I don't think there's much I can say in favor of this movie. I'm fairly certain none of it works. The story is...bad. The direction is...worse. The writing is kind of...awful. Even the always reliable Weaver turns in a surprisingly over-the-top performance and puts the other actors to shame in a cheesy "why aren't you having as much fun as me?" kind of way. Winona Ryder is miscast. Ron Perlman and Brad Dourif ham it up like it's nobody's business and pretty much everyone else in the cast is utterly forgettable. There are no significantly interesting characters on screen aside from Ripley, and even she is re-written into some vaguely sinister, lesbian antihero with nothing to do but spout lines for the trailers. This was the destiny of the Alien movies for a time- goofy stories with moronic, underwritten characters and hideously poor uses of the title creatures.
Jean-Pierre Jeunet seems a rather odd choice of director in retrospect. Certainly his eye for interesting physical details of settings and use of unique special effects were a plus, but this was before he directed Amelie and A Very Long Engagement. At the very least it could be said that David Fincher showed significant talent with his music videos and he has the excuse of being the last in a long line of various other directors put through the proverbial ringer by producers unsure of what they were seeking. Alien: Resurrection script-wise desires to emulate the action components of Aliens as well as amp up the gore factor in as violent a way as possible which would theoretically be fine. Instead of going the more melodramatic route Alien 3 went with its story, the fourth film wants to head into familiar territory. Why then pick a French director with a guaranteed lack of American awareness? At the very least a known director could have provided a significant box office draw. Sadly Jeunet doesn't use his later favorite cinematographer Bruno Delbonnel who could've added a much needed attractive physical sensibility to the look of the film rather than the unjustifiably ugly and uncomfortable camerawork.
The same thing goes for the incredibly dull settings of the film. Large, empty hangar bays and large, empty ships all have a been there done that feel to them. Nothing is new. Whereas before with the other Alien films there were significant looks and feels to each of them to help them expand the world of the stories, this time- nothing is familiar or new in the worst of ways. An opportunity is lost.
Joss Whedon has disowned the film and rightly so as he has said that the producers and director reworked the majority of it to their advantage and dismissed a great many of his original ideas. None of the dialogue has his usual style. None of his usual themes are explored. An Alien movie with the touch of Joss could've added a great deal and made up for the supreme silliness of a tired story.
The creatures' effects have improved mildly in terms of their CGI work when compared to Alien 3, but again the majority of the aliens themselves are put to ineffectual use in terms of the story. They exist as villainous monsters to be defeated incredibly easily by the average humans and their convenient array of various weapons. They're not interesting to watch and they're not imposing or frightening in any way anymore because of how they are used in the plot of the film.
I don't remember a single note of music.
And really I don't remember a single shot or scene or moment of the film in any significant way.
To quote Roger Ebert, as I am bound to do, "There is not a single shot in the movie to fill one with wonder."
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