In Defense of the 4th Movie - Alien Resurrection

The first Alien is a fantastically dark and atmospheric sci-fi horror film. Aliens is a slam-bang actioneer courtesy of James Cameron. I have no idea what the crap is going on in most of the third Alien movie, but I give Fincher a pass and place the blame on an interfering studio. For the Franchise Killer, we got Alien Resurrection.

Ripley's back, and that's about all you need to care about, story-wise. All we want is to see some nasty aliens chasing Ripley and her fellow human companions. Well, as Alien 3 proves, a mildly coherent and understandable story wouldn't hurt. On those bare requirements, Resurrection delivers.

It's not as good a movie as the first two entries in this film series, but it's obvious already that I think it's superior to the 3rd film. So in that respect, it's a success! Fincher's film should have logically killed the franchise, but they brought the face huggers back for one more round and, more or less, it worked.

So what's so good about this movie, other than Sigourney Weaver returning again? Well, it's got Winona Ryder, so that doesn't hurt. Ron Perlman is also in it, which is always fun. (Perlman is always distinctively Perlman, except for when he's Hellboy. I know it's Perlman underneath the makeup, I can sense and tell that it's obviously him, but all I see is Hellboy. Grand stuff! Man, I hope that franchise makes it to four del Toro-riffic movies!) We also get an underwater scene, and aliens swimming is far cooler than it sounds. Of course, there's the nifty and incredibly disturbing scene with all the failed Ripley clones. It's some pretty sickening stuff. Delightful.

As far as movies in general go, it's a pretty average, though solid, film. It's a good one to watch in one's leisure time. In the Alien series, I rank it third, after the first two. I would recommend not even bothering with the third film at all, except a major plot thread in this movie hinges on the climax of its predecessor.

Plus, thanks to the inclusion of this movie, we now have the wonderfully made-up word "quadrilogy." Thank you, Alien Resurrection. Thank you for quadrilogy.

Best in Series: No.
Worst in Series: No.




7.7/11.3 Toddsperience