Critique of Alien: Resurrection Screenplay Changes
“Serenity Now!” (August/September 2005):
Kozak: I thought your original screenplay for “Alien: Resurrection” was brilliant – with its epic final battle on Earth, for Earth – and vastly more engrossing than what ultimately made its way to the screen. I have to assume there were budgetary issues, because I can’t imagine another reason anyone would tinker with it.
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Alien: Resurrection as an Unconventional Art Film
In Defence Of... Alien: Resurrection, the franchise's ugly duckling" (19 February 2015):
If Alien was sinewy like a xenomorph and Aliens was pumped-up like the Alien Queen, Alien: Resurrection is as grotesque and mesmerising as the newborn. Whedon may have hated it, but he's hardly the first writer to disown his work. (Besides, he went on to make Firefly, which features just about the exact same set of characters - Johner is now Jayne, with Reavers standing in for xenos and so forth). "It's kind of like a really cool art film," Winona Ryder recently surmised of Alien: Resurrection, and she's right. Like art, it's unapologetic and singular in its vision, and it's a shame that the enticing open ending never developed into an immediate sequel. It's also odd that Marvel man Whedon isn't a fan - while the previous Alien films were all sci-fi horrors, there's something distinctly comic-booky about Alien: Resurrection. Perhaps it was just a little ahead of its time.
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Alien Resurrection's Unique Blend of Humor and Horror
In Defence Of... Alien: Resurrection, the franchise's ugly duckling" (19 February 2015):
What really separates A:R from its predecessors is its morbid sense of humour. Positioning itself as a carnival of weirdness rather than an all-out scare-flick, it amps the gore up to Shakespearean levels and, most shockingly, a number of deaths are played entirely for laughs (see cross-eyed General Perez plucking out the contents of his skull). It's a brave move by French director Jean-Paul Jeunet. In stark contrast to David Fincher's experiences on Alien 3, Jeunet was given free rein to do whatever he wanted (within the $70m budget; the biggest of any of the Alien films), and while he kept most of Whedon's script intact, Jeunet's weird humour is all over Alien: Resurrection.–
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Ripley's Complex Journey in Alien Resurrection
In Defence Of... Alien: Resurrection, the franchise's ugly duckling" (19 February 2015): [[w:Freak show|freak show; [circus; [horrors]
As with previous entries, Ripley's central to every one of A:R's greatest moments. "I loved the evolution of the character," Weaver has said, and it's not hard to see why she signed on despite the infamously onerous Alien 3 production. She plays an intoxicating range, from snarky quips ("I'm the monster's mother") and slam dunks (she put that basketball in the net for real), to the gut-punching moment she discovers Ripleys 1-7. That last encounter spectacularly drags the franchise into ] territory - you thought Ripley's life was a ] of ] before? You ain't seen nothing yet.
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Facing Fears During Underwater Filming
All Things Alien'" (November 9, 1997):
Ryder: When we were doing the underwater stuff, I was having complete anxiety attacks. We'd go underwater, and I was so scared. You reminded me to act. We'd go down with scuba stuff, but then they'd take it away from you.
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Graphic Violence and Coarse Themes in Alien Resurrection
“`Alien All Guts, No Glory / Sequel looks great, if gory, but doesn't have much brains” (Nov. 26, 1997):
Meanness is big in "Alien Resurrection." It's hard to remember a more coarse, obscenely violent movie. The "fun" starts right away with open-chest surgery shown in up-close, disgustingly graphic detail (with Brad Dourif as an icky doctor). The scene is the birth of a baby alien from under Ripley's ribs. Whoever said that surgery was the next pornography was right. In the course of the film, viewers get treated to aliens feeding on guts, brains and heads, all shown in splatter-movie fashion. And there are constant references to predatory sex acts. That popular 90s phrase "viewer discretion advised" is definitely applicable.
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Alien Resurrection: A Mixed Review of Gore
“`Alien All Guts, No Glory / Sequel looks great, if gory, but doesn't have much brains” (Nov. 26, 1997):
Sigourney Weaver, in this fourth in the "Alien" series, returns as Ripley, the tough heroine who has been dallying with the toothed aliens since 1979. Weaver has weathered the experience much better than the films have. She's lithe and sexy in that no-nonsense action-hero way. About that much-discussed backward basketball shot she makes -- Weaver looks like the type who could pull it off.
