ALIEN: RESURRECTION Starring Sigourney Weaver, Winona Ryder. Directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet. Category 2B. At Silvercord, Windsor, Broadway circuit, UA circuit, Ocean, Majestic, GV (Hollywood, Mongkok), New York, Queen's, Empress, Miramar, Astor, Chinachem, Tuen Mun, Yuen Long The combination of French director Jean-Pierre Jeunet and the Alien film franchise was always an intriguing one. Jeunet, with Marc Caro, directed the dark and quirky Delicatessen and The City Of Lost Children, movies that bristle with visual invention.
Alien, perhaps the most intelligent of the blockbuster series to emerge from Hollywood, has consistently given directors such as Jim Cameron and David Fincher room to roam about in their imaginations. Would Jeunet be given a free hand to transform the franchise into something radically new? The answer seems to be yes, and no. Alien: Resurrection is a striking, terrifying piece of work that bears all the hallmarks of Jeunet's imaginative visual style. On the other hand, it is much more action-oriented than expected, and misses the chance to build its main character Ripley's inner conflict into something deep and spectacular.
The reason for the action focus is obvious - Alien 3. Fincher's cool third instalment was philosophical, and explored a kind of space-age medievalism. But audiences were - pardon the pun - alienated by this approach, so the studio deemed it necessary to get down to basics for the next instalment.
That is not entirely a bad thing. Basics in terms of action movies mean bigger explosions and nastier monsters, and there is plenty of that here. Jeunet, a master visualiser, paints such a beautifully violent and ugly world out there in space that it is difficult not to forgive the blast-'em-up excess of the script.
Alien: Resurrection has a simple plot. Long after Alien 3's time, Ripley is cloned from a piece of DNA. The mean Earth military men who bring her back are not interested in her, but in the alien that died with her in her womb, which they hope to tame into a super-weapon.
A bunch of space merchants, which include a young mechanic played by Winona Ryder, land on the ship. Soon the newly bred aliens escape - and the crew must all get off the ship before they are dismembered.