Say what you will about Resurrection, but...

I personally love it too,though i'll admit it probably has a lot to do with being the first Alien movie i saw in theaters(i was 7 years old when it came out,pretty young to be seeing a movie like that lol).So I've always had a soft spot for it.Not like Alien 3 which i didn't come around to liking until i saw the assembly cut of it.

A great way of looking at Resurrection is a more comic book take on the series especially since it has a more over the top cast of characters.Ripley is also awesomely creepy in it too.

And that backwards basket ball shot- totally real!

I know Ron Perlman couldn't contain his excitment so they had to make a quick cut so Sigourney wouldn't have to do it again.

In terms of Alien design for me was the coolest of them all.

But since aliens to me the true scary one is the queen and that white hybrid..the normal xeno turned to be the puppy and i allways got the feeling of them being mehh..not so threatning and godlike potent alpha creature. In alien 1 i had the feeling of a very scary beast..but then i lost that feeling after and with avp even more. So im waiting for them to resurect something scary and powerfull so i can get the feeling of fear again.

If you'd like the alien to be scary again you should play Alien Isolation.

It has a number of issues, but is also quite under-rated.

The biggest issue i have with it is Christie's death.It's just kind of cheap and easily avoidable.

I think it has a lot of good things going for it, more than people give it credit for:

-Call's backstory has a lot of terrifying implications: contrary to most stories about robots creating robots, not only do they succesfully replicate emotions here, but also perfect them, making robots that are more human than humans themselves rather than more robotic. Humanity doesn't like it and decides to commit genocide on them (there is no other word to describe it in this context).

-While Ash was programmed to do bad things and Bishop was programmed to do good things, the android here Call acts on her own free will to save humanity from the aliens, despite what they did to her people, simply because it's the right thing to do.

-After three movies of preventing the aliens from reaching Earth, it's implied (and directly shown in the director's cut) that humans managed to destroy Earth on their own. (Maybe they became more anarchic after discovering that robots can have emotions too?)

-The aliens here are as much of a victim as Ripley-8. They were brougth back wrong, they are part human, and when they are killed it feels more like they are being put out of their missery.

-In fact, the human part of the aliens is what causes their downfall. The queen giving birth like humans proves inneficient, and then lethal when her baby rejects her. The Newborn has sudden changes in mood and its human love for its "mother" Ripley-8 is used against it to kill it.

-And not only does Ripley-8 use the human side of the Newborn to distract it, she also uses the alien side of herself to destroy the window causing its death.

-Speaking of the Newborn, the fact that it sees Ripley-8 as its mother is the ultimate insult to her. After losing two daughters to the aliens, now they try to get into her life like THAT, by becoming her new twisted imitation of a family. It shows how far their shared destiny has gone and she's having none of that, it's no coincidence that the Newborn's death looks like an abortion.

-In a way, this is a movie where the aliens win as much as the humans. Part of the aliens still live on through Ripley-8, and the alien part in her helped her survive, while the human part in the aliens caused their death. The alien part in Ripley-8 may actually prove useful in this world gone to hell.

-Between humans going insane, androids being more humane than them, Ripley-8 being part-alien, and the aliens dying in part due to their humanity, this can be considered a posthumanist movie. I reccomend reading the Alien Resurrection part of this article on the subject: http://reconstruction.eserver.org/Issues/043/gallardoc.htm

-The failed clones room as already mentioned. No explanation needed.

There is probably more but I've fanboyed enough for one post. Bottom line I'm fascinated by this movie.

Great view of the film wrenchpede.I've always thought the same about Call.I read somewhere once that her being an android was unessential,but i disagreed i felt it did give her an interesting back story too.

Ye ur right the alien isolation was the only thing that got the fear factor into me again regarding normal xeno after all the years since alien 1.

However im still waiting for the ultramorph on the screen to be the new gen xeno and i hope they dont fuck up again .

WOW! Fascinating insights! Glad to know Resurrection has some love!

The idea of how do you clone from someones DNA and have them Pregnant with a Queen... Sucked... totally did..

But then i guess we cant nit pick flaws with Scientific improbability.

I wish they just had a Mutant DNA.... 90% Human... 10% Xeno infected... and they went through a process to get extract the Xeno DNA... like doing some Good Old Moon Shining...

