DVD Alien Resurrection (Collector's Edition)

"Resurrection" never quite added up to me. They had more or less ended the series succesfully with "Alien 3" but for some reason, they decided they needed to bring Ripley back once again. This time, she has been cloned by a team of government scientists and military personel to bring life back to the species that she wiped out in the last movie. For added plot, a team of "space pirates" sell the human crew of a ship that they seized to the scientists so that they can use them as bait. The Aliens end up getting loose and killing anyone in their path as the humans try to escape. It's all been done before though and much better too.

Director Jean-Pierre Jeunet and writer Joss Whedon try their hardest but this sequel just isn't necessary at all. The two most sypmathetic characters in the film are emotionless creatures and the remaining ones are either too macho or too cowardly to be even the slightest bit likeable. Jeunet's attempt to give the film a feel similiar to his European work just doesn't play right as part of the series. Where the first film was scary, the second was thrilling, and the third was bleak, this one is just weird. We have all these deformed Ripley clones in a lab, a bunch of really strange characters, and an anti-climatic moment in which Ripley makes love with her Alien child. What? "Resurrection" does provide one real cool scene in which the human survivors are being chased by the Aliens underwater but after that, it just goes back to being strange for the sake of being strange.

The longer special edition version has a couple of extended sequences as well as an alternate opening and ending for the film. As director Jeunet points out in his intro to it, this is not a "director's cut" as he was content with the original cut of the film. It's just a longer and somewhat different version of the same movie. Nothing put back in really saves it from being a disaster though there is one scene where the Ripley clone attempts unsuccesfully to remember Newt from "Aliens" that is somewhat neat for series fans. The featurettes on the second disc go into extensive detail about the making of the film but since I really didn't care for the movie, they weren't that insightful to me with the exception of the concluding one where people involved with the franchise discuss what a fifth film might be like.

If you enjoyed "Resurrection" then this is actually a really good special edition. The DVD itself is packed with so much added bonus features that you will probably enjoy but as a die-hard "Alien" fan, I never liked this fourth movie. Thumbs down to the film, thumbs up to the DVD.

This movie takes place 200 years after the events of "Alien 3". Ellen Ripley's DNA has been successfully recovered and a mix of Ripley and the alien's DNA have been successfully cloned and now Ripley's 'descendant', actually a clone of her has been brought to life to wage her final battle against the predatory aliens that are now approaching the planet Earth. The 'new' Ripley has Alien DNA within her that makes her capable of 'caring' for the alien creatures. A band of vicious smugglers however comes on board to steal the Alien DNA only to discover that the new breed of aliens is more dangerous than any other ever before and now the aliens are hunting both 'Ripley' and the smugglers and now they must destroy the alien and prevent them from getting to Earth and also try to make it home alive.

This movie cuts both ways for me. While certainly not a bad movie overall, "Alien Resurrection" suffers the most from serious flaws more than any of the previous "Alien" movies. While the movie is enjoyable for its special effects and awesome action sequences, I for one agree with many that this was almost not even necessary to be made like this especially since the 1992 third entry was where it should've ended. A lot scenes are pretty gross to look at especially the ones where 'Ripley' tries to 'calm' down the alien creatures or even tries to act like some 'mother' figure to them. I for one feel that this movie is more of like some 'alternate timeline' movie spin-off of some sort that almost feels completely detached from the previous three and that it's almost like thrown together leftovers from them as well.

The cast is hit and miss for me. Sigourney Weaver as the 'new' Ellen Ripley is fantastic as usual and is the only one in my opinion who really carries this movie all the way through. Her character is still very good although a step or two down from the previous movies. The rest of the cast however really don't fare anywhere near as good. Winona Ryder really drops the ball on this one and the character she plays is boring and without character or personality even though she isn't as she is thought to be. The male cast comes off being excessively dry and unconvincing and one in particular is almost enough to tick you off at his attitude towards Ryder's character in this movie. The directing by Jean-Pierre Jeunet is really good and this combined with Siguorney Weaver's acting as usual really do a lot to make this flawed movie a good movie worth watching.

The movie has its merits though. The special effects are top-rate and the movie has a really suspenseful tone but it starts getting to the point that the formula has been a bit tried since it has already been done three times already. The newest species of alien is really scary and but the face and head look almost like a human skull or even a deformed Freddy Krueger. The movie is saved by a really awesome but gruesome ending which I'm not going to mention out of fear of spoiling it. The ending alone saves this movie along with the special effects. While many movie series seam to suffer from a pattern called the "Fourth Installment Syndrome/Curse" or whatever you call it with examples like "Batman and Robin" or "Jaws: The Revenge", "Alien Resurrection" avoids a lot of this with great special effects and awesome sequences. For a 'Part 4' movie, this really fares so well for a fourth installment and maintains some freshness even if the cracks in the franchise start showing through.

The "Director's Cut" edition of "Alien Resurrection" does little to improve this movie and is only like ten minutes longer than the original and of the revamped versions of all of the "Alien" movies, "Alien Resurrection" benefits the least out of them all and the result is disappointing. The movie also has a new intro to it. The second disc like the other films on their newest re-issues has lots of great extras with 'making of', commentaries, and lots of cool Easter eggs. There are plenty of extras in this movie that are worth looking at though and the DVD is really excellent. The picture quality was good to begin with but this "Collector's Edition" really improves the picture quality and the sound quality is amazing to the point that if you have surround audio speakers or can connect your TV to the stereo speakers, then it will feel almost like you're back at the big screen again! The final result for me is that this gets a rating that rounds off to 3 solid stars but at the same time, this movie while good on its own, just never can find it's own place against the shadows of it's predecessors and is ultimately a movie that is more for the die-hard Alien audiences.

Looking back on it now, I have to say that despite the weaknesses especially on the last two parts in the series, "Aliens" stands as one of the best sci-fi/horror/action movie franchises of all time and that Sigourney Weaver may be the most remembered by her roles in all of them.