Alien Resurrection

Alien Resurrection

The period of time between Alien and Aliens was 57 years, all of which Ellen Ripley spent in cryonic suspension. Following her escape from the alien infested space colony, she floated through the cosmos on a life raft until crash-landing on a penal planet in Alien3. In each episode she has confronted monsters assembled from teeth, green sinew and goo.

In this one she tells it: “I’ve known you so long I can’t remember a time when you weren’t in my life.” I feel that way about the aliens myself. They’re like the guests who wouldn’t leave. The series’ inspiration has dried up, shrunk to the point where there’s hardly enough plot to sustain itself as a frayed shoestring between action scenes. Pauline Kael called Aliens a “Boo Movie” all those aliens popping up and going ”Boo!” and being destroyed.

Dark, depressing–those were my first thoughts about the second film (directed by James Cameron of Titanic fame). With the third one I lost interest almost completely; once it became clear that those aliens could outrun and outleap humans at any moment, all chases were contrivances.

And now here is Alien Resurrection. After 200 years asleep in an artificial atmosphere (“We must have used it all up,” someone says), Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) still survives as an organism containing alien DNA and what should be done with those genes? She has been cloned out of blood samples collected just before her death. The movie opens with surgeons removing a baby alien from her womb; how it got there is not fully explained, for which we should perhaps be grateful.

This birth takes place on Auriga, a big ol’ spaceship run by survivors of Earth’s devastated countries whose only hope is to drop a few eggs down on Earth every now and then for well, they don’t exactly say what for, but it has something to do with vaccines and medicines and a gene pool and stuff like that. These aliens have remarkable body chemistry. Ripley’s genes are no slouch, either; they allow her new self to remember all of her old self, as if cookie dough could remember gingerbread man.

Ripley first is on a huge ship of science owned by the government, then on a freighter of tramp run by a crew of vagabond. At first, monsters are held in cells made of glass, but naturally they escape (their blood is also an effective solvent that can eat through the floors of the ship). The movie tends to be confusing with Ripley: Is she completely human or does she have some alien in her too? We spend some time wondering what side she is on.

She laughs at mankind’s hopes for using the creatures: “She’s a queen,” she says about the new monster. “She’ll breed. You’ll die.” With the advent of the tramp freighter comes a new crew, including Call (Winona Ryder), who has been flown in all the way from Earth in order to give younger members of audience something to identify with. Ryder is among the most talented actresses ever, and wrong for this movie. She lacks weight and presence necessary to stand up beside Ripley and grizzled old space dogs played by Dan Hedeya, Brad Dourif, Ron Perlman, Dominique Pinon.

Her speeches suffer from lack conviction; she seems unsure what her role in film should be; when we find out what it was supposed to have been, it raises more questions than answer them. Jeannette Goldstein muscular Marine who was female sidekick in “Aliens” leaves Ryder looking like debutante caught out without her fan.

Weaver’s portrayal splendid: Strong though weary resourceful grim but fine there was any part other hand strong exhausted resilient tough such as those seen earlier films just needed script character live dialogue beyond terse sound bites that play well commercials few scenes back basketball with crew man pins him against wall and when he bleeds blood sizzles interestingly floor almost if not quite human can smell presence know be smelled sticks out baby recognizes mother licks her.

The aliens have a lot of stuff in their mouths: not only the tongues and famous teeth but another little head on stalk with smallers teeths. Only question is whether littlest head has still tinier inside it, and so on. Like bugs in “Starship Troopers,” these creatures are specialized. They evolved over millions years into monsters designed for one thing only: scaring people movies.

“We want their genes?” I can think bigger asset: Evidently they can produce bio-mass from thin air. Baby born at start movie weighs maybe five pounds; few weeks later there are several tons of aliens cargo hold ship. What do feed on? How fuel growth reproduction? Won’t say eat store because even second thrive just had grown like crazy desolate prison planets abandoned space stations motion machines don’t need input perpetual

The “Alien” movies are always very well designed. “Alien Resurrection,” directed by French visionary Jean-Pierre Jeunet (“City of Lost Children”), who with his designers has put it in what appears to be a vast, empty hangar filled with prefabricated steel warehouse parts. There isn’t a single shot in the movie to fill one with wonder – nothing like the abandoned planetary station in “Aliens.” Even the standard shots of huge spaceships moving against a backdrop of stars are murky and perfunctory.

What effect will “Alien Resurrection” have on Weaver’s and Ryder’s careers? Financially, it will help: Weaver is still the only woman who can open an action picture. Artistically, the film won’t have any effect at all. It’s a nine days’ wonder, a geek show designed to win a weekend or two at the box office and then fade from memory. Try this test: It’s been five months since “Jurassic Park: The Lost World” opened. How often do you think about it?

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