The other thing i did not like was the New-Born... i think the design could have been better and i felt the way it reacted was a bit lame...

Apart from that.. its not a bad flick at all... not good but not awful.

But as Popcorn Flick then yeah... it works... like AVP does... AVPR is a whole different matter... such wasted potential.

I think Blomkamps Alien 5 seemed like a Popcorn flick in the making too...

About the new born hybrid,i'd mainly take it's wiggleing nose away,then it'd be more frightening less of a "beautiful  butterfly".

"The idea of how do you clone from someones DNA and have them Pregnant with a Queen... Sucked... totally did.."

Obvious answer is there is an exchange of genetic material rather than the Alien simply sampling the host.

You could make an argument for the embryo actually helping the host when you look at Ripley (she recovered from her EEV crash wounds quite quickly) and Purvis (able to breath underwater for as long as the others with an Alien in his chest restricting his lung capacity and him beating the crap out Wren after being shot a bunch of times).  The Alien protects the host for as long as it needs it.

Ye the newborn for me was scary but could be better designed tho..and it killed the queen easy.. but was frightening enough.

The expression on the newborns face as it got sucked into space was pretty heavy duty-it was scared and didn't know what was happening or why- it even sounded like it was screaming "Ripley" if you listen half way close. Brutal and sad.

I'd have to listen a little closer for that one but it is pretty brutal and a little sad especially for Ripley.

The movie was cool overall and acctuallt my second fav of them all, it was really dark and gruesome on some scenes

Thanks ninXeno426, it's too bad that Call's backstory is delivered so fast and then abandoned, no surprise at audiences forgetting it by the end of the movie and not realizing the implications. A whole movie could be done with her backstory as premise.

Another thing about Call is that she is the true new Ripley of this movie. Ripley-8 isn't the same person, only looks the same on the surface. I think it made up for the ridiculousness of bringuing her back through cloning.

Judging from your previous comment it would be second only to the original correct.

ninXeno426

Here you go.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EjZ7Cb5WDLM

WrenchPede there is a sequel novel to Resurrection called Alien Original sin.While i haven't read it myself but it could tell us more about Call and give her room to shine and grow as a character.

Thanks dk

We will have more ripley tho the real one.

Because i believe they will make a3 and a4 as dreams ripley had while in stasis cryo sleep..hence hicks alive and newt.making them canon but dreams.

I thought the movie sucked personally.

About the Newborn alien, it left a huge impact on me, I can't begin to describe it. From the way it monstrously exagerates human anatomy, to its disturbing swings in mood, to how the movie manages to make us feel sorry for it, I simply love it in concept and execution. It makes me sad that its origin is so specific to this movie that we will never see it again, it left me really curious how it would grow and develope from there (after all, it was the same color as a chestburster).

Amusingly, in the second comic crossover between Aliens and Batman, the last issue shows genetically engineered hybrids of aliens and some of Batman's classic villains, and the Scarecrow one looks remarkably similar to the Newborn

ninXeno426 thanks for pointing it out, I'll try to track it down. I'm already content with the open ending of the movie though so I'm not expecting too much from it.

Wrenchpede

The newborn was fascinating to me. It identified with Ripley and rejected its Xeno side by killing its actual birth mother. That whole scene has layers of depth that I thought it never got due credit for because many didn't like how it looked.

I think the newborn showed its xeno side by killing Dr. Gediman and Distephano.I was also curious about it fascination with Call.

WrenchPede I've read Batman vs Aliens 2 that was a really bizarre comic.

It seemed curious about Call perhaps visually but realized it wasn't Ripley and was going to destroy her until Ripley intervened.

Yeah but it still seemed to toy with her.A scene that really stands out to me is when Call is hiding and its reaching in to grab her stops for a moment and makes a face like i just want to play. Call looks at it a little confused by it then it goes back to being violent.

Yes, that is a very nuanced scene imo.

Another thing i like about Resurrection is that its smarter than one might think(although BigDave might squash this opinion with  the scientific inaccuracies he acknowledged ).It brings alot of new ideas to Alien i wish would have been explored further.

