Alien Resurrection (UK)

This film is poor. Lets begin with that. The first 30 minutes are reasonable, but you cant help but fidget as you know the film is based on a nonsensical premise, namely that Ripley is back alive after her death at the end of the last film. She was cloned from her DNA by the way. yeh right.. However, where the film really (and i mean REALLY) stinks is the last 30 minutes. Good god that is one absolutely p*** poor ending. That new alien (newborn) looks hilarious. My mum could design a better puppet. If you ever want to laugh uncontrollably at a film, this is the film for you, although you WILL only watch it once. The transfer to dvd really does capture how awful the ending is. Crisp picture, good sound. Thank god there are no features on this disc, besides the wicked `making of..` featurette. The cast basically make ground breaking statements such as `we are doing stuff in this film that has never been done before`. I`ll say, they were doing an extra s*** ending. This is an embarassing film.

Even worse than 3

LIKE any other film bearing the legacy of "Alien" this film fails to impress. This particular set of films (Alien, Aliens, Alien 3 and resurection) Hit it`s high point with the second film ALIENS, which if you havent seen is worthy of your time. This 4th film is bland and full of empty characters. There is only once in the film that you actually believe that any of the characters `feels` anything (I won`t spoil it but those who have seen it will know that Ripley 8 is the one I`m talking about - during her encounter with the experiments aboard the ship). The film has a distinct visual flare, that while pleasing to the eye never really seems at place in this alien and (supposably) hostile environment. Yet the visual style is the ONLY thing I truly like about the film (especially the underwater sequence).
Having seen and loved the first TWO films I waited with baited breath for the third (having read the book) and was bitterly disappionted. and I`m afraid to say it`s the same with the 4th.
Not scary enough for horror, not enough action for an action film, not enough story for either.
I expected a lot from this, But it just didn`t deliver.
Worth renting or borrowing from a friend - BUT don`t spend a lot of money on it.

I dont know why everyone expects a 4th sequel to be so much better than the previous movies. With movies such as Alien and Aliens in the bag it`s a tough job to make a movie that comes up to the expectations, actually i dont think it`s even possible. The movie itself is pretty good though in my opinion, a bit of the typical `Hollywood action comedy` snuck into it making the plot suffer, but it`s an entertaing movie nonetheless.

It`s not Alien or Aliens...

It`s Alien Resurrection.. live with it ;)

Feature:

Alien Resurrection has been classed by some people as the worst in the series, but it`s not THAT bad. Alien Resurrection marks the forth entry in the series and is the most violent of them. Director Jean-Pierre Jeunet brings a different style of film making to the saga, the french way with brilliant cinematography (Darius Kondji- Se7en) and a good performance from Weaver. Though there are downers. It has dire visual effects that show the film up, consdering that it was made in 1997 and some performances are dire as well, Winona Ryder for example and Dan Hedaya who is completly wasted as The General.

Sound:

Brilliant.

Picture:

Brilliant.

Extras:

Again this film has been neglected of any decent extras with a crappy trailer and behind the scenes Feature

Intro- Flogging a dead horse over and over again. The hugely popular franchise gets a 4th outing with Sigourney Weaver reprising her role once more as hard boiled Ellen Ripley and director by Jean Pierre Jeunet. This is a complete disaster to the franchise, it was originally supposed to stop at Aliens but the guys with the funny suits and ties decided it was a good idea to make not only 1 more but 2 more and include a French director as a change (thank god Jeunet made better films compared to this) . You should most of the corny dialogue for the action instead.

Ripley is supposed to be dead after the events of the 3rd film but is cloned some 200 years later. After 7 failed clones, a group of scientist managed to clone the perfect 8th clone (8 is the lucky number is NOT a clever reference and is unfunny) and managed to extract the queen embryo from her chest. But her DNA gets mixed with the alien queen and she gains alien characteristics such as her blood being acidic (though not as strong as the aliens). Next, there are a bunch of wandering space pirates who send there cargo to the ship where Ripley is located.

Avoid this movie like the plague.

Video- Presented in 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen. The film is the most recent one in the series and therefore the video quality is defenitely better than the previous film.....in theory. Yes, the video is clear but unfortunately, the video suffers from being a little soft just like the previous film. The pallettes are also a problem, mostly favouring light colours giving the impression that it is completely washed out in certain scenes. The movie is almost dominated by the use of constant CGI and it is the death knell of cinema. Although, some of the shots do feature guys in suits but the rest are done with CGI.

Sound- Yet get only one option: DD 5.1 and being the most recent movie it is also the most aggressive movie of the whole franchise. Bullets whizzing around the room and loud explosions are all present in this mix. This time, the score of this film is trying to imitate Horner`s score from Aliens. This is the only redeeming part of the film: the sound mix.

Extras- Worst of the bunch, you only get a trailer and a so called featurette which is actually an EPK released around the time of its release. You get talking heads saying, this has stuff never done before and you even got Weaver admiring Ryder (She`s a great actress? hardly!). EPK fluff can go to the trash, thank you.

Overall- Please.......bin.....it. (Or buy the Quadrilogy which is cheap)