A beautiful nightmare

Rating: 9/10 (9 February 2016)

Alien: Resurrection starts with beautifully disgusting pictures and John Frizzell's mesmerising music during the opening credits. These alone made me realise instantly that it was going be a unique experience.
It's nothing like the previous Alien movies. Jean-Pierre Jeunet made it totally his own and stamped his dreamlike style all over it. Even the mostly American cast seems French. (In fact, a lot of people thought at the time that they were indeed French.) That could have put me off, but Joss Whedon's great story (the best since the first Alien film), the visual orgy of colours and blood and mucus and slime, Winona Ryder's charmingly insecure and vulnerable robot character, the imaginative action sequences (especially the underwater alien attack) and the surprising twist on Ripley's character ensured a solid entertainment, unlike the very disappointing Alien3.
The new hybrid alien, the Newborn, is genuinely scary and repulsive - and yet, that look in her eyes, when she realises her mother wants her dead... it's truly heartbreaking. How can you pity such a horrid creature? Pure Jeunet brilliance.