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Visuals Shine in Alien Resurrection Despite Flaws
“`Alien All Guts, No Glory / Sequel looks great, if gory, but doesn't have much brains” (Nov. 26, 1997): [[Delicatessen; [The City of Lost Children]
As almost always with sequels, the "Alien" spawn have gotten dopier as they've gone along. Yet each has had the saving grace of a distinctive look. "Alien Resurrection" is easily the most visually interesting of all. Credit it to French director Jean-Pierre Jeunet, who imported his surrealistic, horrific ideas direct from "]" and the superb "]." Jeunet blended darkness, heavy metal, repugnantly weird things in specimen vials, an underwater sequence, a feeling of paranoia and an almost determined lack of humanity. And he also brought two of his favorite actors: big Ron Perlman to be a jackbooted bad guy, and Dominique Pinon to get a few laughs as a pipsqueak. Winona Ryder is the biggest new attraction in the series. Her character, Call, is the only soft, humane creature within several light-years of the -- sprawling spaceship Auriga, where the action takes place. Eventually it is revealed that 12 hissing, hungry aliens, products of evil biology experiments, are headed toward Earth. Ryder, arriving with a crew of smugglers, looks almost too doll- like to be hanging around the tough, cynical or maniacal types that populate the film's cavernous, clanking world. But her big button black eyes and that intense focus she has at just the right dramatic moment wind up providing the only dollop of humanity. And it's much needed.
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A Gory Sequel Lacking Emotional Depth
“`Alien All Guts, No Glory / Sequel looks great, if gory, but doesn't have much brains” (Nov. 26, 1997):
As movie spawns go, "Alien Resurrection" is a clumsy, plodding child having a big hissy fit. The cluttered, surreal, claustrophobic sets and gooey alien creatures look intriguing, sometimes shocking. But the story tries so hard to be imaginative that it congeals and sinks like lead. This film should be an amazing thrill ride, but it has the emotional impact of a bowling ball at rest. The scene that gets the biggest response is one showing just how hairy actor Dan Hedaya is (he plays a spaceship captain), and he's not even an alien. No doubt the intensely violent production, opening today in time to gross out Thanksgiving holiday moviegoers, will do stratospheric box-office business. But staying power is another question.
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Ripley's Dark Secret Unveiled in Alien Resurrection
“FILM REVIEW; Ripley, Believe It or Not, Has a Secret, and It's Not Pretty” (Nov 26, 1997):
As directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet, half of the duo behind Delicatessen and City of Lost Children, Alien Resurrection has an eerie grunge look (with cinematography by the inventive Da-rius Khondji) and a sometimes ghastly sideshow atmosphere. The characters this time, with a cast including Dan Hedaya, Brad Dourif and Ron Perlman, tend to be surly miscreants, and the story has more kinks. Winona Ryder wears Army boots as a crew member of the Betty, a small ship that docks with the Auriga to engage in illicit business and stays long enough to fight the evil beasts. Tauntingly flirtatious scenes between Ms. Ryder and Ms. Weaver give this film a sexual boldness that the others action-adventure spirit lacked. Fierce, beautiful and sardonic, Ms. Weaver makes an impressive linchpin for this series, even if she can't make it palatable for the faint of heart. When Mr. Jeunet's well-established taste for the grotesque yields an episode worthy of a circus sideshow, with hideously malformed creatures floating in glass containers and a grisly secret about Ripley's past ready to emerge, not even Ms. Weaver and her flamethrower can triumph over the sequence's extreme nastiness.
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Ripley's Unsettling Connection to the Aliens
“FILM REVIEW; Ripley, Believe It or Not, Has a Secret, and It's Not Pretty” (Nov 26, 1997):
We know most of the aliens tricks by now, even if Alien Resurrection gives them the chance to chase human prey through garbage-strewn waters and swish their tails like marauding raptors. They still invade human hosts and burst out horribly at inconvenient moments; they still enjoy some of the most stomach-turning breeding habits imaginable. The new wrinkle this time is that neo-Ripley finds herself strangely sympatico with these creatures, even to the point of experiencing maternal stirrings late in the story. A new queen alien has appropriated some of Ripley's re-productive system and can now produce live, skeletal, screeching, glop-covered offspring. Maybe that tells you more than you want to know.
