Screen Fantastique
  • Home
  • Store
    • Books - Movies
    • DVD - Movies
    • Blu-Ray - Movies
    • Cards
  • Movie Database
    • Action A-Z >
      • Big Trouble in Little China (1986)
      • Red Heat (1988)
      • Action Movies 1990-1999
      • Action Movies 2000-2009
      • Action Movies 2010-2019 >
        • World War Z (2013)
        • The Equalizer (2014)
        • Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit (2014)
        • John Wick (2014)
        • These Final Hours (2014)
        • Blackhat (2015)
        • Fast and Furious 7 (2015)
        • The Gunman (2015)
        • Hitman: Agent 47 (2015)
        • The Man From U.N.C.L.E (2015)
        • Mission: Impossible Rogue Nation (2015)
        • San Andreas (2015)
        • Sicario (2015)
        • Spectre (2015)
        • Taken 3 (2015)
        • The Transporter Refueled (2015)
      • Indiana Jones movies >
        • Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
        • Indiana Jones and The Temple of Doom (1984)
        • Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade (1989)
        • Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008)
    • Sci-Fi A-Z >
      • 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
      • THX-1138 (1971)
      • Solaris (1972)
      • Flash Gordon (1980)
      • Escape From New York (1981)
      • Outland (1981)
      • Blade Runner (1982)
      • Back to the Future (1985)
      • Predator (1987)
      • Robocop (1987)
      • The Running Man (1987)
      • Science Fiction Movies 1990-1999 >
        • Total Recall (1990)
        • The Matrix (1999)
      • Science Fiction Movies 2000 - 2009 >
        • The Matrix Reloaded (2003)
        • The Matrix Revolutions (2003)
      • Science Fiction Movies 2010-2019 >
        • Enders Game (2013)
        • Gravity (2013)
        • Pacific Rim (2013)
        • Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (2014) >
          • Dawn of the Planet of the Apes WETA Presentation
        • Edge of Tomorrow (2014)
        • The Giver (2014)
        • Godzilla (2014)
        • The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part One (2014)
        • Interstellar (2014)
        • The Maze Runner (2014)
        • Robocop (2014)
        • Transformers: Age of Extinction (2014)
        • Monsters: Dark Continent (2015)
        • Chappie (2015)
        • Divergent: Insurgent (2015)
        • Ex Machina (2015)
        • The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2 (2015)
        • Infini (2015)
        • Jupiter Ascending (2015)
        • Jurassic World (2015)
        • Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)
        • The Martian (2015)
        • Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials (2015)
        • Project Almanac (2015)
        • Self/Less (2015)
        • Tomorrowland (2015)
      • Alien Movies >
        • Alien (1979)
        • Aliens (1986)
        • Alien 3 (1992)
        • Alien Resurrection (1997)
      • Star Trek Movies >
        • Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979)
        • Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982)
        • Star Trek III: The Search For Spock (1984)
        • Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986)
        • Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (1989)
        • Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991)
        • Star Trek: Generations (1994)
        • Star Trek: First Contact (1996)
        • Star Trek: Insurrection (1998)
        • Star Trek: Nemesis (2002)
        • Star Trek (2009)
        • Star Trek Into Darkness (2013)
        • Star Trek Beyond (2016)
      • Star Wars Movies >
        • Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace (1999)
        • Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones (2002)
        • Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith (2005)
        • Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope (1977)
        • Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
        • Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi (1983)
        • Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015)
      • Terminator Movies >
        • The Terminator (1984)
        • Terminator 2: Judgement Day (1991)
        • Terminator: Genisys (2015)
    • Comics A-Z >
      • Superman: The Movie (1978)
      • Batman (1989)
      • Comic Book Movies 2010-2019 >
        • X-Men: First Class (2011)
        • The Amazing Spider-Man 2: Rise of Electro (2014)
        • Sin City: A Dame To Kill For (2014)
        • Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2014)
        • X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014)
        • Fantastic Four (2015)
        • Kingsman: The Secret Service (2015)
        • Deadpool (2016)
        • Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2 (2016)
      • DC Comics Movies >
        • Batman Begins (2005)
        • Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016)
        • The Dark Knight (2008)
        • The Dark Knight Rises (2012)
        • Man of Steel (2013)
        • Suicide Squad (2016)
        • Watchmen (2009)
      • Marvel Studio Movies >
        • Ant-Man (2015)
        • The Avengers (2012)
        • Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015)
        • Captain America: The First Avenger (2011)
        • Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014)
        • Captain America: Civil War (2016)
        • Doctor Strange (2016)
        • Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)
        • Iron Man 2 (2010)
        • Iron Man 3 (2013)
        • Thor (2011)
    • Fantasy A-Z >
      • Conan The Barbarian (1982)
      • Fantasy Movies 2010-2019 >
        • Exodus: Gods and Kings (2014)
        • Hercules (2014)
        • The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies (2014)
        • The Last Witch Hunter (2015)
        • Pan (2015)
        • Seventh Son (2015)
        • Alice Through The Looking Glass (2016)
    • Horror A-Z >
      • Don't Look Now (1973)
      • The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974)
      • The Shining (1980)
      • Poltergeist (1982)
      • The Keep (1983)
      • A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)
      • A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge (1985)
      • Angel Heart (1987)
      • The Conjuring (2013)
      • Annabelle (2014)
      • Dracula Untold (2014)
      • Ouija (2014)
      • Crimson Peak (2015)
      • The Gallows (2015)
      • Insidious: Chapter 3 (2015)
      • Jinn (2015)
      • Krampus (2015)
      • Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension (2015)
      • Poltergeist (2015)
      • Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse (2015)
      • Sinister 2 (2015)
      • Unfriended (2015)
      • The Vatican Tapes (2015)
      • The Visit (2015)
      • Victor Frankenstein (2016)
    • 2015 Movies
    • 2016 Movies
    • 2017 Movies >
      • Spectral (2017)
      • Terminator 2: Judgement Day 3D (2017)
      • The Void (2017)
  • About Us
    • Screen Fantastique Blog
    • movi-E-news subscription
    • Contact Us

