– Customer review on 13/07/2007

Part of the problem with Alien: Resurrection may be the sheer amount of time that has passed between the first one and this one, and the fact the Alien 3 was such a depressing downer. 20 years is a long time for a movie franchise, and there was no real reason to make another sequel; that they did it anyway betrays the audience's love and respect for the first two movies.

"Alien: Resurrection" probably looked good on paper: Get a good European director with great credentials (the guy who did "City Of Lost Children") who might bring a fresh sensibility to the franchise and take it in a new direction; get Sigourney Weaver to reprise her role as Ripley; get some excellent character actors to back her up (Brad Dourif, Ron Perlman and Micheal Wincott are always interesting to watch no matter what they are doing), and give the characters lots of snark and dry gallows humor to keep the viewer happy between action scenes. But somehow the whole came out less than the sum of its parts

I've watched this movie on cable a few times in the last few years, trying figure what went wrong. My conclusion: I think what screws things up is the pacing, the inability of the screenplay that to live up to the idea of a centuries long time lapse, and the portrayal of both the evil Corporation and the military as dim-witted, fumble fingered clods.

Two whole centuries have supposedly passed since the last "Alien", but apparently the only advances in technology since that movie have been in cloning. (Compare the differences in military technology and air travel between 1797 and 1997). That's a plain failure of imagination. And the Corporation scientists work for 200 years to be able to recreate Ripley and her alien egg, but once they have the aliens they are able to hold them for less than 24 hours before their security measure fail and the aliens infest the ship. That's a failure of respect for the shadowy figures who've been driving this plot's backstory for 20 years. And meanwhile the military has apparently degenerated from hard-core veteran Colonial Marines to a a bunch of wimps who can't handle a bunch of free lance traders on their home ground - and who cut and run the instant there is a problem on their space station. This is completely unlike Alien 1,2 and 3 where the Corporation goons are ruthless and powerful and oppressive in its power, and the military personnel are hard-nosed and ruthless xeno-killers who are simply outmatched. That's a failure of nerve, to have to portray the bad guys and soldiers as simps and wimps.

IMO. these failures drain the movie of most of its potential gravitas. Instead of being horrified and angered by the sheer ruthlessness and sliminess of the "suits" who throw away the human lives for a buck, or dismayed and frightened by the way tough veterans of dozens of campaigns were summarily dispatched, I was angered and irritated by their stupidity and thoughtlessness.

In the movie's favor: the rag-tag crew of the Betty are fun to watch in action, and I think the screenwriter is at his best portraying their interaction with each other and Ripley, both before and after the crisis breaks out. Winona Ryder is (surprisingly) the least interesting actor here (not entirely her fault, given the nature of the character), but it was good to see her on-screen again, even in a place holder role like this one.

The other problem is the visuals. The movie looked pretty good, but it just didn't have the punch and grandeur of the previous installments; it's as if the scale was simply too small. (Although Alien was pretty claustrophobic in spots, the "Nostromo" seemed to go on for miles). Even though I didn't care for Fincher's oppressive visuals on Alien 3, they were at least as striking and memorable as Scott and Cameron's visions in 1 and 2...but visually, A:R is just another science fiction movie.

– Customer review on 29/06/2007

The last in the Alien series where Ripley has been regenerated by being cloned. the thing is that Ripley (as you will remember from the last film) now has the strength of the Alien. She soon learns that she is only one of many in the attempt. things become all two familar when she is once again up against the Alien.

– Customer review on 23/06/2007

Ok i feel sorry for Joss Whedon that after all the changes that were made to this film and the fact that it was made by someone who cant speak english, that he gets the credit as writer for this piece of trash. A really bad Alien film, still an ok scifi film i guess, the cloning idea was alright but just not made very well

– Customer review on 07/05/2007

you got to love all alien movies I sure do :) I own all the alien movies and I have to say they are awesome including A vs P it was just the best could watch it over and over... well I did actually.

– Customer review on 19/04/2007

Even though Alien Resurrection wasn't as good as the other movies, fans of the saga will lap this up and now that there's a 2 disc edition out, buying it has never looked so good. This is the edition that comes in the Alien Quadrilogy set, so whether you'd want to buy this one on its own or spend a little more for the box set is your choice.

– Customer review on 13/04/2007

200 years after the conclusion of Alien 3, the company is able to resurrect Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) through the process of cloning and the scientists successfully take the Queen Alien out of her. But, Ripley's DNA gets mixed up with the Queen's and she begins to develop certain alien characteristics. The scientists begin breeding the aliens, but they later escape. Soon the Xeno-morphs are running amok on the ship, which is on course to earth. The Queen then gives birth to a deadly new breed of alien, which could spell disaster for the entire human race. It's up to Ripley and a band of space pirates to stop the ship before it reaches earth.

– Customer review on 11/03/2007

alien ressurection is my personal favourite of the alien movies. The two best scenes in it for me is when riggley fights the dudes in the basketball arena and also when she sees all of her deformed selves and burns them with a hardcore flamethrower...this is a classic movie that you should all watch or own. stunning.

– Customer review on 25/12/2006

This is the sorta movie you should watch if your just into generally cool action type flicks, its a bit out there in the idea and what nopt, but its really cool aye, whynot get the version with all the special features seen as its a really good price here, well worth watching if you enjoyed its prequels

– Customer review on 10/10/2006

The best thing about "Alien Resurrection" is that I get $0.25 to say how bad it is. Does this movie even take itself seriously? There's some really corny moments in this movie that take away from the fear and terror that another Alien movie could potentially deliver. The new design on the aliens will have fans of the first two movies weeping and the "newborn" just looks silly. Ripley is at least funny as a twisted clone of her former self and Ron Perlman is always good to see but that's not enough to make this one worth watching. Lots of people are asking for "Alien 5" but whoever takes that on will have to conjur something out of the wreck of "Alien Resurrection". Poor bugger.

– Customer review on 07/10/2006

Huh? An entire ship filled with marines and a bunch of aliens on the loose setting the scene for a fight to rival the action in James Cameron's classic "Aliens" but what do they decide to do? They evacuate the ship -WTF?? Thousands of potential victims, thousands of opportunities for cool and gory deaths gone!! Right there I completely lost interest in the film. Honestly, what a waste of a good setup...