Aliens IV (POSSIBLE SPOILERS)

Rating: Null/10 (27 July 2003)

Having just watched Aliens: Resurrection, I was reasonable impressed. The makers had enough new ideas to justify making another sequel. You see, sequels aren't that bad if they create a new story, a movie that can stand on it's own.
They almost succeeded with Resurrection. Ripley is older (48), but still strangely attractive. Being a part Alien hybrid this time around, she is also a lot meaner, although not enough in my book. I would have liked to see more of her vicious side, because a bad good guy/gal would have really spiced things up. Turning the obligatory cold, calculating and logical android (in previous movies played by Ian Holm and Lance Henriksen) into cute, emotional, cuddly but physically just as tough Wynona Ryder, is a new touch too. A touch that shows some evolution in thinking of what future computers and robots are going to be like - after all the first movie was made in 1979. There are some gross-out moments when Ripley discovers her mutant siblings, showing a side to cloning no one will easily forget (although for an experiment set in the future, it looks awfully crude - don't they have better control of genetics 200 years from now?).
The problem comes with the structure of the story. The story is really simple. Rogue captain Dan Hedaya is conducting experiments in "restricted space" to clone alien-human hybrid Ripley and bring a few of the critters back to planet earth. Michael Wincott and his crew of space pirates come across the ship, mess around and kill much of the crew. Then, and this is where the movie really lets you down, it becomes a "let's get to the shuttle before the aliens get us" routine that-we've-seen-in-every-single-rendition-of-this-franchise. And some more movies like Pitch Black with Vin Diesel. Why do script writers find it so difficult to write a new, interesting ending to their movies? That's the major problem. The race for the capsule is almost as big a cliché as the shootout.
See it if you love the previous movies, and if not see it for free on cable for some cheap thrills.