Comments on: FRANCHISE ME: Alien Resurrection

By: RCA

RCA — Mon, 18 Jun 2012 16:38:58 +0000

2 words….”space basketball”…

By: OTC SMOKEY

OTC SMOKEY — Mon, 18 Jun 2012 13:10:47 +0000

i thought it was a fucking joke that Elgyn got wasted so quickly… he seemed like a badass (and i wanted to see him hit that shit in the tight-tights). The psycho doctor (the exterminator from “graveyard shift”) had a pretty good line though , something like “a beautiful butterfly” then he gets his face smashed in. kind of reminded me of “prometheus” how the preface-hugger spread its wings.

By: Nardo

Nardo — Sun, 17 Jun 2012 07:03:33 +0000

As for why the Aliens never got to earth?

Why are there so few Future Earth movies even now with our amazing CGI toolset? I think during the 90s The 5th Element was the only movie to put some backbone into depicting a fairly epic futurescape and at the time the only precedent was Bladerunner, and Besson was cashing in some golden tickets from previous hit movies.

Studios don’t like genre scripts/projects with large scope while a perfectly good/proven formula is sitting right there that guarantees a single sealed-off location.

By: Nardo

Nardo — Sun, 17 Jun 2012 07:00:34 +0000

Deep Rising did this movie better.

There a few interesting images and scenes in the original script: the description of a complex grid-work of industrial space harbors/ports surrounding the earth; an entire area of the ship devoted to growing plants, including pot, where a chase happens and the hull gets ruptured and everything gets sucked into space…but for the most part it pretty much sucks. The alternate “Flea” alien isn’t much better than the newborn. I’d have rather seen the ship overrun by Ripley Hybrid Mutants.

IINM it was Rupert Murdoch who stipulated “No Ripley/No Movie” and it may have been Weaver who brought in Jeunet because she’s a bit of a francophile.

But I think that was the moment where Alien movies were forever associated in the public’s mind with Ripley being a necessary presence. If Scott hadn’t been so ardent about Prometheus not being an Alien movie, he would have been endlessly peppered with questions about “Who’s going to play Ripley – or are you bringing Weaver back somehow?”. The AvP movies didn’t have to worry about that because nobody cares about those movies.

By: NihilistZerO

NihilistZerO — Sun, 17 Jun 2012 03:58:45 +0000

...the very premise of it was flawed... That's the problem with both Alien 3 and Resurrection. They have no reason for being. neither story needed Ripley but the cash cow wanted Weaver. If Alien 3 was the same movie with a different protagonist (and a more plausible way of the Alien reaching that planet of course) I would forgive all its other sins. Resurrection likewise could be compared to an off the wall Dark Horse comics series if it didn't have clone Ripleys. weaver presence in both films sets them up to fail.

By: NihilistZerO

NihilistZerO — Sun, 17 Jun 2012 03:53:46 +0000

It seems obvious Fox was just attempting a cash grab here…
Tom Rothman and FOX cash grabing and raping genre franchises since forever

By: NihilistZerO

NihilistZerO — Sun, 17 Jun 2012 03:45:46 +0000

Fuckin’ A Eloy both movies suck and Tom Rothman is a cunt.

By: eloy

eloy — Sat, 16 Jun 2012 22:17:46 +0000

joshua, ripley is on earth, living with newt and hicks. fuck alien 3 and alien resurrection.

By: spunkmeyer

spunkmeyer — Sat, 16 Jun 2012 20:12:42 +0000

I had a problem with this film mainly due to the fact that the very premise of it was flawed to such a degree that it made me more annoyed with the idea than the film itself. Basically, the aliens are parasites and hence do not alter a person’s DNA. So no matter what they did with Ripley’s blood, they would only ever clone another Ripley. No alien DNA exists in her blood. It is like cloning a person with a tick on their skin would result in the clone having a tick on their skin. Won’t happen in any world except poorly conceived science fiction – of which this was.
I am one of seven unfortunate desperate people that read the book of the movie and it contains the alternate (original?) ending where the ship lands on Earth and the Newborn runs free. It wasn’t any better really.