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Ripley's Dark Transformation in Alien Resurrection
“FILM REVIEW; Ripley, Believe It or Not, Has a Secret, and It's Not Pretty” (Nov 26, 1997):
Perhaps it counts as a compliment among those who appreciate the dripping, throbbing, drooling intensity of the Alien movies to say that the series latest installment is its most freakish and macabre to date. But Alien Resurrection, the fourth installment and the one that comes closest to suggesting there may be rain-slicked dark alleys in space, also offers the most buff and sexily insolent incarnation of the aliens favorite antagonist, Sigourney Weaver's Ripley. And this time it's personal: much of Ripley's new swagger comes from the fact that she now apparently has alien blood, or slime, or ooze, or whatever it is, coursing through her veins.
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Visual Style and Reception of Alien Resurrection
“The Biggest Mistakes Alien Resurrection Made (& How It Could Improve)” (Nov 27, 2020): [[Tank Girl (film)|Tank Girl; [Judge Dredd (film)|Judge Dredd; [The Fifth Element]
Speaking of the movie’s darkness, Alien Resurrection’s lush visual palette is an immediately striking and evocative change of pace for the series. Each movie in the franchise had a unique visual style, whether it’s the burnt-orange and metallic grey post-apocalyptic look of Alien 3, the sleek steely blues of Aliens, or the grimy, black-green fetid darkness of the first installment. To be fair, Alien Resurrection made use of its large budget by creating a new, distinct Gothic-influenced green-tinged color palette for this installment. The only problem is that for anyone not accustomed to Jeunet’s highly stylized look, marrying the style he established in earlier releases Delicatessen and The City of Lost Children with the world of Alien is a tall order. The movie’s green patinas lend a sickly look to proceedings and, by the time it was released, the likes of ], ], and ] had boasted similarly striking visual palettes without looking quite so garish. When a movie makes Tank Girl look less than garish, it’s cause for concern.
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Tone Issues in Alien Resurrection's Execution
“The Biggest Mistakes Alien Resurrection Made (& How It Could Improve)” (Nov 27, 2020): [A]
t least part of Alien Resurrection’s failure to win over even existing fans of the franchise can be attributed to the movie’s failure to nail down a definite, specific tone. The movie is too quippy and action-oriented (thanks to screenwriter Joss Whedon’s contributions) to be as authentically scary as Ridley Scott’s critically acclaimed original movie. 1979’s Alien was pitched as a “haunted house movie in space” for good reason, as it begins dark and only grows more brutal throughout its duration. James Cameron’s sequel Aliens, meanwhile, is a less grim affair, with the cast well-armed and better prepared to take on the titular threat. In contrast, in Alien Resurrection, the characters never seem to be in mortal peril; they’re toughened mercenaries and scientists developing bio-weapons, neither of whom seem ill-equipped to take on a threat.
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Problems and Missed Opportunities in Alien Resurrection
“The Biggest Mistakes Alien Resurrection Made (& How It Could Improve)” (Nov 27, 2020): [[w:Species (film)|Species]
There were plenty of problems that plagued the production of Alien Resurrection, but despite the movie’s convoluted set-up and knotty plot, its creation was not quite as strained as its predecessor Alien 3. Future Amelie director Jeunet thought that the franchise ended with Alien 3 and, like producer Walter Hill, he was skeptical about continuing the story, but the movie’s large budget tempted him to take on the job. The helmer hired visual effects specialist and future Catwoman director Pitof to work with him, which could, in retrospect, be read as an early indication that things were taking a bad turn. But the problems didn’t become clear until the movie’s secret weapon—the newborn Alien—was unveiled. Like the Predalien in the later (underrated) Alien Vs Predator spin-off series, the Newborn Alien was intended to be a huge draw for Alien Resurrection, as the movie would be unveiling a new hybrid form of the title monster with a previously unseen creature design. The Alien Queen of James Cameron’s Aliens was one of the sequel’s best-loved additions to the franchise, so expectations were high. The Newborn Alien did not live up to them. Slimy, gangly, and hilariously human, the newborn was a laughable, giant-headed mess of overlong limbs and pot-bellied oddness. Originally intended to have human genitalia until the studio balked and Jeunet admitted that “even for a Frenchman it’s a bit much”, the Newborn was, nonetheless, a disaster even without its private parts appearing in the finished movie. An earlier design would have seen the creators model the monster’s appearance on Weaver herself, but this was abandoned for fear of resembling ]’ Sil. It’s a shame, as anything would have been an improvement on the prune-faced ghoul viewers were eventually left with.
