A Wrong Turn in the Alien Series

Rating: Null/10 (5 November 2001)

The core problem of this movie is that it completely missteps with the newest incarnation of the Ripley character. I understand that she was a clone. I understand that alien genetic material and mixing caused her to be different from the original. In my mind, however, these are excuses, not justification.
The problem is, Ripley enjoys herself. It's that simple. She seems to WANT to be doing what she's doing. She cracks jokes, she is vicious, she is aware of the brutality she's capable of and revels in it. That's not Ripley. That's Buffy.
Don't get me wrong - I like Buffy, and I think Joss Whedon is an excellent writer. I certainly don't want to pin all of the blame on him, because I know that many factors go into a character's personality. I do believe, however, that Whedon's base script probably had a great deal of Ripley's newfound flippant attitude, and even a bit of that is a big mistake.
The strength of the Ripley character, and one of the things that made the other Alien movies so appealing, was the fact that she's not a hero. She doesn't want to be one. She wants to go home to a normal life with the people she cares about, but she can't. No matter what happens, she's thrown into chaos, and instead of falling to pieces, she finds the will to fight back and survive. Even as she's fighting, though, she hates what she's doing. She fights only because she hopes to reach a point where she doesn't have to fight anymore.
Some have suggested that the "new" Ripley is just weary and cynical, that her new attitude is her giving up on the concept of a normal life and rejecting the morality and humanity she clung to for so long. That's certainly an interesting possibility, but it wasn't conveyed very well in the film. I certainly hope that if the series continues, a lot of consideration will go into the psychology of the Ripley character, and her motivations will be made clear again.