I believe the newborn was a compromise between director/weaver and the studio. weaver has said she and the director discussed ripley actually mating with a xeno.

I couldn't tell u where but I do believe the Call backstory is looked at in much more depth and detail in a book or comic somewhere.

tbh by the time the movie had come out I didn't have too much fear of the xeno. although aliens is my 2nd fave in the franchise I believe the fact JC went down the route of an action movie and showed multiple xenos and that they die very easily if one has the right equipment took something away from the xeno. I believe he made the right choice in going with an action movie rather than another RS isolation type horror as that had been done but the fact the xeno does for a time get is a$$ kicked by the marines even without them being in the room (the 2 remote controlled sentry guns) lessened theyr fear factor for me a bit. the scary thing about alien was even though it was alone and outnumbered, it seemed invincible, IT was the hunter. aliens kinda put the marines on a level playing field for a time at least inbetween the hive scene (which remember they were put at a disadvantage) till the point where the xenos do indeed manage to get to them, and even then it is more sheer numbers in a confined space that wins.

AR did though give us some new aspects which I don't think A3 gave us. ok it gave us a different type of xeno but other than that and the idea of a super hugger it wasn't very revealing other than the company was after it alive, pretty much the same as they did in alien.

I didn't take too much from the newborns design though its story was interesting. I think the fact it took the queen by surprise was the fact she got snuffed out pretty quickly but I wasn't that fond on the queen giving birth that way, again takes something away from her as its very limiting to her to give birth that way

@Wrenchpede - That's a pretty good way to look at it and a very good sales pitch :) You make some interesting points!

When it first came out I was underwhelmed.  Thought it made the aliens look a bit 'Disney monsterish'. 

However, watching it again there are some cool elements and were it not tied into the other ALIEN films I'd probably like it a lot more.  As a popcorn chucker its decent fodder.

Ali,

"I wasn't that fond on the queen giving birth that way, again takes something away from her as its very limiting to her to give birth that way"

What was weird to me about thatand got me thinking is how the queen was able to interface with the cocooned scientists.  "She" meaning the queen decided to start a second cycle and use "Ripley's gift" a human reproductive system.  To me this shows intelligence and the ability to choose a cycle to use in reproduction, which isn't limiting but expanding.  Something not shown in the other movies.

Rick

Great topic, I liked AR. The setting was visually amazing, akin to a twisted fairytale. The film might as well been directed by Guillermo delivery Toro judging by the style.

Weaver did a fantastic job portraying the clone Ripley 8 that tried to come to terms with what she was (the clone room 1-7 was not only fitting but terrifying, I agree dk.)

I really liked the characters, the casting was a fresh take on the franchise, with anti-hero mercenaries/space pirates that were only in it for the money. 

The acting was great imo, minus a few lines like.....(can't believe I'm mentioning this) "who do I have to f*** to get off this ship" XD 

The Newborn was a walking nightmare, one of the scariest looking creatures I've seen, realized with top notch animatronics, sculpting/molding and sound design that sends shivers down my spine (sound design was stellar btw)

The interactions it had with Ripley 8 was strangely compelling and I can't bear to watch the scene where it's violently sucked out into the vacuum if space, it was like an animal imo.

The soundtrack was beautiful with the intro still creeping me out.

The underwater scene- although a bit unrealistic in terms of holding breath better than elite swimmers- was thrilling although it would be better in retrospect if they chose to use puppets instead of CGI that tends to get outdated more rapidly.

All in all I see AR as an expanded universe live action comic book film based on an Alien comic.

I could also easily see a sequel to this film with an all powerful Ripley 8 queen on earth being a spiritual counterpart to David 8.

I hope Blomkamp shows some damn respect to A3 and AR and decides to make a sequel to AR instead of disregarding these films like they never happened. Blomkamp's latest two films were lukewarm at best imo. 

"What was weird to me about thatand got me thinking is how the queen was able to interface with the cocooned scientists.  "She" meaning the queen decided to start a second cycle and use "Ripley's gift" a human reproductive system.  To me this shows intelligence and the ability to choose a cycle to use in reproduction, which isn't limiting but expanding.  Something not shown in the other movies."

There's nothing to suggest the Queen had control over the second cycle.