Rehash or rerun, but not resurrection

Rating: Null/10 (30 July 2000)

Alien 4, on first viewing, is a lot of fun. Exciting and scary, with plenty of action and certainly the funniest of the series. But what ever you do, don't watch it again. On second viewing, it's a rehash of the first two movies in the series, struggling unsuccesfully through the coporate demands to establish a style of it's own. I'm sure Jean Pierre Jeunet could make a great Alien film of his own, with his own weird ideas, but he doesn't get a chance to here. He has to throw it the neccesary Hollywood cliches, guns and action scenes at regular intervals in an obvious bid by the producers to be like Alien (1979) and Aliens (1986), but don't be like Alien 3 (1992)'. It's a shame that a series previously made up of such individual, creative films in which each took their own direction, has been diluted by such a movie.

At least Alien 3, which wasn't popular with the masses, tried something different and new. Ressurection suceeds as a collection of highlights from the series, and in giving us great new versions of Ripley and the alien - an alien-a-fied ripley and a Ripley-a-fied alien respectively. But that's all. And it's absolutely disgusting as well. Don't expect Alien 5 after the poor box-office performance of this one. A script, Alien: Revelation, was written, but it looks like the future of the series is with the upcoming Aliens versus Predator. Let's hope that lives up to it's billing.