Beating the dead horse

Rating: 4/10 (13 April 2011)

If Alien was a sophisticated sci-fi thriller set in outer space, Aliens was a virtual textbook on the correct way to make a sequel and Alien 3 was a wall-to-wall catastrophe that put the nail in the coffin of a stellar series, then Alien: Resurrection is little more than a cheap attempt to wring one more round of cash from a once durable tentpole. After the disastrous third entry, it was difficult to see where this film could go or why enduring leading lady Sigourney Weaver would want to go there with it.
A couple of hundred years after the last debacle, the Company has once again launched an effort to clone the aliens and also end up with a bizarre hybrid of Ellen Ripley (Weaver) who also shares alien DNA. During a visit by a group of mercenaries, all hell breaks loose with the aliens going on the rampage and the mercenaries forced into a prickly trust with the hybrid Weaver to escape with their lives intact.
On the plus side, while practically nothing works in this sequel, it still manages to surpass the wet fart of Alien 3. Although it would have been in her best interest to take a powder after the prior film, one still has to hand some credit to Weaver for still managing to find new facets to play in a role that should have been played out. The problem here is that Ripley has always been an audience favorite and too much time is spent with the viewer wondering how far this latest incarnation can be trusted. This is a bit sad since this film desperately needs some rooting interest.
The screenplay feels like it is at least four drafts from being completed. It is a veritable skeleton, which barely gets its sketchy characters into position before starting the pursuit. It never gives a compelling reason why the Company maintains its compulsion to exploit the aliens, much less why they want a clone of Ripley hanging around. The new characters are without exception badly written and underdeveloped, which means the only way of having any impact is by shamelessly overacting. Ron Perlman, Dominique Pinon, J.E. Freeman and Brad Dourif indulge in laughably hammy over-the-top performances that make them memorable, but not in a good way. Michael Wincott, as the leader of the mercenaries, is barely introduced before being discarded and Dan Hedaya is simply dreadful as the leader of the military contingent on site. Apparently remembering that James Cameron had much success introducing a mother/daughter relationship in Aliens, the filmmakers here try a clumsy stab at the same thing between Weaver and series newcomer Winona Ryder. Unfortunately, the film offers no time for such trivialities like character development, and the dialog is groan-worthy. Ryder spends her time on screen looking ill-at-ease, miscast and fails to find any sort of camaraderie with Weaver, rendering the mentor/student relationship that the film half-heartedly introduces utterly pointless.
Director Jeunot's direction reminds one uncomfortably of David Fincher's previous effort, but without some of the ponderousness. The visuals and special effects are merely adequate, trodding ground that the prior entries have done better. Worst of all, this film squanders the opportunity presented by the return of the alien queen by rendering her harmless in favor of an ill-conceived alien/human hybrid that makes an appearance in the final stage of the film. This proves to be one of the most misguided developments because this new creature seems to look upon Weaver at its mother and astonishingly manages the feat of being the only character in the film to elicit any sympathy. The final moments where it is betrayed by its "mother" and its all-too-realistic shrieks of agony and looks of uncomprehending betrayal during its uncomfortably protracted death scene serve to emphasize that none of the "human" characters that one has wasted an hour or so with previously were remotely as believable or worth their screen time.
If one could only scour one's mind of Alien 3 and now this entry (to say nothing of the Alien vs. Predator foolishness), the world would indeed be a better place.