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Lackluster Visuals in Alien Resurrection
Alien Resurrection” (November 26, 1997): [[Alien (franchise)|Alien]
The "]" movies always have expert production design. "Alien Resurrection" was directed by the French visionary Jean-Pierre Jeunet ("City of Lost Children"), who with his designers has placed it in what looks like a large, empty hangar filled with prefabricated steel warehouse parts. There is not a single shot in the movie to fill one with wonder--nothing like the abandoned planetary station in "Aliens." Even the standard shots of vast spaceships, moving against a backdrop of stars, are murky here, and perfunctory.
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The Mysteries of Alien Growth and Reproduction
Alien Resurrection” (November 26, 1997): [[w:perpetual motion|perpetual motion]
Mankind wants them for their genes? I can think of a more valuable attribute: They're apparently able to generate biomass out of thin air. The baby born at the beginning of the film weighs maybe five pounds. In a few weeks the ship's cargo includes generous tons of aliens. What do they feed on? How do they fuel their growth and reproduction? It's no good saying they eat the ship's stores, because they thrive even on the second ship--and in previous movies have grown like crazy on desolate prison planets and in abandoned space stations. They're like ] machines; they don't need input.
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Ripley's Insight on Alien Reproduction
Alien Resurrection” (November 26, 1997):
The birth takes place on a vast space ship. The interstellar human government hopes to breed more aliens, and use them for--oh, developing vaccines, medicines, a gene pool, stuff like that. The aliens have a remarkable body chemistry. Ripley's genes are all-right, too: They allow her reconstituted form to retain all of her old memories, as if cookie dough could remember what a gingerbread man looked like. Ripley is first on a giant government science ship, then on a tramp freighter run by a vagabond crew. The monsters are at first held inside glass cells, but of course they escape (their blood is a powerful solvent that can eat through the decks of the ship). The movie's a little vague about Ripley: Is she all human, or does she have a little alien mixed in? For a while we wonder which side she's on. She laughs at mankind's hopes of exploiting the creatures: "She's a queen," she says of the new monster. "She'll breed. You'll die." When the tramp freighter comes into play, we get a fresh crew, including Call (Winona Ryder), who has been flown all the way from Earth to provide appeal for the younger members of the audience. Ryder is a wonderful actress, one of the most gifted of her generation, but wrong for this movie. She lacks the heft and presence to stand alongside Ripley and the grizzled old space dogs played by Ron Perlman, Dominique Pinon, Dan Hedeya and Brad Dourif. She seems uncertain of her purpose in the movie, her speeches lack conviction, and when her secret is revealed, it raises more questions than it answers. Ryder pales in comparison with Jenette Goldstein, the muscular Marine who was the female sidekick in "Aliens." Weaver, on the other hand, is splendid: Strong, weary, resourceful, grim. I would gladly see a fifth "Alien" movie if they created something for her to do, and dialog beyond the terse sound bites that play well in commercials. Ripley has some good scenes. She plays basketball with a crew man (Perlman) and slams him around. When she bleeds, her blood fizzes interestingly on the floor--as if it's not quite human. She can smell an alien presence. And be smelled: Her baby recognizes her mother and sticks out a tongue to lick her.
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Cloning and Survival in Alien Resurrection
Alien Resurrection” (November 26, 1997):
Now here is "Alien Resurrection." Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) is still the heroine, even though 200 years have passed since "Alien3." She has been cloned out of a drop of her own blood, and is being used as a broodmare: The movie opens with surgeons removing a baby alien from her womb. How the baby got in there is not fully explained, for which we should perhaps be grateful.