By: Andrew Tom

Andrew Tom — Sat, 16 Jun 2012 17:39:22 +0000

This was actually the first Alien movie I saw, and in the cinemas no less. Back when I had no idea who Jeunet or Whedon were, and I liked it. I don't know if it was supposed to be a funny line, but when they ask how many of these things are left and they answer "12.", I was the only one laughing in the cinema. If nothing else, I think the movie does the feeling of the protagonists being outmatched pretty well.

By: Tony Baker

Tony Baker — Sat, 16 Jun 2012 17:25:20 +0000

You know, I'm a Whedon fan, but I'm not sure I can get down with letting him off the hook for this one. Perhaps poor casting, over-the-top performances, and the gonzo tone and cinematography can be blamed on other sources, but Whedon himself has admitted that the script wasn't altered overmuch. So the derivative setting, characters, the idea of cloning Ripley (and hence the 180 degree change in Ripley's characterization), and the "Oh no, we're on our way to Earth!" plot device all ultimately have to be laid at his feet.

Interestingly... all that being said, I've actually never had much of a problem with this flick; I'll take it over Alien 3 or the AVP movies any day of the week. I also liked that rather than being an issue of "We can't let the Aliens get to Earth!," it felt more like Earth was just an incredibly shitty place to be in this movie; that their current circumstances were almost PREFERABLE to going to Earth. I'd love to see a post-Resurrection movie with Ripley running around in post-apocalyptic France, personally.

By: smugbug

smugbug — Sat, 16 Jun 2012 17:11:23 +0000

Of the Franchise Me: Alien pieces, this is by far, the best one. Excellent. I will add to the “fans love Ripley” comment, though. I did love Ripley. In Alien and Aliens. After that, they could’ve been consistent with the whole xenomorph life cycle and brought in a whole slew of new characters, and that would have been fine. And I wonder, if that would have kept this franchise interesting?

Oddly, I like this one more than Alien 3. Of course, that’s due to my love of Jeunet. And yes, this needed more Wincott.

By: Monstersharks

Monstersharks — Sat, 16 Jun 2012 08:42:10 +0000

Alec Gillis said something about having problems with the Newborn’s design. Most of the concept art where they tried to put Weaver’s face on the Xenomorph ended up looking like Sil from Species.

By: Senor_Rubia

Senor_Rubia — Sat, 16 Jun 2012 03:45:09 +0000

Great article, as always.

I don’t where I read this, but I remember a critique of the Alien series as being a dissection of the different forms of sci-fi (albeit unintentionally):

Alien: horror-based sci-fi
Aliens: action-based sci-fi
Alien3: dystopian sci-fi
Alien Resurrection: trashy/weird sci-fi

Only think left is satirical sci-fi…. whoops, never mind, AvP took care of that! ;-P

By: MaouriCeltic

MaouriCeltic — Sat, 16 Jun 2012 01:08:21 +0000

It was the first movie where I noticed that the theather was completely empty… I snucked in at the beginning, just to see who was there..

By: brundlefly

brundlefly — Sat, 16 Jun 2012 00:24:08 +0000

Ah, gotcha.

By: Monster Pete

Monster Pete — Sat, 16 Jun 2012 00:23:52 +0000

He should have said “Ellen Ripley died trying to wipe this species our, and since Fox is to shortsighted to understand this series is called Alien, and not Ripley, we had to bring her back to do another one of these films. Jesus, I thought Night at the Roxbury was a low point in my career!”

By: Joshua Miller

Joshua Miller — Fri, 15 Jun 2012 23:26:25 +0000

And General Perez says "Ellen Ripley died trying to wipe this species out. For all intents and purposes, she succeeded."

By: Joshua Miller

Joshua Miller — Fri, 15 Jun 2012 23:25:20 +0000

Well they spent 200 years looking for more and couldn't find any. So for all concerns here, they're extinct.

By: brundlefly

brundlefly — Fri, 15 Jun 2012 23:22:10 +0000

It’s been a while since I’ve seen the movie, but I don’t remember thinking that the xenomorphs were extinct. Just that the Company had been unable to find more. Are they actually described as extinct in the film?

