Alien : Resurrection

Alternate titles : Alien 4

Tagline : "Witness the Resurrection"

How to make up for the dire mess that was "Alien 3", give the fans something as enjoyable as the first 2 films and bring your main character back, having previously killed her off, were just some of the problems faced by the producers when it came to making this fourth film. But fortunately, scriptwriter Joss Whedon (of Buffy the Vampire Slayer fame) and French director Jean-Pierre Jeunet (Delicatessan) managed to come up with a few ideas and pull off something that was actually pretty damn good.

Some 200 years after the events of Alien 3, and Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) is brought back to life by a couple of mad scientists (played by J.E. Freeman and horror veteran Brad Douriff) aboard a secret government space station using a bizarre cloning process, which also duplicates the alien queen embryo inside of her.

The government wish to use the queen to provide them with more alien creatures, that they can study and experiment on, in the hope of using them as biological weapons (bad idea). Of course, things predictably go wrong and the aliens break loose.

Ripley subsequently finds herself teaming up with a group of space mercenaries, led by a chap named Elgyn (played by notorious screen baddie Michael Wincott), who are also stuck onboard the station with the alien menace. Leading to a series of running battles as they try to fight their way through the space station to their ship.

Whilst the film isn't quite as good as the first 2 movies, it's certainly a damn-sight better than the third and boasts some pretty impressive action scenes. Including an underwater sequence, where they have to negotiate their way through a flooded section of the ship, only to find that aliens can swim as well.

I also enjoyed the twist in Ripley's character, who seems to have inhereted some of the alien's DNA through the cloning process and thought the film had a very impressive supporting cast. Which included Ron Pearlman as one of the mercenaries, along with Winona Ryder, who isn't all she appears to be and of course horror veteran Brad Douriff, who is always a welcome addition to any horror film.

Maybe the alien hybrid that appears at the end wasn't so good, but aside from that, I really enjoyed this and felt this was a welcome return to form for the series.

Overall Marks : 6/10.

Terrifying Trivia

• The first draft of the script contained an action sequence that took place in a garden contained within the space station. With Ripley driving an electrically-powered jeep, as they battle aliens attacking from all sides. This was to take place after the scene in the chapel but before the sequence where the Newborn is introduced. This was cut largely due to budgetary reasons.
• Sigourney Weaver actually made the behind-the-back half-court basketball shot on her own, despite the fact that the ball disappears off screen for a split second, implying that she had off screen help. However, it took over 30 takes and an entire day of shooting to achieve.
• The film's budget was $75,000,000.
• There were several scenes cut for time or pacing reasons, or because the director didn't like them, which are included as part of an alternate version on the 2-disc special edition DVD released in 2004 and on the Blu-Ray. These included, an alternate intro showing a soldier in a room on the space station swatting a bug, and a different ending where Ripley and the other survivors actually land on Earth next to a post-apocalyptic Paris. This version is not favoured by the director, who prefers the theatrical cut of the film.
• Director Jean-Pierre Jeunet hardly spoke any English and had to have translators on set to relay his directions to the cast and crew.
• The underwater sequence proved to be the most challenging of any scene in the entire series to date. Winona Rider was terrified of water, due to a childhood incident, so had to have special lessons to help overcome her fear. Ron Pearlman banged his head whilst trying to surface for air, knocking himself out cold and had to to be rescued by divers. Whilst stuntman Tom Woodruff Jr, who was playing one of the aliens, almost drowned after the divers didn't see him signalling for air.
• Script writer Joss Whedon apparently disliked the finished film. As he'd written a lot of tongue-in-cheek humour into the story. But as the director had filmed it straight, he felt the plot and dialogue didn't work as well. However, his original treatment of the script went onto form the basis of the TV series "Firefly", which also centred around a group of space mercenaries.
• The design of the mercenaries spaceship was based on a jackhammer. The space station was originally going to be a vertical structure, but this idea was abandoned owing to the difficulty of capturing the scope of such a design on film.

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