Resurrects the ailing series and gives it back its credibility

##Just Be Thankful

On “Thanksgiving 1997” there’s one thing that I’m thankful
for for sure: They made a 4th [[Alien]] movie! The title for it is apropos.
They’ve resurrected a series of movies from oblivion with the sin that
was [[Alien 3]].

##The Plot

[[alienRes]]
Evil military scientists decide they want to breed Aliens and
train them for military operations. In order to do so they need 2 things:
an Alien Queen, and hosts for her babies.

To get an alien queen they clone Ripley with a drop of blood left in the
med lab at the prison colony on Fury 16. This will get them a queen because
Ripley was infected with a queen during the events in [[Alien 3]], and the
infection is all the way down to the genetic level. That is, the strands of
DNA from Ripley’s blood contain Alien DNA as well.
After surgically removing the queen from Ripley, they decide to keep her
around because there’s nothing better to do with her anyway.

They get hosts by buying them from a group of smugglers that have obtained,
somehow, a group of humans in cryogenic freezers.

The scientists harvest the eggs from the queen and, with the help of the
hosts, get 14 aliens. As you would expect (because this is an Alien movie),
the aliens get out and all hell breaks loose.

##The Good

Sigorney Weaver, as always, delivers a great performance as
the resurrected Ripley. There’s one scene in particular that I thought was
as good as anything she’s ever done. It’s when Ripley happens upon the
cloning lab and finds the results of the 7 previous attempts at cloning
her. It’s really hard to describe the scene: there’s no dialogue just the
look of horror/disgust/rage/sorrow/etc. on her face.

Winona Ryder as Call, the smuggler with a secret, is also excellent,
although her character doesn’t get nearly enough screen time.

The rest of the smugglers all fulfill their role as alien fodder adequately.

This movie was kind of a cross between all three previous outings. It had the closeness and suspense from [[Alien]], with some of the action from
[[Aliens]], and the darkness of [[Alien 3]]. Unfortunately, it got something
else from Alien 3, a mediocre script.

##The Bad

The writer (Josh Whedon) left out one thing that really
bugged me. How was the resurrected Ripley able to remember events from the
real Ripley’s life? Well, he does sort of explain it as a byproduct of the
genetic mixing of Ripley’s DNA and the alien’s, saying that it must be
because of the genetic memory of the alien species. Pahleeasse. In the
first 5 minutes out of the theater, my friend and I came up with 2 other
reasons that would at least seam plausible. This was the best one:

“When you had the brainscan at the prison colony an imprint was made of
your memories. In an effort to make ‘birthing process’ easier for you, we
reimplanted those memories in you.”

I mean, wouldn’t that have been better?

##The Ugly

The new creature that turns up at the end is almost laughable.
The idea of a genetic cross between an alien and a human is a good one,
but the execution lacked.

##Summary

Alien Resurrection is a worthy addition to the Alien
mythos. Go see it on a big screen, but don’t pay full price. A matinee
seems about the right amount of money to pay.