By: GQSioux

GQSioux — Fri, 15 Jun 2012 23:17:06 +0000

I’d like to give a shout out to Darius Khondji’s cinematography. It at least looked amazing. I remember seeing this damn thing in the theaters 5 times…YES…5 times. I wanted a new Alien movie so bad, I finally got one and I think I just wanted to like it so much. I was in denial at first but finally came to terms that it sucked. I remember reading Whedon’s script, and I have to agree with him, the tone was just way OFF. Jeunet added a malicious humor, and a comic-book like tone that just made it not feel like an Alien movie. And the design of the Newborn just killed it. Had they gotten better actors, and went with a a darker, more serious tone, designed the Newborn better, and upped the scares, it wouldn’t have been so bad. I wasn’t wild about the score either. The ending of the extended cut is a little bit closer to what Whedon wrote, minus the battle with the Newborn on Earth which was cut due to budget–such a shame. But give Whedon’s script a read with Jerry Goldsmith and James Horner’s scores in your mind, and it ain’t too bad.

By: vegasrobo

vegasrobo — Fri, 15 Jun 2012 23:09:43 +0000

Whedon’s 100 percent correct..Regardless of the script they did everything wrong in this film his singleing out the score is of particular noteworthiness because it sounds nothing like the film it’s attempting too narrate..The film is lit strange in most every shot..It’s indeed woefully miscast,It seems obvious Fox was just attempting a cash grab here and really did’nt have a solid plan for this film..It’s like an Alien film that was taking place in another dimension from the others it just did’nt line up at all..

By: Joshua Miller

Joshua Miller — Fri, 15 Jun 2012 22:47:34 +0000

This movie would have been so much more interesting if the moment when they realized, "Hey the ship is drifting towards Earth" had been realizing "Hey, we've BEEN drifting towards Earth, now we're landing and there is nothing we can do to stop it!" Then 45 minutes more movie.

By: BermudaMan

BermudaMan — Fri, 15 Jun 2012 22:41:51 +0000

I’m going to play Devil’s advocate and admit that I loved the bizarro carnival atmosphere Jean-Pierre Jeunet brought to the movie. After all the doom ‘n’ gloom in ALIEN 3, Jeunet’s screwball sensibilities felt like coming up for air. I think it also helps to know Weaver is playing a very different Ripley this time around. The chronological Ripley of ALIEN onwards was incinerated on Fiorina 161. This is a separate film with a separate character…similar to PROMETHEUS, in some ways.

I like to view RESURRECTION as the mutant runt of the ALIEN franchise litter. Sometimes it feels more like a subtle parody of the previous films than a genuine follow-up, and, perversely, that’s why I enjoy it so damn much. Now, if only they had reached Earth at the midway point instead of at the end…

By: oh_riginal

oh_riginal — Fri, 15 Jun 2012 22:33:57 +0000

Whedon blaming the director reminds me of when he said the “toad” line in X-Men didn’t work… cause Halle berry screwed up the delivery!

Alien:Resurrection is one of the first movies where I walked out of the theater feeling conflicted. It wasn’t until my tastes matured more that I could see why it bothered me so much! BUT, I did love Alien 3 upon it’s release, so yeah.

I saw a re-edited version of Resurrection recently that totally changed the final act of the film… I’ll just say that Brad Dourif’s line about the butterfly was spoken in a better context!

By: Joshua Miller

Joshua Miller — Fri, 15 Jun 2012 22:10:05 +0000

No. I wanted to do the two PA series, but was unable to locate anything more than clips and trailers - and I want to be able to form legit opinions on these things.

I'm skipping AVP because they blur with the PREDATOR franchise, and if one franchise had to claim them I think they add more to the Predator universe than to the Alien universe.

By: MaouriCeltic

MaouriCeltic — Fri, 15 Jun 2012 22:01:17 +0000

I am interested as to why you are not reviewing the AVP series as apart of this column- is it the same reason you did not review the police academy police series?