Sorry- was that the sound of Ridley Scott's legacy dying in the background?

Rating: 5/10 (13 June 2012)

It's interesting when you think about how far movies take their heroine's through sequels. A prime example being, Ellen Ripley, the female protagonist of all the Alien movies, and masturbatory dreams of sit-at-home nerds. In this fourth installment, her journey continues. Sadly. Instead of finding a new face and a new series of what could be a fantastic (or at least interesting) franchise, we have to stick to the same old' same old' Ripley. Trust us, she's not all bad, she's still as kick ass as we've seen her in previous movies, but now it's not the same Ripley. There's no real reason to bring back / or revive - a lead character that so heroically died in the previous installment.
Although, there are some highlights. There's a bit more exploration of the human mind, a good example being Ripley and Call, who happens to be a droid, the first female one we've seen - but not enough to suffice for a decent addition - having dreams. It also explores the human nature of curiosity - there's a scene where Brad Dourif gets a little too... Comfortabe with being up close to an alien. Then there's the human side of the slime-stick monster. Brillianty (but unnecessarily) shown through the 'intimate' moment with the Alien. There's also another great human/Alien scene where the Alien's 'argue' over who's gonna die for their escape. Ripley is now also in touch with her Alien side. She's also been stripped down to wearing leather pants and a leather waistcoat. An elegant solution to restraining a very dangerous 'thing'. There needs more talking scenes, instead of more gore and profanity. The other female protagonist, Call, played by Winona Ryder, probably has the most attention here.
John Frizzel's score is also a down-point. James Horner's score for Aliens was about as epic as you could get. And who could forget Jerry Goldsmith's score for he film that started it all? Elliot Goldenthal's score for Alien 3 screamed pop culture (then again, don't all of David Fincher's movies do?) and was very junk-yard. It was quite hard to digest, but Goldenthal's later scores were pretty amazing. But Frizzel's score for the film is also by far the worst. He tries to d beautifully disturbing, with a hint of epicness- that's just a very bad combination. His score was too soft, and far too loud.
Jean's direction was pretty O.K. Although, this is more like starship troopers - a B-movie with a big budget. I wasn't a fan of in in-your-face camera close ups. The film suffered from pacing problems also. The speed of the film is sped up to a depressingly short telemovie.