Don't Witness the Resurrection

Rating: 2/10 (2 May 2020)

"Alien" was a science fiction masterpiece. "Aliens" was an action movie that had its scary moments. "Alien 3" was not great, but I don't think it got fair treatment. There was a lot that went on behind the scenes. Now, Ellen Ripley is brought back in "Alien Resurrection," the fourth installment. Forgotten is what made the original film scary and what made it work. This sequel is extremely violent to the point of shock and disgust held together by a flimsy plot. The inspiration has come and gone, and we got a film that we didn't ask for in the first place. I question how this film has an R rating being as violent as it.
It's about a government operation led by General Perez (Dan Heyda), who is overseeing the resurrection of Ellen Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) whose brought back to life and scientists harvest an Alien queen from her that breeds. It's not long before the Aliens break out of confinement and wreck all kinds of hell all over the ship. It comes down to a small crew of armed mercenaries who try to make it to the Betty before it's too late.
There is a statement in the movie that echos perfectly. "Ellen Ripley died trying to wipe this species out. For all intents and purposes, she succeeded. I'm not anxious to see her taking up her old hobbies." This line comes from the General Perez character. He says he doesn't want Ripley to fight the aliens again, but what does he expect after bringing her back to life? Ripley's back as a clone because the scientists somehow retrieved blood samples on ice from the prison planet where she died in "Alien 3," and she has become an alien hybrid of some sort. The scientists want to breed the aliens for biological weapons; I suspect because that is the plotline of the previous films, and that's the reason for Ripley's return.
It opens with Ripley standing in a tube, and her voiceover says, "My mommy always said there were no monsters. No real ones. But there are" before surgeons remove the baby Alien Queen from her womb. She is aboard the USM Auriga, a military government ship, which appears to operate outside of regulated space, which means illegal experiments, and it functions as a medical research facility. I was being coy about the scientists breeding the aliens for bioweapons, and yes, that is what they are trying to do. Ripley somehow retains all her memories after 200 years have passed, and she awakens on the ship knowing the aliens are going to escape, but nobody listens to her. "She will breed. You will die." She says.

When you see the Aliens for the first time, held in glass cages, it takes the fear out of what this organism used to be, and it's one of the many bad decisions the film makes. The Aliens look restless until one of the scientists decides to play with one of them through the glass before he pisses it off, and it snarls at him. I will say, the look of the aliens is superior. They look, pitch black, is slimy and shown to be smart, and they escape in a very clever way involving their blood. A freighter called The Betty arrives at the facility with the vagabond crew led by Elgyn (Michael Wincott). Johner (Ron Perlman) is the unstable and dangerous one. There is also Christie (Gary Dourdan), Vriess (Dominique Pinon), who is in a wheelchair, Hillard (Kim Flowers) and Call (Winona Ryder), who holds a few surprises of her own. The Vriess character has his wheelchair full of shotgun pieces, and he seems to love raiding the ship's armoury when nobody is around. When they all arrive, shortly after is when the aliens break out.
Ripley doesn't know what she is doing, and it never really says whose side she is on. Weaver is over-sexualized in the role that made her famous for the fourth time, but we can only assume that the screenwriter, Joss Whedon, didn't know what to do with her. She knows when the Aliens are near, and they know where she is it seems, but it's never developed, After everyone on the ship is killed in very violent ways, the aliens only attack the crew once I think which is odd seeing as how they were relentless in "Aliens." Speaking of attack, okay, so as I have said, the movie is violent, let's see. When the Aliens escape, someone, walks into one of the cells and is frozen to death as his body snaps apart. One guy pulls a piece of his brain out of the back of his head and stares at it. A crew attempting to escape in a shuttle gets shredded to bits, and we see blood and guts flung on a window, and that's only some of the carnage.
Into the second act, they are moving through water pouring down from the cooling tanks, and it's a thought-provoking set up before the execution throws it all away. They end up swimming for a lot longer than one can hold there breathing, and it gets quite hooky. They must all be expert swimmers. I liked this sequence because two aliens chase them underwater. Well, one does, the other gets blown up at first sight. It was entertaining until someone I was starting to like is killed, and I just gave up-none one these characters find development, so all that's left is carnage.
If they made "Alien V" I would watch it so long as I don't have to see this one again. Most of the movie is elaborate special effects, including an unwanted surprise at the end that looks horrible. It's called the Newborn, and I have no idea what they were thinking with this thing. It suffers a violent death, which is just over the top and disturbing to watch before Ripley seems to be attracted to this thing. I don't know. My significant confusion is why the aliens are setting up traps, I guess, early on in the movie. One of the characters falls for a setup involving a slimy gun, and I didn't buy it. The director, Jean-Pierre Jeunet, does not want to be there, and it shows. Every decision was wrong, and there is nothing on offer here expect violent carnage, an out of place actress (Ryder) and for some reason, Weaver agreed to do the movie.