A worthy successor of the series

Rating: Null/10 (9 January 1999)

The first half of Alien 4 is a must see. The characters are wonderfully written and played extremely well. Most notably the characters of Christie and Wren. The first is an incredibly cool character with hidden side-arms up his sleeves and the latter is a bad guy whom you will love to hate. Of course the very best part of the movie is a chance to the character of Ripley act like Arnold Schwarzeneger. The reason that this movie is a good successor to the other three movies is that in each movie Ripley has transformed. In the first movie she was the strong willed, but rather naive, warrant officer. In Aliens she became a gun-toting mother figure who trusted almost no one. In Alien Three she has lost everything; her life, her daughter, and her hair. She trusted no one in this movie and it showed. She was tough and battered and used people if she had to, but she was still a heroine who would try to save everyone even though her worst nightmare was coming true. In Alien 4 Ripley has transformed herself once again. This Ripley doesn't take anything from anyone, even if its extraterrestrial. In Alien three she had an alien inside her, now she is part Alien! I can't wait to see what happens in Alien 5, although I feel they will start to transform her back into Ellen Ripley. Alien 4 has two major drawbacks. It kills the best characters first and is painfully predictable. You know who will and won't die. The movie's sets and cinematography were so good, the director foreign and fresh, that I expected a little more from Joss Whedon's script. This being the fourth movie in the series I guess I can't complain too much, it is much better than other movie sequels. In the end, if you are a big sci-fi fan this is a must see. You may walk away feeling a little mad at how they did it, but the more you see it the more you will like it. I promise.