The good and the bad

Rating: Null/10 (25 December 2003)

*major spoilers-mention of earlier alien installments*
I have recently watched this movie via the Quadrilogy Boxset and came away with some thoughts. I was amazed at the art departments well executed work. The influence Giger had on the team was obvious (as was on the first three films), however if one has looked at his (HR Giger's)art books in great detail you will see that they went two steps further into research. The interior sets although less foreboding because of poor lighting methods were excellent. The space ship designs were less than stellar save that of the "Betty" and some of the shots of the science ship were poorly executed. The other Ripley's especially the infant's really grabbed my attention in details of evolution of Ripley "8" (one of the better special effects).
The special effects (overall)were over the top, which really hurt the mood. I will state that i love gore, but with an alien movie i prefer less of the stuff because the movie depends so heavily on story and character development to bring the viewer into its world.
Joss Whedon penned this with a sense of parody, which really hurt the project from the start. The scripts use of one-liners is something that should of been toned down with a whole lot more serious dialogue. This isn't Buffy the vampire slayer, its Alien.
The action sequences worked well (I loved the bullet bounce). The cast as a whole were good and did their best with the script. Ripley's baby is both scary and sympathetic (it knew who it's true mother was and protected her only to be sacrificed). The vocalization as it was dying was heartbreaking (it's a newborn and wasn't evil much like Mary Shelly's Frankenstein creature). In the end the movie and series as a whole is formula and while not an entirely bad thing the calibre of the Director, Script writer and head Cinematographer is paramount. Ridley Scott, James Cameron and Finch (Alien 3 was under-rated) worked hard to make the film the best it could be under the circumstance(check out the director commentary's). The director of this installment simply didn't deliver the goods as promised and ironically is the fourth and least likeable of the films.