomatic. Berate Fincher as you may but his take was the honourable one and preferable to this weakly-scripted mess and the sad direction this once-sophisticated enterprise is heading towards. D

ALIEN: RESURRECTION

Directed by: Jean-Pierre Jeunet

Written by: Joss Whedon

U.S.A. 1997

Review completed on November 30, 1997.