The apple has fallen far from the tree

Rating: 2/10 (20 May 2017)

A completely unnecessary sequel that proudly takes over the label of Alien franchise's weakest chapter & also features an odd bit of interspecies erotica, Alien: Resurrection was seen by many as an improvement over Alien³ when it released but that's only because this film didn't have to deal with the reputation of two genre- defining chapters of the franchise & unlike its preceding installment, it only gets worse on multiple viewings.
Set 200 years after the events of Alien³, Alien: Resurrection finds Ellen Ripley resurrected back to life through successful cloning & has the alien queen surgically removed from her body. In the hope of breeding this magnificent life form & study its biology, human hosts are used which are delivered by mercenaries but when the aliens escape their enclosures, Ripley & the rest of the survivors attempt to escape & destroy the spaceship before it reaches Earth.
Directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet, the film tries to make a tonal shift from a sci-fi horror to a dark comedy but eventually fails at achieving any of its goals as it pretty much sucks as a horror film, doesn't carry enough meat for an action or sci-fi feature and the black comedy elements only come off as far too stupid. Joss Whedon's script is another culprit here even if it contains some interesting ideas & is completely inept when it comes to characterization or action or suspense.
Cinematography adds more tinge to the picture & also includes close-ups of characters when they're busy making stupid faces. Set design is passable & although the alien creatures aren't poorly rendered like it was in the last film, it still doesn't come close to their seamless depiction in the first two films. Visual effects ain't up to the mark either despite its high-budget, music doesn't even feel like a part of the film & the very final creature is so grotesquely designed that it's just too absurd & laughable.
Coming to the performances, Alien: Resurrection manages to even surpass the last chapter when it comes to overacting. Other than Sigourney Weaver & Winona Ryder to some extent, the entire cast looks horrible with their exaggerated expressions, sounds horrible with their overly cheesy dialogues & plays horrible by delivering terrible performances from start to finish. Weaver's performance ain't that great either, however, she does enough to avoid any major complaint on her part.
On an overall scale, Alien: Resurrection is the most light-hearted & cheesiest chapter of the Alien franchise which fails at everything it was trying to do. Adding nothing new to the franchise that we haven't seen before, featuring a set of uninteresting characters most of whom served their purpose as just death fodders & providing no excitement or thrill in any of its action sequences, Alien: Resurrection succeeds in ruining the very franchise that redefined horror, sci-fi & action with its first two chapters and suffered a heavy dent with the third.