Plot Details: This opinion reveals minor details about the movie's plot.

Well, at the end of the problematic "Alien3" you thought it was all over. I mean it ended with the central character, Lt. Ellen Ripley taking a back-dive into a red-hot furnace, taking the last known example of the alien "Xenomorph" we'd all come to know and love with her. I guess you can't keep a good movie franchise down.

"Alien Resurection" (hereafter "AR") occurs something like 200 years after the events in A3. Ripley's body may have converted to vapor but good Dr. Clemens on Fury 161 apparently took and preserved some blood samples before the end. Cloning time! A group of scientists on-board the USM Auriga are working hard to produce a working clone of Ripley... and her alien passenger. These are bad people without much in the way of moral scruples. Just like the old Weyland-Yutani "Company, they want an alien for research and development. They think the species may be useful for 'urban pacifcation" among other things. They've removed the embryo alien from the newly restored Ripley and are busy growing a queen in a cage. All they need are hosts for the eggs....

AR touches all the bases from the previous three movies and adds something else. Director Jean-Pierre Jeunet was hired mostly on the basis of he "City of Lost Children" which, I understand, is quite good. Jeunet is very French and brought a group of fellow French film makers with him as well as a European approach both to film-making in general and science fiction specifically. In Europe both film and sci-fi are done a little differently. I'm not going to go on about the differences between European and American style film making. Just think that the Europeans tend to regard film as art (even if that is a bit pretentious, maybe) and Hollywood is (in theory) all business. As to the differences between the European and American schools of science fiction... think about the differences between "Heavy Metal" magazine and Marvel Comics. One isn't necessarily better than another, just different.

When I saw AR for the first time I could tell the thing was created by a European (Continental, that is, Ridley Scott is a Brit and their take on things like this tends to parallel ours.) Just the look of the thing was a give-away. The plot also was similar to some of the peripheral "Aliens Series" stuff I'd read over the years, books and comics. I didn't read everything, that would have required more time, money, and interest than I possessed but at least one of the things I read involved some "Company" scientists going into the "bug husbandry" racket. The propeller-heads think they have the bugs tamed but it soon turns out they're wrong... This is largely the main plot theme of AR.

So, against all odds, Sigourney Weaver is back as Lt. Ripley. This time 'round there was apparently enough money to afford another "star" as witnessed by the presence of Winona Ryder as Call, a "little girl playing pirate". Micheal Wincott, who starred in the first (and only decent) "Crow" movie and perennial weird-o bad guy Braf Dourif (Wormtounge from the "Lord of the Rings" movies among other things) are probably the only other members of the cast you've heard of. Wincott plays the master of the "unregisterd commercial vessel" The Betty and Dourff is Dr. Gedimen who is assisting with the bug-farming program.

Weaver plays a "Ripley-not Ripley" character. She emphatically isn't the same person who took that dive into the fire in A3. This Ripley (#8) is a strange combination of child-like naivete and animal viscousness. Her DNA was mingled with the alien queen's during the cloning process and now she's "something-other-than-human." However, to the commander of the project, she's simply a "meat by-product."

There are elements of the three previous three movies in this film. From "Alien" we have the theme of a motley group of spacefarers making their escape from a vessel crawling with alien monsters. Elements from "Aliens" include the cocky even overconfident military helpless against a crafty enemy they don't really understand. "Aliens3" donated the dark lighting and skewed perspective on the overall story. There are other touch-points as well.

What may have put some people off of AR is that they were expecting another claustrophobic "Alien" horror movie or an "Aliens" style shoot-'em-up". What they got was a French style, atmospheric movie that blended many of those elements. It looked odd, too.

It's kind of hard to explain in words what makes the "look" of AR different from that of more "American" movies, I can only refer readers to the Marvel Comics/Heavy Metal dichotomy I mentioned earlier. It's strange, this, because "Heavy Metal" regular Jean "Moebius" Giraud did a significant amount of visualization work on the first movie and the original alien designer H.R. Giger is as European as they come.

For all of it's "European-ness", AR doesn't have the approachability issues that plagued A3. The characters are distinct diverse, and easily identifiable. There's none of the bald-headed, Brit-accented identicalness from A3. The story is more upbeat without the desperation that marked A3. Ripley has none of the tedious "I hate my life and I just want to die" attitude that made A3 so depressing. The characters, while often roguish and even amoral are not possessed of the criminal dis-likability of the cast of A3. The design and execution of the bugs is better as well. I'm afraid this is starting to turn into a bust-fiesta on poor old A3, which is not my intention, I didn't hate that movie as throughly as others, but any movie (or book or other work for that matter) begs comparison with the edition that preceded it.

Sigourney Weaver is the only person to have appeared in all four original "Aliens" films. Her portrayal of the non-clone Ripley had clearly reached the end of the string by the end of A3 and here she and Jean-Pierre Jeunet take the character in a new direction. Weaver, who is...ahem... not as young as she used to be, is no longer the dream-wracked victim coming to terms with her past. Now she is a morally ambivalent fusion of human and monster who realizes on one level the dangers presented by the alien swarm who strives to take the necessary steps to stop them. Her other side, the alien side, seeks to be one with her "family". These themes drive Ripley through the film. Weaver seems to be having a grand 'ole time in the role of "the monster's mother." It's a refreshing change from the wrung-out Ripley of A3.

Winona Ryder is one of my favorite actresses. It's always nice to see her appearing in something watchable rather than some weepy "chick-flick" ("How to Make An American Quilt", anyone?). She plays quite well against Weaver's strong character. It must have been interesting blocking their scenes together as Weaver is a skyscraping six feet in height and Lady Winona scrapes by with 5'2" or so. One article I saw somewhere or other was waggishly headlined "Alien Resurection, Staring Susan Weaver and Winona Horowitz (their real names)".

The rest of the cast is fine, if not exceptional, Brad Dourif is fine as the sinister Dr. Gediman and Micheal WIncott is cool as always as the captain of the Betty. Tiny spoiler here... Why is it that Wincott gets killed in every movie he's in? End of spoiler.

The staging and effects are always adequate and occasionally impressive. The underwater sequence is a special stand out here. This was done with no doubling and very little effects magic. It was done in a huge tank filled with scuzzy water (they dumped milk into it to make it murky) by actors with limited scuba experience and occasionally head problems with water. (Weaver has claustrophobia and Ryder had a near-drowning incident in childhood.) The creature work is as good as ever and the model and CG effects are flawless. All of this information is culled from the extra discs in the "Aliens Quadrilogy" box set which I will review separately (someday).

The movie disc is packaged with two versions of the film, the theatrical cut and a "director's cut". The new cut differs from the original one mainly in the opening title sequence, which was shot specially for the box set release and the ending which is different without being especially distinctive. Which one should you watch? Shrug. Pick one. Six of one, half dozen of the other...

AR isn't without problems, however. While there aren't as much blood and gooey, Giger-ish ickiness as in earlier films there is no shortage of "disturbing images" and old fashioned violence. If you don't like your kids seeing this sort of thing, you won't like your kids seeing AR. There is also an issue with this release with the PowerDVD software that I use to watch DVDs. I don't feel like delving into this again, see here for details.

If you liked the first three movies, you'll like AR once you adjust to the French-ness of it all. If you liked "Alien" and "Aliens" but not A3, you'll like AR. If you didn't like the previous Alien movies but you like French cinema, especially French Sci-Fi, you may like AR... no guarantees. If you fall into none of these categories -- do the math, dude.

Recommended: Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 13 and Older