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Ripley's Defiant Autonomy in Alien Resurrection
“‘Alien: Resurrection’ Is a Franchise High Point—Fight Me” (November 29, 2017):
Then there’s Ripley herself, whose transformation has all the hallmarks of a Whedon heroine. Nearly every Whedon project seems to have a woman with special abilities given to her by one shadowy cabal of men or another. Inevitably, she rebels and takes back her autonomy with force. This happened with Buffy, it happens with River in Serenity, and it happens with Echo in his later series Dollhouse. Ripley’s rampage in Resurrection is textbook Whedon patriarchy smashing, but it’s also a fitting conclusion to her relationship with Weyland-Yutani. The company is replaced by a galactic military, but it’s all part of the same consolidation of power. The aliens represent the line corporations, governments, and armies (are these three even distinct?) are willing to cross to achieve their own ends, so Ripley’s resistance is always essentially pitted against the same thing. In Resurrection, they accidentally empower her through the very process that was meant to use her up. By reducing her to the level of meat to be experimented on, she and the xenomorphs literally become one. Everything and everyone is just a plaything for those in power. In one of the film’s most cathartic (and disturbing) scenes, Ripley torches a lab full of failed Ripley clones, one of which painfully begs her for death. One of Ripley’s new crewmates, played by the always scene-stealing Ron Perlman, doesn’t get why she’s so angry as to be wasting ammo. He chalks it up to being “a chick thing,” which is a fitting final note. The control over human bodies has always had gendered undertones in the Alien films. Ripley is a woman whose physical autonomy is always under threat, either from the aliens or from her patriarchal corporate overlords. Here, she takes back control more divisively than ever before.
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Alien Resurrection: A Unique Take on Horror
“‘Alien: Resurrection’ Is a Franchise High Point—Fight Me” (November 29, 2017):
There are a few fun touches that superficially play on the original film. Call is part of a group of robots who rebelled and won back their freedom. It seems the top-down structure of Weyland-Yutani was so oppressive that even the previously obedient machines couldn’t stand it. And the military’s central computer now has a male voice and is referred to as “Father,” cementing the patriarchal role of those in power, in contrast to all the maternal imagery of Alien and the “Mother” console. Ryder, who didn’t manage to use her 90s “it girl” rep to make Resurrection a hit, is one of the few people who actually remembers the film fondly, and is largely responsible for making it “kind of like a really cool art film,” as she described it in a 2013 interview with the Huffington Post, praising the direction of Jeunet, who was gaining fame for his offbeat French films and would eventually become an international star with Amélie. It turns out Jeunet was Ryder’s idea, and he gives the film an eccentricity that may dull the horror a bit but gives Resurrection a really distinct style. At times, it feels like a vaudevillian theatre troupe putting on an Alien play, and I mean that in the best way. The actors playfully dive deep into their roles, and camp things up for a director who can appreciate the absurdity of it all.
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Beyond Salvation: A Desperate Reflection
Taglines:
Beyond salvation.
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Too Late for Redemption
Taglines:
It's already too late.
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Birth from Hell
Taglines:
Hell gives birth.
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A Grim Hope for Survival
Taglines:
Pray you die first.
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A New Beginning Awaits
Taglines:
Witness the resurrection.
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Existence Beyond Earth: A Stark Revelation
Taglines:
We are not alone.
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A New Beginning After Two Centuries
Taglines:
It's been more than 200 years...The beginning has just started.
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Exploring Potential in Alien Life Forms
Dr. Wren: [ecstatic]
And the animal itself - wondrous! The potential? Unbelievable once we've tamed them.
Ripley: [laughs sarcastically]
Roll over, play dead, heal.
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Surprising Revelations About Humanity and Robots
Ripley: [after discovering Call is a robot]
You're a robot?
Johner:
Son of a bitch! Our little Call's just full of surprises.
Ripley:
I should have known. No human being is that humane.
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Parasite Revelation and Impending Doom
Purvis: [shouting]
What's in-fucking-side me?!
Dr. Wren:
A parasite! A foreign element.
Ripley:
There's a monster in your chest. These guys hijacked your ship, and they sold your cryo tube to this... human. And he put an alien inside of you. It's a really nasty one. And in a few hours it's gonna burst through your ribcage, and you're gonna die. Any questions?
Purvis:
Who are you?
Ripley: [smiles]
I'm the monster's mother.
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