Film 5 (05/01/2011) - Alien: Resurrection

It had been years since I had seen this film, most likely not since its release in 1997, so what was my reason for watching this and if you've been following along Alien 3 earlier in the week? I got the Alien films on Bluray for Christmas and I have to say they have one of the best transfers I've seen in a long time, especially Alien. Considering it's a film older than me the transfer is incredible. Anyways that's not what I'm meant to eb talking about but now you know why I am watching Alien films, aside from the fact that I love them.

When you put them together Alien: Resurrection is probably the weakest of the Alien films and that's because it is a film that tries unsuccesfully to Resurect a franchise. That's not to say it's a terrible film but compared to Alien or Aliens it's a poor cousin. There are only a few elements of this film I really dislike and the first is that Alien 3 is actually quite a good end to the Alien films with Ripley sacrificing herself in order to kill the new queen growing inside of her so making another film and bringing Ripley back to life (albiet it as a clone) just rubs me the wrong way. In its defense though it is cool that they've still got the cloning wrong and Ripley becomes a human with some alien qualities.

My next bugaboo with the film are the quirky/goofy elements in the film. Gen Martin Perez (Dan Hedaya) just isn't serious enough, Ron Perlman as much as I love him is too much of a wannabe Bill Paxton in this film and Dominique Pinon is so out of placed as a Frenchman trying to American in a film made up of Americans (or at least the main characters are) and his character is used almost as a damsel in distress always getting into strife or becoming the burden of the team. It just doesn't work for me. I also have to say I know it has some relevance to the plot but the Quenn/Ripley love scene is disturbing and confusing. They're both girls how does that work in order to make a baby?

But what does work are some very cool visuals, some awesomely intense under water scenes and my favourite element that I wish was explored more was the interaction of the aliens together. The scene where they are in the cell and realise if they kill one of the aliens the acid blood will give them an escape. I would have loved to see them hunting almost like Velociraptors on a space ship. It would have been awesome, feel free to use the idea if you need to Ridley.

It may not be the best but it is still enjoyable. I've already decided a trip to the cinemas is on the cards for my next film to see The Kings Speech. It's going to be fun getting the degrees of separation for those two.

Format: Bluray
Venue: My couch
Degrees of Separation: Direct sequel to Alien 3