Subject: Review: Alien: Resurrection (1997)

From: [email-masked] (Vincent Archer)
Date: 14 Nov 1997 17:08:31 GMT

Alien: Resurrection (Aliens 4)

		Directed by: Jean-Pierre Jeunet
Starring: Sigourney Weaver, Winona Ryder, Dominique Pinon, Ron Perlman

			Personal grade: B+

I knew that living in France would turn out useful once in my life. Well,
this is the occasion, as we frenchmen are treated with an advance release
of the latest release in the Aliens sage.

Jean-Pierre Jeunet (without its usual complice Marc Caro) was selected by
the producers on the strength of _The City of the Lost Children_, whose
bizarre vision showed that he could create yet another different style
for _Aliens_. The fact that he didn't spoke english at all didn't faze
them, God be thanked.

For those who didn't follow the press releases, it's been 200 years
since Florina. The Company is defunct, but General Perez has acquired
the samples that were preleved on Ellen Ripley for diagnosis, and has
mounted a covert private operation to extract the Aliens' genetic
pattern and resurrect the species. Guess what? Right, they clone Ripley
and extract a Queen, whose genetic patterns were mixed with Ripley's.

Enter a band of colorful mercenaries, who hijacked a shuttle full of
frozen miners on their way to colonies, and are delivering twelve warm
bodies for incubation. Winona Ryder plays the role of a romantic
pirate wannabee who used the bed to buy into the team, while long-standing
Jeunet complice Dominique Pinon plays the crippled ship mecanic and
Ron Perlman who already starred in _The City_ is a though and gruffy
mercenary.

No one is surprised when, after a while, the Aliens, instead of being
tamed, manage to escape, and all hell breaks loose. Our heroes now have
to cross the entire starship to get back to their own, ensure that the ship
(who, of course automatically set course to Earth when any emergency arise)
is destroyed, while dodging a few aliens on their way.

The personal touch of Jeunet is evident everywhere in the movie. I doubt
that anyone would have used bad breath as an authentification method,
or have Ripley weep when she kills the last Alien. Each character exsudes
a je-ne-sais-quoi suggesting of (moral) decay, and small little details
draw smiles at odd moments. Such as the best TV channel ever (a home shopping
channel with every kind of gun and knife rotating for display, with
full schematics all around), or a real hairy general woken up by the
general emergency.

The film also has its own gross moments, which one would expect when
you start with bugs who build nests out of hardened saliva, but there are
hard moments. I don't know if all of these will survive in the U.S. release.
Judicious use of the Alien's double mandibles - preferably with a human
head just in the trajectory - is also scattered thru the entire movie. But,
if you are going to see an _Alien_ film, this is not something that would
deter you so much.

No sequel will probably ever make it to the level of the initial installment
of the series, but this one comes close. The expected cop-out of "#3 never
happened" doesn't occur, but you can forget all about that bad dream, and
enjoy seeing a much toughened Ripley tearing her way - literally - thru
the ship and a lot of human drama. When she's asked "Why do you keep on
living?", the answer "Because I don't have much choice" somehow seems
really adequate.

I don't know what Jeunet will do next, but it sure will be worth waiting
for!

-- 
Vincent ARCHER  				Email: [email-masked]