How Disappointing!

Rating: 4/10 (16 February 2005)

Until now, the "Alien" films have been a trilogy of movie-making mastery. Scott, Cameron and Fincher all gave unique glances into the future and the story of Ellen Ripley. There was only one curse that followed these films, they made money. So a fourth installment had to be made, seemingly for that purpose alone. The plot is set several hundred years after "Alien 3" where military scientists have cloned Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) along with the alien queen inside of her. They then proceed to breed the aliens until everything goes nuts and they escape. The plot....pretty much ends there. There's no real story in this film. Each of the others had strong, different stories being told throughout the mayhem and blood. This is purely a money-maker film. Flashy special effects and some pretty nice violent scenes simply cannot save the film from its failure to let you identify with even one character in the film. Since Ripley is a clone, her story has changed because she's no longer human. The filmmakers hope was that the sci-fi action and gore would be enough to carry the film for 2 hours. They were wrong. Its no fun seeing the aliens up-close all the time. There's no mystery to it, nothing to scare you. The essentially become another 'Jason' or 'Michael Myers'. But, for die-hard "Alien" fans, this film could be interesting simply if you want to see new stuff they can do with the Aliens in terms of special effects. Other than that, do what I did and consider " Alien 3" the ending of the story and completely forget this film exists. Kind of like "Halloween: Resurrection".