Out of Gas and Nowhere to Go

Rating: 5/10 (18 February 2006)

It should have ended in 1992 with Ripley's self-sacrificing jump into the pit, clutching the baby alien bursting out from her chest, forever denying science any chances to use this species as a springboard for heinous experiments. But of course, when scientists and corrupt organizations want something they go after it No Matter What and ALIEN: RESURRECTION, like its human villains, ensures that the franchise lives on. Setting the events 200 years in the future, scientists have done wonders with the trace DNA they have found in the pit and have genetically created not only new aliens but hybrids as well: progressive clones to what they will call # 8, whom we know as Ripley. Why, that remains unclear: perhaps because it was necessary to bring Weaver back on board? Not that it matters, in no time she's being trained to speak and act human, and contrived events have her half-battling the aliens kept in captivity, half embracing them. There's not a shred of the old, real Ripley in her: not even when in horror she kills a live clone gone bad and destroys a lab filled with botched experiments. Female angst aside, Jean-Pierre Jeunet manages to make the production look gorgeous and takes the opposite direction that Cameron usually does with his characters: he makes stereotypes behave like they knew what they were and reacted against it with horrible performances. Clever. Winona Ryder plays a fem-bot; Dominique Pinon is a cripple who is actually the strongest of the bunch, Ron Perlman plays a tough guy who is funny, and Gary Dourdan is the black guy who isn't as black as he seems (but gets killed off, if late in the film). Michael Wincott, Kim Flowers, Dan Hedaya, and Brad Davis fill in small roles with no substance. Not a fitting closure to a quadrilogy, but there it is, neatly packaged in your boxed set.