Familiar and dull, feeble attempts at exaggerated characterization

Rating: Null/10 (18 March 1999)

Alien 4 opens with surgeons removing a baby alien from Ripley's (Sigourney Weaver who is splendid) womb. Strange stuff. Alien was great, Aliens was greater, Alien 3 was boring. Alien 4 is mostly crude and distant. Yes, the scene where three Aliens plot to escape a room is very good, but most of the story is familiar and dull, mixed with feeble attempts at exaggerated characterization.
The three-star general, when told how the cloned Ripley grew to adult size mostly overnight and retained her memory, became childish and sarcastic instead of allowing the movie viewers to do so. It didn't help. It does disappoint me to see unrealized intelligence in any film. They should have brought back Nute from Aliens.