Alien Resurrection
In Cinemas: November 26, 1997


Watch the latest video:

Picture

ALIEN RESURRECTION - film review
by Mark Geraghty     April 11, 2015

After an absence of five years, in 1997 Sigourney Weaver returned to cinema screens as Ellen Ripley (albeit a cloned version) in Alien Resurrection. French film maker Jean-Pierre Jeunet brought Joss Whedon’s story to the screen but much of what made previous franchise entries unique is lost in Resurrection. Events in the film are set some two hundred years after Alien 3 with scientists aboard the United Military Systems ship the USS Auriga conducting cloning experiments on Ripley’s DNA that was collected, presumably, from her time on Fiorana 161 in the previous film.

Joss Whedon talks about Alien Ressurection


A group of mercenaries, including Winona Ryder as Call and Ron Perlman as Johner, arrive at the Auriga with a group of kidnapped humans who have been placed in stasis in order to be used as hosts to breed the xenomorphs. Events take a turn for the more-than-expected as the quickly-maturing aliens break free of their prison cells by sacrificing one of their own. Anyone left alive on the ship realise that Ripley is their only hope of getting off the Auriga, which has to be destroyed because it has set an automatic return to Earth and will unleash the aliens upon the planet if it’s not. 
Resurrection, quite predictably, ticks the boxes that fans of the series expect, but does so with little energy or originality. The fleeing humans are picked off in a series of set pieces that lack suspense and are deliberately contrived to back them into a corner just for the thrill of the alien kill! Then there’s the ending … Ripley has to, once again, face off against a Queen (who through its gestation in Ripley has miraculously developed a human womb), but, this time, she’s killed by her own offspring. The “child” is a hybrid xenomorph-human that has eyes and a mouth and actually thinks that Ripley is its mother. Whatever was written in the script is completely lost in translation, as a peculiar transference takes place, making Ripley the "Queen", as it were, as her "child" defends her "mother" from the alien Queen.
Picture
There’s a pall of weirdness that rests upon Alien Resurrection starting with the strange story that tries to mine the maternal instinct themes of Aliens in reverse, but comes across as just plain creepy. There’s Brad Dourif’s kooky turn as Gediman, the scientist who “likes” the aliens just a little too much. Dan Hedaya as Perez looks like he’s just got out of bed in every single scene he’s in. Winona Ryder as Call struggles to make any impact acting up against Weaver, who like her character battles on through it all perhaps wondering at some stage why she signed-on for a fourth outing.
Alien Resurrection has atmosphere, it has xenomorphs, it has abunch of working class grunts and its has a version of Ellen Ripley. All of the elements are up on the screen, but the movie just never comes together in the manner that either those making it or those watching would have hoped for. This lack of cohesion was reflected in the box office performance of the film upon its release and hopes of any further films were dashed, as Alien Resurrection bombed at the US Box Office. It finished its domestic run with a paltry $48 million, but was saved by its international performance, generating a further $113 million. With an estimated budget of $70 million plus its marketing costs, Alien Resurrection didn’t lose money, but its lack of originality and formulaic approach didn’t win the franchise any new fans. Perhaps it’s best left to Joss Whedon, the film’s writer, to have the final word about Alien Resurrection:
Picture
Brad Dourif's always kooky, but he ramps it up for Alien Resurrection.
"It wasn't a question of doing everything differently, although they changed the ending; it was mostly a matter of doing everything wrong. They said the lines...mostly...but they said them all wrong. And they cast it wrong. And they designed it wrong. And they scored it wrong. They did everything wrong that they could possibly do. There's actually a fascinating lesson in filmmaking, because everything that they did reflects back to the script or looks like something from the script, and people assume that, if I hated it, then they’d changed the script...but it wasn’t so much that they’d changed the script; it’s that they just executed it in such a ghastly fashion as to render it almost unwatchable."

Alien Resurrection - Spanish Lobby Cards

Picture
Picture

screen fantastique

  • About  us
  • Contact Us
  • Blog
  • eBay store
  • movi-E-news


​

connect with us

    Get your movi-E-news directly!

Submit
✕