Alien: Resurrection

[Ryan]

Mostly an enjoyable review, but I would like to point out one glaring error. When Call is plugged into the ship, she finds that she can't redirect the ship for some reason, so she programs it to crash. Not the best solution, you would think, but it isn't what the ship was originally programmed to do.

[Wendy Kroy]

Stupid useless trivia:

Danny Boyle (who directed Trainspotting) was supposed to direct this but dropped out fairly late in pre-production. He got cold feet over the idea of dealing with the special effects (CGI in particular). So Fox hired French director Jean-Pierre Jeunet, who made Delicatessen and The City of Lost Children. Seemed like a cool idea, but then the movie came out and made many an audience member (not too mention a lot of film geeks) go "Why?". Then he went back to France and made Amelie, which in addition to being a huge hit over there, did more for him in this country (both critically and in the box-office)than Alien:Resurrection did. BTW, Amelie's a really cool movie for those who haven't seen it; give it a try.  

[spike spiegul]

Watching people doing stupid things especially pro killers
get killed before i leave the bebob to fight vicious one last time i watch this can of crap
hear is why i hate it
1 it is not a John Woo shootout scene with soldiers
2 it is not a survival movie like the first one
3 the military is a group of jackoffs that have no tactics
4 cool aliens with lame gore(the thing 82 versions had cool creature with extra gore than needed)
5 What happened to predators? they could use those type of weapons instead of freaky aliens with two mouths
Anyway i wish they made a aliens vs predator movie in the future with high tech weapons!
as in the words of andy
"SEE YOU SPACE COWBOY"

[Scaarge]

I thought the review captured the sheer uselessness of this film.  One of my few memories of this was the scene where three of the pirates were sitting around getting drunk (boy, could I relate!)and Call suddenly appears wearing boxing gloves.  What the heck??

[Max Levin]

I agree with this review wholeheartedly, this s**t should never have been produced. Anyone know how much Sigourney got for this?

[Max Gardner]

I actually enjoyed this film for a number of reasons.  Number one, the involvement of a number of folks from Delicatessen and City of Lost Children (including Dominique Pinion), though Alien: Resurrection certainly isn't the arthouse fare either of Jeunet's previous films (with Marc Caro) were.  Second, I think Ron Perlman is a great actor, and it was brilliant when he did his gorilla impression and tossed his knife into Vriess' leg.  The man is so gorilla-like in appearance to begin with I was wondering when someone would exploit that.  And third, it's just a lot of fun to look at, up until the last fifteen or twenty minutes.  The writing here isn't nearly en par with Whedon's scripts for Toy Story or the Buffy the Vampire Slayer TV series, but it's adequate in most respects.  Regarding the rest of the series: I like the first film, but I find it's overrated (hunkers down and prepares for beatings).  The series reached its high point with Aliens (it's a shame to see Cameron stoop to crap like The Abyss and Titanic after his magnum opus).  The third film would have been much better off had they gone with William Gibson's original, completely different script.  And Resurrection was hardly a great film, but it was visually unique, had a decent sense of humor and featured some of my favorite B-actors, such as Perlman and Brad Dourif.

[Andrew Stephens]

Such a shame: Alien Resurrection had pretty much a dream team of writer and director and probably looked like a really cool idea on paper, but the review is absolutly correct in pointing out the movies glaring flaws.
However I have to admit that I actually enjoyed the first three quarters of the movie. Its pretty different from the rest of the series, but not without its own B-movie charm (underwater Aliens - hooray!).
The last bit with the Alien sprog is terrible, what were they thinking?

[Steven Millan]

      Along with "Alien 3",this is another heavily disappointing post-"Aliens" sequel,with Josh Whedon's tedious script not only ripping off "Aliens",but badly wasting Jean Pierre Jeunet("Delicatessen","City of Lost Children")'s grand filmmaking style,as well.  
     The next time,the studio needs to have the Aliens drop down to invade a futuristic Earth,with Ripley leading the fight against them(and not returning "Resurrection"'s characters,maybe except for Ron Perlman,whose mere presence lightens up any film he's in),instead of another predictable rehash of the first two superior movies.

[Dark Wizard]

Ugh.  That's all I have to say about this movie.  You're review is 100% right on.
I remember my Dad taking me to see this when it came out a few years ago.  And guess what?  We both hated it!  How's that for a father-son bonding experience? :P  
The script was weak.  The science was laughable.  The acting was mediocre at best.  And how could they turn such a badass character like the Queen Alien into such a pansy, throw-away plot device?  Especially when the plot device in question (the human/Alien monster baby) was just plain unnecessary?
Spike Spiegul asked about an Aliens vs. Predator movie.  From what I hear, Fox was actually considering making such a movie but decided to go with this instead.  That about as much as I know about it, though.  Anyone else got more info?

[Max Gardner]

The last time I heard anything about an Aliens vs. Predator movie was when I read the script back in high school, which makes it...about 1996? Dark Horse was much more involved in the movie industry back then.  I haven't heard anything since, and don't particularly expect to.  A new Predator movie - now that might be interesting.

[Matt McIrvin]

I read an interview with Whedon a while back in which he blamed the general badness of this movie on Jeunet.  As this review reveals, there are serious story problems here that probably can't be blamed on the director (though, as others have said many times, what you see on the screen often bares little resemblance to the original screenplay).

As it happens, I like both much of Whedon's other work and much of Jeunet's, but one thing I've noticed watching Whedon's "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" is that whenever the show veers into the realm of science fiction, it develops serious logical problems.  Better to stick to demonology, where it doesn't matter so much.

These days Whedon is working on a science-fiction show, "Firefly."  I haven't tried watching it, though... the premise sounds like "Blake's 7" with wisecracks.

[Phantom 187]

The movie is actually pretty well written and done for the most part.

[Dick]

Reveiw: Aliens is my fav movie and this film both sucks and blows.

Point of Interest: This film was dissed in an episode of 'Angel' a tv show created by Joss Wheadon. see imdb.com

[Riff]

This movie was bad, but definatly not a skull. It didn't live upto the original three (Ailen, Ailens, and Ailen 3), but it had it's qualities. I really liked the first three, but not this one as much, they just fell through.

Ailen - 4 Slime
Ailens - 5 Slime
Ailen 3 - 3 Slime
Resurrection - 1 1/2 Slimes (can I do one and a half?)

[Ernst Bitterman]

I was going to suggest the spotlight of blame be aimed at the director (yes, I instinctively mistrust the French), bur having read what else he's been connected with, I've amended myself.  I would suggest that the creative team of writer and director of this movie had some serious chemistry-- this is usually a good thing, but remember that "chemistry" also describes the effect of a brick of sodium in a bathtub (try it...).  Having watched most of the available episodes of Firefly, Whedon doesn't screw with the science too much; we can allow hyperdrive and fake gravity, and there's actually no WOOSH noise when a ship goes past.  It's hard to figure how he could make the mistakes that appear in the final scene (that's one teeny hole in the window) without some kind of interference.  Maybe we should be looking for the producer(s) with our torches and pitchforks?