And thus is the only reasons I can think that justify Alien Resurrection's existence.
Even if Alien 3 killed the work of Ridley Scott and James Cameron in their prime, it at least had a somewhat concrete conclusion to the story of Ripley. But this being the late nineties; it's a transitional period between unnecessary sequels to long standing franchises and just before reboots became a safe bet for studios, hence why, Alien Resurrection serves the purpose as both.
It's a sequel because it does carry on from Alien 3, this time set two hundred years after with Ripley cloned from a sample of blood left somewhere in the prison. Although we'll be covering Ripley in her aforementioned section, in short; she's changed a lot.
But anyway, when we sat down and watched this (after being drained by Alien 3), Resurrection, despite being ultimately pointless, plot hole laden and at times, frighteningly stupid, the film returns to the routes Cameron created in Aliens.
The first half an hour, like every other film in the franchise, is used to primarily used to re-establish Ripley's character, her new setting and the secondary protagonists. It also, unlike every other film in franchise; shows the classic Xenomorph's early because, screw it, they can't surprise us anymore so they might as well give the audience some phallic shaped eye-candy.
But the moment the Xenomorph's inevitably escape and cause carnage, the film becomes a dumb action movie. It lacks the subtlety and sense of isolation in the first two (I put this down to lighting because Resurrection is always in bright, huge corridors compared to the dark, tiny ones with the first two).
Also, because it's the late nineties, everyone minus Winona Ryder is an action hero, evoking their inner Van-Damme throughout. To it's credit, I can at least remember who was in this film compared to 3 where describing any of the other characters beyond "prisoner and bald" is an uphill struggle.
By the end, it kinda fails as you don't really enough care if anyone survives (minus Ripley and Call) but it's has a half-decent, if questionably open ending. See, this is where you can regard Resurrection as a reboot (substantial changes to an established character/s, new updated setting and the possibility of further stories), but, as nothing came of this, the franchise now ends on a strange cliffhanger with no real closure, which can be frustrating.
But what's really frustrating is the lack of scares. Even Alien 3, in all it's terribleness and boredom, did have a few, minor jumps. Even Aliens, the film Resurrection tries to emulate and what replaced Scott's ongoing horror, is still more terrifying than most horror movies.
Resurrection however, never escapes it's foundations as a pure action film. It has a few visually striking and disturbing moments, but its more intrigue than scary. You can argue that, after two decades, it'd be impossible to make the film's antagonists scary, but, this is a franchise with the most disturbing species in cinematic history, so I put this down to direction.
It's a fun b-movie but nothing more. It remains in the shadows of the first two films but can stand proud against 3 and ultimately, maybe that was the whole point...if you ignore the opening paragraph...and the idea that it's a reboot.
...Yay!
Ripley's Believe It or Not: If Resurrection does one thing, above all else, it gives Ripley new direction and motive, which depending on how you like the idea of further sequels, will depend on your enjoyment of the new Ripley.
After sacrificing herself for the greater good, the space government (as the original company was bought out by Walmart...moving on) clones Ripley to extract a clone of the Queen inside of her during Alien 3. Because of plot convenience, Ripley has genetic memories (think Assassin's Creed) but also, because of the cloning process, her genes have been spliced with the Xenomorph. So now she has acidic blood, heightened reflexes (backwards three point shot anyone?), increased strength, can sense nearby aliens and also has a motherly bond with the hybrid offspring
This isn't however the biggest change to her character. Because of said cloning process, most of her memories remain, but ones like Newt's name are gone. She also spends of the film in this part veteran survivor, part stoned off her tits with strange mannerisms. She constantly tells the other protagonists they are doomed to die, but remains confident of her own survival (then again, after three films, you'd have to be a tad confident at your chances).
She spends the most amount of time with Call. Call originally wants to kill her but this changes when the Xenomorph's escape. They spend the remainder of the time bonding before Call is apparently shot dead and returns ten minutes later, relatively unharmed, revealing herself as an android.
It's here where the film either has a stroke of genius or it's a plain coincidence. See, surprisingly, you could view this as the natural development of Ripley's character arc concerning androids. With Ash going haywire in the first film, she learns to trust Bishop in Aliens, even if it's right at the end and in Alien 3, albeit briefly, she searches for him and then grants his wish to die when it becomes apparent he can serve no further use.
In Resurrection; Call serves as Newt, if she lived long enough to grow up. Before her reveal, she seems headstrong but vulnerable and plays the daughter role to Ripley. With the reveal, it shows how far Ripley has come from the Aliens concerning androids, where Call's true identity doesn't really change anything with them and if anything, Call's abilities become incredibly useful to the group when it's out in the open, rather than hidden.
But despite these fleeting moments; Ripley is a whole new character. The scene with her discovering her botched clones (which is so good, it's been parodied twice on South Park) is disturbing, but in the context of her character, doesn't really make sense. It's never referenced again afterwards and just seems to be to show the depravity of the government; which is only touched upon in the first act and after the Xenomorph's attack, are only channelled through Dr. Wren.
Although it's nice to see Ripley return visually, she's basically a husk of her former self. I'm not a fan of this incarnation of the character and, if there were sequels to Resurrection, I have no idea where'd they'd go from here with her.
Game Over Man!: If the lack of Xenomorph action in Alien 3 annoyed you, then Resurrection more than makes up for it.
We might as well get the most startling developments out the way. Because of the cloning process (was The Jackal in the development for this process?), the Queen inherited traits from Ripley, in this case, a womb. So rather than the penis-like Ovipositor, the Queen posses a womb and vagina, basically doing away with the whole egg-facehugger-chestburster process in the original movies.
The offspring is a horrifying creation that inherits far more human traits than it's regular incarnations. It has pale skin, visible eyes, a human-like mouth, a human-like nose, is emotional and, for reasons not really explained, thinks Ripley is it's Mother.
Also, in an effort to give the hybrid something of a Giger-esq quality, the original had a mix of human genitalia which was edited out post production.
The original Xenomorph's are relatively unchanged minus it's established they are good swimmers and can climb ladders. The behavioural pattern in having hosted carted off and killing in self-defence returns but other behaviours are also revealed.
In the beginning, the government doctors are trying to get the Xenomorph's to understand basic instructions, with the use of pressurised liquid nitrogen. After attacking the glass and being sprayed, they Xenomorph's stop after being threatened. They also, when they escape, reveal they know how to use the button and use it to kill an investigating soldier.
In one final note; the Xenomorph's also plan their escape by killing one of their own and using it's blood to burn through the enclosure. It's a shocking if logical way which establishes the beasts as creative thinkers, rather than mindless killing machines.
Overall: Alien Resurrection is the final entry before the Xenomorph's went off to battle the Predator franchise. Go in with low expectations (or watch Alien 3 before it) and it has a fun b-movie feel to it. It has a lot of great action scenes, some neat ideas and some visually horrifying moments, but it lacks the tension and scares which the original two so fantastic.
On it's own; it's ok, but has been done far better by Cameron and despite all the neat ideas, there's a lot of nonsensical rubbish too and ultimately, is a pointless addition.
Which brings us to an end of Xenomania! '11. We hope you've enjoyed these retrospectives and hope you've had a fun Halloween. Until next time...which will be sometime this week with a review for Florence and the Machine's new album.
...Huzzah!
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