An Adventure 200 Years In The Making
If you copy something over and over again, you’re bound to end up with an unexpected mutation or two. That seems to be the metatextual theme at play in Alien: Resurrection, the fourth entry in the Alien franchise, a film that splices together DNA from a number of different film genres: horror, action, and even a touch of dark comedy, all while pulling the kind of revenance stunt that strains credulity anywhere but in the pages of an old book that people take way too seriously. You know the one.
Set 200 years after the irreversible events of Alien3, the film follows a group of scientists aboard the USM Auriga who have successfully reversed the events of Alien3 and cloned Ellen Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) with the express intent of extracting the Alien Queen embryo inside her. But this new Ripley is not quite human, possessing enhanced abilities and a strange connection to the xenomorphs. Meanwhile, a group of space mercenaries, including Annalee Call (Winona Ryder) and Johner (Ron Perlman), arrive on the station, only to find themselves in the midst of an escalating emergency when the aliens inevitably escape containment.
Director Jean-Pierre Jeunet tries to bring his own unique style to Alien Resurrection, creating a world where the spacecraft feels alive with its creaking metal corridors and lurking shadows, recalling the claustrophobic kill zone of the Nostromo while the focus on flashy hardware and flashier action sequences tips its hat to the more kinetic Aliens, both aspects no doubt a deliberate attempt to atone for the audience reaction to the previous movie’s bold but not entirely successful attempt to ditch the franchise’s formula. Sigourney Weaver’s return as Ripley, as eyerolling a contrivance as it is, does at least offer a fascinating take on the character, the fusing of human and alien traits making her both comfortingly familiar and unnervingly different. Weaver’s performance delights in the ambiguity, her take sharp and captivating, subtly adjusting both her emotional and physical approach to the role to reflect her newly chimeric nature.
Of course, what we see on screen differs quite a bit from what writer Joss Whedon originally envisioned. Studio interference only intensified after the creative misfire of Alien3, impacting both the budget and ambition of the movie, eradicating the panned Earth-based finale and reverting to a retread of an escape pod battle and keeping the action confined. It’s in the human-xenomorph hybrid, or “Newborn,” that the studio suits delivered their most devastating blow to this otherwise serviceable, if familiar, Alien movie. The original vision was for a much more overtly alien creature but what we get is a bizarre, milky-coloured uncanny valley skinless muppet, a creature that’s more icky than intimidating and foolish rather than frightening.
In trying to balance action and narrative, Alien Resurrection struggles for its own identity. The cloning of Ripley stretches suspension of disbelief even for science fiction, and the pivot back to action, while intended to appease fans wanting more excitement after the sombre tone of Alien3 , is an overcorrection that sees the franchise accidentally recreate Jurassic Park, but with xenomorphs instead of velociraptors. Perhaps they were so so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn’t stop to think if they should?
While it might never come close to hitting the heights of either of the first two movies, Alien Resurrection still manages to be a fun watch and for every misstep or too faithful reprise it offers us, there are some bravura set-pieces and an imperious performance from Sigourney Weaver (with great support from Ron Pearlman and Winona Ryder) to carry it through the rougher patches. Its exploration of identity and humanity are intriguing if frustratingly superficial and ultimately the film itself becomes the exact thing it sets out to explore: a copy of a copy in the form of a hybrid of different progenitors and influences that ends up as a nearly fruitful but ultimately unsuccessful experiment.
